I understand that Francis and Marbury is a MUCH more talented backcourt and Houston and Sprewell even had more shortcomings. Such as, Sprewell played with a lot of energry and passion, but was very very erratic, while Houston was a very good overall offensive player, but limited on defense and couldn't board for his life. And Francis and Marbury are both better and flashier scorers.

However, I think it's been clearly proven that the fact that these 2 are flat out knuckleheads at the age of 29 and just don't know how to play friggin' team basketball, and their defense is just off the wall terrible put together. That's why I even said that Allan was better defensively, b/c at least he gave it his best for the most part, besides in his much younger years. And Sprewell and Houston, overall, worked great together and seemed to co exist pretty well. They were winning basketball players. (Despite the final couple of sucky years they were together.)

Didn't Sprewell mostly play SF?

Anyway, Sprewell always played good D, whatever else was going on. I guess I'd have to go with Sprewell & Houston.

I'm pretty sure both Marbury and Francis are better ball handlers though.

I think anyone on this board would rather have a healthy H20 and Spree from back in the day compared to the mess we have today.

MArbury really isn't that bad a defensive player.

right... other than the fact that he gets torched by scrubs like Milt Palacio, Tyronn Lue & Dan Dickau on a regular basis, he's a great defender.

Posted by TMS:

MArbury really isn't that bad a defensive player.

right... other than the fact that he gets torched by scrubs like Milt Palacio, Tyronn Lue & Dan Dickau on a regular basis, he's a great defender.

Well, you can't judge a players defense based soley on defense can you?

sprewell is the guy I would want to walk down a dark alley with late at night- he doesn't back down and whatever else you can say about him, he is tough.

Marbury and Francis should be flavors at Carvel- they're Softies.

Posted by franco12:

sprewell is the guy I would want to walk down a dark alley with late at night- he doesn't back down and whatever else you can say about him, he is tough.

Marbury and Francis should be flavors at Carvel- they're Softies.

WHen Spree was with GS, he tried to kill that real scary Mike Tyson lookalike guy with a wooden board. ANyone remember who i'm talking about - they were teammates, guy was about 6'5", built like a pit bull, from Oklahoma or OK State, mean look like a Tyson.

[Edited by - marv on 03-22-2006 12:34 PM]

Oh God, please. The point is, what duo would you rather have.

Posted by Allanfan20:

Oh God, please. The point is, what duo would you rather have.

Spree and Houston but that wasn't your poll's point. But I also would take Fraizer/Monroe over Spree/Houston, hell I take Harper/Starks over Spree/Houston. I haven't seen what Francis/Marbury can do with a season. BTW, to make some sense, the Spree/Houston show didn't work well right off the back. Got a man sort of fired, got a team in a nasty position that were able to pull off late wins to get the #8 seed. Let me these 2 together with more than 1 month.

First off, the point of the poll was to show that while people moaned and groaned about Houston and even Sprewell (More so Houston) that they now realize that it was f'ed up, b/c while they kept complaining and complaining about it, it was still a competitive as hell backcourt that won games for the most part and again, while they were THE MOST talented of defenders, they held their own, and were able to rotate well, depending on the matchups. Marbury/Francis hasn't shown any signs of that, as they get constantly torched by opposing guards. Constantly, and Marbury continues to complain to the media. I think Bip hit it on the head, that these guys were coddled as kids, treated as superstars, spoonfed, and now they are suffering the consequenses.

Posted by Marv:

Posted by franco12:

sprewell is the guy I would want to walk down a dark alley with late at night- he doesn't back down and whatever else you can say about him, he is tough.

Marbury and Francis should be flavors at Carvel- they're Softies.

WHen Spree was with GS, he tried to kill that real scary Mike Tyson lookalike guy with a wooden board. ANyone remember who i'm talking about - they were teammates, guy was about 6'5", built like a pit bull, from Oklahoma or OK State, mean look like a Tyson.

[Edited by - marv on 03-22-2006 12:34 PM]

damn, thanks for leaving me hanging!

or not giving a s**t, both equally acceptable responses actually.

all right, i got off my butt and looked it up (fortutnately didnt really require me getting off my butt).

It was BYRON HOUSTON.

Anyone else rememr the incident when Spree attacked him with a 2X4 in practice. Houston was 6'5" 250# and mad scary!

Here's a profile on him:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/houstby01.html

Here's a pic:

[Edited by - marv on 03-22-2006 1:05 PM]