the name on the front of the jersey you root for

than for Scal.

article!

Grand Slam post Jeff….

Sheed is just as good a player as KG is right now! Sheed played in the paint as long as Larry Brown was in Detroit. Give Detroit credit there defense back then was better than ours was two years ago. I read in one of the blogs where Sheed was having a conversation with his wife about should he come to Boston. She asked him if he was ready to make the sacrifice to do the right thing. That was her question to him. To me that is powerful. Sheed searched his soul after encouragement from the big three and decided not to retire. Money is not his motivation, stats either. Trying to win is his motivation.

I think this years defense will be one of the best in NBA history. Look you don’t think Baby or Sheldon Williams is going to patrol the paint when Perk goes out do you. That’s the sacrifice his wife asked him about. His enthusiasm for the game died not his ability to play the game.

I’ve never hated Sheed myself, I absolutely loved him when he was with the Trail Blazers, he was one of my favorite players in the league…. the one time i “hated” him was our championship run 2 seasons ago, because I feared his ability

Of course I’m going into this with my eyes wide open. I know that he’ll coast when the stakes aren’t high. I know that he’ll melt down over a bad call at the most inopportune time possible. I know on offense he’ll treat the painted area like it is radioactive. I know these things because I’ve seen them for years from the other side.

In fact, maybe the biggest reason why I think this could work is because we all know these things up front. There’s been an odd sort of vibe coming from Pistons fans during his departure. They saw the writing on the wall all last year and so did Sheed, which at least partially explains why he sleep-walked through the playoffs. I think Detroit fans weren’t exactly happy to see him go, but they were understandably relieved that they didn’t have to go through any of that stuff with him anymore.

I certainly don’t blame your optimism; in fact, I completely understand it. Piston fans have been telling ourselves the same thing at the start of each of the past three seasons. This year, it will be different … and here’s why …

However, don’t fall prey to blind optimism; I think there are still two big reasons to be skeptical of Sheed.

First, he’s old, and that was never as obvious as it was last season. His three point shot won’t be affected; he’s a set shooter. And given his height and wingspan, he can still score in the post (on occasion). And, he can still defend in the post. However, his off-the-ball and help defense were atrocious last season. If he does turn out to be the sixth man (which seems obvious to me), Sheed and Big Baby in tandem, well, that kinda scares me.

Big Baby is an awful rebounder for PF, and Sheed’s rebounding ability is declining. Reason for skepticism number one.

Number two is what you alluded to where I quoted you above. Sheed is mentally weak. He’s a fantastic teammate, don’t get me wrong, and he’s probably the most misunderstood player in the game. Further, when things are going right, there’s no one I’d rather have on my bench running his mouth and encouraging his teammates.

But, when things go wrong … well, lookout. I would have hated to see how he handled the Chicago series last season, for example. I can only imagine he’d have been chucked from at least one or two games. So, reason number two for pessimism.

But, as you mentioned on Twitter, Sheed is being asked to play a very specific role — and unlike a lot of aging NBA stars, his ego won’t get in the way of that. Sheed is a team player all the way — something that gets lost in all his ranting and raving — and that’s not something you would know unless he wore the jersey you cheered for.

He will stretch the floor on offense, and he will make open shots (He will benefit from Pierce and Rondo immensely in those respects). And if KG can light a fire under his rump, you might even see some help defense and Sheed-of-old rebounding.

All of that to say, there will be moments when you love Sheed, and I expect your fans will adopt the “Sheed” chant that became a staple of the Palace for these past few seasons. But there will be moments when you hate Sheed — those ‘meaningless’ regular season games in which he mails it in, those crucial moments when he implodes and gives points away because of his tech’s, and those moments when you feel lik you yourself could have given better help defense or more effort to secure a loose ball.

But, his time in the D was over, and we all knew it. Given that we don’t have a snowball’s chance of winning anything significant over the next couple seasons, I don’t have a problem wishing Sheed the best as he leaves. I won’t cheer for him, mind you, because he will be wearing Green and White (I’m a U of M fan as well as a Piston fan, so I have certain aversions to that color combo!), but part of me will be happy if he flourishes in a new role, in a new place, with a fresh start.

