http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?wcd=22106 When talk turned to the Rockets recent blockbuster trade that sent Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Kelvin Cato to the Orlando Magic for two-time NBA scoring leader Tracy McGrady, Juwan Howard and two other players, Cassell’s demeanor turned somber, even bitter. “The Rockets organization always makes moves because they may think they need to,” he said. “I got traded away for Charles Barkley — four players for one.” Cassell, drafted by the Rockets with the 24th pick overall in the first round of the 1993 draft, was traded along with Chucky Brown, Robert Horry and Mark Bryant to the Phoenix Suns for Barkley and a second-round draft pick on Aug. 19, 1996. Cassell played on Houston’s back-to-back NBA championship teams, and the Rockets also advanced to the second round of the playoffs Cassell’s final year in Houston. Though a backup point guard, Cassell provided a spark off the bench, and he believed he had a future with the Rockets. He also believed the team was poised for more greatness. Then he was traded away. He’s still bitter about leaving Houston. “Yeah, I am,” he said. “After winning two championships in three years, and they broke our team up for whatever reason it was. They didn’t get better. “Four years after that, they drafted a point guard — trying to replace what they already had. I’m bitter, but I got over it. I’ve matured a little bit. But when it first happened, I was bitter.” The Rockets made the deal after going 48-34 and finishing third in the Midwest. Cassell believes he and Horry were scapegoats for an underachieving team. Furthermore, he believes the team was lacking a real leader like the Chicago Bulls had in Michael Jordan. “When they weren’t winning, he took all the blame,” Cassell said. “He didn’t worry how about good Scottie Pippen was getting or what Horace Grant was doing. He said I have to get better so they can get better. “The guys I played with, they didn’t do that. I’m not saying no names, but they wanted to blame everybody else for their failures or the team’s failures. It wasn’t fair at all. Robert Horry and myself were the closest guys to blame.” At the time, it looked like the addition of Barkley, to go along with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, was just the right ingredient needed to give the Rockets another NBA title. It never happened. They did reach the Western Conference finals in 1997, but bowed out in the first round of the playoffs the next two years. “They made the move to get Charles Barkley,” Cassell said. “I knew that wasn’t going to work out.” Since then, Cassell has bounced around the NBA with stops at Dallas, New Jersey and Milwaukee before finally finding a home in Minnesota this past season where he blossomed as a leader. With Cassell running the offense, the Timberwolves won their first division title and advanced to the Western Conference Finals. The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Timberwolves in six games in the Western Conference Finals. “I was determined to be a good basketball player in this league,” said Cassell, who earned his first all-star appearance this past season and was a second-team All-NBA selection. “I was disappointed at the time (the Rockets traded him), but I knew I was going to do what I had to do to become a solid, good basketball player in this league.” And now, with the apparent breakup of the Lakers, the Timberwolves appear to be the team to beat in the West next season. “We’ve got a great chance next year to become world champions,” he said. “It’s going to be fun.” What about the Rockets? Cassell never answered that question, though it appeared he doesn’t think much of the deal — or the Rockets.
if Sam Cassell could work some magic and help us beat the Seattle Sonics team back in the 90s, no one would have been traded.
he's right about the barkley trade- a major overhaul was too drastic. his points makes me wonder if the rockets are developing a reputation as back stabbers.....we just lost out on a slew of good free agents.
it was sad to see all four players go but you got to remember seattle had our number every year until we got barkley
Part of the reason why those teams were so underachieving was the sometimes AWFUL play of Robert Horry, and Cassell's tendencies to force up too many shots, disrupting the offensive flow thru Hakeem (I heard Hakeem wasn't Sam's biggest fan). Since the 1995 team won the championship, many people forgot that the team itself underachieved big-time in the regular season, going only 47-35, and having to make the big trade to get Clyde to inject some semblance of life (you don't hear Cassell dissing that trade...). But, they won it all... so the awful regular season was forgotten. The next year, with a full year of Clyde, they were expected to continue their greatness... but they only ended up 1 game better than the year before (48-34). Sure, they were still a kick-ass playoff team, but they were certianly beatable.... and they proved that against the Sonics. Cassell's contention was that they were only one decent PF away from being contenders again (he mentioned Kevin Willis)... but you have to realize that it was probably going to get worse for that bunch, seeing that some of their players refused to ever play inspired ball in the regular season (Horry).
he is dead on right, at least we have the number one draft pick of 2012 to look forward to, thats when all this will probably end, right?
Well considering this thread: http://bbs2.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=80341 There's certainly some fingers pointed Drexler's way.
Just wanted to quote this because it needs to be read again. I am kinda surprised Sam overlooked this. We couldn't beat the Sonics, even with our championship teams. We made the barkley deal in order to beat the sonics in the playoffs, and we accomplished that. That is what made the Barkley trade successful. So, in the end, we could not beat the Jazz, that is just the way it went. That is the chance we took with this deal. Had we kept Cassell and Horry, we would have probably lost to Seattle in the second round in 97. And dont bother to say Kevin Willis would have made the difference, because he was not an effective enough player at that time.
He needs to get over it. Interesting that he would say there was no 'leadership' on those championship teams...a shame he'd be that bitter. And it took him quite a few years to turn into that kind of 'leader' he apparently has become in Minny. As was stated earlier..he couldn't help us get past the Sonics, now could he? He did lots of things for us while he was here, but at the time he was a key role player. No reason to be that bitter about it. He may have thought a little too highly of himself at the time of the trade.
I think if the Rockets had kept the same team and added a free agent, they'd find a way to go back to the finals. Horry and Sam didn't do too bad. Horry got 3 more rings. Sam is the best PG in the L.
When we made the trade, I was all for it. But after looking back, all we needed was a solid power forward to replace Thorpe and a decent backup for Dream. Kevin Willis would have done just fine. We really didn't need Barkley.
Jesus, 8 years later and this guy is STILL whining and crying about a simple trade. On a side note, the Rockets don't have a reputation as backstabbers, and apparently the Rockets would have been able to keep Cassell along with getting Barkley in a deal that would have sent Mutombo to Phoenix, but Stern killed that deal.
they passed it to the more hated UTAH JAZZ That trade DESTROYED our team undermined our youths Drove out Drexler brought in Pippen which lead to several bad contracts/acquistions BARKELY was probably the SECOND WORSE THING TO EVER HAPPEN TO THE ROCKETS [The first being Lou LLoyd and Mitch Wiggins not being able to keep their d*mn noses clean . . . ] Rocket River
