Gerald Wallace's season comes CRASHing to an end
The only question surrounding Gerald Wallace’s surgery is when he is going to have it. The 13-year NBA veteran will have bone spurs removed from his ankle and a torn meniscus in his knee repaired as early as Tuesday of this week.
“I’m very disappointed, just the simple fact that the injury, not knowing how long I’ve been playing with it and what was going on,” Wallace said before the Celtics’s 102-97 loss to the Indiana Pacers Saturday night at TD Garden.
“It was just a pain that kind of felt different in my knee. I’m disappointed to end my season this way, just when it felt like I was starting to play at a pretty high level.”
His chemistry with teammates was certainly reaching a pretty high level. Like Rajon Rondo before him, Wallace has been spotted on the Celtics bench since going down with an injury and doing everything he can to keep his teammates in good spirits.
It has been a difficult first season for Wallace. While it’s not like the Nets were knocking on the door of a franchise defining title run, coming to Boston he knew what he was getting into- a team in full on rebuild mode. After 13-years of earning the name “Crash” he was probably hoping to play for a contender… but who wouldn’t?
While his comments to the media may have rubbed certain Celtics fans the wrong way, that could just as easily been us getting to know the enigma that is Gerald Wallace. Boston has always been a place that he “loved.” his favorite teams are New England teams. He has had his role reduced and still plays harder than just about anyone on the field. His coach describes him as a warrior.
Knowing that his season is over as his rehab stint will be two to four months, Gerald Wallace candidly addressed what he was hoping the fans walked away with from Gerald Wallace: Celtic Season One.
When asked to describe his first year as a Celtic, Wallace said, “It’s been great.”
“The experience has been fun,” he added. “Losing [stinks], it always does. I felt like we’re a lot better than what our record shows. We’ve had some ups and downs, some learning curves, not only from the players, but from the coaching staff as well.’’
Wallace said he also hopes he won the fans over, even though he made it clear when he arrived in Boston after being traded from the Brooklyn Nets last summer that he wasn’t interested in joining a rebuilding team.
“I just hope the fans didn’t take offense to me saying I didn’t want to be here as me not wanting to be a part of the organization,” Wallace said. “My main thing was the rebuilding process, I didn’t want to go through a whole rebuilding process where you have to start all over 13 years into my career.”
If it makes you feel any better, Crash, we don’t want to be “here” either. But it’s totally fine. We won’t be “here” for long. Hopefully you won’t either.
That last bit was written especially vague. Did I mean “here” as in “the state of rebuilding” or “here” as in “the state of Massachusetts?” I wonder! Is there anyway to decipher meaning when it’s left open like that due to the interpretive nature of the written word? Kind of like how I never know what Crash means when he talks to the press.
Crash Wallace is an energy guy and apparently the team loves him. The one thing you need in a rebuild, other than someone to build around, is a crew willing to show up and do work. That’s something Crash Wallace, when healthy, does best.
Follow Padraic O'Connor on Twitter @padraic_oconnor
Source: Baxter Holmes; Boston Globe