I hate to be negative, Jeff, but do you remember Johnny Most. There are two types of players in this league; Celtics and other. We love all Celtics, we hate all others. Sheed is now a Celtic and by definition he’s the greatest guy and greatest player in the world.

Before July he was the worst of the worst (except for Laimbeer and a few other dirities)

I never hated Lambeer, Ruland or Mahorn either. In fact, I always wanted the Celtics to get Mahorn.

Dainty players don’t win championships, as Jim Loscutoff would have been the first to tell you. In fact, the current Celtics could use an enforcer other than Kendrick Perkins, who has become too valuable to risk ejection by committing too many hard fouls.

I love Sheed. I always love-hated him. He was my biggest love-hate. I used to love-hate him even more than KG.

I understand that Sheed hasn’t played in the paint much recently, but, he has an incredible low post game. I’m not talking about his dunks and explosive plays from years passed. He has some truly brilliant text-book low post moves. Oh so sweet.

I’m just saying, don’t completely discount Sheeds inside game.

When Sheed is in his role, he’s a champion. He helped to beat a stacked Laker team in 2004 and he was awesome when he led UNC to an NCAA championship in ‘93. His inside moves are a big bonus. He’s more gangster than the other Celtics but he has the potential to play like a champ.

from some of these other guys is that sheed’s meltdowns made him a liability to his own team more than a nuisance to opposing teams (although he is that too).

Let me tell you, when the Celtics start winning, and Wallace shows us all how good he really is, all the distaste for his game will go away. It is sometimes hard to picture the “bad” guy in a Celtics uniform, but talent wipes away everything. I believe the Celtics will be a team to be feared this year. Let the writers and announcers keep underrating them, this just brings out the best in some of the best players in the game. Wallace will make us glad he signed here.

His braggadocio personality has amused more anything. The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know, IMO. At least with players like Sheed, what you see is what you get.

He will do some on court stupid stuff, no doubt. But the positives outweighed the potential negatives.

My take is that he is a follower more than a leader. But I am okay with that. That will work well here with this group.

I admit that while I watched Wallace play the Celtics, saw his talents and think that the things he brings in skills are a great fit for what the Celtics need up front, I’m not totally sure of the kind of bad guy he was on the Pistons and the fairness. I thought of him as creating havoc with tough defense, committing fouls he thought he didn’t deserve and drawing many T’s with his attitude toward the refs. Aside from his T’s and the complaining to ref attitude thing that took on its own legendary life, momentum and notoriety, and added to the reasons to root against them, I found the most recent successful version of the Pistons very different from the Laimbeer, Mahorn and Isaiah Pistons. I respected Billups, Hamilton, Prince, and Wallace (even Webster) for their teamwork, offense and defense, and for success with their style of "Eastern Conference basketball" play that helped fuel the resurgence in the current NBA era that values teamwork and defense more than in the 90’s. Dare I say to some degree they played a more Celtic-like style?

I didn’t see them tainted as thugs or bullies as in the style of the earlier version of the Pistons, so I rooted against them in a different way than against Laimbeer and Company. Does that sense of the “Wallace” vs. the "Laimbeer" Pistons ring mostly true or was I missing something?

always liked sheed as a player from college on and he has always shined. he is a bit of a baby with his temper problems and that always bothered me-come on sheed, get a grip. anger always needs an object and like tommy, sheed’s object is the ref. better the ref than your teammates or taking cheap shots at opponents. i do hope that sheed spends some time down low too because he has a sweet low game.

Sample of Rasheed’s other side:

Rasheed Wallace the father….
Not a typical NBA fatherhood story. Compare to Malone and Kemp….

