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“Shot me a Little Elbow”: Reminiscing on Ugly Brawl on Court, NBA Champion Comes Clean on “Playing Dirty”

Published 08/08/2023, 10:15 AM EDT

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Rasheed Wallace had a lot to dish about when he appeared on Underdog NBA. But you couldn’t let ‘Sheed’ go without talking about his dirtiest technical fouls. The former Bad Boy Piston was an instigator of technical fouls, deserved and undeserved. He’s one of the NBA players with the most techs in history and even inspired the NBA to alter rules because of his behavior.

The host of Underdog NBA even recalled that the NBA player would instigate the referee to call it just to rile up his teammates and opponents. So they had to talk about one of his most infamous calls from the 2004 NBA Finals.

Rasheed Wallace instigated a foul in the 2004 Finals

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Current NBA players couldn’t get away with the on-court antics Rasheed Wallace used to pull. He holds the record for the most single-season technical fouls in NBA history, with 41 technicals in the 2000-01 season. The 48-year-old retired with 317 techs on his record, third in NBA history after Charles Barkley and Karl Malone.

He had so many fouls and ejections in every game that the NBA enforced a rule change in 2006, which suspended a pro if they received more than 16 technical fouls in a season.

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That never stopped Wallace from being his intensely expressive self. Underdog NBA relived one of his dirtiest fouls during the 2004 NBA Finals from Wallace’s perspective. It happened during on June 13, when Wallace and the Detroit Pistons were up against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Tempers flared that day and Wallace was in a foul mood (pun intended). Even Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal were picking up technical fouls. As he watched that game during the interview, Wallace narrated what went through his mind during his on-court altercation with Slava Medvedenko during that game.

During the game, Wallace was called for a foul after Medvedenko’s elbow apparently hit him and they got in each other’s faces. “I’m not gonna play you dirty so don’t try to play me dirty right there. And then boom shot me a little elbow.”

via Getty

He’s doubling down on that point today. He said he can’t stand “playing dirty,” which he claims Medvedenko did. So he said, “I was like all right and I told the rest I said ‘I’m gonna make y’all call this foul now, y’all want to call that ticky-tack on me I’m gonna make y’all call it.’

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And he did make them call it.

Wallace hit the Lakers Hard

After the initial altercation with Medvedenko, Rasheed was out for blood. He called what Slava didunnecessary” right after the game and wanted to go after Malone, but had this young Laker on him, which seemed to infuriate Wallace. He also claims the Lakers were targeting him because he was hot-headed on the court.

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‘Sheed’ used that anger to lead the team to victory. The Pistons won 88-80 over the Lakers. Yet Wallace wasn’t having the last laugh, though. He carried that sour mood even through the celebration. Just proves you can’t out-foul Rasheed Wallace.

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Written by:

Caroline John

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Caroline John is an NBA writer at EssentiallySports. She has been covering athletes outside the sports arena since the start of her reporting career. A writer at heart, she graduated with a degree in journalism from a reputed university.
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Edited by:

Sharan Nair