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Houston waiting for lift-off


Aug 24, 2005


It is always difficult to script an ending for an athlete.

At an age when most careers are just beginning an upswing, an athlete faces decisions that are painful on a visible stage. A game that they have played for their entire lives, a game that became a career, is yanked from them. It is either eroding skills or injury that puts the decision before a player. And Allan Houston is facing that decision.

Houston has been facing it for years now, an unforgiving knee robbing him of the ability to play the game that he has lived, growing up under a father, Wade, who was a coach. And Houston’s decision has been complicated by a contract that makes every part of this decision, every attempt to hobble back onto the court, an effort that is calculated against the massive contract that he is being paid.


It is enough that the one-time amnesty rule in the collective bargaining agreement was openly referred to as, “the Allan Houston clause.”

“I think it’s an honor to have a rule named after you, being an overpaid, injured athlete,” Houston said, laughing, on a conference call. “No, I’m just kidding. I don’t consider it embarrassing because I think that you have to realize that a lot of people make decisions and in the NBA, they make decisions and rules in order for everyone to profit, not just the NBA. That’s just how it is. Nobody intends on being injured. It just happens. When that happens, and nobody has control over it, and that’s just the way it is.

“My first option was always to finish here and it was always my dream,” he said. “Hopefully, that will still happen. I was prepared (for the amnesty clause).”

But Houston was not a victim of the clause, left to make the decision for himself. When the chance to cut themselves loose from Houston and clear themselves of the luxury tax nightmare that they face, the Knicks chose to hang onto Houston, at least for now.

This has raised all sorts of questions, questions of just what Houston can do on the court and what he should do off of it. What does he owe the Knicks? What do the Knicks owe him – besides a still-substantial sum of money that clouds their salary cap and payroll.

Houston will continue to rehabilitate, continue to work his way back. And then he will have to decide himself whether to go on or if he will walk away and retire.

“It was something that was tough for everybody to go through,” Houston said. “the last thing I want was for it to be a distraction for the team not to be sure ab out, and that’s why the way that Mr. Dolan handled it, I think, is the best way of doing it. Because he allows me to come back and he has trusted me and basically that I can do it, and if I can’t, then he’s trusting enough to say I can’t. But I believe that I can. I don’t think we’ll have to go through that anymore.”

The Knicks and Houston have gone though it enough that the Knicks have already moved in another direction. Larry Brown has pointed to a roster with Stephon Marbury shifting to the shooting guard spot, with Jamal Crawford at the point and Quentin Richardson backing up Marbury and also playing some small forward. That leaves little room or need for Houston.

It might be better for all parties involved if Houston would walk away, but it is a difficult, a gut-wrenching decision for an athlete to make. Houston was not at the end of his career when the injury occurred and he has worked so hard and so long that he can’t be blamed for trying to see his way back onto the court.

And the Knicks, as much as they have moved forward, would benefit, too, if he came back. Rather than cutting him loose, they would have a useful commodity – a shooter now and a trading chip later.

“I communicated with the Knicks and I planned on being back,” he said. And if I can’t get back to the level I want to get back to, then I will consider it – retiring.”

So he works on his own, a practice court a less pressure-laden place to push himself back. There is no team relying on him now in the summer, just a day-to-day routine. He won’t reveal to the media what the routine is or how far he has come. He will report to training camp and before the first day of the season make a decision.

It is a hard decision. But at least for Houston, after all this time, the decision is his.


NOT SO LUCKY

The Knicks and Nets made decisions for other players. Jerome Williams was the victim of the Knicks amnesty clause, moving from the court to the front office where he will be a part of the Knicks community programs. And the Nets rid themselves of Ron Mercer, ending their own impatience with his injury problems.

Like Houston, they were each victims of circumstance. Mercer became expendable when the Nets obtained Vince Carter – and then found themselves falling into a draft spot where a two-guard was the best player on the board. The Knicks remain overcrowded at power forward and as much as Williams energy was a favorite for the fans, the Knicks brought in Channing Frye, Jerome James and David Lee in the frontcourt, so they cleared a contract and a spot on the roster.