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Twenty Years ago.......(another Jeremy Lin thread?!?!)...

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by Zboy, Oct 29, 2013.

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  1. Zboy

    Zboy Contributing Member

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    …Rockets drafted a 23 year old point guard and somewhat permanently demoted him to a bench player role for the next two years.

    After an electrifying career at Florida State, he should have asked the coach to make him the starter. Unfortunately this one was too passive. He did not lobby for a starting job. Weak minded. It seems he was never taught the black ways of the NBA.

    During his tenure as a Rocket, the coach singled him out. He was kept on a short leash. His minutes were erratic. Sometimes did not play him at all. He was even yelled at for the slightest mistake on national TV and even when he was playing well. eg. the “Go to the f****g ball” rant (rep to whoever can tell me which game this was in)

    So how did this young bench player/point guard respond?

    1994 Playoffs. Game 7 Suns vs Rockets. 22 points on 8-12 from the field, 7 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, and several clutch shots.

    Sun coach Paul Westphal called Cassell's three-pointer with 4:50 to play—a shot launched just a heartbeat before the shot-clock buzzer—"the dagger in our hearts."

    <iframe width="640" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/qunCpYSvnqo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

    ….with the series at one game each and the Madison Square Garden crowd howling, he scored Houston's last seven points, starting with another nerveless three-pointer with 32.6 seconds left and the Rockets trailing 88-86. Houston won by four. It turned out to be the pivotal game of the series. Afterward, Knick center Patrick Ewing stood in the losers' dressing room and told reporters, "Cosell really stepped up tonight."

    "I know, I know—he called me Cosell" Cassell groans. Then he brightens and adds, "But they know my name now."

    1995 Playoffs. Game 5 Spurs vs Rockets. 30 points on 8-17 from the field, 12 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, and an entire clutch 4th quarter

    <iframe width="640" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/rInVDlgu6L0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

    In the 1995 Finals against the Magic, Cassell told Smith, "Relax. I'm giving you the night off" and then rang up 31 points in Houston's Game 2 victory in Orlando. "I thought he was kidding," Smith says.

    It was pointed out that Cassell is only a second-year player, but he said: "Look, I've played 43 playoff games in two years. I feel like a veteran."

    "What can you do?" the Magic point guard said. "Kenny doesn't have a good night, Sam comes in and turns it on. Seems like you can't keep both down."

    "It's like this: If Kenny's on, he's going to play," Cassell said. "If I'm on, I'm going to play. We're each other's biggest cheerleaders."

    A player that made the best of his situation after Rockets placed him in the right situation knowing his skillset...

    Cassell says, "I found myself constantly selling myself to them as a point guard. And they'd tell me I didn't have 'point guard skills.' "

    An inconsistent player, a bench player that often closed out big games for the Rockets, and a spark off the bench that made solid contributions to a contending team on the stage that matters most….

    NBA playoffs.

    "Point guard Sam Cassell's clutch performances as the Houston Rockets' sixth man during their NBA title runs the past two seasons would have been enough to get him noticed."

    Many players would gladly settle for a career of this demoted player as a Houston Rocket. I would personally take this bench player on my All time Rockets team.

    Show your game on the biggest stage of the NBA and you have earned respect and made a name for yourself, even if you are demoted to being 10th man, and coming off the bench.

    PS. He did get traded after three years on the Rockets. Ooops

    Link to articles...

    http://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/10/s...th-hop-and-a-skip-cassell-starts-rockets.html

    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1007395/1/index.htm
     
    #1 Zboy, Oct 29, 2013
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2013
    6 people like this.
  2. LCII

    LCII Contributing Member

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    Good post. Gotta make the best out of a worst situation. (although, there's nothing bad about being the 6th man) Prove the naysayers wrong.
     
    #2 LCII, Oct 29, 2013
  3. real_egal

    real_egal Contributing Member

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    Then Rockets shipped him away. After a few stops, he prospered at Bucks, and led them to NBA finals. Afterwards, he was a big part of the Wolves success, and saved KG from being labeled as first round failure for his entire career.

    I always love his mid-range game.

    Oh, BTW, at Rockets, he backed up Kenny Smith.
     
    #3 real_egal, Oct 29, 2013
  4. Patience

    Patience Contributing Member

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    Good call. This totally reminds me of the Kenny Smith - Sam Cassell debate. Except no internets then....
     
    #4 Patience, Oct 29, 2013
  5. ryandoc

    ryandoc Member

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    For a split second at the beginning of the post, I was thinking Scotty Brooks...
     
    #5 ryandoc, Oct 29, 2013
  6. Zboy

    Zboy Contributing Member

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    Sam had to fight both Kenny and Scotty for minutes.

    BTW, Rudy did start Sam eventually once it was clear than Kenny was not up to the task.
     
