Rasheed Wallace has retired as an NBA player, the Knicks announced today (Twitter link). For Wallace, it's his second retirement. He initially ended his playing career after the 2009/10 season, but returned this year with the Knicks before being sidelined by injuries.
"Rasheed has given this team everything he had," coach Mike Woodson said in a statement (Twitter links). "He is a winner, true professional and leader on and off the court. Due to his injury, he will not be available to play for us during the playoffs."
Although he appeared in just 21 games with the Knicks this season, Wallace played in 1109 contests for six teams in his NBA career, averaging 14.4 PPG and 6.7 RPG in those games, good for more than 16,000 career points. According to Basketball-Reference, the 38-year-old big man earned in the neighborhood of $157MM over the course of his NBA career.
With Wallace no longer in the mix for the Knicks in the postseason, expect the team to release him and use the roster spot to sign another player before tonight's game, says Howard Beck of the New York Times (via Twitter). The team has already replaced one injured big man (Kurt Thomas) with late-season signee Quentin Richardson.
Great player. Will be missed in the Knicks locker room. Gotta go and get another big man
Awesome and entertaining career. He will be missed, again.