So Long, ‘Sheed

The roller-coaster ride started on February 20th, 2004.

That's when, on a cold, winter night at the Palace of Auburn Hills, Rasheed Wallace made his Detroit Pistons debut.

Little did Piston fans know that 'Sheed's first game with the team would set the tone for what was to come over the next five and a half seasons: excitement meets disappointment.

Wallace came off the bench and played 12 minutes in the first half, and curiously remained sidelined for the remainder of the game. As we would later find out, the paperwork on the trade had not been completed in time and 'Sheed was technically ineligible to play in the game, forcing him to the bench for the second half.

The Pistons as an organization would incur a hefty fine for playing Wallace that night, and the fans got their first taste of what life with 'Sheed is all about: the excitement of having one of the most talented seven-footers to ever play the game make his Piston debut was overshadowed by the disappointment of watching him sit on the bench in the second half with no real explanation of why at the time.

The disappointment, at least for the time being, wouldn't last long. The Pistons finished the regular season going 17-5 with Rasheed in the lineup and had transformed themselves literally overnight from a middle-of-the-pack team to a legit NBA title contender.

Then, as the playoffs wore on, it became obvious that "legit NBA title contender" was an understatement. The Pistons were for real. Chauncey Billups was the leader offensively, Ben Wallace held down the fort defensively, but it was the addition of Rasheed Wallace the put the Pistons over the top.

On their way to the NBA championship in 2004, Rasheed averaged 13.0 points and 7.8 rebounds per game and was a matchup nightmare for the Lakers in the Finals with his ability to play both inside and outside. Chauncey was Finals MVP, but the Pistons don't win without 'Sheed, plain and simple.

Then the offseason came and the Pistons were forced to make a choice: re-sign Rasheed Wallace and let Mehmet Okur go, or re-sign Memo and tell Sheed, "thanks for the ring, best of luck to you in the future."

Keeping both players simply wasn't in the budget. The Pistons opted for Rasheed over Okur. Once again, the excitement of keeping together a championship starting five meets the disappointment of letting one of the league's bright young stars go.

But, as Pistons fans would grow accustomed to in the early part of Wallace's tenure with the Pistons, the disappointment wouldn't last long. As fans, we were still in the honeymoon phase of the Rasheed Wallace era.

We spent the entire '04-'05 season as the defending champs; Rasheed Wallace was the main reason for that, and we loved him for it. We loved how he bought everyone on the team a WWE-style championship belts that they wore for pregame introductions. We loved how he'd talk trash to any and everyone. We loved how he'd stick up for his teammates with his patented "ball don't lie!" after a missed free throw. We loved screaming "'SHEEEEED" every time he touched the ball.

And for the second year in a row, we loved watching 'Sheed knock down big shot after big shot while leading the Pistons to their second straight NBA Finals appearance.

Then, with the NBA Finals tied 2-2 and the pistons leading by two pints, this happened.

The excitement of being one win away from back-to-back NBA titles meets the disappointment of knowing that a Rasheed Wallace mental mistake meant that it wasn't going to happen.

Piston fans never totally blamed Wallace for losing the '05 Finals, but we never really pardoned him, either.

So long, honeymoon phase.

The grace period for winning the Pistons their first title in 15 years was over, and the focus shifted from Rasheed's versatility to his volatility, as he led the league in technical fouls in both 2006 and 2007.

The same antics that fans cheered for the first two seasons quickly made those same fans cringe, as Wallace's uber-intensity became more of a distraction than anything else for the Pistons.

In Game 6 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals, Wallace fouled out then received two technical fouls on his way to the bench. The four free throws put Detroit in a too big a hole, and they ending up losing to LeBron James and the Cavs. Had the Pistons somehow won that game, 'Sheed would not have been able to play in the critical seven of that series because his second technical would have drawn a one game suspension from the league.

After that game, like most other Piston fans, I was done with Rasheed Wallace. He had gone too far. Only, unlike the fans, Pistons management hadn't seen enough of Rasheed, and he was back for another run the following season.

2007-'08, 'Sheed's worst season statistically as a Piston, was "highlighted" by an expletive-laced rant about flopping after the Pistons lost Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals to the eventual champion Boston Celtics.

Wallace summed up the Piston's run to six straight conference finals after the series with his most eloquent statement in his five seasons with the team by saying, "It's over, man."

If only that were true.

The excitement of having a huge expiring contract ($13 million) as trade bait meets the disappointment of realizing that no team in their right mind would trade for a player that comes with so much baggage.

Because of that, Piston fans were stuck this year with one final season of Rasheed's antics. After the Pistons were swept Sunday by the Cavs, Wallace's line for the 2009 playoffs looked like this: 6.5 points per game, 6.2 rebounds, .25 blocks, 36% from the field, not a single free throw attempted in four games.

I can honestly say that I've never seen a big man with so much talent in all my years of watching NBA basketball. Wallace is as good a defender as Tim Duncan or Kevin Garnett. He can score in the post as well as either of those players, and has the ability to stretch his range out beyond the three-point line, a skill that neither of those future Hall of Famers was ever able to master.

Yet, as you can see, all of those qualities that 'Sheed possesses are met with a giant asterisk: when he wants to. As a fan, it looks to me like Rasheed Wallace hasn't wanted to apply those skills since 2005.

Now, as the Pistons mini-dynasty officially ends, things have officially come full circle for Rasheed Wallace: the excitement of winning an NBA title meets the disappointment of spending the following five seasons squandering as much talent as an seven-footer that's ever played the game.

Rasheed: it's been a long five and a half seasons. Thanks for the ring. You're someone else's headache now.