My Rasheed Wallace Discovery...
"When it comes down to it, we'll smack 'em in the mouth with the trophy again."
"Some people say I'm mean and this and that. On one hand that's cool. That keeps away all the riffraff and all the bugaboos."
"A lot of them cats are felonious, man."
Those are quotes from one of the heaviest trash-talkers in the NBA today, Rasheed Wallace. Over the years, Wallace has earned this reputation by speaking his mind to referees, media, opposing players and any other specimen that gets in his way on and off the basketball court. In this year’s NBA playoffs, many people are wondering if the Detroit Pistons are going to repeat as champions, but I am curious about the next comment that is going to come out of Rasheed Wallace’s mouth.
If there is one guy who isn’t afraid to say anything to anybody, it would have to be the man they call, “Sheed”. In the NBA regular season, he managed to run his mouth to referees which have resulted in him getting the most technical fouls in the NBA this year (yeah, they put that on his biography on ESPN if you don’t believe me). His press conferences have been just as interesting as his action on the court as he preaches his own kind of “word” to the masses of reporters gathered around his locker after games.
During the NBA playoffs this year, I’ve come to the conclusion that the deeper the Pistons have gotten, Wallace has played better basketball on the court, helping his team win and has also had more sophisticated words for reporters after the game as well. Think I’m just joking here? Well I’ll explain this exciting phenomenon that I have discovered.
For starters, Wallace has averaged 14.4 points per game during the playoffs, and each series, his role has gotten ever so much more important. In the Pistons’ four wins against the Heat, Wallace scored 20+ points every game, and in the three losses, he scored significantly lesser points. Adding to this stat, he put up good overall numbers during this series and has played great defensive basketball in leading his team to victory (after all, the Pistons are “defending” their NBA title…okay, sorry for the pun there folks). With Rasheed stepping up his game for the playoffs, he has emerged as an emotional team leader for the Pistons, something every championship team should have and something the Pistons value.
As I just talked about, Rasheed has played great basketball on the court, but off the court is where he has excelled the most, and during the Miami Heat series, it showed. Over the course of this series, he managed to get fined $20,000 for comments about the games referees, he has guaranteed his team’s victory in an elimination game (and yes, they did win the next game) and has said so many swear words in one post game interview that prompted one reporter on TV to say, “Who is this guy?”.
In ending this story, the Pistons did end up beating the Heat in game seven of the eastern conference finals series tonight 88-82, and Wallace yet again, played an important role in helping his team to victory. Oh, and in Rasheed-like fashion, during his post-game interview, Wallace wore a belt, like he had just won a heavyweight prize fight, thus adding the final chapter and putting an end to the Pistons/Heat series. .
Rasheed shouldn’t get too excited about this series win though because he has an even tougher task ahead of him in the San Antonio Spurs. This NBA finals series between the Pistons/Spurs should be very interesting and will probably be a dogfight from start to finish, but as I say, it’s not about how the Pistons play against the Spurs; it’s what comes out of Rasheed’s mouth that counts.
