He arrived in the Boston Celtics' locker room last night wearing a black Phillies jacket with a white logo, because he will never give up the homeboy part of him. He was, he said emphatically, in Citizens Bank Park for the Phillies and Yankees in the World Series, because he "had to be."
"Had to see my Phils," Rasheed Wallace said last night after the unbeaten Celtics (5-0) tore through the 76ers, 105-74.
But he made no predictions as the Phils go into Game 6 tonight.
"Take it a game at a time," 'Sheed said. "They've got the bats for it. They've got the pitching for it."
Wallace, the pride of Simon Gratz High, is just getting started with his newest team. He is being projected as the off-the-bench catalyst, the role in which James Posey helped the Celtics win the NBA championship two seasons ago. He can roam the perimeter, he can set up on the low block. Last night, he burned the Sixers for 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting, draining six of eight three-pointers, taking six rebounds and playing without a turnover for 23 minutes, 56 seconds.
Home, he said, is special.
"A lot of friends and family don't get the opportunity to see me play," Wallace said. "Everybody can't get that League Pass and all that stuff."
He already has suggested that his new team can win 72 games.
"Ever since the Bulls did it, have you heard anybody say they're going for it?" he said. "Why not go for the record? Why not shoot for it?"
He brings an element the Celtics needed.
"I didn't know him," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said, "but I don't think you ever know a guy until you coach him or play with him. I did a lot of research, though, and what came back was phenomenal.
"Larry Brown [who coached Wallace in Detroit] said he was one of the smartest players he's ever coached, one of the best teammates and that his teammates loved him. His IQ - you don't believe it until you coach him. He talks [on the court], and that makes our defense even better."
But what about Wallace's reputation of piling up technical fouls and letting his emotions get in his way? He drew a technical with 4.5 seconds left in the third quarter.
No problem, Rivers insisted.
"You know that [going in]," he said. "I'm not going to try and change that. I'm not going to try and change him. Part of the reason he's good is his fire. You walk that line. Listen, he's a grown man; I'm not in the business of changing grown men, because you don't. We are who we are at this point in our lives."
