In the newest issue of SLAM magazine (#118 with D. Howard on the cover) Vincent Goodwill has written a very good article on the prodigious enigma that is our man in th middle (and beyond the arc) Rasheed Wallace. It seems like the masses are starting to get it, Rasheed Wallace is a revolutionary talent and a real cat. Sheed is where “what you see is what you get” and “more than meets the eye” intersect.

I’ll highlight some of the points from the article that had me bopping my head saying yeah, yeah. For the rest I’ll highly suggest you spend the 5 bucks like I did or just hit up the newsstand and read in the aisle. Special thanks to friend of the site Thomas for putting me up on this article. I’ll say a big GO SPURS GO for Thomas.

Ali, Malcolm, Wiley, Chappelle, Pryor…Rasheed Wallace? Ahead of their time, smart, possibly too conscious for their own good. Most times, true geniuses are considered quirky, crazy even. It isn’t until way down the line that their brilliance is discovered.

I believe that’s true about Rasheed. Although, the more pieces like this that come out and the more the talking heads change their views of Rasheed from malcontent to hoops savant the sooner Wallace’s b-ball brilliance will be universally accepted.

This will mark the third year in a row and fourth of his career in which Sheed had at least 100 blocks and 100 three-pointers. Big deal, you say at first? Well, Sheed is the only player in NBA history to have more than one such season.

That pretty much speaks for itself and reaffirms Charles Barkley’s statement that we’ve never seen a player like Rasheed in the NBA before.

Best players in the game? Those guys don’t average 13 and 7, like Sheed is this season. Well, who’s the best PF in the game? Tim Duncan, maybe? Sheed put 23 and 15 on him when the ‘05 Finals adversaries met in January, adding three steals and two blocks. Against last year’s MVP, Dirk Nowitzki? Twenty-one and 9, with four swats and three thefts in a February Motown matchup. Oh yeah, and he held Diggler to 3-18 in a 23 point drubbing.

That’s something we as Piston’s fans have come to realize. He plays well most nights, but the better the opponent, the bigger the Sheed. Chauncey said it earlier this year on Jim Rome’s ESPN show, Sheed gets bored against lesser talent. It wasn’t necessarily a knock on Rasheed, it’s just his adaptation to the conditions. He could be a 20 and 10 guy, but on the nights he doesn’t need to be he puts the team ahead of stats.

As far as his beefs with coaches, Rasheed holds no grudges, takes no prisoners. “I’ll just leave it at tha, ’cause they’re not gonna change my views of how I think the game should be played,” he says. “We’re the ones out there playin’, seeing it from a different perspective. From always sitting on the sideline, compared to being out there on the floor, you’re gonna see different things.”

Is there a better endorsement for Coach Rasheed that his own statements?

When Sheed screws up, his teammates defend him to the end. They know he makes the game easy, covers their mistakes, so it’s only fitting they cover his. You can’t buy loyalty with words. Respect is the ultimate currency in a real locker room with veteran teammates.

Has there ever been a guy who’s played with Rasheed that has come out and said he’s a bad guy or bad teammate? No. Because he’s not either. He’s often described as the “ultimate” teammate.

“David Stern don’t care about basketball. Ha cares about ratings, that’s all he want. That’s why he tried to bring all that European stuff over here. That’s not basketball.”

Rasheed cares about the game in the simplest form. The one that manifests a love affair between the player and the game at a young age on neighborhood courts and gyms. Rasheed’s basketball is the one in which has given guys like himself positive opportunities that sometimes seem far too elusive if you come from certain situations. A game that can be the great equalizer for a moment in time for all walks of life.

The basketball that David Stern cares about has slogans and tv deals. Merchandising here and abroad. Stern’s basketball isn’t as available as Rasheed’s. In Stern’s game your uniform has to be to certain specifications. In Sheed’s version you can rock sweatpants cut off just below the knees if you so choose.

Rasheed and David Stern are both strong willed dudes who’ll continue to challenge either other’s basketball while their both still involved with the game because they both believe their basketball is the right basketball.

Neither man’s basketball is necessarily wrong. The game has grown so much and so fast that there’s not been time to bridge the divide between keeping it real and keeping it growing.