PASSION PL.A.Y
Every allegory needs a villain, that’s why we invited you . . .
Rasheed Wallace.
From the sunburst tattoo on his shoulder . . . to the wild-eyed looks he gives referees . . . or the towel he threw in the face of Portland Trail Blazer teammate Arvydas Sabonis in a signature move caught by TV cameras last week . . . or the get-off glares he gives reporters . . . nothing warm and fuzzy shows in public.
Nor does he step out of fang-baring character even in happier circumstances, at this season’s All-Star media session, for example, where minimal cooperation would get him upgraded to “complex” or “misunderstood,” and an actual smile might take him all the way to “maligned.”
Instead, Wallace does his Dracula-at-a-ladies-tea number, informing the reporters waiting at his table, even before he sits down:
“I ain’t answering no . . . about suspensions or no . . . about referees. I’m just telling you now.”
Thanks for clearing that up, anyway. When that fails to empty the room, he goes on to explain his distaste for the function, noting:
“I don’t care what y’all cats think about me because you’re not in my inner circle. The only people I care about are my wife and kids, my mom and brothers, close friends to the family. Anybody outside my circle, I couldn’t care less.
“You could say that I’m a mean guy or you could say I killed the president or whatever. It doesn’t matter to me.”
It would be easy to conclude that this enigma, so tightly wrapped in a mystery, is, indeed, a mean guy or, at least, one who’s easy to upset.
But there are no incidents off the court. Those in his inner circle say there are no displays of temper. On the contrary, he’s not only easy-going but fun.
After two seasons trying to counsel him, teammate Scottie Pippen, a traditionalist from another generation, says it upsets him to see Wallace go into orbit at the first call he doesn’t like (“Because that takes focus away from the team, whether you’re losing momentum or the referees turn against you. Yeah, it hurts.”)
But off the court?
“I didn’t get to know him until I was on his team,” Pippen says. “I think he’s surprising. The way people judge Rasheed is what they see on the basketball court. Off the court, he’s totally opposite.
“He’s a great teammate. He’s one of the best teammates I ever had. He’s just a nice guy . . . away from the game of basketball.
“When you get him out here on the court, he plays well. But the only thing people judge him on is when he gets into it with the officials.”
Off the court, Wallace has a wife and three sons he takes to see Santa Claus at the mall, where, notes ESPN magazine’s Ric Bucher, who accompanies them, Wallace is careful to see they’re well-mannered and thank Santa.
On the court, however, he’s an incident waiting to happen, having been ejected seven times this season while drawing a record 41 technical fouls, breaking the mark he set in 1999-2000.
He’s not the only emotion-venting NBA player. However, if the others forget now and then, they know there’s no percentage in a vendetta against an embattled authority figure who’s your judge and jury and will be seeing you again.
Having more than doubled the total of second-place, not-so-mild-mannered Gary Payton, who had 18 technical fouls, you can see how special Wallace is.
Trail Blazer insiders think it’s no coincidence Wallace’s two-season rampage coincides with his rise to all-star, betraying his discomfort with his new status.
In recent years, the Trail Blazers had great depth but no No. 1 option remotely as good as those of their rivals, the San Antonio Spurs and Lakers, their first-round playoff opponent.
Now Wallace has become a leader on the court who tries to melt away off it. It’s agonizing progress and the one who seems to be in the most agony is Wallace.
He scored 24 points in the Game 1 loss to the Lakers, but none in the fourth quarter, and he was called for another technical at the end of the first half.
“I think he’s one of those guys, he just likes to fit in,” Portland point guard Damon Stoudamire says, “and if people are going to expect anything more out of him, then you’re probably fooling yourself if you think you’re going to get it.
“Unless over the next couple of years, he matures to the point where he wants to take on that responsibility. But right now, I don’t think he wants to take on those responsibilities, other than playing the game.”
He Vants to Be Alone?
“I’ve seen him at suit-and-tie functions in sweatsuits. That’s just Rasheed. He never changes, and I mean that in a positive way.”
--Former teammate Brian Grant
They don’t make recluses the way they used to, either.
This isn’t Steve Carlton, the Philadelphia Phillie pitcher who stonewalled reporters and talked to only a few teammates.
This particular shy person has a Web site and his own radio show, “Saturday Night RAW with Rasheed Wallace & Da Fam” on Jammin 95.5 in Portland.
RAW is not only a descriptive adjective but Rasheed Abdul Wallace’s monogram. As his mother, Jackie, told Bucher: “I must’ve known something.”
