Rasheed Wallace got real about the devastating Game 7 Conference Finals loss against Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in 2000.
Rasheed Wallace was the highest scorer in a close Game 7 in the Western Conference Finals in 2000 between the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers. The Blazers lost the game by five points, and Wallace has since candidly opened up on how the entire situation made him feel.
“I got robbed. At that time, it felt like I got robbed,” Rasheed Wallace said. “Like they took something from me…
“We had it. Looking on their bench and you see guys that are looking like this, looking in the stands, talking to chicks. Even Phil Jackson, he was out of it.
“They rallied the troops, we missed 13 straight shots. Out of that 13, I think I missed six or seven myself. At least. I’m talking about bunnies, little jump hooks, and jump shots that I knew was good and I was hitting all f**king series.
The Portland Trail Blazers team is often forgotten, but they had big names like Rasheed Wallace, Steve Smith, Socttie Pippen, Arvydas Sabonis, and Jermaine O’Neal on the team.
They came back from a 3-1 deficit in the series, with Wallace averaging 23.3 points per game, which was just less than Shaquille O’Neal and fairly more than Kobe Bryant. He was the highest scorer in Game 7 too, managing 30 points, but it was not enough.
Rasheed Wallace Got His Revenge On The Los Angeles Lakers After Four Years
At the trade deadline of the 2003-04 season, Rasheed Wallace was traded to the Detroit Pistons. He played 22 games in the regular season, before playing all 23 in the playoffs on the Pistons’ way to a championship.
A 29-year-old Wallace averaged 13.0 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks per game during that playoff run and dropped 26 points and 13 rebounds in a crucial Game 4 victory against Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers.
Rasheed Wallace’s life story and the trajectory of his NBA career are fascinating. Ultimately, he reached the pinnacle of the sport and made $150 million along the way. There’s no reason for him to hold on to any potential regrets from that time.
