Power Forward: Rasheed Wallace
Rasheed Wallace has been an elusive figure in the NBA 2K universe following his retirement in 2013. While 2K has added more classic teams and players, “Sheed” has been absent from the festivities.
Visual Concepts added the 2000 Blazers and the 2004 Detroit Pistons in NBA 2K16, seemingly with the intentions of featuring Wallace. He played a major role on both teams as their starting power forward. Wallace won a ring in 2004 with the Pistons.
However, when NBA 2K16 shipped, there was no Wallace. He also did not appear in NBA 2K17.
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It’s not unusual for historic players to opt out of being in video games. Because they are not active players, Visual Concepts has to individually ask retiree to be in the game. If they don’t like the compensation amount or simply don’t want to be virtually emulated, they can say “No.”
Wallace joins other famous players such as Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller in being noticeably absent from NBA 2K. Chris Webber was once on this list until he joined NBA 2K17 as a commentator and a MyTEAM character. Barkley has shown up as a member of the 1992 Dream Team on multiple occasions, but is missing from all other modes.
But with 2K doubling down on their historic content, there is hope that NBA 2K and Wallace have finally come to an agreement. If so, he would certainly be the starting power forward.
Wallace is remembered fondly for his fiery personality and the phrase “Ball Don’t Lie.” He spent most of his best seasons as a Blazer with two of his four All-Star appearances happening during his time in Portland. He averaged 16.8 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.3 blocks over seven-and-a-half seasons in Rip City. Wallace contributed 61.3 total win shares to 362 regular season victories.
There has yet to be any confirmation that Wallace will finally appear in 2K18. However, if he does, 2K will certainly want to put him front-and-center and make him the All-Time Team’s starting 4.