'Sheed to Boston

And, just like that Rasheed Wallace is a relevant basketball player again. Reports are that Rasheed Wallace has officially ended his stay as a Detroit Piston and will be joining the Boston Celtics next season. Boston is also reportedly interested in Grant Hill, another former Piston great.

What does this mean for Boston? Well, Rasheed is a lot of things, but he is a talented basketball player and his presence coming off the bench could be enough to put them over the top again. The Big 3 became the Big 4 with Rondo's development into a top 5 PG in the NBA. If Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett can turn back the clocks for one more season, I have to think that they have as good a shot as anybody in the East of making it to the finals.

In a sense, this is a sad departure for me. Rasheed was the final piece to the puzzle in that magical 2004 championship run and it is hard not to remember his great play during that sretch run and the swagger that he gave us this year. And yet, Rasheed was maybe the most frustrating player that I have ever watched just as a fan of basketball. His skill set has no limitations and with the right drive and work ethic, he had the natural talent to become not only a very good player but a Hall of Fame player who could take over games and be the best player in the game. Unfortunately, Rasheed never lived up to that talent level and he was perfectly content being the #3 option on our team and going for 13-15 points a night while grabbing 7-8 rebounds. It was always said that the Pistons bucked the trend that year by not having a Hall of Fame talent lead them to the title. I never bought that. Rasheed, if he truly wanted to, could have been that guy. Like Sergei Fedorov, I am afraid that I will remember Rasheed more for what could have been (multiple NBA titles and several All Star appearances) then what was.