NBA FINALS: PISTONS v SPURS

June 18, 2005

Rasheed Wallace

RASHEED WALLACE: I would have to say from within. No one here on this squad deals with failure well, and that goes from head coach all the way down to the trainers. No one deals with failure well, and we pretty much think that especially now, it's a best-out-of-three-game series, and to come all this way only to lose, after a whole season, down the drain is failure. So we have to come out there with resiliency and just play, man, just play.

RASHEED WALLACE: It would mean a lot. It would definitely mean a lot. I think this year it was definitely harder than last year, and that's for the simple fact that so many teams coming at us, even in the playoffs and even in the regular season, but hey, we're still here and we're still fighting. We know it's a marathon and not a sprint.

RASHEED WALLACE: Just the whole city, it has history, no matter if it's hockey, basketball, have a good history in football. People here are big sports nuts, and that's always a good thing. As far as the team, I was real happy when I came here. You know, playing with a couple of guys that I already knew from previous teams and knowing what type of people they are off the court, so you know, that made the transition easy.

RASHEED WALLACE: He haven't had to do nothing, really. We knew what the situation we were in when we came back here to The Palace down 2-0. Our coach just went over the regular X's and O's, but we knew what we had to do as players and I think also that's the signs of a good team and a good coach to where he knew that we knew what to do. You know, he didn't have to sit up there and try to beat it in our head, well, we've got to play hard and do this and do that. No, he knew we were going to do that.

RASHEED WALLACE: I mean, it might have helped my career, but as a person, no. It's just moving to a new city. Like if you were to move from your hometown to a new city, you know, it's just things that you deal with. I mean, as far as me personally, nothing really changed too much about me except the area where I'm living at now. I would say that's about it.

RASHEED WALLACE: No. It was just a connect that my cousin had, someone that he knew. So it was just one phone call. That's something that I've always wanted to do since high school.

RASHEED WALLACE: Not at all. Not at all, because it's not going to change who I am. It's not going to change the things that I do, so everyone has their opinions and perspective of people, and you know, just because maybe some of your coworkers don't like you or whatever, is that going to change the type of writer that you are? No. You're just going to keep living your life.

RASHEED WALLACE: No. Even one of my teammates Richard Hamilton don't like me too much. (Laughter). Honestly, it doesn't bother me. You've still got to go out there and be the same person that you are. I can't worry about what everyone else thinks of me outside of my home, so that doesn't affect me.