Gino's Jungle

Written By: Alex (Goes By AEM)

AEM is a diehard UNC Tarheels fan who follows the guys in baby blue religously. He runs a UNC blog, The 5th Corner, and has watched Celtics big man Rasheed Wallace since his days as a McDonald's All American. Today he was kind enough to give our readers a little bit of insight on the man they call "Sheed".

Before I write my little post about Rasheed Abdul Wallace let me just say that I am a Tar Heel, but I do not look at the sports world through Carolina Blue glasses. I am a Carolina supporter but I am not always a Carolina apologist. I do not root for any team (besides the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and so I have no bias when I talk about any of the ex Tar Heels whatever the sport might be. I was asked by @GinosJungle to write about the 6'11" power forward/center and so here I am, and the first thing I want to say to one and all is the following: I get it! The frustration that Wallace has given to Detroit first and to Boston now, I get it. For all those fans that wish he'd stop shooting those asteroids of his from beyond the arc and try to use his big man body, I get it. I get it all, and in some ways I am sorry that these things have happened you as fans.

Last year Wallace was hurt, but that went by the wayside as most people/fans looked at the fact that their big man had gained weight, shot 3's like they were going out of style and stayed away from contact with opposing players like they had malaria.

I have yet to figure out why, in Boston, Wallace hopes to make news by shooting less than 28% from beyond the arc when he is shooting 40% from inside and is a career best 80.2% from the charity stripe. Of course shooting from the inside would also help the big man in having more rebounds per game, but that is neither here nor there.

But now let me say why I said in the first paragraph that "in some ways I am sorry". The Celtics fans should be upset with the team's move to acquire Wallace if he plans to shoot three's more than he plans to play where he should. But, on the other hand, the fans should be a lot more upset with their head coach, as well as the front office, that keep letting someone like Rasheed Wallace do as he wishes. You are talking about a veteran, who has gone to four All-Star games, who has won a title, who was brought into Bean Town with the red carpet treatment to win another, who is making over $5 Mil/year, odds would say that unless you put your foot down as a coach he is going to keep doing as he likes.

But way back when, as the man who now seems to never smile and has a hard/tough look when he steps on the court, Rasheed Wallace was a Tar Heel. And even before that the center was a McDonald All-American, of course he was thrown out of the McD's AA All-Star game, but that's another story for another time, but you can see that the Wallace of now isn't much different than the one that began his career in college over a decade and a half ago. He is also the same player that got "into it" with a former team mate in a pre-season game. Or the one that missed the team flight to the Maui Invitational because he overslept, then fell asleep again and missed the next flight as well.

However there was also the Rasheed Wallace who would not be available for post game comments because he was in the locker room calling his mom. Or the one that wore his North Carolina sweatshirt as he declared for the NBA after his sophomore season. And while in college he kept a 2.9 GPA. The one that loved North Carolina, loved his coach Dean Smith and loved playing the college game.

In some ways Wallace is what Bobby Knight is or the Yankees are to their respective sport. Players, coaches or franchises that even if they can fit in the mold, they won't. People/teams that will make news when others doing the same things as them won't get the same treatment. But for all of these people/teams one thing is for sure, you knew what you were getting before you took it. Anyone that will say that they know about the Yanks but don't know about their spending doesn't really know the Bronx Bombers or doesn't want to know about it. That if you take Bobby Knight you get a head coach that will work hard and can blow up at any time, and of course with Rasheed Wallace you get a guy that has played his way for most of his career and can find a way to get a technical when not needed.

By no means am I saying that Wallace is a misunderstood person, because he isn't, what I am saying is that he is in that category where good will always be followed by a "but" because we are going to hear about something bad. Is a lot of that on him? Sure, but let's just take a step into the future, if the Boston Celtics win it all this year (not saying they will or they won't), who is going to get the credit now? Who will get it 5 years from now? A decade from now? Answer is probably going to be the Big Three and maybe Rondo. On the other hand, if the Celtics lose in the first round (again, not saying they will or they won't), who is going to take the most hits for it now? In a couple of years? In a decade? Somehow I have to believe that it's going to be the big man from UNC.

So I will end with this. Sure, Wallace has played in a way that maybe isn't best for him, or more importantly, best for the team, but on the other hand he is not the head coach, and without Doc Rivers stepping in I doubt anyone believes he is going to change. I am not asking the masses to embrace Wallace, it would be hard to do, what I am asking is to understand him. You might not always approve of him, I know I haven't, but I am asking you to accept him. Accept him as a bench player that will score about 10 points, 5 rebounds per game while giving the starters a rest. Accept that he takes a bit too many three's and that he doesn't work as hard as he could in the paint. But also accept that those things happen because your head coach didn't pull the trigger on him and mostly, accept that it should not be what Wallace does that makes the Celtics go.

Photos via Yahoo Sports/Getty Images