NEW YORK — Doc Rivers says Rasheed Wallace never should’ve retired and that he’s rooting for him to do well with the Knicks.
“I love him,” the Celtics coach said before Boston met the Knicks Monday at MSG.
“He was great for us. I’m happy for him. We had a long conversation last year and I just never thought he should’ve retired. I said that when he retired. I just thought it was too early for him. I’m glad he’s playing. Players should play. I think sometimes at the end of your career you’re almost talked into retirement and so you start thinking about it and you do it.
“And then you’re sitting at home and thinking, ‘I should play.'”
Wallace, 38, helped the Celtics reach the 2010 NBA Finals, where they lost to the Lakers.
After two years away from the game, he returned to join the Knicks and coach Mike Woodson, an assistant on the 2004 Pistons NBA championship team.
But Wallace will miss his 12th straight game tonight with a stress reaction in his left foot. The Knicks officially list him as having a “sore left foot.”
He is averaging 7.2 points and 4.2 rebounds.
Despite the injury, Rivers said: “I’m really happy for him. I don’t want him to have too much success but I want him to have a lot of success. He was good for us. He’s a better guy than people know.”
