The drive for back-to-back championships isn’t easy for any team in any league or sport. Longtime Chiefs fan and NBA champion Rasheed Wallace won his lone title in 2004 with the Detroit Pistons and understands the challenge of repeating.
Chiefs Wire’s Ed Easton Jr. spoke to Wallace about the mindset needed to repeat as champions and his preference between Kansas City’s offense and defense.
“It’s hard work. It’s hard because you might be like a heavy favorite before you win it, but once you win, you have that target on your back,” Wallace said. “Whoever wins the title in any sport, you have that target on your back. And everybody in that league is gunning for you. Every Sunday, Monday, and Thursday, the Chiefs will get everybody’s best in the NFL. Everybody wants to make their mark. Everybody wants to try to beat the champs. And that’s the same mindset that I had in basketball.”
Wallace’s Pistons reached the NBA Finals again in 2005, falling short to the San Antonio Spurs in seven games. On opening night that season, the team wore championship titles to remind the league they were defending champions.
“Once we won it in 2004, our biggest thing was that we are defending this thing now,” Wallace explained. “We want to defend this thing like wrestling or boxing. We went to back-to-back Finals. Won one and lost one. But, yeah, it’s definitely a mindset because you have no time to play out here, and there is no joking around. We got to get this done now.”
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— Rasheed Wallace (@UnderdogSheed) June 4, 2024
Wallace’s Pistons teams are recognized as one of the best defensive units in NBA history. He explained how he appreciates both sides of the Chiefs but made sure to give the defense its respect.
“I’m about 50/50, and I say that because we feed off each other,” Wallace continued. “You have to feed off each other if the defense is out there. We might be getting pushed back a little bit, and then, boom, we get an interception, fumble, or something like that.
“I feel we have the offensive capability, and I believe that if we get this turnover, we have to go down the score. I love how our defense has stepped up these last few years. The anchor surrounds it, Chris Jones, who’s been doing his thing. He deserves all that bread [a five-year, $158.75 million contract] he just got.”
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