Rasheed Wallace is a player with one of the best all around skill sets in the NBA. He has the ability to post up and is considered one of the best post players in the NBA. He has the ability to stretch the floor with a reliable three point shot. His mid-range jump shot can be deadly from anywhere on the floor, especially when utilized as the patented turn around jumper off the glass that 'Sheed employs to near perfection. He is a ferocious blocker and a decent rebounder and in his prime was considered one of the more athletic players in the NBA.
With a skill set like that, it is hard to believe that Rasheed boasts only modest career averages of fifteen points, seven rebounds, two assists, and one block. Rasheed's best statistical season was with the Blazers in his prime, an impressive yet not mind blowing stat line of nineteen points and eight rebounds. Rasheed, with the ability to get twenty and ten easy has never averaged that amount in his career. This leads one to ponder: did Rasheed Wallace really really realize his potential?
In the twilight years of his career, has Rasheed played to the best of his abilities? I believe the following two points are the reasons that Rasheed has never become one of the best players in the NBA like his abilities demanded he be.
1. Emotions
Many of the elite players, though not all (see Tim Duncan), are very intense, emotional players. Kevin Garnett, Allen Iverson, and Kobe Bryant are three players who have one or the other. Kevin Garnett is as intense as it comes and a very 'outspoken' player while AI and Bryant are very intense and have two of the most killer instincts in the NBA.
Rasheed Wallace may be even more emotional and intense than Kevin Garnett. The reason Rasheed has not been able harness these two powerful attributes is because he expresses them in the wrong way. How many times have we seen Rasheed get into a hot streak and then hurt his own team by drawing a technical foul? For many seasons, Rasheed has lead the league in technical fouls. In high school, he was the first player to have been ejected from the McDonald's All-Star game.
Though his emotions and intensity are harnessed the wrong way, there have been cases where he has spurred his team to victory and gained the motivational props that follow. Sometimes Rasheed's technicals fire his team up and lead to a trouncing of the opposition. When the Pistons won a championship, Rasheed further motivated his team to reach Game 7 of the Finals the next season by giving the team a championship mindset (ex. purchasing world heavyweight championship belts for every member of the team.).
Yes, Rasheed is as an emotional and intense player, and has helped the teams he played for greatly, but he has never been able to take the next step and go from an All-Star to a superstar.
2. Work Ethic/Killer Instinct
Many times during Rasheed's career, announcers, sports analysts, and critics questioned 'Sheed's drive and work ethic. Some labeled him overrated and more of a troublemaker than a star in the league. Less so during his Blazer years but more so during his Piston years, Rasheed was known to be arrogant and coast through games against teams he felt were no where near as talented as the Pistons, with dire results(see 2006/2007 Eastern Conference Finals).
Charles Barkley has famously stated that if Rasheed had the killer instinct like players such as Kobe and Michael Jordan, Rasheed could have been one of the best players in NBA history.
Rasheed is, bar-none, the most versatile offensive player in the Eastern Conference, if not the entire league. An elite post player who's also an above average perimeter player combined with a hard-to-match defensive tenacity? It's hard to imagine that type of player to not be in the top ten players in league history. Michael Jordan had a similar skill set (ultimate scorer, great defender, money jump shot, elite post up game); Magic Johnson had a similar skill set; it's hard to imagine Rasheed, when his career is over, not to have him mentioned in the same breath as these great players.
Well imagine no longer. Rasheed will never be mentioned in the same breath as MJx2. Rasheed may go down in history as the biggest underachiever the league has ever seen, even if he's won a championship ring.
13 comments Last one added 11 months ago — Leave a Comment
ripcityphil 11 months ago
Crazy people never reach their potential.
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Marcel Mansour 11 months ago
Great article. Rasheed is definitely one of the biggest underachievers in NBA history. He should have been a 20 and 10 player for his entire career. He is probably the only big man in the league who is a good post player and also a good three point shooter. On top of that, he is an elite defender and a solid passer. He is also extremely efficient (less than 2 turnovers a game) and healthy. He easily could have ended up with a similar career like KG or Duncan, but he is too crazy and doesn't have the fire that they have.
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Alexa Freed 11 months ago
A damn shame.
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J. Michael Morris 11 months ago
A friend of mine from Portland used to refer to him as Smokeweed Walhash, I thought it was sorta funny.
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Zachary Cole 11 months ago
haha bar-none the most versatile player in the east. I'm not even a LeBron fan, but he is easily wayyyy more versatile than sheed. other than that, great article, i agree that rasheed fell very short of his potential (also see Jermaine O'Neal, and Zach Randolph - both affiliated with Blazers as well...hmm?).
