No. 14: Rasheed Wallace
Summary: Perhaps it’s his longstanding records for both regular and technical fouls, but Rasheed Wallace was one of the first names to pop up in my head when assembling this list.
Although Wallace really didn’t hit my radar until his days with the Portland Trailblazers, USA Today’s “High School Player of the Year” was already landing sneaky elbows and showing all kinds of savvy in his college days during his time with the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Standing at 6-foot-10 and weighing in the neighborhood of 225 pounds, it’s easy to imagine an athlete like Wallace having his choice at either heavy or light heavyweight within the MMA space. I also would have to imagine that a sport that’s a bit more friendly to trash talk and rough play wouldn’t be the worse thing in the world for a guy like Wallace, as he’d have to pull some kind of serious stunt to match his record for an 81-second ejection.
Add-in Wallace’s almost Robbie Lawler-like disregard toward media, and I suspect he still finds himself a memorable member of any organization’s roster.