Wallace has a record company too, Urban Life Music, and a studio, Direct Hit Studio, back in his native Philadelphia. Once Trail Blazer players customarily fell in love with, and settled in Portland, where you can still find Mychal Thompson, Kermit Washington, Steve Jones and many more. But the hip-hop generation goes home summers.
Jackie was 17 when she had her first of three sons, the youngest of whom would be Rasheed, providing for them by working as a social service case worker. His father was in touch, but not close touch.
Now raising his own sons is something Wallace takes seriously.
“I’m just trying to be there for them,” he told Courtside magazine’s Kerry Eggers, “so they won’t have to go through what I went through, missing my dad when I was younger.”
Wallace was the best big man in basketball-mad Philadelphia since Wilt Chamberlain. Local writers, who started profiling him early, found him accommodating, if no quote machine.
He entered North Carolina with Jerry Stackhouse in 1993 and left with him after the 1994-95 season. By then, Wallace’s emotional side was showing. According to the far-flung Tar Heel grapevine, Dean Smith wasn’t as upset at losing Wallace as Stackhouse.
Drafted No. 4 by Washington, Wallace lasted one emotion-spouting season before the exasperated front office, in a move it would regret, traded him.
Now the questions started with his temper. To Wallace, the media wasn’t merely tedious, it was treacherous and, worse, a sellout of his roots.
Players from poor, single-parent backgrounds aren’t rare in the NBA, but even the Philadelphia 76ers’ Allen Iverson, a street kid to his core and a controversy magnet, could still talk easily to anyone. Wallace was the exception.
In his first season with the Trail Blazers, Wallace averaged 15 points, then 19.8 in a playoff loss to the Lakers, after which he got an $80-million extension.
The next season, 1997-98, he fell back to a 14.6 average, beginning the does-he-or-doesn’t-he-want-it phase of his career.
Against players who were more publicized than he was, such as Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, Wallace was brilliant, suggesting a burning ambition.
The rest of the star trip, Wallace left alone. He didn’t even lead the Trail Blazers in scoring until last season, his fourth in Portland, at 16.4. He went whole seasons, refusing to speak to the Oregonian beat writer.
Most players open up more, the larger the audience, but that’s not him, either. These days he may take a question or two--to avoid being fined--as at February’s All-Star session, but his interest in the dialogue is nil.
“I’m in a basketball state of mind when I’m out there,” he said in February. “It’s my job. It’s my livelihood, something I like to do. But the way I am out there on the floor, as far as that fiery player, you know I’m not like that 24 hours a day.
“It’s part of me, that fiery attitude. It was always in me.”
Would he like to tone it down?
“I just play, man,” Wallace said, turning off once again. “No big deal. I just play.”
The process founders, as usual. More meaningful questions about who he is don’t come up. He’s out of there, having avoided the fine or any communication.
The way he is is the way he is, no matter what anyone says or how often they say it, no matter what circle they come from, inner or outer.
“Pretty much,” Stoudamire says with resignation. “I’m probably as close to him as anybody on this team. He’s just one of those guys--hey, when he’s playing the game, he just wants to play.”
Back Home Again in Philadelphia
These days, Wallace runs a summer camp in Philadelphia . . . and sponsors three summer league youth teams.
He was in the sixth grade when he started playing in the summer league. He still calls Sonny Hill, who runs the program, “Mr. Hill.”
Hill’s programs, including the Baker League, have sent many players to the NBA, including Joe Bryant, Kobe Bryant, Eddie Jones and Aaron McKie, but he says Wallace’s involvement in the community ranks with any.
“He’s right at the top,” Hill said. “The kind of things Rasheed does are very rare today when people are making that type of money and have all the guys around them. He has stayed true to his roots.
“He’s a very personable young man. He’s a young man, obviously, he’s confused about some things right now. But the reality is, he’s like Allen Iverson: What he looks like outside is not what he’s like inside.”
Thank heaven.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Technically Speaking
Charting Rasheed Wallace’s technical fouls since he was drafted by the Washington Bullets in 1995. Wallace broke the season record for technicals in 19999-2000, then broke that record this season. The 1998-99 season was lockout-shortened, and only 50 games were played:
2000-01: 41
1999-00: 38
1998-99: 12
1997-98: 19
1996-97: 11
1995-96: 17
After the 1995-96 season, Wallace was traded by the Bullets--now the Wizards--with Mitchell Butler for Rod Strickland.
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COVERAGE
IT HAS BECOME
A WAR OF WORDS
Kobe Bryant is surprised that Scottie Pippen would take shots at him, and Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t want to hear any more whining from Portland. D8
MILWAUKEE: 103
ORLANDO: 96
Bucks lead series, 2-0
SACRAMENTO: 116
PHOENIX: 90
Series tied, 1-1
ROUNDUP: D9