ORLANDO — Rasheed Wallace could have joined Mike Woodson’s staff with the Knicks. Instead, he opted to take a job on Maurice Cheeks’ staff with the Pistons, a move that had been long rumored but made official yesterday.
“It was an opportunity [that] was available,” Wallace said yesterday of a spot with the Knicks coaching staff after assisting with Detroit’s summer league team. “But when they offered it, it was at the end of the season. I told them I’d give them an answer this fall, but this job came up.
“What made it more sweeter, my kids are still in Detroit. You miss a lot with your kids and now I get to see stuff I didn’t see over the last few years.”
Wallace signed a two-year deal to work with the Pistons — with whom he won a championship in 2004 — after he retired following last season with the Knicks, capping a 17-year playing career.
Woodson, an assistant under Larry Brown on that title-winning team in Detroit, had coaxed Wallace into returning to the court last season after his initial retirement in 2010, when he played for a Celtics team that lost to the Lakers in seven games in the NBA Finals. Wallace wound up playing in 21 games for the Knicks last season, averaging 7.0 points and 4.0 rebounds, but spent much of the year sidelined with injuries.
—Tim Bontemps