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Portland Trail Blazers: Celebrating Rasheed Wallace’s 46th Birthday

By Ruben Estrada

SALT LAKE CITY, UNITED STATES: Rasheed Wallace (C) of the Portland Trail Blazers is congratulated by teammates Scottie Pippen (R) and Detlef Schrempt (L) following the Trail Blazers victory against the Utah Jazz during Game Three of the NBA Western Conference semi-finals in Salt Lake City, UT, 11 May, 2000. Portland defeated Utah 103-84 to take a 3-0 lead. (ELECTRONIC IMAGE) AFP PHOTO MIKE NELSON (Photo credit should read MIKE NELSON/AFP via Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, UNITED STATES: Rasheed Wallace (C) of the Portland Trail Blazers is congratulated by teammates Scottie Pippen (R) and Detlef Schrempt (L) following the Trail Blazers victory against the Utah Jazz during Game Three of the NBA Western Conference semi-finals in Salt Lake City, UT, 11 May, 2000. Portland defeated Utah 103-84 to take a 3-0 lead. (ELECTRONIC IMAGE) AFP PHOTO MIKE NELSON (Photo credit should read MIKE NELSON/AFP via Getty Images) /
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Rasheed Wallace
Rasheed Wallace, Portland Trail Blazers (Photo credit should read Scott Nelson/AFP via Getty Images) /

Never Back Down Defense

Although Wallace never earned Defensive Honors throughout his career, his ability to match up with the league’s best power forwards proved crucial to Portland’s success in the late nineties and early 2000s. Between players such as Kevin Garnett, Karl Malone, Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan and Chris Webber, Wallace was consistently guarding one of the oppositions’ top players.

As intense as any player in league history, a matchup with him often resulted in 48 minutes of psychological warfare. Jawing, clapping, shouting, Wallace embraced the role of provocateur. Because of his antics, opponents may think he would be itching to start a fight. In reality, he was not one for petty pushing and shoving. Of course, his younger days included a college shoving match and even a punch thrown at Luc Longley, but never became known as a regular fire starter with other players. Even at the infamous “Malice at the Palace,” Rasheed was not among the fined players and actually attempted to break up the brawl.

Unfortunately, composure and communication with the league’s officials proved to invoke far more disastrous reactions. So often, Wallace would receive technical fouls and ejections at crucial moments for the Blazers. To make matters worse, his frequent pleas against blatantly obvious fouls took its toll on the locker room, where Wallace’s disagreements with staff and other players have been well documented.

While you could start with the “what ifs” when it comes to Wallace’s poorly timed ejections and struggles with team chemistry, the Blazers experienced one of their greatest eras with Wallace on the floor. Rarely ever seen receiving double team support, Wallace’s defense undeniably won games, providing Portland with one of the best two-way players the franchise has ever seen.