....at my gym in NYC. I asked him what he thought of his chances in the NBA and he replied he was very doubtful TMo could keep up w/ the 2-guards in league on D and that he would never be stong enough to play the 4. But he felt TMo would do very well as a 3 coming off the bench for his career and that he would drain open NBA 3's consistently. Said he's a really nice guy but very very shy and that Steve tends to bring out the competitor in him. He also mentioned that Francis was nearly 100% of the reason the Rox traded for him and that they are really tight off of the court. He said he knew Steve pretty well too, back from his days at Maryland...so I asked if Steve ever talks to Jahidi White......he just smiled and said "ya, Steve and Jahidi are pretty tight too."
Thanks, always like to read good news. Padding the fact that we have Steve for his career, got to like that.
Intresting thought: I wonder how safe the Rockets would feel playing hardball with Steve's friends Shandon and (possibly) Mooch as well as (possibly) trading away his bud Walt Williams if they hadn't drafted his other bud, T-Mo? Could getting T-Mo on the team enable them to have a little more confidance when potentialy upseting Steve by trading his friends away? Just a thought.
Not to mention bringing in Jahidi-Heidi-Ho along with T-Mo as a way of placating Steve when Walt goes to the Wizards (I'm assuming the Toronto pick and other players like Popeye Jones are thrown in to make such a trade work). Interesting about Moochie, though. I wonder how this will pan out. I want him back but you know teams are hot for him.
IMHO, CD/RT will eventually sign Mooch....replacing a solid backup PG is not an easy task and I've noticed that Steve gets very excited on the bench when Mooch makes a big play, indicating that it would probably be in the Rox best interest to keep him. I get the feeling that neither Steve nor Cat is really crying that much over Shandn's departure. Especially with Shandon's statement yesterday that sometimes the quiet guy doesn't get as big role in the offense. And with regard to Walt, I assume if Steve lobbied for his buddy TMo, he would have foreseen the implication of Walt losing PT and/or his job altogether.
Steve has to know this is a business, and he has to want what is best for the team. I'm not sure how close he is to those guys anyway. If Steve is letting his feelings possibly influence our roster moves, then we're in trouble.
It appears that Steve has A LOT of friends. They can't all be Rockets, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.... we would have a 50 man roster.
What is up with all these rumours about Jahidi White for the Wiz? How good is White, and how well would he fit into our system?
You talkin' da me?! WAAAASSSSAAAABBBBBIIIIII! Jahidi is not great, but he would be a good center for this Rockets squad. He's young and agile, can rebound and isn't afraid to play defense. He's also got a little bang to go with the rest of his game.
Pippen, who was the roommate? The statement nearly 100% does not fit since RudyT and Rockets wanted and were closely watching TRock before Steve Francis got to Houston. If you didn't get the name of the roommate, how tall was he? Sounds bogus to me without more details. FREDTERP PS I like Robert's post, if Steve has so many friends, the Rockets would have a 50 man roster.
FREDTERP, RudyT and the Rockets never made mention that they were looking at TMo 2yrs ago. This info was only conveniently "leaked" to the press and mentioned by RT prior to this year's draft and after the draft, respectively. This guy I met said he was TMo's roommate a couple of years ago and his suitemate this past year. He was a 5'10" guy abt 22yrs old...said he worked for the Maryland bball team while he was in school, probably in some team manager capacity or something. He was telling me abt this tournament Maryland is going to be playing in at Madison Square Garden and how I should get tix. His eyes just lit up when I mentioned TMo's name and he kept gushing abt what a nice guy he was. Said he and Francis share the same agent and that's sort of the angle that Francis used to sell the Rox on TMo's services. Trust me, if I thought for a second this guy was giving me bogus info I wouldn't have posted it on my first thread in the past year.
Pippen, thanks for the reply! "RudyT and the Rockets never made mention that they were looking at TMo 2yrs ago. This info was only conveniently "leaked" to the press and mentioned by RT prior to this year's draft and after the draft, respectively. " I can only "speculate" that this guy was repeating something he read. For me, I can't see the Rockets drafting someone to please Steve Francis. TRock was at one time 1st team all-ACC and projected to be in top5 draft picks at one point before his stock dropped. His stock started to drop after he injured his foot during the summer after the soph year. Terence did have some great workouts for several teams before the draft. IMO, I think and hope the Rockets have a pick in TRock-et for a cheap pick at #34. Especially if they are looking for defense, rebounds, and good overall skills not to mention a team player. The clues to the guy you talked to, I can't recall who it could have been. Thanks for the quick and detailed reply! FREDTERP
