Gerald Wallace was one of the better players in the NBA, once upon a time. Wallace came into the NBA to a Sacramento Kings team that was very stacked at just about every position, especially at his small forward/wing position when Peja Stojakovic was in his prime.
In 2005-06 Wallace started a 5 season stretch when he averaged 17.5 points per game, 7.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.9 steals and 1.2 blocks while playing 37.6 minutes. Wallace was and NBA All-Star in 2010, named to the NBA’s All-Defensive First Team in 2010 and was the NBA steals leader in 2006.
Then he was sent to the Portland Trail Blazers and suddenly became one of those guys that have a huge contract and are simply just used to be traded around for better or worse. He’s that guy who was ‘traded from a team for a draft pick that ended up being a great player’, meaning when he was traded from the Blazers to the Brooklyn Nets involving a first round pick that ended up being Damian Lillard.
Now after some more moves he finds himself on the Boston Celtics, averaging 0.9 points per game, playing 8.2 minutes and has only appeared in 27 games due to a torn meniscus that ended his season. He wasn’t able to get out of Boston before they had their firesale, in part due to Wallace’s lack of performance.
So it might be time for Wallace to consider hanging it up.
Following from Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe.
Wallace has one year left on his contract at $10 million, and while he plans to fulfill that, he said he will spend this summer deciding whether his career in 2016-17.
“Hopefully, I’ll reflect going into the last year of my deal,” he said. “This is my [14th] year. You kind of sit back and look at your career and all you’ve done and kind of just evaluate your past and try to set up for your future and see what you want to do. That’s the time I’ll do it, in the offseason.”
Can Wallace envision making it to 16 seasons?
“I would love to continue to play, but it’s more about my family and my kids,” he said. “I’m only 32 years old and I’ve been in here 14 years. That’s almost half of my life in this league. My kids are getting older. They’re starting to play high school sports now. It depends on if they’re comfortable with me still playing or they’re ready for me to come home and be part of their lives.”
Wallace has been one of my favorite players during his time in the NBA and his nickname being ‘crash’ was very fitting. He always was in the middle of some sort of scrum under the rim either getting rebounds or throwing down a huge dunk past some tall trees on the inside.
He was a tenacious player that works hard and actually put up some great numbers. His contract was huge towards the end and as his body aged as his contract got bigger and bigger. It didn’t end up well for him and unfortunately this might be time for Wallace to stop his career, unless he can find a situation where he gets a role for a winning team that needs whatever Wallace has left.
