Excerpted from Game Changer An Insider’s Story of the Sonics’ Resurgence, the Trail Blazers’ Turnaround, and the Deal that Saved the Seahawks, published on October 10, 2023 by Flash Point. Though I don’t believe that Dunleavy had “the toughest job …
Excerpted from Game Changer An Insider’s Story of the Sonics’ Resurgence, the Trail Blazers’ Turnaround, and the Deal that Saved the Seahawks, published on October 10, 2023 by Flash Point.
Though I don’t believe that Dunleavy had “the toughest job in the NBA,” I will concede that he had some hot heads on his team, and hot heads are hard to coach. Rasheed Wallace, for example, set a league record in 1999-2000 by getting 38 technical fouls. The next year, he broke his own single-season record by getting 41 technicals in 80 games. Rasheed had a notoriously quick temper, and once you get a reputation for technical fouls, refs are quicker to call them.
I’ll never forget the time Rasheed got a technical for looking at NBA official Ron Garretson the wrong way – literally. Another time, he tossed the ball toward a ref after the official made a questionable call. Sheed claimed he was just giving the ball to the ref. Another official on the floor saw it differently, came running from the other end of the court, called Sheed for a “tech,” then ejected him for mouthing off about it. After the game, Rasheed spotted the ref who threw him out of the game, Tim Donaghy, and got in one more dig. The ensuing altercation made a bad situation worse for Rasheed. The NBA suspended him for seven games and fined him about $1.3 million. (Years later, Tim Donaghy served 15 months in prison time after pleading guilty to federal charges in a gambling scandal, admitting to taking thousands of dollars from a professional gambler for inside tips on games and other misdeeds.)
Rasheed’s wealth of technical fouls led to a rule change that virtually assures his record will never be broken. Since 2006, NBA players automatically get suspended for one game without pay after receiving 16 technical fouls. After that point, players receive the same suspension for each additional technical foul. Rasheed eased up later on in his career, but by the time he retired, he ranked third in NBA history with 317 technicals, behind Charles Barkley (329) and Karl Malone (332). Though it’s not a statistic players brag about, the list of the league’s 10 most prolific technical foulers includes some of the best ballers of all time: Gary Payton ranks fourth (250), Dennis Rodman fifth (212), Russell Westbrook sixth (173), Kevin Garnett seventh (172), Kobe Bryant eighth (166), Shaquille O’Neal ninth (150), and Jermaine O’Neal 10th (146).
Technical fouls aren’t necessarily a bad thing. They can motivate individual players and ignite the whole team. The other team might make one free-throw, but that extra point often pales in comparison to the jolt of energy that fires up a team rallying around the teammate who got the technical. That said, there was no justification for Rasheed getting a “T” every other game.
There was a lot more to Rasheed than his hot temper. He was a smart guy and fiercely loyal to his teammates. Because he was one of our best players, the media always wanted to talk to him after games. But he didn’t want to talk to them. He didn’t like how they rarely asked him about basketball, and how they typecast him and most of his teammates as “Jail Blazers.” Over and over, the NBA fined him for refusing to talk to the media.
One time, I called him into my office and said, “Sheed, this is a lose-lose. You just got fined another $30,000. We just got fined $30,000, and the league is threatening to suspend you.” Then I offered him some advice. “Look, just because you’re being interviewed at a post-game press conference, you don’t have to answer every single question. You certainly don’t have to answer it the way they’re hoping you will. You can control the narrative. If they ask you a question you don’t like, you can say, ‘I don’t know about that, but I can tell you this …’ Or you can talk up how well one of your teammates played. You can just answer in a positive way.’”
He looked puzzled, and asked, “What do you mean?”
“Well,” I said, “they might say, ‘Hey, Rasheed, we heard one of your teammates was smoking dope last week’ right after we won a playoff game. And you can say, ‘Hey, I’d like to talk about the game. It was amazing. Both teams played hard. It was really well-fought.’”
So, he went into the press conference and answered every single question, 10 or 20 of them, the exact same way: “Hey, man. Both teams played hard.”
“Rasheed, what was that play designed in the last couple minutes?”
“Hey, man … both teams played hard.”
“Rasheed, what were you thinking when so- and- so blocked that shot?”
“Hey, my man, both teams played hard.”
It became national news. Rasheed got fined for it. And so did the Blazers.
To this day, every now and then, a professional athlete who’s dodging a question will wink and say, “Hey, my man, both teams played hard.”
Another Rasheed Wallace quote became the stuff of NBA legend. Every time an opponent he fouled missed a free throw, he’d shout “Ball don’t lie!” Depending on the referee, he might get a technical for that — or thrown out of the game entirely.
I loved Rasheed. His teammates did, too, though some grew tired of all the negative attention his tantrums generated.
