Rasheed's rep on the line

By Terry Brown
NBA Insider
Friday, May 21
Updated: May 21
1:55 PM ET

Twelve points on 6-for-16 shooting do not a free-agent power forward make.

Not when that power forward is Rasheed Wallace and you're in the final year of a contract that makes you the third-highest paid player in the league at $17 million behind only Kevin Garnett and Shaquille O'Neal.

Your feet hurt, which usually happens when you're suffering from plantar fasciitis, every article with your name in it insists on mentioning all of those technical fouls and ejections (see, it happened again), and your new team of 34 games counting playoffs is about to start the Eastern Conference Finals against its former coach.

But Wallace isn't the only one in some sort of playoff predicament fraught with building pressure and unfulfilled expectations with just as much to lose as he stands to gain should he claim his first NBA ring.

He is, however, where we begin with our list of the four people with the most to prove as the NBA season comes down to the final four teams.

Rasheed Wallace, Detroit Pistons
Sheed spent seven of his first eight NBA seasons as the poster boy for everything that was wrong with the NBA. He played for the Portland Trail Blazers, meaning he was overpaid, underdisciplined and never advanced out of the Western Conference Finals. But it gets worse.


Rasheed Wallace
Forward-Center
Detroit Pistons
Profile


2003-2004 SEASON STATISTICS
GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%
68 16.0 6.8 2.3 .436 .736

In 2002, Wallace averaged 19.3 points per game and was the centerpiece of the franchise. In 2003, his scoring dipped to 18.1 with no statistical signs of his game compensating for the fewer points in any other area. The next year he was traded. Not once, but twice. And he finished the season averaging 16 points per game for the Blazers, Hawks and Pistons.

In the first round of the playoffs, his scoring went down again, this time to 14.8 points per game. In the recently finished semifinal round, he scored 11.8 points per game.

As it stands right now, he is only the third-highest scorer on the team with 1.8 assists per game compared to two turnovers per contest and is shooting what would be a career-low 43.2 percent from the field after shooting 50 percent for his career. During the regular season, Detroit averaged 90.1 points per game on 43.5 percent shooting with long periods of offensive futility. So far in the playoffs, the Pistons are averaging 91.5 points per game on 42.3 percent shooting.

This is not the impact they expected when they traded for Wallace on Feb. 19. The Pistons didn't give up much in the deal, but instantly put into doubt the future of another free-agent-to-be, Mehmet Okur. Before the season started, the Pistons made it clear that they wanted to re-sign the 6-foot-11 center from Turkey. Now, they may have to decide between Okur and Wallace if the younger, taller player even wants to hang around anymore.

Before Wallace arrived, Okur averaged 10.1 points per game in 23.6 minutes per game through January. After Wallace arrived, he averaged 8.4 points in 19.3 minutes.

Wallace may not only be the key to the Pistons' present but also their future. They are four games away from returning to the NBA Finals for the first time in 13 seasons with, perhaps, the best player in the entire Eastern Conference in their way. And it just so happens that Jermaine O'Neal plays the same position as Wallace and used to play on some of those same Portland teams.

His reputation as a player is on the line as is next year's paycheck.

And did I mention that he holds the record for most technical fouls in a season, once attacked a referee in a parking lot after a game and accused the entire state of Oregon with racism.

Gary Payton, Los Angeles Lakers
Last year, Gary Payton made $12.6 million mostly from the Seattle SuperSonics, whom he played with for most of 13 seasons. This year, he's making $4.9 million for the Lakers and, the way things are going, may have to take an equivalent paycut to leave.


Gary Payton is a future Hall of Famer, but his immediate future is in doubt.
Like several other Lakers, he is in the option year of his contract. Unlike some other Lakers, he is in the middle of a statistical meltdown.

Last year, Payton averaged 20.4 points and 8.3 assists per game. This year, he averaged 14.6 points and 5.5 assists per game. He went from a career mark of 17.8 points per playoff game to 8.7 this postseason.

