He's a child. Been in the league since 1995, and still only caring about the calls that don't go his way. Screw the team, that stuff will work itself out -- let me make one last point about a call on the other end. Also, let me nail a backup guard in the face with my warmup jersey with no ramifications. The Pistons have only themselves to blame for a guy that picked up the most fouls (eight) allowed last night.
WTF are you talking about? You mean the guy that put the Pistons over the top after a trade to bring Detroit their first championship since the Isiah Thomas era? Whatever you think of Sheed, the experiment WORKED and they got a championship out of it. Since we're on a Rockets forum, let me once again bring up the "perennial first-round losers" back into the discussion: would you rather have Wallace on your team and have a chance to compete for a championship every single season (which Detroit has had ever since the Sheed trade for three to four years running now) or would you rather have a bunch of boy scouts out there that won't EVER get your team anywhere worthwhile? You guys invest FAAAAAAAAAAAR too much into this whole 'on-court character' crap. As long as the guy isn't a thug or a common criminal off the court, who gives a sh**? But of course, we here in Houston are good southern boys and we refer to our teams as "The Good Guys" so we can't tolerate guys who wear their emotions on their sleeves. And the 'pussification' of men's sports continues...
I think Rasheed is an example of the pussification of sport. If Ralph Sampson hits Mitchell Wiggins with a ****ing warmup after a game, in the head, do you think the Rockets (or Wiggins) let it slide? Or are punches thrown? The entire Piston team sat around like p*****s letting this guy take their season down -- his team is down ten with a half minute to go, he knows he has five fouls, and he says "**** it, I have a singular point to make about ME; the rest of MY team can figure it out on their own." I'm in no way saying that the Pistons shouldn't have traded for him back in 2004, don't extract fanciful crap from my short post. They gave up next to nothing. I do think it pathetic that the Pistons, the p*****s, sat idly by while he continued to think Rasheed-first and team-second. He did it last year while breaking Saunders' plays against the Heat, a team Detroit should have destroyed; he did it in 2005 needlessly leaving Robert Horry for a Finals-deciding shot to go against Brown's wishes and double-team, and he did his best to ruin Detroit's chances this season. The Pistons should have DESTROYED the Cavs. Remember, in 2004, the Pistons were (at best) the fourth-best team in the NBA. The Spurs were tops, Timberwolves second, Lakers third. The Spurs lost their heart after Fisher hit that shot, the Timberwolves fell when Cassell was injured and KG/Darrick Martin/Fred Hoiberg were pressed into PG service, and the Lakers lost their title when Malone re-tore his knee. Bottom line -- with five fouls and his team's season on the brink, Rasheed chose to INTENTIONALLY foul LeBron James (read his lips after the foul -- "that's a ****ing foul"), foul himself out of the contest with said INTENTIONAL foul, and then pick up two Ts that would leave him on the bench should his team make a comeback and force a Game 7 (as they did last year). He chose this path. He chose to focus on individual slights over team contributions. How anyone can justify that mainly because Chauncey Billups was able to dribble circles around Gary Payton three years ago, I'm not sure.
There's a line that needs to be drawn. Rasheed has crossed that line over and over. It's one thing to be passionate, it's another to just be a dip**** and lose control and act like a moron. There's a reason why he consistently leads the league in technical fouls. There's passionate and then there's just stupid. Rasheed is a passionate idiot who can't keep his emotions in check and when he lets them go, he doesn't do things to fire up his team, he does things that destroy them. The trade for him was smart, but now he's tearing that team apart. The same goes with a guy like Ron Artest. The Kings were going nowhere and made the playoffs and gave the Spurs a good fight after they traded for him, but now Artest is being Artest and he's more of a negative now. Short term benefits can have huge implications in the future. The Pistons made the right move but now they're facing the blowback that came with trading for Wallace. Everyone thought the Pistons figured out how to tame him, but he's still the same guy and it's showing.
