Rasheed Wallace says college players more “hungry”

In the eternal and unanswerable discussion of which is better — the NBA or college basketball — there are some silly arguments. If you are arguing college players play a more “real” game and work harder off the ball, you don’t watch a lot of basketball at either level. Plus, like in football, the jump of technical skill from college to the professional ranks is pretty steep.

However, newest Knick Rasheed Wallace said the last couple years he was out of the Association he ended up being drawn more to the college game than the NBA. The reason was passion, he told the New York Post (hat tip to SLAM).

“I was more interested in college. To me it seemed in college ball, guys are more hungry. It’s for a different circumstance when you’re talking about playing for money and playing for heart. “Not saying that guys in the NBA don’t play for heart, but once you get that money, you’re under a different mindset. But when you’re trying to get there and get on this level, you’re more hungry.’’

The question for Wallace and the Knicks now is Wallace’s hunger for conditioning. Coach Mike Woodson said Wallace was working his way back into shape still. Wallace said he was good to go whenever coach calls his number. You watch the video below and decide where Wallace’s conditioning is at (I side with Woodson).