10-22-2007, 09:51 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Sexy Moderator
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Posts: 12,235
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Allan Houston's Comeback Was A Smokescreen?
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On the surface, Allan Houston's failed comeback is a story of all of us, a story of aging and realizing that your body will no longer do what you want it to do when you want it to do it.
The way the 36-year-old Houston told it yesterday, he realized Thursday - before the Knicks' preseason game at the Meadowlands - that this was not the right time or place for a comeback. So after checking with those close to him, he decided to retire for a second time. "I realized in this particular situation with the Knicks and their roster and what they are doing with the team, it just wasn't fair," Houston said of what his comeback would take from the team.
Of course, most of those who watched Houston's play over the years and knew about his less-than-cozy relationship with coach Isiah Thomas never thought that the Knicks were the right place for Houston to mount a serious comeback.
That's why one has to wonder just how serious Houston's attempt was in the first place. Did Houston really want to play again for the Knicks? Or was his barely six-day comeback a favor to owner Jim Dolan, a public-relations smokescreen designed to give everyone else something other than tawdry to focus on in this post-Anucha Browne Sanders Garden?
Houston did some incredible things for the Knicks before his aching knees forced him to retire for the first time two years ago. Though this doesn't rank up there with his playoff-winning shot in Miami as one of his finest moments, it does seem like he was willing to take a bullet for the boss on this one.
Houston has always been close with Dolan, and many think he has a future in the Knicks' front office any time he wants it. A lot of people believe that Houston would have had a much better chance of making another team, including the Nets, who are close enough that he could spend time with his pregnant wife.
Yet, listening to Houston, it sounds as if he never considered another team. "I really felt this was the place," said Houston, who played his last regular-season game for the Knicks in January 2005. "Because had it worked out, I really wanted to be in a Knick uniform. My whole thought process was that it was going to work."
It worked for six days. Houston participated in five practices and one preseason game, an ugly loss at Boston. He played a total of 6 minutes, 11 seconds, and did not make a shot.
During the whole experiment, Thomas never had that much to say. Yesterday, he did say that he thought Houston could play somewhere in the league. He probably also should have said, "Thank you," because Houston's decision to end his comeback on his own saved Thomas - who has 15 guaranteed contracts - the mess of having to cut a Knicks legend.
The brief comeback also gave him and the team a distraction from their ugly offseason, which officially ended when a jury found Thomas and the Garden guilty of sexually harassing Browne Sanders.
Houston did not close the door on coming back again with another team, though the bet here is that this is the end of the road for him.
Said Houston: "If things were not going to work out this season or whenever, I'm comfortable knowing that I believed in something and I went for it."
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http://www.newsday.com/sports/basket...,3173437.story
: Dolan approaches the podium:: "I will like to welcome Allan Houston as our new Vice President of Basketball Operations." lol
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Allan Houston's Comeback Was A Smokescreen?
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