Rasheed Wallace picked up his 5th technical foul as the Celtics defeated the Raptors. Wallace, who has never been able to control his temper, apparently takes no responsibility for getting techs anymore. Instead it was because Hedo Turkoglu flopped while defending ‘Sheed. That most certainly must have been the reason that Rasheed Wallace couldn’t control his temper at the referees for buying into a presumed flop. For some reason, Wallace then used it as a way to attack LeBron James.
“Let the Golden Child [LeBron James] do that, or one of the NBA Without Border kids do that, it’s all fine and dandy,” he said.
“This game is watered down, watered down with all that flopping. They’re setting rules on us to the point where you’re taunting if you dunk on somebody. Paul dunked it and then he didn’t say nothing, but it’s a tech.”
First a couple points about this. I don’t like the flopping either. I think it is one thing if a player is in position to take a charge and maybe sells it a bit. That doesn’t bother me. When two guys are working in the post and one guy is backing in, I hate to see that flop by the defender. Varejao does it, and it bothers me. Hold your position in the post and try to defend. If the offensive player is being too physical the refs should make a call. You shouldn’t have to dive backward like a truck just hit you in order to get the call.
It doesn’t really bother me because I thought it was funny, but I think it is worth noting that Rasheed Wallace was being pretty prejudice against “NBA without border” players, as he said it. I think it is pretty obvious that he is talking about the European players. Just play it out in the reverse. What if one of the European players (assuming that is whom Wallace was referring) decided to complain about the aggressive style of the urban American players with their trash talking? Wouldn’t that player get called out as a racist?
Rasheed Wallace can’t blame others for his inability to control his self-destructive temper. He can blame people for flopping all he wants, but he shouldn’t talk about LeBron flopping. LeBron is good at letting the refs know when he gets hit on his way to the basket and possibly even plays it up a little bit. That is because he gets hit a whole lot when it doesn’t get called. As a fan, it is sometimes frustrating to watch LBJ complain all the time, but the replays show him getting hit the majority of the time. LeBron is certainly not a flopper though.