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Kevin Nolan 11 months ago
he once got outscored by Ben Wallace in the NBA finals. Sheed is just a lazy basketball player. A real good one but guy who stopped running the floor, flashing to spots, or ceiling post position. All the little things that would allow him to be the level of impact player he should be.
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Daniel Muth 11 months ago
The funny thing about Sheed is that he wants to win...badly. So it's not that he doesn't care. When you watch him on the floor he appears to be more ADD than anything, never able to concentrate on the game for a full four quarters. He drifts away to the three point line in his offensive sets and never demands the ball. They say that to be a great player you have to be a bit selfish, and Sheed has never been that guy. He is a great team player, who for whatever reason, never tried to be a superstar. I can't think of anyone quite like him in NBA history. I absolutely agree that if some switch was turned in Sheed's head then he'd be mentioned with the greats of all time. I can't think of a more versatile big man (on both ends of the court). That said, I can't lump him in with the big disappointments of all time either because he's had a very good career. In the final analysis, maybe he didn't underachieve. Physically and skill-set wise, I would rank him near the top ever. But to be great you also need the drive, the NEED, to assert yourself, and the cool to play the game correctly. I'm not so sure that Sheed was ever capable of that.
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Mike P 11 months ago
Get your facts straight. Rasheed was not ejected from the McDonald's High School game. He had 1 technical which counted as a personal foul. He wasn't ejected. In a day and age when basketball pumps up indvidual players, Rasheed should be praised for being the ultimate team player. Did it ever occur to you that in order for his teams to be successful and win, players like Rip, Chauncey and even Tayshaun, needed to score in order to be effective in games? Ask Tim Duncan who he has had the toughest matchups with in his career and he'll tell you either Rasheed or KG. That is because of his defense. Sheed has an NBA title. As a matter of fact, Chauncey, Rip, Ben and everyone else on that team, would have never had one without Rasheed. If you knew Rasheed, you would know that even in High School, in Summer Leagues, whenever he played, he was an ultimate team player. He did that because he knew that others needed to score to feel like they were contributing. To stay in the game mentally. He did that because he could get 10 steals or 10 blocks or 15 rebounds in a game and not score and COMPLETELY control the game. He did that because he was ALWAYS the best player on the floor and everyone knew it. Didn't matter what the boxscore said. The team, the fans, the coaches, everyone knew he was the best. And no matter what, all the Detroit players will say that without Sheed, they don't win the championship. Bottom line.
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Kevin Nolan 11 months ago
they don't win a chip without any one of the starting 5. Yes Rasheed is an hell of a post defender but there a difference b/t being unselfish and not forcing the to react. When your 6'11 and have Rasheed hands, finishing abilty, and touch not running the floor or force the defense to react to your movement is being lazy. Standing still at the 3 point 80% of the time on offensive isn't unselfish it's dumb basketball with his talent. The guy plays like Steve Kerr on O most of the time.
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Doran Lower 11 months ago
I would agree that Rasheed pushed Detroit over the top, in his first year in Detroit. However, long term he doesn't pan out. Even though winning an NBA Championship is the ultimate goal for each franchise and most elite players, being part of one, alone, doesn't translate to your career being a success (See Chuck Nevitt). Rasheed is absolutely NOT the player he has the ability to be and sometimes seems a tad out of his head. Some of your reasoning seems to imply that everything he does is premeditated? I think ADD might be a possibility (take for example, him toying with the opposition's huddle during an important part of a playoff game last year, instead of tuning into his team and what they were doing). He seems to lack the ability to contribute consistently to what his team needs from him. I believe that Rasheed commands one of the greatest skill sets in the League today, but the fact that he is more known for his on court attitude (often poor) than his prowess on the court seems to speak for itself.
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Doran Lower 11 months ago
I was kidding (mostly) about Nevitt, by the way.
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Richard Le 11 months ago
Actually, Rasheed was ejected from the McDonald's All-Star game and is the first person in it's histroy to have been. Other than that, I respect your opinion and hope you'll respect mine.
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Ben bLeacher 11 months ago
Mike is right, and part of the answer to the riddle lies in author's emphasis on stats. Stats mostly don't reflect defense or team play. Any player who makes those a big part of his game is going to look like an underachiever in an analysis based on stats. Wallace makes defense and team play a big part of his game. He may still underachieve, it's hard to tell, but you can't know that by looking at stats alone.
This reminds me of another Detroit-associated player, Joey Harrington. Some guy with a blog (sound familiar?) just announced Harrington is the worst quarterback ever, based on stats which he admits don't consider the quality of the quarterback's team. Everybody likes to have a big opinion, fewer like to have a careful, informed opinion.
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