http://big3.com/index.php/news/135-...shawn-stevenson-and-joe-smith-join-draft-pool I can't wait. This man died on the floor for us nightly when our roster was just terrible, and he never blamed his teammates, nor did he ever quit on the team. Hoping for a nice redemption story for Stevie.
Stevie was our beardless Harden. He was crossin, breakin ankles, scoring, passing, rebounding, dunking. Oh how I wish we could have kept Stevie a Houstonian for life.
RIP and all, but Eddie Griffin was crap in the NBA. Hated seeing him on the floor. Stevie was something special early on, but he wished he had Harden's work ethic and understanding of the game. Or at least I did.
Compaq Center \ Summit parking was free. Do you really think anybody would pay for it. After getting lost down there about 10 times. I started parking on the street & walkin
I miss watching Steve Francis compete against Allen Iverson and the Lakers you could tell he would bring his A game we had a mediocre squad but I was proud of them. Wow! I remember waiting on Eddie Griffin when I used to work at Denny's during my high school days. RIP
He was also still a teenager when he joined us. Eddie was just a few months past his 19th birthday when he became a Rocket. Being a teenager in the NBA is difficult enough, but a teenager with substance abuse issues is not going to last long in the league. In his time in Houston, he was a decent enough rotation player, and he likely would have gained confidence and court awareness, as well as developed a good 3PT shot had he not gotten derailed by his problems. Even as a teen, he was hitting 33% of his 3s. When we traded him to the TWolves, he took a year off for rehab, then was never as good in the three years after that. Reports say that he was still battling his demons at that point. It's okay to be disappointed in EG, but saying he was "crap" isn't really looking at the whole picture. Had he gotten control of his issues, the kid could have been special. Maybe not an All-Star (although who knows?), but definitely a strong starter.
Far from the truth indeed. Eddie was a rebounder and shot blocker to behold, and he had skills that oh so few 19 year olds have had. I watched him up close put 40-20-8 blocks directly on Drew Gooden. Tons of talent, tons of off the court demons.
Remember listening on radio. Probably Francis' best game. Exciting player. Somewhat depressing times, though. Spurs winning. Rockets mediocre'ing.
It was hard for me to look back at the Franchise years. He clearly gave all of his physical effort but he didn't have the pure point guard mentality and he barely could run a team. I wanted so badly to root for him as a team leader after Hakeem but deep down we all knew he wasn't as good as his moniker claimed to be and were waiting when his physical gifts would deteriorate. He got us Yao and T-Mac so we did manage to sell him high.
