NBA Friday: Rasheed Wallace
Some people love him, some people hate him. "I know I'm Public Enemy No. 1. Fifty percent (of the fans) hate me and 50 percent love me no matter what I do," Wallace once said while a member of the Portland Trail Blazers.
In the last 8 seasons Rasheed Wallace has led the league in technical fouls 6 times, and made the top three 7 times. Since the 2000-2001 season, he has 173 technical fouls!
Because of his association with the technical foul, I wanted to show Rasheed with the NBA's official rules regarding technical fouls in the background. I designed it as if it was an actual page out of the rule book, with Rasheed's picture shown to display a prime example.
I also drew in a couple illustrations showing how to properly assess a technical foul, something Rasheed has seen too often in his career.
In my basketball career I only picked up one technical foul. It came after I was hammered driving the lane for a layup and I asked the referee, so politely, "Mr. Referee, what constitutes a foul these days? Please explain to me why you neglected to call a foul on the previous play."
Maybe that isn't exactly what I said, but I felt pretty bad about getting a technical foul. My dad, as my coach, probably led our league in technical fouls. Like Rasheed, he probably didn't deserve half of them, but the refs were trying to set an example.
You can see this piece larger on the Portraiture page, or on SLAMonline in the Links by Lang Whitaker. Check back next week for the San Antonio Spurs!
[Update: You can also find this piece for sale as a limited edition print in my shop! Also, thanks to Natalie for posting this illustration at Need4Sheed.com]