RASHEED WALLACE
Rasheed Wallace was the Trail Blazers’ first All-Star of the new millennium. The number four pick out of the University of North Carolina, Wallace made the All-Star team as a Blazer in 2000 and 2001.
Wallace is all over the Blazers’ career leaderboard.
And in his 2000 All-Star season, Wallace scored 16.4 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked 1.3 shots per game.
In 2001, he got even better: 19.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.8 blocks.
As Rip City well knows, Wallace’s personality was as big and bold as his game. I’ll let Wikipedia sum up his on-court shenanigans:
"Wallace is currently the NBA’s all-time leader in player technical fouls, with 317. Wallace also holds the single-season record for technical fouls. In the 2000–01 season, Wallace received 41 technical fouls over a span of 80 games, about one technical foul for every two games."
It should also be noted here that Wallace popularized the phrase “ball don’t lie,” which I and thousands of other NBA fans say several times per game when refs make bogus calls and opponents miss the subsequent free throws.