Rasheed Gives Back to Community Youth

As he gives the jersey to his wide-eyed son, does that man have the right to expect over the next few weeks, months or even years that Wallace will not have his name splashed across newspapers for something negative?

"You never know what can happen out there," said Wallace, the Portland Trail Blazers' frontcourt star out of Simon Gratz High. "Who's to say whether or not I'll get arrested someday? I'm not saying I put myself into those kinds of negative situations, but the way things are today, I don't put nothin' past nobody. "I don't live my life the way I do so people can admire me. I'm just living. I mean, you can try to model yourself after certain people, but the best thing to do, I feel, is be your own person."

The newly married Wallace returned to the region yesterday to receive an honor and interact with young people who are hoping to attain positive goals with the help of athletics.

The site was Neumann College in Aston, where 20 inner-city high school youngsters were in their sixth day of a 10-day enrichment camp being held by International Student Athlete Academy Inc., a non-profit corporation dedicated to academic skill training and personal development for athletes.

Through his Rasheed A. Wallace Foundation, Wallace made the "primary financial contribution," according to Carlos Bradley, a former San Diego Charger also involved in the project, to make the first-time camp a reality.

Wallace received a trophy in appreciation of his commitment, made himself available for a short speech followed by questions and answers, posed for numerous photos with campers and Neumann personnel and then moved to the gym, where he tossed up the first ball for the camper-staff basketball game.

When Wallace walked into the room where the eager campers were waiting, one of the first things he did was smile and tell them, "Don't worry. I'm not going to talk your heads off."

He said he backed the camp because he saw himself in the youngsters, "so it's like giving back to my own people."

He told the campers they were likely to "face a whole lot of unnecessary garbage" while growing up and he urged them "to not stray down the wrong street because you never know what might happen."

Though he credited his mother and brothers with teaching him proper values, ultimately, he said, he considers himself to be self-trained "because no one can make you do things. It has to be inside. I've always been able to see things through to their fullest."

When counselor Jamal Green, a Neumann College player from Bartram, asked Wallace to comment about how his on-court demeanor is sometimes ripped in the media, Wallace said, "More than half of those cats don't know me, have never sat down to talk to me. When people say negative words about me, I work harder in the gym and try to make them eat those words."

One major topic was how to keep trouble at a distance.

"It's tough," Wallace said with a sigh to the campers. "You have to separate things along that thin line, do the things that are right instead of what's cool."

Later, standing outside the gym, he addressed that issue some more.

"Some of those negative guys are 'your boys,'" he said. "They were around long before you got any status through playing good basketball. When you put some distance there, sure, maybe they're going to call you names. But I'd rather be called a sellout than be dragged down into something negative."

Wallace is involved in a number of give-back projects. He underwrites the costs for a traveling basketball team, based at Hunting Park Rec Center; organizes clothing drives; holds a free, two-week basketball camp each summer at Gratz; and distributes 50 tickets for every Blazers game to youth groups, churches, standout students, etc.

The seats are in the lower deck, close to the floor.

"I don't want them up in the nosebleeds," he said, laughing.

Wallace and his girlfriend of several years, Fatima Sanders, were married July 18. They are raising three children -- one son each from previous relationships and their son born last year. This summer, the fivesome is bouncing between Philadelphia, Portland, and North Carolina, home of Rasheed's mother, Jackie.

Other Charitable Involvement
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• Foundation Lends Helping Hand

• Rasheed Stays Involved

• Philly Coat Drive

• Sheed's Squad

• Committed Partners for Youth

• NBA Team Up Day

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