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Rasheed Wallace is a real character. Anyone who's
watched him play for a while has their favorite Rasheed
moment. Mine is so surreal, I wonder if I dreamed it.
One year when he was still playing for Portland,
Rasheed was leading the league in technical fouls. Some
media person interviewed him and asked if this was
detrimental to the team. Rasheed said no, the regular

season isn't that important and that he would never get
thrown out of a playoff game.
Fast forward to that year's playoffs. One game,
Rasheed's already picked up a technical and, what a
surprise, he's pissed off at an official's call. Possibly
remembering his interview, Sheed keeps quiet, content to
merely flash the referee a "you've got to be kidding" glare.
I'm not sure if Kenny Mauer or Ron Garretson was the
official. He was a short, skinny white guy with slicked
back hair and a high, squeaky voice. Instead of continuing
the game like he's paid to do, he takes offense at Rasheed's
stare and goes ballistic. The diatribe goes something like
this: "You're staring at me. You're trying to intimidate
me. I warned you not to intimidate me and that's it, you're
gone." Talk about thin skinned! Thrown out of a playoff
game for staring? What's next, technicals for impure
thoughts? I have never seen a worse case of an official
taking a game away from the players and cannot believe this
guy is still allowed to officiate NBA games, much less the
playoffs. Oh well, what can you expect from league that's
mainly interested in selling t-shirts?
Would Michael Jordan have been thrown out of a playoff
game for staring? Some people just go through life with a
dark cloud over their head and Rasheeed's one of them. It
does make for good theater but I don't think I'd like to
live his life.

Learn more about this author, Neil Wagner.
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