Thursday, September 2, 2004

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/today/sports/stories/sp090204s1.shtml
Knicks' Houston makes trip to Kingston
Guard at hospital fund-raiser
By Roderick Boone
Poughkeepsie Journal

KINGSTON -- His name came up a few times during the television broadcasts, especially when the subject turned to the horrific outside shooting of the United States Olympic men's basketball team in Athens, Greece.
A player like New York Knicks guard Allan Houston -- if he wasn't rehabilitating an injury and was available -- would've helped the Americans, critics said.

Houston, though, isn't quite so sure that having a few more shooters would have been the remedy.

''People talk about the shooting. Yeah, they could have used a couple of shooters,'' Houston said Wednesday at Hillside Manor, minutes after serving as the guest of honor at a fund-raiser benefitting the planned construction of the Cancer Center at Benedictine Hospital in Kingston.

''But I don't think that would have been the answer. I really don't. You just have to know each other. You have to have chemistry. You have to know how to play in different ways. And I think they'll be fine.

''We have learned a valuable lesson -- everybody.''

The players have been ridiculed on all the late-night talk shows, and many columnists and TV commentators chastised the team for failing to win the gold medal for the first time since NBA players started competing in the Olympics in 1992.

Houston said the criticism is unwarranted.

''It's not their fault. It's really not,'' said Houston, who was a member of the 2000 gold medal ''Dream Team'' in Sydney. ''I just hope that people don't blame those group of guys, because they played hard and they did what they were told.''

Young players on team

Houston also believes youth was a factor. The oldest member of the team was Allen Iverson, who turned 29 years old in June. The majority of the roster is comprised of early 20-year-olds. Seven players on the 12-man roster were born in the 1980s.

The youth, paired with the way the game is played on the international level, just made for a tough combination for the Americans in Houston's eyes.

''They are young,'' he said. ''Some guys have come just right out of high school and right out of college. And like anything in life, your craft, you have to gain experience. And the international basketball style is a style of experience, fluidity, chemistry and team play.

''Our NBA style is really not geared toward that as whole. There are certain teams who do do that. So I think we have very talented individual players. But the NBA style and American style is moving away from that team chemistry. And I think it's just a reflection of how we play.''

Right now, however, Knicks fans are probably more worried about how well -- and how much -- the 6-foot-6 University of Tennessee product is going to play this coming season. Hampered by an injury to his right knee for the majority of the season, Houston played in only 50 games.

He's been rehabilitating during the summer and said his knee ''has made a lot of progress.'' But although he's feeling better by the day, he's not quite 100 percent yet and isn't going to play until he knows his knee is completely healed.

He doesn't want to go through last season all over again.

''One thing I refuse to do this year,'' Houston said, ''is to go in playing when I am not ready. And it got me to where I am. I was out there when I shouldn't have been out there from day one. And so I am planning to be in camp and be ready for the beginning of the season. That's my plan. I have made a lot of progress. I'm able to do a lot of things I haven't been able to do for a long time.

''But I am just really, really cautious right now. I am at the point now where I want to be there for the long haul. I don't want to play a few games and have to sit out. I want to make sure that I am ready and I've learned from last year that what I did last year is not the way to get there. The way to get there is to make sure you are 100-percent ready. So that's what I plan on doing.''

Roderick Boone can be reached at rboone@poughkeepsiejournal.com