What makes it worse is that the two younger, feistier point guards he's faced so far have posted higher offensive numbers against Payton than they did against the league during the regular season. Steve Francis averaged 19.2 points per game on 43 percent shooting against the Lakers after scoring 16.6 points per game on 40 percent during the regular season. Tony Parker posted 16.7 points and six assists per game in the conference semifinals after tallying 14.7 points and 5.5 assists during the season.

Insert Hall of Fame credentials here.

But win or lose, when this is all said and done, Shaquille O'Neal is still a former MVP, Kobe Bryant is still a future MVP and Karl Malone, at worst, is the second-leading scorer in the history of the NBA.

What is GP?

Let me give you a hint. Last year, both he and Sam Cassell played for the Milwaukee Bucks. One of them averaged 19.7 points per game and the other averaged 19.6. Well, they'll be guarding each other tonight, one injured physically and the other with an injured psyche.

But win this matchup and Payton could very well become an NBA champion. Lose and he's still the greatest basketball player in the history of the greater Tacoma area.

Rick Carlisle, Indiana Pacers
Make no mistake about it. Rick Carlisle is out for revenge. And he's spotted his former employer an all-sar power forward to prove his point.

But this isn't about just Carlisle versus the Pistons. Or Carlisle versus Joe Dumars. Or Carlisle versus Larry Brown.

This is Carlisle versus a way of life that directly threatens the game as he knows it.

The Indiana Pacers finished the regular season 13 games better than last season with Carlisle and without Brad Miller. The Detroit Pistons finished four games better than last season with Brown, the No. 2 pick of the draft and Rasheed Wallace.

The Pistons say they prevented a mutiny. They say that the players wouldn't last another season under Carlisle. They say they had to let him go.

Don't think that Carlisle hasn't been keeping track of all this since the Pistons fired him last season after winning back-to-back Central Division titles and a Coach of the Year award. Well, make that back-to-back-to-back Central Division titles to go along with the best record in the entire NBA.

But none of that means anything anymore and Carlisle would trade the entire resume for, at least, four more wins over the franchise that chose not to side with him.

Byron Scott lost to Jason Kidd. Doc Rivers lost to Tracy McGrady. Phil Jackson is about to lose to Kobe Bryant. It's a losing battle, but not one Carlisle wants to be remembered losing to the likes of Rip Hamilton whether the shooting guard is playing for him or against him.

Latrell Sprewell, Minnesota Timberwolves
The New York Knicks were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. The Golden State Warriors never made it. P.J. Carlisimo, well, he and the Spurs didn't make it to the conference finals.

But guess which cornrowed swingman is still standing and averaging almost 20 points per game in the postseason?

They can suspend him for missing practice. They can take away his pay for attacking his coach. They can trade him for losing a step.

But what are they going to do if the Minnesota Timberwolves and the golden boys of Los Angeles meet up in a pivotal Game 5 and Sprewell goes off for another 34 points on 13-for-21 shooting with seven boards and six assists like he did against the Kings on May 14?

If the Timberwolves defeat the Lakers and go on to win the NBA title, does Latrell Sprewell get an invite to the White House?

Let that sink in a bit and try to picture what Sprewell is wearing with 10 guys in dark suits and darker sunglasses surrounding him with his 26-inch rims still spinning.

Like Wallace and like Payton, he can become a free agent after the playoffs end. He has participated in 12 seasons, made almost $100 million and may shake hands with George W. Bush.

Imagine the smile on his face.

Even Samuel L. Jackson would have a hard time capturing that moment for the movie.

Sprewell may finish with more than 16,000 points as an NBA player. He may have been named to All-NBA first team in 1994. He may have played in four all-star games and, at least, 60 playoff games at 19.6 points per clip.

But he will always be remembered for wrapping his hands around Carlisimo's neck and squeezing. Only now, he can be remembered for wrapping his hands around Carlisimo's neck and winning an NBA title.