‘Sheed had a child, Ishmiel, with his girlfriend Chiquita Bryant before he had any big contracts. When they broke up he tried to continue to visit and support his son.
It became clear that the mother was not doing a good job, I do not remember
if she was on drugs or alcoholic or what, but also would not let him see his boy despite court ordered visitation rights.
So ’Sheed sued for custody. Hard for any father to win no matter what the
finances, but he did just that after many months in court. He was by then in
a stable relationship with his current wife and their new baby son and her older
son from her first marriage.
When he came to Portland the custody court case was still on-going.
We only heard he was arrested for ’assault’ and assumed the usual.
No one got too excited at that time about players off court behavior in Portland but not much was said when the charges were dropped as unfounded. ’Sheed was just blocking a driveway at a daycare with his car. He was just trying to see his kid during the trial, he had not seen him for nearly a year.

’Sheed a few weeks later in May of 97 when a North Carolina judge awarded him full custody of Ishmiel thought it was over.
But the mother then bolted with the boy and disappeared, which was legally a felony noncustodial parent kidnapping at that point, and a warrant was issued for her arrest.
For the rest of the year he searched for his son, hired detectives, flew back east
at every chance to help in the search.
Despite the hell he was going though he did not let it affect his game that I remember.

Except the blurb about blocking the driveway, little of it was public knowledge.
That changed at Xmas time TNT did a story about it during halftime of a game. In the
interview he was clearly distressed not knowing where his son might be or
even if he was safe. Someone who saw the program recognized the mother from the
photos and called the police to tell them where Sheed’s kid was. Sort of TNT
most wanted…
The police arrested the mother on Xmas eve and Sheed’s mom went to bring ’Sheed’s son
home to Philadelphia. Sheed flew in from Portland on Xmas day 1997 to bring his
boy home to Portland. Ishmiel was now 28 months old and ’Sheed had not seen the child since August of 1996.

‘Sheed then made bail for the mother, refused to press charges against the
her and had his lawyer work to have the charges dropped. ’Sheed brought her to Portland, found her employment and bought her a house near his to be close and share in her son’s life.
The tattoo on his arm in Egyptian Motif is the drawing he created of himself and his wife Fatima with their 3 sons.

Got home to Boston late Monday after 23 hours of travelling and was renting a Hertz car for another trip next day. 1:30am Hertz counter. Hertz melting down. No cars ready. Black couple waiting when I got there. Guy sitting, head down. I finally got my car and walked out and my wife said “Hey stupid, that was Rasheed Wallace”. Went back in shook his hand, shared a few words.
Point being…he was getting same treatment rest of us were getting from Hertz and not pulling any celebrity rank. First impression a good one in my book.
(Sorry Hertz. Normally you do a good job)

When my wife comes to game with me she notices everything but the game being played. She notices who is mad on the bench, who is “sweating too much. Is he OK?”. She always looks for Eddie House’s kid, what Tommy’s wearing. She loves Ray, loves KG but is glad she’s not married to him, loves Perk’s facial expressions.
She likes Donny Marshall, hates Tanguay. She is sold on Rasheed since I told her he’s a good family man. That is far more important to her than his shooting range.

I guess, Sheed is far from those Bad Boys since he is not that of a dirty player. Yes, Sheed is a temperamental guy on the floor but not looking for a fight…I agree that the league and that most NBA writers hate us and you could easily sense that. Just like these off-season moves by the 3 Beasts of the East-Cavs, Magic & the C’s. Obviously, the Celtics improved the most sicen their starters are back and healthy plus got better with their new aquisitions. While the Cavs and the Magic somehow are a new team and their new additions doens’t addressed their lost and what their team needs. But these “experts” (a term we used in our group) doesn’t see it that way. No ring for the “king” as long as his team is immature and Shaq would only just add up on their foolish antics and mess thier ofense. The Diesel is not the perfect teacher or complimentary to surround LeBron’s game and Vince is no Hedo to help out Howard and Rashard.

I’ve always liked Rasheed. I never got the sense he felt self-important. He has always been an unselfish player.

Hey now we can get the same comments the Pats have been getting since tearing the NFL apart,yera after year,Brady is a bum, Moss a hot head but WE HAVE THE RINGS,enough said I will enjoy watching the C’s entering the Teams you hate because there GREAT!