Wallace's headband least of Bulls' problems

If the Bull's want to turn their season around, Wallace
and his new teammates must "band" together.

As if the Chicago Bulls struggles through the early part of the NBA season wasn't concern enough for head coach Scott Skiles, he must now deal with a malcontent in the locker room and on the floor. Off-season acquisition and reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year Ben Wallace was benched during Saturday night's Bulls' victory over the Knicks. While his recent poor play could've been reason enough to bench Wallace, it was his disregard for a team rule against wearing headbands that got him the chair.

On the heels of an embarrassing zero-point, zero-rebound, zero-steal, zero-block performance on Friday in which he spent much of the second half on the bench, Wallace took it upon himself to silently, but publicly, challenge head coach Scott Skiles on the Bulls team rule.

Despite being aware the headband rule all season, Wallace had his headband on at the start of Saturday's game against the Knicks. Skiles didn't notice until two minutes after tipoff, at which point he pulled Wallace for Malik Allen. Wallace headed to the bench and defiantly kept his headband on for nearly eight more minutes.

It's clear the honeymoon period in Chicago for Wallace and the Bulls is over. Wallace's acquisition this off-season made the Bulls one of the favorites to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals. The Bulls' 4-9 start has them tied for second worst record in the east and their defense has actually been worse than last year despite Wallace's presence.

Wallace has 60 million reasons over the next four years to fall in line with team rules that he was made aware of before inking his deal and considering his poor performance on the court, he really isn't in position to be challenging anything.