"Get The Fuck Out of My Face" – Happy to See Chiefs Fan Rasheed Wallace is Still The Same Rasheed Wallace We Know and Love
I kinda hate to blog something like this taken straight from a random fan's tweet. I would never take something as non-verifiable as this and use it to slander an athlete's character (don't check me on that). But for Rasheed Wallace, this post-game interaction as told by @jagsdrew is far from slander. I'd imagine this is the exact type of quote Rasheed Wallace would want to have attributed to him. I consider myself a Rasheed Wallace fan. I didn't necessarily cheer for him back when he played, but in hindsight, I'm a fan of the concept of Rasheed Wallace. I respect who Rasheed Wallace was. Especially considering what the NBA has turned into today where all the players are best friends who get together for wine and tandem bicycle rides along the waterfront after games. If we could clone 30 prime Rasheed Wallaces and distribute them amongst all NBA teams, the NBA would be a better place.
So as a Rasheed Wallace appreciator, if I were leaving a football game and saw the 6-foot-11 Sheed sauntering along the sidewalk in his finest low brim flat bill and XXXXXL Deandre Hopkins jersey... if I decided I was going to walk up and let him know just how much I respect his career... that's the exact reaction I would hope for. That's a grade-A, 10/10, authentic Rasheed Wallace interaction. You don't want to go back home to your friends and say, "I saw Rasheed Wallace at the football game last night. He was a great guy. So nice. He was stopping to take pictures and sign autographs for everyone."
Especially if you're some guy in a Jaguars jersey running up to Rasheed Wallace after you just beat his beloved Chiefs. I'm sure Rasheed Wallace isn't an asshole to every single person he meets. But in that situation, if you're a true Rasheed Wallace fan, you want to tell your friends, "I saw Rasheed Wallace at the football game last night and he told me to get the fuck out of his face."
The only thing better would be if he laid hands on you. Like if he shoved you back into the street, or briefly wrapped his impossibly big hand around your throat, or pulled a basketball out of his giant pants and tomahawked you over the head with it.
Anything short of Rasheed Wallace telling you to fuck off would be a terrible Rasheed Wallace interaction. It would make me question everything I knew and respected about the type of man he was. It would be downright damaging to his legacy.
It's kinda nice to hear stories of players who were absolute menaces on the court, but in reality, they're actually the nicest guy ever. That's always a fun little dichotomy to have. But it's also kinda fun to hear about an athletes who back up their crazy off the court as well. Nobody has ever accused Rasheed Wallace of not walking the walk. People forget he tried to fight disgraced NBA ref Tim Donaghy years before he was ever busted for fixing games. Rasheed knew.
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Sports Illustrated – Wallace confronted Donaghy, who had given him a T, on the Rose Garden's loading docks. Eyewitnesses say Wallace cocked his fist and, when the ref recoiled, said, "You better flinch, you motherf------ punk…. I am going to kick your f------ ass." (Wallace denies that he threatened Donaghy with his fist, and the players' union plans to appeal his suspension, which, if it stands, will cost him $1.26 million in salary.)