Rasheed Wallace has claimed former NBA commissioner David Stern tried to rig the NBA Draft to hurt the Portland Trail Blazers.
During his conversation on his upcoming podcast, Sheed reflected on the time David Stern and the media tried to blackball him from the NBA. According to the 2004 NBA champion, Stern had a bone to pick with him after his infamous "both teams played hard" press conference during the 2003 NBA Playoffs.
In that press conference, Wallace gave reporters a hard time and answered every question with the same answer, "Both teams played hard." Stern was allegedly livid by Wallace's actions and proceeded to make his life hell.
Sheed claimed Stern and the Portland area media put out negative stories about the team, from calling them the "Jail Blazers" to hiring people to keep an eye on them at clubs in case they get into any troubling situations. Sheed also stated that he and Stern would go back and forth following the press conference regarding how he should handle interviews since he seemed to always say the wrong thing, and things eventually trickled to the NBA Draft.
"He brought us out to the owners and stuff and said, 'Hey, if y'all don't tear up his contract, it's going to be bad for y'all in the next few drafts...he said it to everybody," said Sheed.
He added, "I couldn't believe it, and I was like shit and you know it was always a little war for words with me and him for the most part but reason being, I don't know why, my only thing is all I ever wanted was a fair career. That's all I ever wanted."
Throughout his time in the NBA, Wallace developed quite a relationship with David Stern and the referees. He's the leader in all-time technical fouls received and the most fined player for the number of fines in the NBA, with eight fines totaling $205,000.
