Rasheed Wallace appreciation thread

[d-train]

Rasheed was better than Blazers fans deserved. I can proudly say I always fully appreciated Rasheed. We don't really know the players that represent our city, but as far as I could see Rasheed was a class guy, not perfect. He certainly wasn't a bad guy. I never let the lying media sell me a narrative contrary to what I saw. Too many people did.

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[JasonStern]

One of my favorites. Would rather see a player get tech'd up for caring than not showing any emotion at all.

[PDXKnight]

Great player. He had the towel incident but overall he was a team player and was never out for his stats. The enigma of the jail blazers was more about us being in decline than character, people put up with lots for winning. But in hindsight isn’t it ironic that portland of all places was upset about weed?

[d-train]

That towel incident was overblown. Just like everything that could be construed in a negative light was. Sabonis was a poor runner of the court. His teammates, in particular Rasheed, covered for Sabonis, who usually couldn't run with the man he was guarding. On the play preceding that timeout, Sabonis didn't make an effort to run the court. Rasheed was upset and was calling his teammate out for lack of effort. Sabonis was looking down and not acknowledging Rasheed. Rasheed tossed his towel at Sabonis. It wasn't Rasheed's greatest moment, but it also was no big deal to anyone that mattered.

Anyone that ever watched Magic or Jordan take down a teammate they were unhappy with would say the towel throw was nothing.

[HoopsFanAZ]

Wallace was both supremely skilled and his own worst enemy in dealing with the refs. His legacy gets rewritten in Detroit, and well publicized, crappy judgment from a number of incidents doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy. I admired his game. His maturity as a Blazer? Less so. A complicated dude.

[JasonStern]

I'm sad that his podcast with Bonzi seems to have stopped releasing new episodes. I enjoyed it.

I admired his game. His maturity as a Blazer? Less so. A complicated dude.

He matured over time - similar to Zach Randolph, who was a headcase during his Blazers and Knicks tenure, but matured with Memphis.

[DaVoiceMaster]

The towel incident was stupid and childish. Having said that, I enjoyed watching Wallace. That guy could have been so much more than he was. He had an un-blockable turnaround shot that no one could touch. I wish he was a bit more selfish and looked for his shot more often than he did. From everything I remember, his teammates loved him. I was trying to remember a situation I heard about that involved him and Bonzi Wells throwing a ball and hitting another teammate in the head who fell down. I don't remember if that was Ruben Boumtje Boumtje or who. Does anyone remember that or did I just make that up? Aside from that, Sheed was simply a character that you had the choice to love or hate. If you don't like antics, then you probably didn't like him. If you found it entertaining, then you probably loved him. I don't think he was one of the jail blazers either. I was glad he got his ring; I just wish it was with the Blazers. The dude had passion for the game as evident by his never-to-be-reached record for technical fouls. He was fun though.

C-T-C

[Norm2953]

I appreciate his talent but not the player for Hoopsfan is correct he's a very complicated dude for
getting upset with Sabas when the man could barely run was a bridge too far for me. No mistake
the Jail Blazer era really took over when Scottie Pippen and Sabas left leaving the inmates in
control. Fortunately Sheed was able to escape the inmates to a very strong, professional locker
room with a HOF coach who was able to manage the dude that is Sheed

[JasonStern]

Language warning:

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Can't seem to find Bonzi's telling of the story, but it was equally as good.

[HoopsFanAZ]

Thank you.
You made me laugh with that Antonio Harvey vid. And he was a good dude, too.

Sabas, as immobile as he was by then, is still my favorite Blazer. I was laying on the couch watching a game, and one of his amazing, no-look passes left me on the floor, laughing. It's like Rasheed Wallace. What he could do on the court was shake my head happiness.

[d-train]

Language warning:

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Can't seem to find Bonzi's telling of the story, but it was equally as good.

Ok, let's guess the player. It must be a smaller player. Don't say Rasheed, Rasheed would have taken out Sabonis in 5 seconds. The possibilities are Strickland, Stoudamire, Anthony, or Augmon. Anthony didn't play the 1st half of the last game against the Lakers, so eliminate him. The story makes it sound like it was in the locker room, so it must have involved players that played the 1st half. He smoked dope with Antonio, this eliminates nobody. I'm going to scratch Stoudamire from the list, just because. This leaves Strickland or Augmon, both guys are hotheads. I think you can flip a coin here. I'm going to guess Strickland. It's not possible that a player as good as Strickland never was an all-star, unless every bad thing said about him has some truth to it.

[d-train]

It was a conspiracy. Seriously, Rasheed missed out on taking advantage of the refs incompetence. He could have played the refs like Harden and others do. Rasheed had an unhealthy frame of mind that he had to overcome.

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