The NBA just got a little less interesting.
There was nobody in the league like Rasheed Wallace, and he has decided to walk away, according to David Aldridge writing for NBA.com.
He battled through an injury plagued season and although he was owed nearly $13 million over the next two seasons he decided he didn’t want to go through that again.
Sheed won an NBA title in 2004 when he came over to the Pistons mid season and teamed with Ben Wallace to anchor a powerful defense that knocked off the Lakers.
People were expecting -- or hoping -- for the same thing when he joined the Celtics for this past season. And they did make it to the NBA finals and pushed the Lakers seven games. But they team did a lot of that in spite of Sheed, not because of his help. He just wasn’t quite the same (although he still hit some key threes).
Wallace was a technical-foul magnate, a guy who talked to the referees like the fans want to talk to the refs. Except he picked up techicals and fines for it. Never stopped him, though.
He was a character, a wild card in a world of safe, corporate-friendly images. It’s just not going to be the same without him.
