He’s also improving in another way — shall we say … technically?
At the risk of jinxing it: Sheed has now gone three consecutive games without a technical foul. Sadly enough, that fact appears fairly newsworthy, all things considered.
The Celtics’ emotional spark plug has been getting on officials’ bad sides for his entire career, and no one expected him to stop now — but the Celtics did hope that an older, maturer Sheed could do better than this. In his first 18 games with the Celtics, Wallace was whistled for eight technicals — meaning he’s already halfway to the NBA’s limit of 16, after which the league starts doling out suspensions.
Last week, the Celtics had legitimate cause for alarm with Sheed’s temper. By Dec. 1, when the Celtics beat up on the Bobcats 108-90 in Charlotte, Sheed had hit rock bottom: five days, three games, three T’s. Now there’s a dubious consecutive-games streak.
“I’m concerned, but there’s nothing I am going to do about it, I’ll tell you that,” head coach Doc Rivers told The Boston Globe last week. “I could talk to him until I’m blue. Clearly, it’s going to come to that number [16] and he’s going to get suspended, and we don’t want to lose him for games. His teammates are on him. We talked to him about it. But at the end of the day, he is going to have to solve that on his own.”
Wallace is a 35-year-old veteran in his 15th season in the NBA, so the Celtics have every reason to think he’s mature enough to solve this problem himself. And maybe he will. But the C’s keep seeing indications that Wallace and authorities are not getting along.
Last week, Sheed found himself in trouble with the league for being a little too outspoken — the NBA fined him $30,000 for criticizing league officials and calling Raptors forward Hedo Turkoglu a “flopper.” Rather than own up to his mistake and apologize, Wallace protested, insisting, “What did I say wrong?” and announcing his plans to appeal the fine.
It didn’t take long for Sheed to catch the public eye again for his off-the-court troubles. On Tuesday, disgraced former NBA ref Tim Donaghy named Wallace as a “target” of league officials, calling him “someone I don’t believe anyone cared for.” Again, Wallace didn’t shy away from the controversy; he lashed out, complaining loudly about league officials in Wednesday’s Boston Herald.
We’re getting mixed messages about Sheed. On one hand, he’s trying to clean up his game and stay out of trouble with the refs — but on the other, he’s constantly baiting officials and members of the media. He’s trying to pick fights.
The season is still young, but it looks like Good Sheed and Bad Sheed are going to be at odds this winter. And as a coach, Rivers is faced with the task of making sure the good guy prevails.
On the floor, we’re seeing the best that Rasheed Wallace has to offer. The Spurs, Thunder and Bucks learned that the hard way, as Sheed shot the lights out and fueled a trio of Boston victories.
And maybe, if the C’s are lucky, Sheed’s transformation as a shooter is a sign of bigger things to come — namely, his transformation as a man. The Celtics have been a winning team over the past two seasons thanks in part to their solid role players and strong character guys, and Rasheed Wallace is capable of being both. If Sheed’s teammates and coaches want to give him a little nudge in the right direction, it definitely couldn’t hurt — but ultimately, it’s up to Sheed to find that character within himself.
