http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/dalessandro/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1129612417151980.xml&coll=1
Overpaid? A better word is priceless
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
BY DAVE D'ALESSANDRO
Star-Ledger Staff

The saddest part of a great athlete's life is not when he retires, but when he retires and becomes one of those people who would never know with any certainty what he was about, left to wonder whether his identity would remain the reflection of what he saw in the eyes of others.

If that happens to Allan Houston anytime soon, even for a fleeting moment, shame on all of us. The chat show gasbags and Internet typists will undoubtedly emphasize how he was overpaid all these years, how he never delivered the championship that Garden denizens deem as their birthright, or how -- despite considerable evidence to the contrary -- he lacked the toughness and charisma that a team could rally around.

To which we'll take this opportunity to say: Dude, seriously.

We cannot deny there will always be a pall hovering over Houston's nine years in New York, but that is because we can never forget the average yutz who booed him regularly after Scott Layden gave him $100 million in the summer of '01.

People somehow find that charming about New York and its fans -- they tell you what they're thinking, goes the refrain -- but some of us have always found the lack of appreciation for Houston's game nauseating. The root of this disapproval was obvious: People resent other people making lots of money. And inevitably, there will be times when contracts create a standard that is too high for most players to reach.

Such a player is almost doomed to fail -- especially if you're talking about the max contracts that GMs were doling out like no-bid defense contracts five years ago, to recipients who could never carry a team by themselves to June.

Houston was one of them. But in a way, he had it harder than the rest, because he was doomed to fail in New York City.

Ed Tapscott, the Charlotte Bobcats president who helped recruit free agent Allan Houston for the Knicks in the summer of 1996, said it best yesterday: "In New York, mere perfection is insufficient. Unless you win the whole damn thing, you're disappointed in New York. That's just the way it is.

"Was Allan unappreciated? Look, he played in big games and scored a bunch of points. Remember, Patrick Ewing was more unappreciated. Everyone knows now, 'Wow, we had a real franchise guy -- a REAL franchise guy.' But Allan had a terrific career, and like other terrific players, he got close but didn't get there. Only in New York, it ends up being one thing. Insufficient."

For some of us, his class and beautiful jump shot were enough. Even after Ewing was gone, Houston had his best seasons, his understated elegance a perfect complement to Latrell Sprewell's overstated vulgarity.

It was Sprewell who was treated as the star, however, because attitude and swagger go a long way in the NBA. More often than not, it becomes paramount, and fans become dazzled by form over substance. Management, always keen to trends, then rides the wave: It helps sell tickets and jerseys, and only after the guy flames out do you realize that it wasn't worth the headache.

Consider Sprewell: All he did was hit New York like a typhoon, spend one year in repentance, and after he decided he had rehabilitated himself, he went back to being a self-centered jerk.

Houston never committed a selfish act, never uttered a cross word, never had an awkward moment. He never disgraced the uniform or himself. He worked on his game as hard as anyone, played hurt as often as anyone, and the fact that his game looked like something out of the Bolshoi was the result of hard work, not dumb luck.

We celebrate his career today because he is one of those guys you wish the league promoted more -- and fans appreciated more -- when they had the chance. Now that chance is gone, wrecked by bad knees.

It sounds as though he can live with it. For the record, Houston wants to be remembered as "someone who gave it their all, who came to practice every day and was consistent, someone you could count on, especially when it was needed the most. (But) I would like to be remembered more for the person that you could be more than the basketball player, because that's eternal."

You'd roll your eyes if it were any other guy saying that. In this case, it's a relief that New York finally had an athlete who could write his own legacy with such accuracy.

Dave D'Alessandro appears regularly in The Star-Ledger.
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For once, I can say I agree with D'Alessandro 100%.

guys a great writer... doesnt he cover the Nets now?

Posted by fishmike:

guys a great writer... doesnt he cover the Nets now?

Yeah he does Fish. He started writing about the Nets about 3 years ago after writing about the Knicks for YEARS, to this day I still don't know why he's not still covering the Knicks.

[Edited by - nyk4ever on 10-18-2005 3:17 PM]

Dave D'! BINGO! Thank you for writing that! YOu nailed it. The words go long to describe what many non allan believers were missing.

It also describes my distaste for Spree.

Dave was the first internet writer I followed a few years ago before it got real easy to read up on the team. Excellent piece!Thank you for posting it Tels!

yeah, great article. Sometimes NY fans suck.