OK... What are you talking about? Are you talking about when he took off his jersey and threw it at the wall only to have it 'swing' back and hit the guy in the face? Do you HONESTLY think it was Rasheed's intent to hit the guy in the face with his jersey? I think you're reaching there a bit... Sheed lost his temper and made the wrong move; I am not in any way, shape or form condoning what he did and I DO think it was a selfish moment for him. However, I have two points to make here. One, do you think the Pistons would be anywhere near the Conf Finals without Rasheed Wallace on their roster? Two, do you really think the Pistons were going to win that game with Cleveland having all the momentum and playing on their homecourt? Again, it doesn't excuse what Sheed did, but I think you're being a bit dramatic when you say that he basically cost the Pistons the entire season. OK, I misread your post then. It happens... Outside of last night's incident, how did he 'destroy' the Pistons exactly? Oh, here's your list... Bad execution may be? How exactly are you pinning this on him being a 'selfish' player? The Pistons should've "DESTROYED" the Miami Heat with Shaquille O'Neal and Dwayne freakin' Wade? You're losing it... See my reply above to your first example. Same thing: bad execution may be? How it this an instance of his selfishness and his destructive behavior? I think the Pistons should ideally beat the Cavs, but it's absolutely silly that would pin this on Sheed. The entire Pistons team was OVERRATED, and most of those guys failed to step up -- mostly defensively, which used to be Detroit's forte -- when it counted. That was stupid of him, and he deserves whatever backlash he gets from the media for it. But again, the Pistons already looked 'broken' and were playing like it, I think the entire team had given up by then. LOL! Billups did not win that entire series by himself. Almost sweeping the Lakers didn't come down to one player in Mr. Billups. I like Chauncy, I really do, but I think he might just be the most overrated 'non-superstar' in the league today. You're trying hard to place all the blame on Rasheed and 'deflect' credit when it's due. I see your angle now, so I will just agree to disagree and move on... Overall, I think you just dislike the guy, which is fine...
Wallace is an enigma. he's one of the most fundamentally sound big men in the league. of course he's fundamentally sound, he played for dean smith. on the other hand he's a ticking time bomb on the court. on the other hand, he seems pretty tame off the court. he's probably just as important as anyone on the detroit team that won or the portland team that should have beat the lakers in 2000. on the other hand, he can be as big of a cancer as anyone on your team.
its a bald spot, he has Alopecia areata, like charlie villanueva(who has a more severe effect thus he has no hair on his body), which gives him no hair in a random area
Good post. What bothers me about Sheed is he has Hall of Fame talent but doesn't have the heart to go with it. The guy is more talented than Tim Duncan but he doesn't want the responsibility and expectations on him that come with that level of superstardom. So he disappears for quarters and games at a time and shows up when he's good and ready. His act last night is indefensible. We will never know if he cost them the game. We do know he cost them a CHANCE to win the game because he is more important to them than anyone except Chauncey when it comes to making those kinds of comebacks. Personally, I dislike him a lot so it gave me great pleasure to see him meltdown and leave that memory going into the offseason. A classic moment.
Detroit wouldnt have sniffed the ECF without Sheed...to think that he is the reason the Pistons didnt make it to the finals is a joke. His actions last night were definitely stupid, but Detroit was headed towards a loss...and again, without Wallace, they would have never been in the position to make it to the finals to begin with.
