It was announced after the NBA Finals that Rasheed was going to retire, despite two years and almost $13 million left on his contract. Yesterday it became official, with Wallace retiring at the age of 35 after 15 seasons with 5 teams.
After the jump, a look back at his career.
After being traded to Portland after his Rookie Year in Washington, Wallace went on to become the Franchise guy in town, ranking among the teams best in Win Shares and PER during his 7 seasons with the team. But he also was a fiery guy, getting technicals left and right. In the 1999-2000 season, he set an NBA record with 38 technicals during the season, only to break it the following year by getting 40 technicals. Despite his constant ejections, Wallace was able to lead very talented Blazers teams deep into the playoffs, losing in the Western Conference Finals in both 1999 and 2000, to the Spurs and Lakers respectively. The loss to the Lakers was particularly devastating as the Blazers led going into the 4th quarter by 15 points of Game 7. Both the Lakers and Spurs would go on to win NBA titles.
Wallace would be named an NBA All-Star in both 2000 and 2001, but the Blazers would not get to the Conference Finals again, and a lot of the blame fell on Rasheed's shoulders and his surly attitude. He had been one of the more efficient post scorers in the NBA during his youth, averaging more than 50% from the field for his first five years, but during the 2000-01 season he began to step away from the basket and shoot more jumpers, specifically threes, despite never being all that great at it (career 33.7%). His defense was good but never great. Many felt he was wasting his immense talent.
In 2004, he was traded to the Atlanta Hawks mid-season, and after playing one game for the Hawks, he was again traded to the upstart Detroit Pistons, who were winning with tough defense and offensive efficiency from players like Rip Hamilton and Chauncey Billups. This was the perfect change of situation for Rasheed, and he went from pariah in Portland to hero in Detroit, as the underdog Pistons, despite having no big name stars were able to reach the NBA Finals and beat a Lakers team featuring Shaq-Kobe-Malone-Payton in just 5 games. It was all worth it for Sheed.
The Pistons would go on to dominate the East for the next several years, returning to the NBA Finals the next year, this time against the Spurs in a series that they lost in 7 games. The year after they led the NBA in wins with 64, but lost to the eventual champion Heat in 6 games during the Conference Finals. This would become a trend for the Pistons again lost in 6 games of the ECF the next year, this time to the Cavaliers, and also the year after to the Celtics (seems like all the Champs had to go through Sheed).
The Pistons Redux were done as we knew it. Billups was traded for Allen Iverson, and the team struggled to reach .500 most of the year, falling short at 39-43 but still making the 8th seed in the East. This time they were swept badly by James' Cavaliers. Sheed did not seem to give a care throughout the season or series.
He spent his last season as a backup for the Celtics, offering mixed results throughout the season, but finally laying it all on the line in the Playoffs, especially the NBA Finals, where he played some superb defense on Pau Gasol, although the Celtics fell short by 4 points.
Rasheed finished with Career Averages of 14.6 PPG and 6.7 RPG. For a man so skilled, these are low numbers, and more should have been expected of him. He probably should have been the difference in Portland winning a title in the early part of the decade, and he probably could've been more effective if he had taken a lot less threes, but Rasheed still had a pretty good career. He was a 4 time All-Star, Reaching the playoffs in all but his rookie year, the Conference Finals 5 times, and the NBA Finals 3 times, as well as winning an NBA Title. Not a lot of players can claim that type of success.
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