Rasheed Wallace: Pistons’ legend no longer with Lakers
DETROIT (BVM) – Rasheed Wallace was one of the better big men in the NBA during the late 1990s and 2000s. Best known for his time with the Detroit Pistons and Portland Trail Blazers, he is also well known for his antics that regularly got him technical fouls and the infamous, ‘Ball don’t lie’ he yelled multiple times during his career.
Rasheed Wallace’s High School and College Career
Wallace grew up in Philadelphia in the neighborhood of Germantown. He attended Simon Gratz High School where he played baseball, ran track, competed in the high jump and played basketball. As a senior he was considered one of the best basketball players in the class of 2023 along with Randy Livingston and Jerry Stackhouse. That year Wallace’s stats were off the charts and he was named USA Today’s High School Player of the Year while averaging 16 points, 15 rebounds and seven blocks in just 19 minutes of playing time each game.
Wallace committed to the University of North Carolina, playing under Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith. During his time with the Tar Heels, he played with Stackhouse and was coached by his future Pistons’ head coach Larry Brown. As a sophomore, Wallace helped UNC make it to the Final Four before being drafted in the 1995 NBA Draft.
Rasheed Wallace’s NBA Career and Stats
The Washington Bullets selected Wallace with the fourth overall pick in the draft. Wallace’s stats for the Bullets – 10.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game – were good enough to make the NBA All-Rookie First Team. However, Washington traded him after the season to the Trail Blazers for Rod Strickland.
Rasheed Wallace stayed in Portland for eight seasons, resigning with the Trail Blazers in 1998 for a six-year, $80 million contract, greatly adding to his net worth. As a Trail Blazer, Wallace made it to the playoffs seven of his eight years with the team. In 1999 and 2000, he led Portland to back-to-back Western Conference Finals but each year he lost to the eventual NBA champion San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers.
While in Portland, Wallace also broke the record for most technical fouls in a season twice, first in 2000 with 38 then in 2001 with 41. During that time, Wallace also had the best playoff stats of his career, averaging 25.3 points and 12.3 rebounds in 2002.
Even with the success in Portland, the Trail Blazers traded Wallace in 2004 to the Atlanta Hawks and then 10 days later, Atlanta sent him to Detroit as a part of a three-team trade that included the Boston Celtics as well.
With Wallace, the Pistons would go on an NBA Finals run that saw them beat the Los Angeles Lakers in five games. During that finals run, Wallace guaranteed a win in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Indiana Pacers.
“That’s all I’m saying, people. We will win Game 2,” Wallace said to reporters during practice after Game 1.
In Game 4 of the finals, Wallace had one of his best games of his postseason with 26 points, 13 rebounds and two assists. His stats for that postseason were 13 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists and two blocks. His part in the championship run earned him a boost in his net worth in the form of a five-year, $57 million contract with Detroit.
Wallace and the Pistons made it back to the finals in 2005 but lost in seven games to the San Antonio Spurs.
Rasheed Wallace would stay with the Pistons until signing a three-year contract with the Boston Celtics in 2009 but then retired after the first year of the deal. He stayed retired for two years but then came out of retirement to play for the New York Knicks.
While with the Knicks, Wallace continued to yell ‘Ball don’t lie’ following opponents missing a free throw from a foul call Wallace didn’t agree with.
Rasheed Wallace’s Post Playing Career and Net Worth
Rasheed Wallace retired again, finishing his career with $156 million from his 18-year NBA career and is believed to have a net worth of $75 million currently. His career stats are 16,006 points, 7,404 rebounds and 1,460 blocks.
Right after retirement, Wallace went back to Detroit and began his coaching as an assistant coach for the Pistons. After two years with the Pistons, he spent time as a head coach for Charles E. Jordan High School and then an assistant coach for the Memphis Tigers.
His efforts in high school earned him immortality in his hometown this year when the part of Hunting Park Avenue that runs right in front of Simon Gratz was renamed Rasheed Wallace Road in honor of the hometown legend.
This spring, Darvin Ham was hired as the head coach of the Lakers and brought on his former Pistons teammate to be an assistant coach. But it was recently announced that he would not be joining Ham’s staff.
Comments by Andre Iguodala about Rasheed Wallace
Recently Andre Iguodala went on the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz to praise Wallace and make a statement about what Wallace could do in the NBA today.
“Rasheed Wallace probably could have been a top-five player in the league for a 10-year stretch,” Andre Iguodala said on the show. “He was shooting half-court shots left-handed and right-handed. If Rasheed Wallace played in modern-day basketball, if he played in our league today, he’d be a top-five player in the league. He’d be better than Giannis, and I love Giannis.”
No one doubts Wallace’s talents and his stats back that up but the comparison to Giannis will be an ongoing debate. However, if Wallace did play in the NBA today there is a good chance that his back-to-back record breaking technical foul season would be broken by Wallace again.