I think the Pistons were out and out p*****s not to confront him about that. This was a TEAM, and he decided that his frustration levels were more important than a team. Nobody, in a million years, could convince me that Rasheed swung around that jersey without thinking it an almost certaintude that somebody would be hit with the damn thing. There were 15 roster members, six assistant coaches, however many trainer-types, and whatever else hanger-on. As someone who has been in that sea of bodies making its way from the floor to the locker room -- as Sheed has been a part of since 1995 -- there's no way any person (no matter the rage) could not be aware of the consequence. But Sheed doesn't care. He wants to show the cameras how angry he is. I don't recall ever arguing that. I do think the Pistons players and brass p*****s for not confronting him for acting this way. I think that irrelevant. The Pistons are full of three-point shooters, rebounders, and damn-good defenders. They're also facing a Cavs team that has struggled to eke out 18-point quarters against Detroit and 28 other teams. So I do think there's a chance, but that's not my point. My point is that I find it absolutely abhorrent, with even a sliver of a chance, that Rasheed think only of himself in that situation. Quit making excuses for selfishness based on context. And, while we're dealing in hypotheticals -- let's say Tyrus Thomas decides to take a swing at Lindsey Hunter in the waning moments of Chicago's loss to Detroit in the CHI/DET Game 6. Sure, Chicago had no chance, and he'd only be suspended for a season opener against Boston next October -- but does that make him any less of a moron? I haven't come anywhere close to suggesting that. Detroit's insistence on breaking plays (the defense was sound) and not running the same offense that won them so many regular season games lost them the series, as it did in 2006. I agree with both parts, but I don't think myself way off for not sloughing it off when you continue to misread and extract things that aren't there. Hamilton (first) and Wallace (second) are the most to blame for bad execution on Detroit's part. As much as the talking heads would like you to believe otherwise, offense was the reason they lost this series, and the one against Miami. I submit that the end (or, most) of Game 5 was particularly egregious, but breaking plays and improvising even after winning oodles of games in the regular season cost this team. And don't try to point out the difference between supposed "regular season vs. postseason" defense -- these guys were breaking plays and playing down to the Magic in the first round; and that was one of the worst playoff teams in years. But, again, only a fool would singularly pin this series loss on Rasheed -- though you'd at least submit that (even if he felt otherwise) his voice in the huddle exhorting his teammates to listen to Coach Saunders and execute the plays in crunch time would have made a difference. But he wasn't doing that. Go look at the game tape. Especially look at Game 4 -- Rasheed left the huddle as soon as the Detroit staff returned from their mini-huddle to talk to players. Actually, you don't have to look at the tape if you don't want to. The pictures of Rasheed leaving the huddle to stand at mid-court (and not necessarily to b**** at the refs) are all over the internet. Real GM is a good start. Look at the game tapes from last year. I have. It's my job. Over and over you can see Detroit continually breaking plays, improvising, or calling off plays to pull up a predictable screen/roll offense. Shaq had his moments in that series, especially in Game 6; but offense was again the problem. Had they executed the same way offensively (against a middling defensive team in Miami) as they had all season long, they would have pulled out the series. Watch the tapes. Don't do the on-paper, "Miami has Shaq and D-Wade ... they're awesome!" revisionist history. When Rasheed is supposed to dive down to the elbow and set a screen for a guard's man, then loaf in that position to either receive a pass (to take on the KG role that Saunders utilized for years in that offense) or wait to set another screen for either the off guard or another shooter (if McDyess is in, instead of Ben Wallace or C-Webb), and then float to the corner -- and he decides to screw the play and just set a simple screen for the man with the ball to get the ball for a long three-pointer ... that's selfish. That's destructive behavior. That's taking a play with five options and turning it into a two-option play. Who is doing that? I haven't watched much cable TV in the aftermath, so I think this argument is best spent on someone who is ... y'know ... ACTUALLY MAKING THAT ARGUMENT. I said he was a child for reacting like he did at the end of a few games, and that Detroit made its own bed by not getting in his ear before Game 6 to tone it down. I think the team is quite good, and they themselves think they "stepped up." They "stepped up" to run a Larry Brown-style offense instead of Flip's, because it's easier. And that offense, with these players, is enough to win games when Gary Payton is guarding the point man, and Slava Medevenko is guarding the big. We saw how it worked with Cleveland and Miami. So shouldn't Sheed, the purported leader of the team, the guy that "put Detroit over the top," step in and exhort his teammates to start running plays and listening to the coach? Or is it better to lose a season and make a point ... and get the coach fired? If he's so valuable, couldn't he have made a difference? Couldn't he at least have done the "us against the world" bit, and gotten his teammates on the same page? That last part may be true, but Billups' ability to penetrate the defense with Payton continually thinking he could go over screens (and getting beat) and Slava hopelessly out of place gave Detroit the series. His stats may not have been great (21 and 5 a game, if memory serves), but he was the biggest part of that win. Again, watch the game tape -- or read Phil Jackson's book on the series. Again, I haven't said anything close to that. I think he acted childish and only thought of himself. If you want to go from there, fine ... but you'd be misrepresenting me. I think the thing that cost Detroit the last two ECFs was their refusal to run plays, and go with the screen/roll attack that typified 90s basketball and won them a lucky title in 2004. Rasheed had a lot to do with that, but not as much as two other players. That's just as simplistic as typifications get, and hardly worth commenting on. If I can't call someone childish for racking up eight fouls in a season-ending game, or throwing his jersey after a game (with his entire team walking in back of him), then what hope do I have to get out of this without having the junior high-level, "hata!" tag affixed?
