Rasheed Wallace was one of the more colorful personalities in the NBA during the late 1990s and the 2000s. The 4th overall pick of the 1995 NBA Draft, Wallace first made a name for himself during his time with the Trail Blazers before going on to become a key contributor for the Detroit Pistons, with whom he won a championship in 2004.
While he was a very good player, Wallace also wore his emotions on his sleeve and often got in trouble for it with the officials. That led to him climbing all the way up to 3rd all-time when it comes to technical fouls but that didn’t stop him from becoming a fan favorite and someone who was beloved by his teammates.
He was the heart and soul of those Pistons teams and at times, had some interesting motivational tactics as well. He used to be at the center of their pre-game dance routine, and the broadcast once hilariously caught him cussing out the role players on the team before a game against the Bobcats.
“Get y’all bi**h a** out there and play hard god dang it.”
Well, play hard they certainly did during Wallace’s time there. He was a great fit with the Pistons and nearly helped them win back-to-back titles, but they lost in agonizing fashion in 7 games to the Spurs in 2005.
Still, he was part of their most successful era post the 1980s as they made it to 6 straight Conference Finals, with Wallace being a part of 5 of those runs. Joe Dumars, who was their GM at the time, recently stated that trading for Rasheed was the best move that he made, as they wouldn’t have managed to win it all without him. It is hard to argue with that and if Dumars hadn’t drafted Darko Milicic with the 2nd pick of the 2003 NBA Draft, one can only imagine how much more success they would have had.
