50 Greatest NBA/ABA Players Not In the Hall Of Fame
By Phil Watson
Copyright 2003 NBAE (Photo by: Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
Rasheed Wallace never garnered any major individual honors during his 16-year NBA career, but he was the missing piece for the dominant Detroit Pistons clubs of the mid-2000s and helped them to a surprising NBA championship in 2004.
Wallace was the fourth-overall pick by the Washington Bullets in 1995 and was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers after his rookie season.
He blossomed as a star in Portland for very good teams that came up short in the postseason and was traded — very briefly — to the Atlanta Hawks in February 2004.
Ten days after that trade, after he logged his one game and 42 minutes with Atlanta, he was part of a blockbuster three-team trade that sent him to Detroit.
Playing a lesser role in Detroit’s egalitarian system, Wallace helped push the Pistons to the NBA title in 2004, a follow-up Finals appearance in 2005 and what five of Detroit’s six consecutive trips to the Eastern Conference Finals from 2003-08.
He signed with the Boston Celtics as a free agent in 2009 and made a brief comeback with the New York Knicks in 2012 after two years of retirement.
He averaged 14.4 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.0 steals and 1.3 blocks in 32.7 minutes per game in 1,109 NBA games, shooting 46.7 percent overall and 72.1 percent at the foul line.
He also appeared in 177 playoff games, including 103 with Detroit, and put up 13.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game.
Wallace is 39th in NBA history with 1,460 blocked shots and turned himself into a stretch threat, with 1,086 career 3-pointers.