Rasheed Wallace got pounded last week. The beatings didn't
come from Tim Duncan or A.C. Green, but from a couple
of guys who push people around with their pens rather
than their rear ends.
Oregonian sportswriter Steve Brandon started the
attack with a Jan. 17 piece about all of Wallace's technical
fouls (he had 16 as of that date) and two recent ejections,
suggesting that the Trail Blazers' premier player was
causing team disunity.
Oregonian columnist Steve Duin followed on Jan.
18 with a mean-spirited tirade loaded with degrading remarks.
"On a team increasingly interested in hiring class acts,"
Duin wrote, "Rasheed remains the class clown."
In addition to their theory (Wallace's T = trouble for
the team) the articles shared another trait. Neither contained
a single quote from Wallace. That's because Wallace hasn't
spoken to the paper for 18 months.
Wallace won't say why he placed the Oregonian
writers on ice, except that it has something to do with
a piece Brandon wrote about an ex-Blazer. And it's quite
clear that Wallace is not going to be warming up to them
any time soon. "They always contradict themselves," Rasheed
said with a smile. "I got a bad attitude, technical this,
technical that, yet when you read the articles, they always
say 'but Wallace...'"
Both Brandon and Duin missed a key bit of analysis when
counting up Wallace's Ts. Nearly all have come when the
Trail Blazers have been behind on the scoreboard, a sign
that he's arguing for fair calls to better the chances
of victory for the Blazers. Great players through the
years, such as Charles Barkley and Karl Malone, have taken
Ts for the same reason.
In addition, Wallace's emotional play, which gets him
into trouble with the refs, is also what has him in contention
for an All-Star position.
"That storm raging in him is what makes him the quality
player he is," says local hoop head Howard Avery, one
of the top basketball philosophers in the nation.
Wallace's fiery intensity begins during warm-ups and
continues into the game when he puts the ball on the floor,
either taking it to the hole or pulling up for a silky
jumper. At 6-foot-10 and 235 pounds, Wallace possesses
the versatility to play center, power and small forward.
"He's long, he's quick and he's talented," Phoenix Suns
center Oliver Miller said after his team's Dec. 17 victory
against Portland. "You have to worry about him blocking
your shot, and when you're on defense, he'll shoot over
you at any time."
The addition of Pippen and Steve Smith to the Trail Blazers'
roster has made defending Wallace an almost impossible
task for big men around the NBA. "Teams hesitate to double
now," Wallace says, analyzing the effect that his new
teammates, along with Damon Stoudamire, Brian Grant and
Arvydas Sabonis, have on opponents. "If it's Damon, Steve,
Scottie and either Brian or Sabonis and me out there,
who you gonna come off of? Pick your poison."
In his column, Duin wrote, "Wallace, it's been said,
doesn't talk to anyone except the refs." It's a good line,
but it's not accurate.
Wallace's feud with The Oregonian has cheated
Portland fans of the chance to get to know the Trail Blazers'
best player.
While his on-court outbursts often make him look wild
and intimidating, once the final buzzer sounds he drops
his game face and treats members of the other team with
genuine sportsmanship. "You go 100 percent and go for
a brother's jugular vein during the game," Wallace says
with a big smile. "But after the game, I'm still giving
brothers a pound and 'Good game.'"
In interviews with WW, Wallace repeatedly displayed
a degree of humility, answering questions about his own
abilities with comments on the importance of teamwork
and the respect he has for his peers. "With the other
guys out on the floor," he said, "I'd be satisfied with
whoever takes the shot. As long as we get the W, that's
my bottom line."
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Willamette Week | originally
published January 26,
2000
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