Rasheed Wallace's Welcome-To-NBA-Moment Came Courtesy Of Journeyman Center
Joe Kleine's NBA career didn't go as expected.
After being drafted No. 6 in 1985 by Sacramento Kings, he averaged 4.8 points in 15 seasons. One year Kleine played so sparingly, he appeared wearing a warmup shirt in his basketball card for Skybox (1990-91).
So why are we talking about Kleine?
Before he retired, he last a lasting mark on Washington Bullets rookie Rasheed Wallace in 1995. In fact, Wallace credits Kleine for his Welcome-To-The-NBA moment. Wallace told the story during a recent appearance on the All The Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
It began with Wallace yelling after a dunk against Kleine, who was playing for the Phoenix Suns at the time.
At that moment, Kleine had enough.
"He said, `Hey, you little mother (expletive), if you do that again, I'm a wipe you out,"' Wallace said. "Man, whatever dawg, you ain't gonna do nothing to me. Two, three players later, we ran the same play, just a little different option. And I'm trying to go to the rim. I got the ball in my hand. The next thing you know, I'm grabbing for hands getting up off the floor. He looked at me and said, `I told you. Don't bring that shit down here."'
The moment humbled Wallace, who eventually became one of the NBA's tough guys during his career. He later joined the contending Portland Trail Blazers before winning a championship in 2004 with the Detroit Pistons.
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