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Saturday, February 3, 2001
Wallace suspended for hitting official with towel
Associated Press
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NEW YORK -- Portland forward Rasheed Wallace was suspended for two games without pay and fined $10,000 by the NBA on Friday for hitting an official with a towel Thursday night.
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Wallace was ejected with 8:56 left in Portland's 100-92 victory
over Phoenix after receiving his league-leading 27th technical.
Wallace charged official Gary Benson near midcourt and threw a towel that hit the referee in the face. Wallace repeatedly rushed at Benson and had to be held back by his coaches and teammates.
The NBA also cited Wallace's failure to leave the court in a timely manner in announcing the suspension, which will begin Saturday with a road game against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Portland coach Mike Dunleavy said Thursday night that there
isn't much he can do to bring Wallace under control.
"That's up to him. He'll have to decide when that stops,"
Dunleavy said. "He left with a lot of time remaining and it could
have cost us the game."
Most of Wallace's teammates continue to accept his aberrant behavior.
"The bottom line is Rasheed has given us a whole lot more good
than he had bad," said guard Greg Anthony. "Some people are just
a certain way. He is grown up. He has been that way and he is not
going to change overnight."
However, Detlef Schrempf, recently activated from the semi-retired list to replace the injured Scottie Pippen on the Blazers' roster, said Wallace needs to rein in his behavior.
"They're going to pick on him and it's almost like they're enticing him to blow his top," Schrempf told the Salem (Ore.) Statesman Journal. "He's got to learn to control it. It's going to hurt us, but it's really going to hurt his career.
"The way he's playing, he's one of the best players right now in the league, and he's hurting himself."
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