25 Şubat 2008 Pazartesi

Rasheed Wallace

Rasheed Abdul Wallace (born September 17, 1974 in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a professional
basketball player in the National Basketball
Association. He currently plays Power forward
(basketball)|power forward for the Detroit
Pistons.

Originally selected out of the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill|University of North
Carolina by the Washington Wizards|Washington
Bullets (now the Wizards) in the 1995 NBA Draft,
Wallace was named to the All-Rookie second team
following his first season. Following the same
season he and Harvey Grant was traded to the
Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for Rod
Strickland and Kevin Duckworth. He had a career
high 42 points against the Denver Nuggets in 2001
and was a key member of the Blazers team that made
it to the Western Conference Finals that same
year. Wallace had a career best 19.4 points per
game in 2002 for the Blazers.

In 2004 Rasheed Wallace helped power the Detroit
Pistons to the NBA title and obtained his first
championship ring, or "ship" as Rasheed would say.
In Detroit, Wallace has become known for selfless
team play and integrated with Ben Wallace to form
the core of the Pistons' smothering defensive
game. At 6'11" and 230 pounds (104 kg), Wallace
plays Power forward (basketball)|power forward or
center (basketball)|center defending on the
opposition and is capable of making almost any
play offensively, from a slam dunk to a long
3-point jump shot. He is an adequate free throw
shooter, an excellent passing big man, and a good
rebounder at both ends of the court.

== Controversy ==

Wallace is a controversial player. He regularly
led the NBA in technical fouls and earned himself
a bad reputation among fans by numerous missteps
during his Portland period, and even was booed
sometimes during home games. He seldom talked to
the media, and he became notorious for saying to
reporters, "It was a good game. Both teams played
hard."

On the other hand, many praise his unselfish play
and his obvious talent. In addition, he is a
well-known benefactor, often attending charity
events. Wallace participates in various community
activities. The Rasheed A. Wallace Foundation
http://www.rawallacefoundation.com was established
in 1997 to assist in the recreational and
educational development of youth in Philadelphia,
PA, Portland, OR, Durham, NC, and other selected
communities. Each program promotes social,
cultural & academic development for youth.

Wallace's teammates have nearly universally
praised his presence in the locker room, and his
image has been rehabilitated somewhat since coming
to Detroit. His technical fouls have continued,
but he has become much less likely than before to
receive 2 technicals in a single game, which
results in a player's ejection from that game. He
has become a generally worthwhile interview
subject. He has selflessly taken a back seat to
Pistons leaders Ben Wallace and Chauncey Billups;
indeed, despite his undeniable star quality, he
has often seemed more comfortable in a supporting
role. This may go hand-in-hand with another
quality his critics have emphasized, Wallace's
inconsistency. He typically intersperses dominant
performances with indifferent ones. For a player
with such elite athletic gifts, he may not be
comfortable with the pressure of being a team's
primary star, expected to prove his status with
regularly exceptional offensive play. Some
journalists have speculated this explains the
contrast in his Portland and Detroit behavior.

==Background==

===Early Years===
Rasheed began his basketball career in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Simon
Gratz High School. Rasheed was named USA Today
High School Player of the Year after the 1992-93
season and was selected first team All America by
Basketball Times. Despite limited playing time of
just 19 minutes per game, Rasheed still managed to
average 16 points, 15 rebounds and 7 blocks during
his senior year. In addition to basketball,
Rasheed also ran track and high jumped.

===College===
University of North Carolina then-coach Dean Smith
lured Rasheed to Chapel Hill, North Carolina for
his college years. Smith was a revered mentor to
Wallace as he was to Wallace's eventual Detroit
coach Larry Brown; Rasheed has indicated that this
North Carolina bond with Brown helped Wallace
adjust quickly to the Piston system. During his
time at Carolina, Rasheed had tremendous success
in the national spotlight. Named a second-team
All-American by the AP his second year, Rasheed
ranks as the leading career field goal shooter in
Atlantic Coast Conference history with a .635
percentage.

Rasheed helped lead the Tar Heels to the NCAA
Final Four in 1995. Rasheed left North Carolina to
enter the 1995 NBA Draft after his sophomore
season. Wallace was selected in the 1st round, the
4th pick draft pick overall by the Washington
Bullets.

===NBA career===
As a rookie in Washington, Rasheed played in 65
games, 51 of which he started. While mostly
playing power forward, he also gained experience
in the center position although being physically
overmatched. Wallace was selected to the rookie
team for the All Star Weekend. Later that year, he
fractured his left thumb during a game against
Orlando and could not return until the following
year.

