Gerald Wallace rips into Celtics, calls them a "team that's all talk"


Gerald Wallace is bad. He's not a good basketball player anymore, has one of the worst contracts in basketball (which may keep him in Boston until 2016), and he repeatedly throws his teammates under the bus.

We saw it on numerous occasions during the team's 4-9 start, and now, as the Celtics begin slipping out of contention, we're seeing it again. Here's what Wallace had to say after the Celtics embarrassing 129-98 loss tonight.





More Wallace via Baxter Holmes:

We done met, we done talked, we done did everything, we done argued, fussed, complained, moaned, everything you can do. In doesn't matter in here. It matters out there on the court. And until we can take all the talk and everything that we say in here and apply it to out on the court, it's useless, it's basically like talking to a wall

I want to be very clear for a moment: I'm not on the Celtics. I have no idea if what Wallace is saying is true or false. This team may very well have a whining problem, and Wallace may be correct.

But it doesn't matter. Even if what he's saying is 100% correct — Wallace is wrong. As we've seen time and time again, Wallace is a one trick pony as a "veteran leader". He rips into his teammates in the media, saying they don't try hard enough, or want it bad enough. It's tiring. Especially coming from one of the worst players on the team, and one of the most overpaid players in the NBA. Wallace is only here because he's owed too much money to release, and because no team in their right mind would want him. He's not happy in the rebuild, I get that. But trust us Gerald, this rebuilding team is not happy with you either.

There are ways to motivate a team, and yes, calling them out in the media is one such way. But it's a "break glass in case of emergency" type strategy, only to be used rarely, and in the most desperate of situations. You can't do it once every two weeks and expect it will motivate your teammates. Instead, it will alienate them. It will piss them off. And eventually one of them is going to (rightly) call you out for giving $1 million production on a $10 million contract. And when they do — they will be my hero.

We have 47 games left in what is clearly a rebuilding season. The 12-14 start was nice in some ways, but now the focus is clear for the 2013-14 Celtics. Play the young players, deal off the non-essential pieces, and position yourself for the draft. Unfortunately, Wallace we'll be here for all of it. But someone needs to get in his ear and tell him that if he has a problem with his young teammates talking too much, running his mouth to the media for a 7th time this season isn't the way to fix it.

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