Former Blazers All-Star Talks Major Differences Between Current NBA Players, His Era

He raises a salient point.

Jan 17, 2023; Denver, Colorado, USA; Detailed view of a Portland Trail Blazers logo warmup jersey before the game against the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports / Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

During a new episode of his Underdog Fantasy podcast "Sheed & Tyler," former All-Star Portland Trail Blazers power forward Rasheed Wallace got real about how the NBA game has evolved off the hardwood since he last played, in 2012-13.

"For me when I was coaching high school — I coached high school probably about maybe five or six years ago — [there were] two things I didn't allow on a team: you can't do a Eurostep and... at halftime [you can't be on your phone]. First of all, we ain't even a big school like that, for you to be checking your phone. There ain't nothing that important. Your parents already know you got a game that night. S--- they're sitting right out there! I banned that whole phone thing. That's what they do, they go look at the phones."

Wallace was selected with the fourth overall pick in the 1995 NBA Draft following an All-American career at the University of North Carolina. He spent his first pro season with the Washington Bullets, before being flipped to Portland, where the 6-foot-11 big man's career really took off.

He finished third in Most Important Player voting during that first season with the Trail Blazers, in 1996-97. By 1999-2000, Wallace was an All-Star on a stacked Portland club that was just one fourth quarter collapse away from reaching the NBA Finals. That 59-23 club fell to the Shaquille O'Neal/Kobe Bryant-era Los Angeles Lakers, en route to their first title.

"I know back when I was playing, we all stayed in town [during the offseason] as the veterans and stuff. Like when we played in Portland, Cliff Robinson was my veteran — rest in peace Uncle Cliffy — and we would run pick-up."

Robinson, a 6-foot-10 forward who passed away in 2020 at the far-too-young age of 53, was an All-Star and Sixth Man of the Year while with the Trail Blazers. He and Wallace only overlapped for two seasons, before he was reinventing himself as one of the league's best defenders on the Phoenix Suns.

"Just learning things from him and the other veterans — Chris Dudley, he would stay in Portland when I was out there too. And just learning things from them during the summer and offseason, you getting your ass beat every day, so [you think], 'All right, it's gonna make me tougher, it's gonna make me better for when they really need me in the regular season and the playoffs.'"

The 6-foot-11 Dudley played in Portland from 1993-97.

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