Great article about Sheed and Stack on Grantland:
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/882 ... stackhouseSheed and Stack in the Big Apple
Two wily veterans spend the twilight of their intertwined careers in New York
By Jonathan Abrams on January 10, 2013
These are the nights that Jerry Stackhouse still cherishes. A loud and rambunctious arena. Teams trading buckets. A basket as big as the ocean. Maybe these nights are fewer and further between, but that's fine with him. He can see the finish line now. It's not just that Stackhouse chipped in 14 points, drilling four out of five 3s to will the Brooklyn Nets to a November overtime win over the Knicks in the first matchup of their reborn rivalry. He isn't satisfied with a single shot or a solid game. Jerry Stackhouse isn't truly content until he's had a conversation with his mother, Minnie, later that night.
"There's nothing like having the game I had last night and calling my momma and hearing her voice," Stackhouse said the next day. "She has good and bad days. She's 83. She's battled a lot of different things with her health, but I could hear it in her voice last night. She was telling me, 'I couldn't believe you could kick your legs up that high.' They came back down, but I still got them up there."
Stackhouse hasn't played in a playoff game in nearly three years. Across his 17-year professional career, he's made just one appearance in the NBA Finals, with Dallas in 2006, when they fumbled a 2-0 lead to Miami and lost in six games. He has few regrets, but he still wants to win.
"Would I trade having a championship ring or being able to hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy over what my momma said last night on that phone after watching that game?" he said. "No way."
Rasheed Wallace, once Stackhouse's running mate at the University of North Carolina, was on the losing end of that first Brooklyn–New York battle. Wallace missed nine of his 11 shots. It's true, the ball don't lie. Nor do the lasting careers of two of the league's locker room sages. They've been allies, All-Stars, contributors, opponents, retirees, returnees, lightning rods, and — perhaps most importantly — chameleons, adept at adapting to their ever-evolving NBA roles. Both 38 years old, both hoping for one last playoff run, it's been nearly two decades since Sheed and Stack first met at Chapel Hill.
"You're not going to beat Father Time," Stackhouse said. "He's going to catch up with us all. But I think we can manage him. I think that's what I learned to do. Playing less minutes, absorbing a little less of a role than I would customarily want … taking my wants out of the equation and putting other people's at the forefront. When I was pushing, pushing, pushing for what I really wanted, it seemed like I never really got it."
Both Wallace and Stackhouse have become known within NBA circles for their distinct personalities. Wallace's teammates have always loved him, but he is often aloof with those he doesn't know or trust — particularly reporters and officials. Stackhouse is poker-faced, but approachable — and yet he's always been considered an old-school tough guy who shouldn't be crossed under any circumstances. Even after all these years, Wallace still defends well in the post; Steve Smith, his teammate in Portland, calls him a "middle linebacker," the lead communicator on defense. Stackhouse lives on the perimeter, resigned to outsmarting opponents over out-quicking them. Both can drain a timely 3, both are utterly fearless, and both are valued for their locker room contributions as much as what they can still do on the court.
"I think people can see that I go hard," Wallace says now. "I'm just out there trying to go hard. I only know one speed. When I was in my heyday, of course I had those who hated me. They were supposed to hate the opposition. But it's good, though. It feels good."
"I'm here right now because of who I am," Stackhouse says, "not because I've succumbed or had to settle. I've changed my roles. I understand the importance of having to change roles. I look at a guy like Allen Iverson. There's no way, from a talent level or what he's done for the game of basketball, he shouldn't be on somebody's team right now. But we know why. We know why."
Rasheed is an all-time great. Can't wait to see him back on the floor.