Rasheed Wallace retired

Rasheed Wallace(notes) represents every pointed comment I've had sent me since I started writing about this game, online, in 1997. Everyone's worst-case scenario? Every bit of bias or bile? Listen, I think I overcame quite a bit and worked my tail off to move past what I didn't like about Rasheed Wallace, but the fact remains (and will sustain) that I did not like Rasheed Wallace, the basketball player.
Bear in mind that I think the profession of playing basketball exceeds making the extra pass, executing a play or rotating defensively. I think the profession involves speaking to your fans about what they want to hear the most — why their favorite team won, or why their favorite team lost — and it includes treating your lesser teammates as if they were champions of the highest order. No towels in the face, no warmup jackets to the head, no 60-foot basketball bombs to the unsuspecting cranium.
Also find that I consider absolutely nothing of any off-court significance (OK; off-off court, away from the stadium) to work part and parcel with having anything to do with the profession of playing basketball. These players are under no obligation to work the charity ends to no end on their spare time. Which is why Rasheed — an absolute avatar of the highest order when it comes to making a difference in terms of charity and community help — is an absolute giant in that area. To be commended, to be appreciated.
What lies in the middle is even tougher to figure out.
Then we'll take it to the basketball court, his actual on-court career. Finding a way within the nuances of that 14-year turn is even tougher.
Rasheed Wallace is a tough guy to figure out. He's a tough guy to write about, and he's a tough guy to get to know. Especially if you look like me. He's a tough guy, and he's an absolute softie. He's a complete let-down, and a team picker-upper.
He's Rasheed Wallace. And I can't stand the guy.
Is this column turning into something more about me, or as much about me, as it is Rasheed? No doubt. But that's how Rasheed's career — something that is apparently over after walking away from the final two years and nearly $13 million on his contract with the Boston Celtics — has spun. Nothing about Rasheed has been easy, in any way, to discuss. And I've a feeling, that in spite of making this bit about Wallace a column dedicated to my personal thoughts on the man, that this won't go away.
Because I cannot forget the way he frittered away his own career. I can't slough that off. Can't forget the way he dawdled on the perimeter as the Portland Trail Blazers frittered away a 15-point lead in Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference finals, with only a helpless and ancient A.C. Green working as Wallace's primary defender.
I can't forget the constant absence of leadership as that veteran Blazers team then morphed into a younger version, built around Wallace, who was a clubhouse cancer of the highest order.
I can't forget him leaving Robert Horry(notes) on the perimeter in 2005. I can't forget his 4-12 showing in Detroit's final game of 2006. I can't forget his 5-14 in Detroit's final game the next year against Cleveland, an absolute meltdown that saw Rasheed foul himself out and take home two technical fouls along the way. Or his 2-12 showing in Detroit's final game in 2008, with more needless, costly fouls late. That's an 11-38 (28.9 percent) mark when his Detroit teams needed him the most, if you're scoring at home.
I can't forget the way he responded to the faith the Boston Celtics had in him — with Kevin Garnett(notes) leading a team-wide charge to pitch personally for Rasheed to sign with the C's — how Sheed showed up massively out of shape to start his final season, staying that way until the very end. The guy was having training camp-styled cramps and strains in the final weeks of the season.
So, maybe he was supposed to walk away from that money. Supposed to give something back, after all those years of CtC play. A bit of penance, somehow making up for it in the end.
Rasheed Wallace never fouled anyone, in his eyes. Even with the stings of a shooter's forearms still burning his own arms, Rasheed never touched anyone. It was that sort of delusion that permeated his entire game, and changed the way people thought of it. Unselfish to the most selfish degree, disappearing when it counted the most, fighting the good fight at the absolute worst time, somehow getting away with it. Cool sayings and a self-styled nickname and it's all forgotten.
Not by this guy. I'll remember it all, the good and the bad. There was plenty of good, because he did help his teams win. But there was so, so much bad. Team-killing ploys that junior high kids shouldn't get away with that. That's part of Sheed's package.
One I can assure you that he absolutely doesn't give a rip about what you think of it. He clearly doesn't care. And, with all things regarding Rasheed Wallace, this is a good and bad thing.