    #6 Zboy, Oct 29, 2013
  7. pippendagimp

    pippendagimp Member

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    actually, i would say that cassell=beverley…….the newcomer who coach had confidence in to close-out big games at the end

    and just a short few years later kenny was out of the league :D
     
    #7 pippendagimp, Oct 29, 2013
  8. rockbox

    rockbox Around before clutchcity.com

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    Cassell was a stud. I was disappointed we had to give him up for Barkley.
     
    #8 rockbox, Oct 29, 2013
  9. TJ VS TR

    TJ VS TR Member

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    ~lol~ Nice one. The problem is that it's a stretch to call going from being a college star to an NBA bench player a demotion. Most 24th picks start from the bench. I love Sam, very unhappy that when I googled "Cassell stats" they said it was a misspell of "cassel stats"!!! :mad:
     
    #9 TJ VS TR, Oct 29, 2013
  10. rocketblood713

    rocketblood713 Member

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    boom!
     
    #10 rocketblood713, Oct 29, 2013
  11. eomor131

    eomor131 Member

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    10 stars
     
    #11 eomor131, Oct 29, 2013
  12. CometsWin

    CometsWin Breaker Breaker One Nine

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    If only Rudy T had started Sam Cassell, we could have won the title.
     
    #12 CometsWin, Oct 29, 2013
  13. RRockets

    RRockets Member

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    Zboy，

    Thanks for this.
     
    #13 RRockets, Oct 29, 2013
  14. Zboy

    Zboy Contributing Member

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    Rudy did not have confidence in him initially. Rudy and Hakeem would yell at him plenty of times for being out of control. Rudy had more faith in Kenny. Kenny would not make stupid mistakes. They did like Sam's fearlessness though.

    Also, Kenny went out with injury during 1996 season and his game never fully recovered.

    Sam was clearly better than him by then anyways.

    Anyways, the point is that your importance as a player is NOT diminished simply because you come off the bench.
     
    #14 Zboy, Oct 29, 2013
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2013
  15. persons

    persons Member

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    You know if Patrick Beverley was a good point guard there wouldn't be any Lin vs Bev threads.. The guy can't play point guard period hence why people think its better for Lin to take his spot. Yep Mchale logic...
     
    #15 persons, Oct 29, 2013
    1 person likes this.
  16. rokit

    rokit Member

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    #16 rokit, Oct 29, 2013
  17. pippendagimp

    pippendagimp Member

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    in this case though, cassell was actually promoted from 10th man on the bench to regular rotation player…..while lin has gone from starter to bench mob

    he could indeed flourish in this new role now, or he could also just go the way of luther head :grin:
     
    #17 pippendagimp, Oct 29, 2013
  18. persons

    persons Member

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    tell that to kyle lowry ... he clearly his his favorites
     
    #18 persons, Oct 29, 2013
  19. DreamRun95

    DreamRun95 Member

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    Someone should post the "Its Happening!" Gif.
     
    #19 DreamRun95, Oct 29, 2013
  20. Richie_Rich

    Richie_Rich Member
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    My favorite parts of the SI article linked in the OP:

    [quotes]
    Because then Cassell just has to say something. What? "Anything," says San Antonio Spur guard Avery Johnson. "Last year I came to a game in Houston during the NBA Finals because my coach thought it would be good for me to experience the environment, feel the intensity, right? So I'm sitting there during Game 3, and Sam is running downcourt and suddenly he sees me in the third row and he shouts, 'Hey! A.J.! What's up, man?'—right in the middle of the play. In the NBA Finals."

    "When he was young the other kids nicknamed him Guppy because he used to, well...because he used to—ha ha—because when he got excited, he'd talk so fast he'd drool," Sam's mother, Donna, says, her voice dissolving into high-pitched laughter. "Sam used to slobber so much, the other guys used to say that was his secret weapon to get open, I guess because no one wants to get close enough to guard you if he knows—hee hee—he might end up with a string of saliva across his face. Ohhh, ha haha ha ha!"

    "I told the Rockets that Sam competes so much, talks so much, carries on so much, he can drive you crazy sometimes," says Scott Gernander, Cassell's coach at San Jacinto Junior College in Pasadena, Texas. Smith, who is Houston's starting point guard, adds, "It doesn't matter if it's 2 a.m. or 2 p.m., you'll hear Sam coming before you see him. When he gets on the bus, I fake sleeping. Or I put on the headphones of my Walkman and start nodding my head to the music—even when I don't have a tape in. And I know he was louder at Florida State."

    Smith's eyebrows twitch upward. "Can you imagine that?" he adds. "Sam's mature now."​

    Man, I sure do miss Sam I Am.

    [​IMG]
     
    #20 Richie_Rich, Oct 29, 2013
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