Rasheed Wallace may have been extremely difficult (and annoying) for NBA referees to officiate, yet it would be insufficient to leave it at that. Wallace overreacted sometimes and complained plenty, but he wasn’t merely a whiner.
Fair or not, Sheed detected and sought to call out, bias among the NBA’s refs. He’s far from the only person to suggest that refs get emotional, play favorites, or bring ulterior motives to the court. He is, however, one of the players to make that point on the court. He made it consistently and boldly, and in a way that drew extra ire from the very refs, he accused of targeting him.
In short, this was a crusade that turned a typically-tense relationship into outright beef. While he played, it was Sheed vs. Basically Every Ref. And even in retirement, Wallace is not done fighting that battle:
