Rasheed Wallace Shows his true Colours... http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/s...68946935730.xml <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">He's a sullen jerk. He has no class, no grace, no empathy. He represents almost everything that's wrong in pro sports, the details of which have been chronicled in these pages for years. Yet for all that, people still march up to the Trail Blazers' Rasheed Wallace with pens, hearts and expectations in hand, begging him for a small piece of his miserable self. While Wallace and his wife were waiting in the Honolulu airport for a flight to Portland on July 26, at least two parents and their children approached him, asking for an autograph. Wallace blew them off, they said. What a surprise. That's what Wallace does. That's who Wallace is. I say "at least two parents" because two have written letters to The Oregonian. One was printed July 30. Christy Pulley's letter is next to my keyboard. Hers is a more compelling story, although she and I may have reached different conclusions on what it says about Wallace and the rest of us. The Pulley family was returning from vacation that Saturday. Pulley's 11-year-old son, Chris, glimpsed Wallace when they checked in. Because the Hawaiian Air flight was delayed, the boy had three hours to get psyched. He even bought a special permanent marker. If her son recognized Wallace, Pulley didn't. Oh, she recognized the name, but she couldn't have pinpointed his transgressions. She didn't know whether he was the Blazer who is forever smoking dope or the Blazer who threatens referees or the Blazer with the domestic abuse rap. She saw only an NBA player. She saw only the stars in her child's eyes. When the 11-year-old approached Wallace, she said, Wallace shook his head and waved the kid away. The boy was disappointed. A nearby flight attendant, Pulley said, was "incredulous." And Mom? "I lose it," Pulley wrote. "I can't believe how insensitive, how arrogant, how spoiled this man is whom my son has walked around and thought of exclusively for an entire afternoon. How dare he hurt my little boy's feelings when all my son did was adore him and want a simple autograph to show all his friends and keep forever." As Pulley admitted Monday, she was reacting emotionally, not thoughtfully. "The funny thing about this," she said, "is he (Chris) wasn't as affected as I was. I think I projected my feelings onto him. My adrenalin was running so high." Which explains, I suppose, what happened next. Pulley confronted Wallace in the gate area, telling him, "You just broke my little boy's heart." ("I'm on vacation," she said Wallace replied. "If I'm going to do that, I'm going to break my wife's heart.") And she got "right in his face" on the plane, throwing a crumpled photo and the black marker at his feet and yelling, "Shame on you." At that point, Hawaiian Air escorted Pulley off the plane, leaving her family to fly home without her. "While Ms. Pulley may believe that she did not act in a threatening manner," the airline's Rose Harman wrote in a letter to the family, "the other passenger felt threatened, and the flight attendants believed her actions to be abusive." Let's sort through the wreckage. At least two families approached Wallace as he returned from vacation. If you are of a mind to be charitable, you could argue he decided that he'd have another two dozen in his face if he signed even a single autograph. But why is anyone still asking for one? Wallace is bad news, and that's old news. Why are any parents still allowing their kids to approach him, thus giving Wallace permission to dismiss them? </div> Now..that is just classless on Wallace's part..but the women did go over the top.
One one hand I see the reason why he didn't sign it, but on the other I know Wallace is a chump and his beahavior is usually poor. EIther way he could have at least shaken the kids hand and sent him on his way. Otherwise if he doesn't like the attention maybe he should get a job laying brick or something. Just my .02
Alot of players don't sign autographs. MJ dosen't and he's the greatest player ever. When a player is on their free time, they are normal people trying to live their life. Believe me if you are famous, you are constantly asked for autographs and when your just going about your business, it's annoying. Anyway, Rasheed has his own kids program and runs his own camps. Go to the Official Rasheed Wallace Foundation web-site: http://www.rawallacefoundation.com/ Cut and paste that address into your address bar and visit that site.
i don't know. It's a hard situation, im sure his wife would like the attention and is sick of fans approaching him and on the other hand he should have the decency to sign an autograph. Remember, the media can hype things up, and it doesn't say in his contract he has to sign autographs but he shouldn't just brush ambitious kids like that. Like Stefen said maybe a hand shake wouldn't go a stray.
yea...but think of it this way...maybe rasheed was tired, grumpy and had a bad day, dealing with frustrating airport employees...if i was all pissed off and aggravated, the last thing i would want or even be able to do is smile and sign an autograph. these guys get approched when they are eating dinner and in other inapropriate times, ya gotta respect the fact that they are regular people and sometimes just dont feel like putting on a big smile and signing autographs. its fair to say that its not fair that these guys are expected to do that ALL the time...arent they allowed to have some kind of time to themselfs outside of their home? i agree the other side that they are paid millions of dollars and are on t.v. so they should be expected to have to put up with it considering it really only takes a couple minutes...but im sure once in a while it can get annoying, and im surprise someone with rasheeds obvious short temper, we dont hear more stories of worse scenerios tomas sandstrom of the la kings back in the day told me to "get lost" once when i asked him for an autograph...i was like 12 and waiting after a leafs game....lol
