As the football team comes off their second win of the season, defeating East Carolina 27 to 6, and prepare for their next game, a home encounter against Idaho, I will break off from the gridiron to give news about the hardwoods. A former North Carolina basketball player, Rasheed Wallace, who is 38 and has not been playing in the National Basketball Association since the `09-`10 season, might be teaming up with another former Tar Heel, Raymond Felton, in the Big Apple.
From a story on NewsDay it seems that the former Trail Blazer, Piston and Celtic has worked out for the Knicks and could fit in as the back up center for the team that calls Madison Square Garden home. The 6’10″ has scored close to 15 points per game in the 15 years in the NBA, but I doubt that the Knicks would be looking for anything like that from the veteran big man. My vision for the former Heel is being the same as Tyson Chandler is with the first team, giving some quality minutes off the bench during the long season.
In the end, while many would think this is not a good move, my thoughts are different on this. Anyone that has been to the promise land of winning it all could help the Knickerbockers. Maybe not on the court as much as in the mentality. Cause one that has won it all will definitely tell a team with lots of individual talent that only as a team will they win it all. Wallace, who played under Dean Smith at Chapel Hill, might get tossed a few times because of his temper, but he is not going to do anything but help the squad in the long run. With a small paycheck the big man is going to be a low risk/high reward type of acquisition for a team that can use him.
As I do with all present and fomer Tar Heels let me be the first to congratulate Rasheed Wallace in this move and hope that we will all see him in the pro’s this coming season. For more information about North Carolina basketball and/or football, teams and players, present and past, make sure to check back often on isportsweb!
