In an appearance on Gil's Arena, Rasheed Wallace recalled how he accidentally instigated a fight between Zach Randolph and Ruben Patterson that later led to another altercation during a practice.
"We called it 'The Slam Heard Around the World,'" said Wallace, who was a teammate of the two players during their time with the Portland Trail Blazers. "We in practice one day, and so my guy Quintel Woods... Quintel and Zach, they rolly. You can't see one without seeing the other. That's how close they were, which is a good thing you know don't get me wrong... I'm talking shit in practice, I'm going hard in practice because that'll make the game easy. We in there, talking shit, going at it. Ruben Paterson ding up, you know him and Quintel had some beef because Quinn just didn't like the way he was so aggressive on the court, like, 'Damn, dog. Let me live! I don't get no minutes as it is but damn, even in practice I can't live.'"
The situation got significantly more tense when they made their way back to the locker room. "We in the locker. Me, Bonzi [Wells], we the Vince McMahon, we hyping shit up," he continued. He explained that about seven of them were in a hot tub at Portland's then-new practice facility, at which point him and Wells started "talking shit" with everyone.
"So boom, we go into the dressing room area of the locker room, now they get to scrap up like WWF," he said. "They locking up. Zach had him, but Zach lifted up, and man I swear to goodness Ruben did some, like, Olympic gold medal technical shit. All he did was shift his body a little bit, and that put Zach out of position." Wallace imitated the action Patterson pulled on Randolph, with something resembling a body slam.
"In the locker rooms, it's that industrial carpet that's, like, a micro-fracture of an inch thick and then it's concrete under," he said. "Rube slammed Zach, and we was all like, 'Oh shit!' We called it 'The Slam Heard Around the World' and man, that was me and Bonzi fault right there you know. Zach was out for about like two weeks dog, from a fucked up back. We felt real bad."
He added that the situation was kept "in-house" with the Trail Blazers, but eventually, the story made its way out. "We took that shit a little too far, man," he shared. "When my guy got slammed, we all felt bad for him." A couple of weeks later, those involved felt "some type of way" about the situation, which resulted in Quintel Woods and Ruben Patterson having "a little beef" over a foul, which they took "personally."
Patterson and Woods were "face to face" during the practice, which ultimately led Zach Randolph punching the former in his face. "We found out later that he fractured his orbital socket," he said. "Oh my God, I was never more scared in the NBA at this time, period. And I have seen some shit, been through some shit, he turned into the Incredible Hulk. Rube Patterson... He just didn't turn green. Like, he got more Blacker... It took like nine people to stop Rube from getting at Zach."
Wallace recalled that Patterson was yelling about wanting to kill Randolph in retaliation. "I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, he going to choke this n***a to death,'" Wallace said. "So, I go in the locker room, and who in the locker room just chilling. Like, you know what I mean, like it ain't nothing you know. Zach like, 'Shit I'm about to take my shower.' I'm like, 'Bro, what are you doing here man, if you don't get the fuck out of here, dog. You don't realize this heat on your neck. ... You and Q, y'all get the fuck out of here, dog, 'cause I don't know how long we can hold the Hulk back.'"
While Wallace can laugh about the situation now, he suggested "everybody NBA career would have been over" if the full extent of the fights were made public. He was especially surprised at how relaxed Randolph and Woods were after the altercation, considering there was "all this yelling and growling" as Patterson was subdued by basically the whole team. "I'm glad it all panned out, though," he added. "We ended up making the playoffs and all this and that... I wouldn't say everybody's cool, but they were cool enough to continue the season."
Watch Wallace hilariously recount the play-by-play of the two fights above.
