Slam Magazine Profiles Former Rockets Star Rafer Alston

Holy crud I brember that cover of slam when I was younger and had no clue it was rafer until now! Very cool to finally know. Def not the best in the world lol.

 

Finally some real news!

 

I liked Rafer. People here shat on him a lot but he was a very important part to our team.

It really showed in the 2008 playoff series, 2-2 with him and 0-2 without him.

 

Good read

 

Just because he was an important part doesn't mean he wasn't ****. Every time I see his face, I have flashbacks to his ridiculous floater.

 

met Rafer once - He came to our studios after he took the Head Coaching job at that Private School. He was surprisingly quiet and somewhat shy. I think he may have felt a little uncomfortable being at a large Evangelical Christian TV Network - Many people are because they don't know what to expect and are usually uneasy at first. He opened up a little more towards the end of the shoot.

 

Star?

 

Even with his bricks, loved Rafer. True PG, very good defensively, a leader.

 

Off to rewatch Rafer going Skip on the lakers

 

Best tear drop shooter in the league history!

 

My favorite memory of skip was seeing him in Vegas for SL one year and him having like 2-3 FINE women with him and then the following season after one of the Rockets game in LA - he had another train of women waiting for him - this time like 4-5 of them.

one of the former Rockets players was like 'thats skip' when I was like all those ladies are waiting for skip?

 

Hot headed, inconsistent shot, great passer, great handles, ridiculously bad floater that he had unfounded confidence in. I was so happy when we moved on to Lowry.

 

Rafer could handle the rock like nobody else though.
His passes were money and he never really forced anything.
His shooting was terribly streaky, but I mean he was a former streetballer, he's not expected to shoot lights out.
He doesn't make you cringe when he dribbles the ball in traffic unlike Lin.

 

Agreeing that Lowry came to be an improvement, you forget the most important thing with Rafer: he was a winner and winning PG. Something that Aaron Brooks can't say, for instance.

Alston ran the offense very good generally, he was one of the leaders of the team, captain of our defense... An elite defensive PG in my opinion (with that huge handicap at every p&r defense that happened to be playing next to Yao), high character veteran, who knew how to use Yao and run the proper plays.

 

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Rafer was a FLOOR GENERAL.
I haven't seen a single point guard since Rafer that had the leadership and confidence that Rafer Alston came to every game with.
Kyle Lowry is the closest.

His floaters pissed me off, but overall I miss Rafer Alston.

 

Time to check your post history...be right back

 

Every time he took a shot i covered my eyes…..for good reason. He makes Lin look like a sharpshooter. Great ball handler and passer, but the boy could not shoot except on "special" days.

 

I loved Skip's mentality. He was tough as nails and never backed down to anyone.

I still wish this had popped off in the streak-buster at TC back in '08...

 

I always considered AB a stopgap at starting PG. Rafer has his talents. I just hated seeing him play offense. God it was so bad sometimes.