PHILADELPHIA — A week after the 2020 Super Bowl, won by the Kansas City Chiefs, some visitors showed up from Philadelphia to see Rasheed Wallace, coaching high school basketball in North Carolina at the time.
His attire, for two straight days? This proud son of Philadelphia was still celebrating, wearing full-on Chiefs gear: hat, shirt, necklace in Chiefs colors, with a Chiefs pendant.
His team since he was a kid.
“When I got interested in football, nobody was cheering for Kansas City,” Wallace said. “Kansas City was trash. I said, ‘That’s my team.’ Then what happens? We get Joe Montana and Marcus Allen …”
That was then. Kansas City wasn’t playing his hometown Eagles. Wallace, once national high school player of the year at Simon Gratz High, is so proud of his roots that he said making the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame was bigger to him than if he was ever inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
And what about this time?
Wallace texted this week, “1000% CHIEFS on this one!!”
He said his Instagram feed “is flooded with people who couldn’t believe I was KC ALL DAY.” (For instance: “How you from Philly and a chiefs fan? Another technical on you”) ... On his feed, Wallace lets loose, going full WWE ... “So this is what it boils down to Mean Gene: We’ve got these pretenders over here called the Philadelphia Pigeons, and we’ve got these bona-fide champions over here called the Kansas City CHIEEEEEFS!”
Of course, he hears it from Philly friends, too.
“The [trash] talking really just starting up lolol…” Wallace texted. “Talked with my old heads Charlie Mack, Jazzy Jeff, Gillie to start off but we have a week and a half left to get it in.”
Trash-texting with DJ Jazzy Jeff is some high-level trash-texting.
Separate from this current fun, Wallace stays close to the Philly basketball scene, watching it all, including Imhotep Charter‘s Justin Edwards — “I’ve been following yungbawl … he’s pretty good.”
The senior headed for Kentucky who is top-rated in the country by ESPN.com is the first Philadelphia Public League player since Wallace in 1993 to be named a McDonald’s All-American. That fact, it being so long, surprises even Wallace. He thought there had to be someone since then, “but I guess not.” He’s glad Edwards is representing the city.
As you’d expect, Wallace, who lives in North Carolina, isn’t backing down against any fellow hoops legends on his football love, including Dawn Staley, coach of the top-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks, a fellow Pub alum who wore a Jalen Hurts Eagles jersey under her blazer during her team’s game against Alabama on Sunday.
“Sheed’s not welcome in Philly until after March,” Staley texted. “Put that in writing.”
South Carolina has its biggest regular-season game of the season earlier on Super Bowl Sunday, a battle of current unbeatens with LSU.
“I’m somewhat of a superstitious person so I want everything to be the same synergy to get this Super Bowl chip!!” Staley texted about possible attire that day.
Wallace said he won’t be heading to Arizona.
“When we win it I’m going to have a parade with the trophy from Stinkin Financial Field to 11th and McKean [in South Philly] where the celebration ends,” Wallace texted.
That’s the location of Big Charlie’s Saloon, the big Chiefs bar in the city. Wallace apparently knows the way.
“It’s all in fun as fans,” Wallace said in parting. “So by Valentine’s Day I’ll be cheering for my Broad St. Bullies and the Sixers.”
