MKRob Sports

Chicago Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf admits that spending $60 million on former Piston Ben Wallace was a mistake.

In an interview with Bulls beat writers, Reinsdorf was asked if the Wallace deal made him leery about pursuing another big-money free agent.

“Yes. But the only way you can avoid making a mistake is not to make a decision,” Reinsdorf is quoted as saying in the Chicago Sun-Times.

“Was Ben Wallace a mistake? Probably. Because what we didn’t think about is Ben needs to play alongside somebody who can score a lot of points. But I don’t think it’s about Ben Wallace that makes us be careful. It’s the thought that when you make a mistake, you own that mistake. So we’ve got to be careful.”

Wallace had a productive tenure with the Pistons from 2000-06 and helped them win an NBA Championship in 2004. But he left for Chicago in July 2006 by signing a four-year, $60 million contract.

He was plagued by knee injures and was not the same defensive force that he was in Detroit. He was traded to Cleveland in February 2008 and to Phoenix last month. The Suns bought out the remaining value of his contract.