Rasheed Wallace was truly a player before his time.
He was the definition of a stretch big. He checked in at 6-foot-10, 225 pounds, and had a strong post game, but he was absolutely dominant from downtown when he got on a hot streak from beyond the arch.
Wallace would fit perfectly on a modern NBA basketball team, and that's not a stretch to say.
Could he play at an MVP level, though? Andre Iguodala, speaking on "The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz," certainly thinks Wallace could hold his own among the best of the best in today's NBA.
"(During his career), Rasheed Wallace probably could have been a top-five player in the league for a 10-year stretch," Iguodala said (h/t thescore.com). "He just chose - 'Ah, I'll just do my thing over here.' He was shooting half-court shots left-handed and right-handed.
"If Rasheed Wallace played in modern-day basketball ... he'd be a top-five player in the league. He'd be better than Giannis, and I love Giannis."
As it is, Wallace should be considered one of the better big men to ever lace 'em up. He averaged just 14.4 points and 6.7 seven rebounds over a long, 18-season NBA career, but he had stretches of absolute dominance.
Notably, Wallace was the "missing piece" for the Detroit Pistons' 2004 championship team. The Pistons traded for him midway through the season, and he proved to be the additional offensive spark the team needed. He was also part of a dominant defensive tandem alongside Ben Wallace in Detroit's frontcourt.
Wallace was a four-time All-Star, and although he never sniffed MVP status, it would certainly be fun to see how he could hold his own against the Giannis Antetokounmpo-type players of the NBA world in 2022 and beyond.
Good or bad, Wallace taught us all that the "ball don't lie."
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