By the way, to anyone still arguing that Detroit's defense lost them another one ... Detroit's regular season defense: 101.1 points allowed per hundred possessions. Postseason? 98.6 per hundred. A pretty big jump. The defense has always been there. As stupid as the end of Game 5 was, they still allowed just 109 points in 58 minutes. The bad offense lost them the ECFs, as it did last season.
You know what bothers me? When he takes those awful off-balance jumpers/fadeaways. He should be smart enough to know that he never really makes them. And he never posts up unless the coach wants to specifically feed him the ball. And about the offense, yea, the Pistons offense is terrible considering the amount of talent that they have. During crunch time we should never see Rip getting the ball for an iso play. You have to point the finger at the coach here.
Kelly, I understand where you're coming from, but I still think you're overreaching a bit with some of the 'broken plays' stuff to try and pin the blame on Rasheed. I understand he was part of the problem on some of those plays because he is one of their main guys and he should bear some responsibility, but not all of it or even most of it. As for being their leader, I don't think anyone can ever mistaken Rasheed for a 'leader', he's never been one and everyone knows that Billups is the leader on that team, not Sheed. Sheed is just their 'microphone', as he so eloquently put it a few weeks back. He's the guy that 'acts out' the team's frustrations and isn't afraid to take a beating for it (by both the media and the league). That's just how he is. Otherwise, I disagree with you strongly about the Miami thing, and it is NOT just because of Shaq-Wade, but the fact that Miami had a pretty damn solid supporting cast around those guys that came up huge against the Mavericks in the next round, not to mention that this same Heat team should've beaten Detroit the year prior, but we all know how hobbled D-Wade was that entire postseason, and it still took Detroit everything they had to eek out a victory. Of course, Detroit was also a better team with Big Ben patrolling the paint. But you can't convince me that Detroit should have 'destroyed' Miami when that same Miami team convincingly kicked the Mavericks' arses all over national tv and showed us what they were made of (Zo stepping up, Posey playing big in spurts, Payton hitting clutch shots, Walker having a 'throwback' moment or two). You will never convince me that Detroit was a better team than Dallas or that they should've destroyed that Miami team, not in a million years. I am willing to bet anything that you're wrong there. As for Detroit's offense or lack thereof, if they've been having a lot of problems executing their offense as of late, then isn't having that 'trend' -- which according to you has been a problem in the past -- proof that they were 'overrated' by some? Furthermore, this is NOT the first time Detroit has struggled against the Cavs, not to mention that it didn't help matters any that Lebron had a career night ('one for the ages' to be more precise) just to eek out a victory over Detroit in Game 5. I think evidence shows that Detroit was not as good as advertised, regardless of how dominant you apparently think they are/were in the past (destroy Miami? Come on!).
Irrelevant. Just because you're making a lot of money doesn't mean you're not exploited. In actuality, if you're not making a lot of money, you're probably not worth exploiting.
This will be a finalist for the Most Moronic Comment of the last 100 years. My goodness, if you really believe that you are totally stupid. Suggestion: Take a book and read about 5 minutes of American history (or any nation's history for that matter) and you will understand.
Ho ho, no I'm no Cavs fan but that would not have happened regardless of whether Sheed played cool or not. The Pistons can't explode like Lebron can, that fact alone gave Cavs a fighting chance and took full advantage of it. All these SHOULD talk reminds me of all the hype about the Heat pre-playoffs.
