Rasheed Wallace: The Messenger and the Message

"It was a great game. Both teams played hard."
"It was a great game. Both teams played hard."
"It was a great game. Both teams played hard."

This is how Rasheed Wallace answered every press question a year ago. This should have been a clue that the man had a hell of a lot more on his mind than hoops. Now we have gotten the message.

He has earned more technical fouls than Dennis Rodman with Tourretts Syndrome. He has smoked more weed than the parking lot at a Cypress Hill Concert. But to truly earn the ire of Il Padrino David Stern, you must speak your mind. In a wild, free-ranging interview with the Portland Oregonian, the man called the leader of the 'Jail-blazers' blew the doors off the New York league offices.
Wallace expressed is view that the league is basically a sweat-shop with fluffier towels.

"I ain't no dumb-ass n----- out here. I'm not like a whole bunch of these young boys out here who get caught up and captivated into the league," Wallace, 29, said. "No. I see behind the lines. I see behind the false screens. I know what this business is all about."

Wallace then took a shot at NBA commissioner David Stern and his $8 million a year contract. "I know the commissioner of this league makes more than three-quarters of the players in this league."
He then articulated in no uncertain terms that the league banks on drafting the young and the ignorant to keep the league afloat. " In my opinion, they just want to draft n----- who are dumb and dumber -- straight out of high school. That's why they're drafting all these high school cats, because they come into the league and they don't know no better. They don't know no better, and they don't know the real business, and they don't see behind the charade. ...They look at black athletes like we're dumb-ass n------. It's as if we're just going to shut up, sign for the money and do what they tell us."

Stern shot back "Mr. Wallace's hateful diatribe was ignorant and offensive to all NBA players.. I refuse to enhance his heightened sense of deprivation by publicly debating with him. Since Mr. Wallace did not direct his comments at any particular individuals other than me, I think it best to leave it to the Trail Blazers organization - and its players and fans - to determine the attitudes by which they wish to be defined."

The press has been quick to jump on this as the "latest in a series of embarrassing episodes for the 'Jail Blazers' as they are now affectionately known. Wallace's words have been lumped in with the team's litany of marijuana arrests and 'paraphernalia' charges. Yes, there is no doubt that the Blazers make Cheech and Chong look like Donnie and Marie, but Stern's smear only proves Wallace's point: the folks who sign the NBA checks don't really care what these young men have to say unless it comes out in saccharine clichés Stern didn't speak to why a player making millions of dollars would feel like he is little more important than the backboard supports. He didn't defend what the league is doing to educate 18 year old rookies about handling their money. He didn't comment on why so many players, feeling like targets in public, living under a microscope, would not prefer but feel absolutely compelled to stay home and smoke.

Instead he called Sheed out as being a lunatic and basically instructed the Portland franchise, under fire for all recent episodes to do something about it. Clearly they did, because Wallace was in front of the cameras apologizing to everyone in the free world. It was almost like he was reading from a telephone book until you realized that the one name he wouldn't single out for apology was David Stern.

Bashing Wallace is a favorite pastime for more than a few writers. I don't know the man. Maybe he is a big misunderstood teddy bear, maybe he is meaner than Dick Cheney at a solar energy convention. But we should ask why Stern and his ilk are going after the messenger instead of taking on the message.

Dave Zirin is the author of the book: "Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports" (Haymarket). You can receive his column Edge of Sports, every week by going to dave@edgeofsports.com.

Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com