What Is The Deal With Rasheed Wallace?
By Jan Larson (12/15/03)
Rasheed Wallace, the Portland Trail Blazers' volatile power forward expressed his displeasure with the administration of the National Basketball Association in a recent epithet-laced interview [1] with Geoffrey C. Arnold of The Oregonian.
Wallace, 29 years of age in his ninth season in the NBA, is the fourth highest paid player in the league. He is also the main target of the Portland fans' ire on a team that hasn't won an NBA championship since 1977. Some fans, tired of his inconsistent play and propensity for garnering technical fouls (he holds the NBA single-season record of 41) have vowed to give up their season tickets if Wallace is not traded.
Wallace, known as much for his garish tattoos and fiery temper as for his basketball prowess, charges that the NBA exploits young black players for the enrichment of the predominantly (all except one) white ownership, "... they just want to draft who are dumb and dumber - straight out of high school. ... They look at black athletes like we're dumb ass . It's as if we're just going to shut up, sign for the money and do what they tell us."
Wallace has never been a choirboy. He's been arrested for possession of marijuana, has been ticketed for driving with a suspended license and has been fined thousands of dollars by both the Blazers and the league for various violations during his career.
Blazers' coach Maurice Cheeks has encouraged Wallace to take a leadership role on the team, but apparently Wallace doesn't share Cheeks' idea of leadership and seems to resent the idea of being a role model.
On one hand, Wallace claims that he doesn't play for the money, but rather because he wants to win games and win a league championship. But on the other hand, he says he will play for "whoever cuts the checks."
The attitude that Rasheed Wallace exhibits would not be unusual for a 21 or 22 year old, in his second or third year in the league, but Wallace should be well past the youthful irrational stage by now. He is married with children and one would think he might have grown up by now.
Approximately 80\% of the players in the NBA are black. The average salary for an NBA player is $4.9 million per season. These players are being paid for playing basketball.
Yes, the exploitation is quite evident.
The problem with professional basketball isn't with the players (or owners) who are earning millions. The problem is with those that forego their education and bet their futures on becoming professional ball players only to come up short with few, if any, alternatives.
Many young men with such prospects are struggling to finish school or are working long hours to support a family. Others are putting their lives on the line in Iraq or elsewhere around the world. Some fall by the wayside and end up living a life of crime, end up in prison or dead.
Fortunately for Wallace, he doesn't fall into any of these categories, at least not yet.
As is the case with many that have much, Wallace doesn't recognize or appreciate his unbelievably good fortune, a fortune that all but a very few will ever realize. Admittedly fame is often not it is all cracked up to be, but to complain that un- or under-educated young men, many of whom with otherwise few options in life are being exploited when making millions to play a game is too ludicrous for words.
Wallace is simply arrogant, self-centered and pompous and will one day find that his playing days are over and the man who "cuts the checks" is no longer cutting them in his name. He will then have plenty of time to reflect on how much better he could have been, not only on the court for his team, but off the court for his family and community. Maybe he'll also reflect on just how "exploited" he really was. Maybe, but considering that it is apparent that Wallace isn't the most inflated ball in the rack, I somehow doubt it.
[1] http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/sports/107114798781690.xml
(Printer friendly version) Email: Jan Larson
