What is Rasheed Wallace's Net Worth and Career Earnings?
Rasheed Wallace is a retired American basketball player who has a net worth of $75 million. Rasheed Wallace played in the NBA for the Washington Bullets, Portland Trail Blazers, and Detroit Pistons, among other teams. With the Pistons, he won the 2004 NBA championship title. After retiring from playing in 2013, Wallace had coaching positions with the Pistons, Charles E. Jordan High School, and the University of Memphis.
Career Earnings
During his playing career, Rasheed Wallace earned over $156 million in salary alone. At one point he ranked as the 25th highest-paid NBA player of all time in terms of total career earnings. His highest salary in a single season was $17 million.
Early Life and High School
Rasheed Wallace was born on September 17, 1974 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has two older brothers named Malcolm and Muhammed. Wallace started his basketball career as a teenager at Simon Gratz High School, where he was named USA Today's High School Player of the Year following his senior season. He was also proficient in other sports, including baseball and track and field.
Collegiate Career
For college, Wallace was recruited to the University of North Carolina by the school's coach Dean Smith. Wallace played football at UNC for two years, during which time he was named a second-team All-American and helped lead the Tar Heels to the NCAA Final Four. Following his sophomore season, Wallace left to declare for the NBA draft.
Washington Bullets
In the 1995 NBA draft, Wallace was selected by the Washington Bullets. He played in 65 games as a rookie before a thumb injury sidelined him for the remainder of the season. Ultimately, he finished with averages of 10.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 3.4 assists, and was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team.
Portland Trail Blazers
Wallace was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers in 1996. After a strong start in which he ranked third in the league in field goal percentage, he was again stymied by a thumb injury. However, he was able to recover in time for the first round of the playoffs against the Los Angeles Lakers. The subsequent years were rocky for Wallace; in 1997, he set a new NBA single-season record for technical fouls, with 38. He broke that record the very next year with 40. Moreover, Wallace was suspended for seven games for threatening referee Tim Donaghy. He returned to the team's good graces in 2000 when he was named an NBA All-Star, a feat he repeated in 2001. Also in 2001, Wallace scored a career-best 42 points in a win against the Denver Nuggets. The following year, he helped lead the Trail Blazers to the NBA playoffs.
Atlanta Hawks
In early 2004, Wallace was traded to the Atlanta Hawks. He ultimately only played one game with the team, during which he posted 20 points, six rebounds, two assists, five blocks, and a steal. The Hawks lost the game to the New Jersey Nets.
Detroit Pistons
Wallace had his greatest NBA success with the Detroit Pistons, to which he was traded in 2004. With the team that year, he made it to his first NBA Finals. A highlight was Game 4, when Wallace posted 26 points, 13 rebounds, and two assists in a victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. He ultimately helped the Pistons claim the NBA championship in an upset over the Lakers, taking the series 4-1. In the subsequent offseason, Wallace signed a $57 million, five-year contract to stay in Detroit. He went on to have another strong season in 2004-05, again making it to the playoffs and then the NBA Finals. Ultimately, the Pistons fell to the San Antonio Spurs.
In the 2005-06 season, Wallace helped the Pistons achieve a 64-18 record, making the team the top seed in the Eastern Conference. After defeating the Milwaukee Bucks and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Pistons lost to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals. Wallace made it back to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2007, but was fouled out of Game 6. Again claiming an Eastern Conference Finals berth in 2008, Wallace and the Pistons fell to the Boston Celtics. Following the season, Wallace left the Pistons.
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Boston Celtics
Wallace signed with the Boston Celtics in the summer of 2009. He struggled with his performance during the regular season, averaging career lows in both points and rebounds per game. Despite this, the Celtics advanced to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Lakers. In the summer of 2010, Wallace announced his retirement from the NBA after the buyout of his Celtics contract.
New York Knicks
Wallace came out of retirement in late 2012 to sign with the New York Knicks. Early the following year, he was sidelined for multiple weeks due to a broken left foot that required surgery. Returning in April of 2013, Wallace played three minutes off the bench; shortly after, he announced his second NBA retirement.
Coaching Career
Following his retirement from playing, Wallace became an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons. He served in this position during the 2013-14 season, but was not rehired after that. Wallace returned to coaching in 2019 as the boys varsity basketball coach at Charles E. Jordan High School, located in Durham, North Carolina. After leaving the school in 2021, he became an assistant coach at the University of Memphis.
