Sorry if this has been posted. Always nice to read Sammie, Horry talking about the old days. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/ian_thomsen/01/19/thomsen.0120/4.html
its nice to see that with all the success this former rockets player had (especially horry), they still say dream and glide were the best. even if they played with players like shaq, kobe, kg, spree (back when he was good), duncan, til now, they are still thankful that they were part of the 94 & 95 championship team. that if it werent for dream and glide, non of this wouldve happened. that's just mad respect for dream and glide.
Man, I could have read chapter after chapter of that. Awesome read, it was a pitty it was so short. Sam or Horry or Kenny should write a book about those 2 seasons. I would buy it.
Can you imagine Clyde sliding in at 10 after 7 with Van Gundy at the chalkboard and while Van Gundy's is going throug the game plan, Clyde is getting dressed and lacing them up????????? He woulda finished up in Atlanta. Shoot, Van Gundy wouldn't even have let him dress out for the game. He'd just tell him to go home and then tell CD to trade him. Can you imagine Hakeem dogging it in a preseason game, loping up the court, just kinda going through the motions????? He woulda finished up in Toronto. Oh wait. He did.
Rudy was a "players coach", but he also had players that didnt take advantage of him (and unfortunately in this day and age that happens more and more to 'players coaches'). Clyde/Hakeem might have had quirks, but ON THE COURT those guys were professionals and they got results. Good managers know that not everyone is the same. As long so the players/employees get the results without too much havoc, let them do what they need to do.
JVG might have traded Clyde and maybe even Akeem due to their practice habits for a couple of his type of players, Bowen, Wesley, Howard and even Stromile who doesn't have enough spunk to ever question or fight back. Alternatively their careers may have been shortened due to constant injuries due to overly intense practices.
ahhh...reminiscing about the Dream years does wonders for the soul... just wish I had the Back to the Future car so that I could bring Dream back in his prime years then the world would be a better place to live in.....ahhh...
I've often said that Hakeem did his career in with his off seasons. You can't expect to be a 6 foot nine inch center without good legs. That was a difference between dream and barkley's legs, barkley, even until he was super old, was a great leaper, good off season or not. Certainly, he was old and not as great as he once was, but he still got those rebounds and blocked the occasioanl Ostertag two hander. Hakeem's legs kept getting worse and worse with the noticable dropoffs ccurring every preseason of the late nineties. Not to mention his obligitory early season injury every season after 96. He started going to Mecca in the summers and stopped training hard, right when he needed to start training even harder. I've also always thought that Scottie Pippen was talking about Hakeem when he was attacking Barkley. Barkley was just a more acceptable target. Hakeem was horrible when Scottie got here. Slow, slow, slow. Stepped it up 0% for the playoffs, too.
I honestly could as long as he had a tremendous impact on the court. Let me ask you this, if T-Mac shows up late or 10-15 after 7 for a 7:30 game would he dress? Would VG throw a huge fit? I think VG will play him, sitting on the point grinning knowing the Rockets just might win a game.
This is why Clyde was never going to make it as coach at UH. It may work as a player, but as a college coach, you can't show up right before tipoff. He showed up late for a Rockets broadcast earlier this year. And I guess he doesn't want to announce away games. Not that I blame him; if I had his bank, I'd have the same attitude. But I don't know why he took the UH job. To be a good coach, you need to put in the 18 hour days.
