By ERIC GILMORE
BobcatsBasketball.com

This season, Gerald Wallace has grown accustomed to pain.

It all began on November 1, 2006 – Opening Night against Indiana – when Wallace suffered a nasty mid-air collision with the Pacers Danny Granger while going up for what he thought was a breakaway dunk.

The hard impact caused Wallace to writhe in anguish while Bobcats coaches and team doctors huddled around him.

Not much has gotten better.

Gifted with pure athleticism, he earned the “G-Force” moniker from fans that associate him with high-flying dunks, relentless hustle and a seemingly endless energy that fuels the Bobcats. But the by-product of a high-risk, high-reward playing style is a career spent in the training room.

“That’s the only way he can play,” Bobcats General Manager & Head Coach Bernie Bickerstaff said earlier this season. “He’s a kamikaze type of guy and that’s the way he has to play to be effective… If he didn’t play that way he’d just be an average guy because he’s got to use his athleticism.”

Unfortunately for the sixth-year pro, the constant sacrifice of his 6-7 wiry frame has translated to injuries. And pain – both mentally and physically – have followed like a shadow.

“I’ll never be back totally healthy,” Wallace, who is averaging 14.6 points through 37 games this season, said after returning from a separated shoulder recently. “My shoulder is my primary concern and that’s going to have a factor for the rest of the season.”

After a recent 103-92 loss to the Pistons, Wallace sat in a corner nook of the Charlotte locker room strapped with an ace bandage brace supporting a large ice pack.

He waited while his teammates showered to let the ice numb his right shoulder while fielding questions from reporters. His baritone voice resonated throughout the locker room, overpowering the running faucets and television in the background. Nevertheless, Wallace remained candid.

“I’ll take care of my body when I give (it) a chance to rest,” he said, “but right now I’m not worried about that.”

Wallace suffered the separated shoulder 15 games ago while diving for a loose ball against the same Pacers team that sidelined him on Opening Night.

The impact came when all 6-11, 250 pounds of Indiana center Jeff Foster landed on Wallace while both men scrambled for a loose ball, drilling Wallace’s right shoulder awkwardly into the floor near the Bobcats bench.

“With this (injury), there’s nothing else I can do with it,” Wallace, who sat out seven games before returning January 19, said. “It’s just the fact that I’m going to have the pain and the understanding that I know it’s going to hurt.”

The doctors have told Wallace he’ll likely need off-season surgery, but Wallace has been able to fight through the pain and seemingly been able to veil his injury to fans and opponents alike.

In his first game back, he scored 18 points and grabbed a season-high 15 rebounds in Charlotte’s 96-75 blowout win in Atlanta and hasn’t slowed since.

“I was banging against guys fresh off my shoulder injury. I think it got me back into the rotation,” he said. “That game (at Atlanta), the way our team was playing – it gave me the confidence to go out and play and have fun.”

Wallace has averaged 20.0 points and 8.4 rebounds since returning. He poured in a team-high 25 points in Charlotte’s 105-101 win over Denver on Monday, and during that same game, he blocked Carmelo Anthony’s breakaway dunk attempt with less than a minute remaining to preserve the lead, and ultimately the win.

“I have to take my hat off to Gerald… if there was a game ball, he should definitely have it,” Bobcats General Manager & Head Coach Bernie Bickerstaff said following Charlotte’s four-point win.

Last season, Wallace, averaged 15.2 points and 7.5 rebounds while shooting 53.8 percent from the field.

He led the league in steals (2.51) and finished 11th in blocked shots (2.09), marking the first time in 14 years an NBA player has averaged more than two blocks and steals in a season, joining future Hall of Famers David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only players to ever accomplish the rare feat.

All of his numbers were dramatic improvements from his previous highs despite playing out of position for most of the season due to injuries on the roster.

Forced to play power forward in Emeka Okafor’s absence for 54 of the team’s final 55 games, Wallace banged with the bigger bodies, and the roughness took a toll.

Wallace missed 27 games, 15 of which were due to a left medial tibia bone bruise he suffered at Milwaukee.

“We didn’t have any bigs (last year),” Wallace said. “My main focus was at the (power forward) position. This year, we have guys coming in and out of the lineup with injuries, including myself… so we just have to pick up the pieces.”

Wallace knows he – pain included – and this Bobcats franchise together are close to finally being a playoff contender.

“If we can get everybody healthy, we’ll be a great team,” he said.“It just seems like every time we start to get things going and start playing well, somebody goes down… (But) mentally, I feel like I’m a 100 percent. I’ve got to go out every night and just try to do what I can do to help my team.”