After the season, Rasheed was traded to the
Portland Trail Blazers, a move that proved
beneficial for both sides. He led the Blazers in
scoring 12 times, and also ranked third in the
league in field goal percentage. Unfortunately,
just as his season was gaining momentum, Rasheed
again broke his left thumb--ironically in a game
against the Bullets--and was forced to miss the
next month of the season, but he returned in time
for a strong performance in the first round
playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Despite the Blazers losing the series, Wallace's
play was a bright spot that gave Blazer fans
something to look forward to in 97-98.

Rasheed's next season was one of many highs. The
young superstar signed a long term contract to
stay with the Portland Trail Blazers. Rasheed was
showcased as the team's all-around player on a
club with many specialists. Rasheed began
extending himself into the community more than
ever, most notably with his Rasheed Wallace
Foundation, but his career suffered from numerous
missteps on and off the court.

Rasheed led the Trail Blazers to the Western
Conference Finals in 1999 and 2000, losing to the
San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Lakers,
respectively. Both teams would go on to win the
NBA Finals. The 2000 series against the Lakers was
most noted for the Blazers blowing a 24 point lead
going into the fourth quarter. Wallace would never
again experience that level of success with
Portland.

After some mediocre years, Rasheed was traded to
the Detroit Pistons, established himself as a
regular starter and helped them win an unexpected
NBA title in 2004, beating the heavily favoured
Lakers 4 games to 1. He currently sports the #36
(rather than his usual #30) in the memory of his
late brother, and is seen as one of the premier
players at the power forward position. He became
especially popular with Detroit fans for his
boisterous on-court emotions and periods of hot
3-point shooting. Nearly every time he gets the
ball, the fans scream "Sheed!". After the
championship season, he paid for custom
"championship belts" to be made for each of his
teammates and presented them as gifts when the
next season's training started.

Throughout the 2004-05 season, Wallace often
carried the belt into his locker before games to
inspire the Pistons' title defense. In the 2005
playoffs, for the second consecutive year, the
following happened: the Pistons fell behind in a
best-of-7-games series with the Indiana Pacers;
after the loss, Rasheed guaranteed to the media
that the Pistons would win the next game; and the
Pistons proved Rasheed right, then went on to win
the series. The difference was that in 2004
Rasheed had had a poor shooting night and the
Pistons had won anyway; in 2005 Rasheed played a
brilliant all-around game to ensure the guarantee
would be fulfilled. He finished with 17 points
scored, 12 rebounds, 5 blocked shots and 2 steals.

After the second-round elimination of the Pacers,
Rasheed played his best series of the postseason
in the Eastern Conference finals against the
top-seeded Miami Heat. He shot a 50 percent field
goal percentage and averaged 14.5 points a game in
the series' seven games, and saved his
hottest-shooting night for the decisive Game 7.
Against the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals,
Rasheed seemed to be poised to become the series
goat when, in overtime of the remarkably closely
fought Game 5, Wallace abandoned playing defense
on Robert Horry with nine seconds to play and the
Pistons leading 85-83 on their home court. This
was inexplicable because Horry, a widely feared
3-point specialist, was having one of the hottest
long-range shooting nights of his frequently
heroic career. Horry made the game-winning 3-point
shot with six seconds to go, the Spurs took a
3-games-to-2 lead, and many pundits assumed the
Finals were all but over, and that Rasheed's blown
defensive assignment would take on additional
infamy. The Pistons would have to win 2 straight
games in San Antonio to repeat as champions, and
only one team facing such a situation in NBA
Finals history had even won one game (the 1953-54
Syracuse Nationals).

For the Pistons to do so on the road after such a
shocking loss seemed daunting at best. But well
into the fourth quarter, Game 6 was as tense as
Game 5, except that the Pistons were more
consistently maintaining a narrow lead. Rasheed
had committed his fifth personal foul as the 4th
quarter began and left the game so that he would
have hope of playing the last few minutes; one
more foul would have ended his night. Then, after
re-entering the game with five minutes to play,
Rasheed scored 7 of the Pistons' last 13 points to
finish with 16. The Pistons had a one-point lead
before Rasheed started shooting but wound up
winning 95-86. Rasheed's final basket was a
rebound, too, as he tipped in Billups' missed
driving layup. Then, with the Pistons ahead 91-86
and 1:30 left to play, Rasheed made two brilliant
defensive plays that sealed the win. He stripped
the ball from the quicker Emanuel Ginóbili|Manu
Ginobili as the Argentine star dribbled under the
basket, then rebounded a missed Ginobili jump
shot. Rasheed had earned some measure of
redemption, helped his teammates hold San Antonio
scoreless over the last two-and-a-half minutes,
and forced a winner-take-all Game 7 two nights
later.

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