“I dropped an F-bomb like everyone else in Boston, but no one player can win a title.”-Curt Schilling on A-Rod trade
One game. T hat’s how long Rasheed Wallace’s glorious tenure lasted in Atlanta: a single, stinking game.
The man who has amassed more technical fouls than anyone but Dennis Rodman landed in Hotlanta, (recently renamed AOL-time Warnersville) on Monday. He had a press conference in which he lauded the Atlanta organization and said he was focused on helping turn the team around.
And then he was traded again. This time to Detroit, a hoops hotbed dying to add his inside presence. In a buyer’s market as aggressive as Safeway before a hurricane, the Pistons outbid several other squads to add ‘Sheed’s capable rebounding skills and shooting touch. Detroit got him, and guard Mike James from Boston to boot, in a wild three-team trade, and were ready to start up the engine on their second Wallace just as his jets were cooling off for the second time.
Getting the start in his first game in a Pistons uni, Wallace went into the halftime locker room ready to assert himself on the offensive end. He wouldn’t get the chance.
The NBA froze the trade, and the new players were forced to sit the second half. Mike James felt like “half a Piston”, and Wallace yawned on the bench.
The serm’ has always been about improving personnel, but Wallace’s week was too much. Give the guy a break. His agent says he’s bolting for New York in the off-season, so what’s the point in two months of a slight upgrade with a bad attitude? One day general managers will start thinking about long term success, like Jerry West with the Memphis Grizzlies, who won more games in the first half than they had in any season in team history. Now that’s an upgrade.
