Wallace doing his best to be the team's leader
Wallace, being the only guy on the Celtics' roster who has been a team's best player in the past, is the defacto team leader for Boston with Rajon Rondo out. He's tried to lead through example and through his words. The latter may seem harsh, but there should be little doubt that Wallace has said everything to his teammates faces that he's said to the media. He's pissed. He's frustrated. That's saying something considering Wallace has played on some bad squads in Charlotte and the Celtics just finished off only their second game of the season.
After the Celtics lost to the Raptors in the season opener earlier this week, coach Brad Stevens shed some light on Wallace's frustrations to CSNNE.
Gerald Wallace is at the point and the stage in his career, and I don't know if he's always been there or not, but he just wants to win," Stevens said. "He just wants the team to do well and I really appreciate that. He shot once and it didn't affect how he played.
Hate to say it, but winning just isn't in this teams future. Wallace probably doesn't care as much about the Ws as he does about effort. He can't think with the lack of talent this team has that it a shot at a playoff run, let alone a title. But as long as the guys in green are playing hard and giving their all, like he does night in and night out, he can probably live with that.
Whether or not the rest of the Celtics listen to Crash or keep trying to pad their own stats remains to be seen. Wallace is trying to nip this team's effort issues in the bud early, but if it continues he may just pack it in and collect his money until he retires. If that happens, the young guys the Celtics plan to keep as part of the rebuild would lose out on all the lessons of "give it your all every minute" and "stats don't matter if the team is winning" that Wallace can offer with his play by example and hands-on teaching. Those are valuable attributes you want out of your players. It's even more important to instill those values early.
The Celtics better listen up.
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