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• Leaving the huddle again, but this time with his teammates reportedly looking upset about it, and Chris Webber even going to talk to him.
• Flip Saunders talking about his actions as distracting.
• A technical foul, near the end of a close game, for screaming an epithet so loud everyone could hear it on TV.

Matt Watson has the story.



Yes, Joe Dumars made one of the greatest trades in NBA history by bringing in Wallace to help win a title. It was worth whatever happens now for that title. But it's not over. What's happening now is part and parcel of Rasheed Wallace. Withhold that final analysis.



My take is that, for whatever reason, Rasheed is super-talented and fantastic as a complementary piece. When it seems like it's time for him to lead? There's trouble.



The team he joined had powerful hands-on leadership from Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billups, Larry Brown etc. Now Ben Wallace and Larry Brown are gone, Flip Saunders doesn't command Rasheed's respect, and the leadership structure of the team is less clear--much like the leadership structure always was when Rasheed was in Portland. Whe the leadership is unclear, Rasheed seems to empty his madness into the void.



The way his brain works is thrilling as a sideshow. When he's great, on or off the court, he's as good as NBA players have ever been. But when he's the main event, counted on night in and night out? Many nights are just atrocious.



And, let me state the obvious here: Flip Saunders might be the best coach and nicest guy in the world. But by now it should be clear that he was not the smartest choice for the players on Detroit's roster at the time of his hire. The interior defense of the Wallaces was the team's identity, and owing to personality clashes, differences of philosophy, and whatever else (including, almost certainly, the changing NBA rules, which are essentially anti-defense) that identity was not sustainable under Saunders.



Both Wallaces, in their own way, have departed. Ben physically. Rasheed mentally.



It's too bad. It was a great thing to watch.