Rasheed Wallace was an absolute beast in his day, widely thought of as one of the best big men of his era. Sheed was a tough customer, he knew how to make things happen. He would go on to forge an excellent NBA career for himself, mainly as a part of a very tough Portland Trail Blazers team.
Wallace was known for his fiery nature and his intensity, he would often get into it with opposition players. What’s more, Wallace would also get into it with referees, he was famous for constantly getting technical fouls called against him. Sheed was a maniac, but even he knew who he could mess with and who he couldn’t.
Wallace was at the University of North Carolina before he made it to the NBA. UNC’s greatest alum in terms of NBA legacy is the GOAT, Michael Jordan, and their players often get to play against him. Things were no different in 1995, with Rasheed getting to test himself against MJ. Only it wasn’t quite that confrontational.
Rasheed Wallace Didn’t Want To Take On Michael Jordan In A 1-On-1 In College
Michael Jordan is nothing if not competitive. He would compete with his own shadow if he could, no opponent would get too much mercy from MJ. So even though Wallace and his team were college kids when they played His Airness, they knew not to mess with him too much. Wallace recounted the story on the All The Smoke podcast.
(starts at 12:00 minutes)
“Yeah my freshman year, I remember he came to practice. It was after or before the season, he had time. At first, I’m like, ‘Alright, damn Mike.’ And after practice aa freshman, you know you gotta get your work in so I did that…
“I go into the locker room and they all playing Rise and Shine with Mike. So they’re like, where Sheed at, where Sheed at? So right out there on the floor they’re like, you wanna play 1-on-1? What? Are y’all crazy? I’m not gonna sit out there and let this dude embarrass me. Ayo, I can’t mess with him. Cuz at the time, I wasn’t confident in my handle like that and I know he gonna get up in me. So I was like, ‘Y’all crazy, Imma stand here and watch him kill y’all!'”
That just showed that Wallace knew exactly what was up, he simply wasn’t one to mess with a situation he knew he would get embarrassed in. College kids can tend to be quite full of themselves, but it seems that Rasheed had the smarts to go along with the skills that made him one of the NBA’s best.
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