AP: Growing up in Childersburg, Ala., population 4,579, Wallace was the can’t-miss star. He earned national player of the year awards in high school, was a McDonald’s All-American and was expected to become a state hero down the road at Alabama.

It didn’t happen. Wallace didn’t mesh with coach Mark Gottfried and knew right away he’d only spend one year there. Wallace routinely jokes with his teammates that he didn’t go to college.

“The first week of his freshman year he was ready to come out,” Brown said. “I don’t know how much he really got out of a really important year.”

Wallace was the 25th pick in the 2001 draft but never played more than 54 games or average more than 4.7 points in three seasons with the Kings, then a Western Conference power. (read more about Wallace and his basketball career continued below)

3 thoughts on “Gerald Wallace didn’t mesh with Mark Gottfried”

  1. Mark Gottfried was the Mike Shula of Alabama basketball. His outdated High Post offense(which he brought from UCLA) didn’t utilize his players strengthes. The success he had was primarily due to quality assistant coaches like T.R. Dunn and Rah Scott, not to his own coaching ability. Late in his career he, like Shula, refused to fire bad assistant coaches and replace them with good ones. And he left Alabama with millions in his pocket due to a ridiculous buyout. I don’t blame Gerald Wallace for not looking back fondly on his college years. Bama is in much better hands now with Anthony Grant.

  2. Gottfried was propped up by three things. Apathy toward Basketball.
    Winning just enough. ( see above)
    A very compliant and lazy Sports Media .
    Despite all of this – Gottfried is Innocent in this Affair.

  3. Gottfried’s strategy was, recruit well then just roll the basketball out on the court and let ’em play. No scheming involved, and if plan A doesn’t work, keep trying it the entire game with little or no adjustments. He single-handedly made me hate basketball. Seeing Grant’s undermanned team’s play with effort and heart is slowly making me warm back up to it.

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