Top Rocket man a disgrace over Rice affair Aug. 16, 2001 By Mike Kahn SportsLine.com Executive Editor Suffering through the six-day-old Glen Rice saga, we better understand the problem in Houston. We now know why the resentment lingered over Rockets owner Leslie Alexander. It was one thing to be perceived as a carpetbagger from South Florida, quite another to be an untrustworthy backroom politician. Just watching Alexander attempt to extort assets from the New York Knicks in the wake of last week's trade explains why the Rockets -- despite having won NBA titles in 1994 and 1995 -- were on the verge of leaving town two years ago over a new arena for Alexander. That has been settled. The new building is on its way. His latest antics have not been settled, however. Late last week the Rockets signed their free agent forward Shandon Anderson to a six-year, $42 million contract and traded him to the Knicks for Rice. The deal also included Dallas Mavericks guard Howard Eisley going to the Knicks in exchange for Muggsy Bogues. It created cap room for the Mavs to go after free agent point guard Tim Hardaway, gave the Knicks a couple of younger, more athletic players to help them run, and brought the Rockets a deadly shooter. Suddenly Tuesday, the press conference in Houston is postponed indefinitely. Alexander is steamed over Rice. It seems the plantar fasciitis, which is a tissue problem on the bottom of his left foot that continues to cause him problems, put the trade in peril. He is 34 and missed only six games last season. Despite the addition of a soft cast most of the offseason, he has said it still hurts and will play through it. But after his physical Tuesday, the Rockets were questioning the whole deal. The next day, Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson issued the following statement: "All of Glen Rice's medical information has been forwarded to our team physicians as of late (Wednesday) afternoon. The Rockets organization and our team physicians will examine the data and announce a decision by Friday at noon." In other words, they're attempting to finagle a draft choice and/or cash out of the Knicks to consummate the deal Friday. It didn't require a physical to know Rice had plantar fasciitis ... everybody in the NBA knew that last season. It isn't as if there are secrets that aren't revealed in New York, where the media focus on the Knicks is somewhere between continuous gossip to an X-Ray microscope. Didn't Dawson and his staff do their homework on Rice before the deal? Of course they did. They knew he had three years left on his contract, reportedly worth about $21 million. They also knew the Knicks had to get rid of him and Cablevision has a history of paying off for players they no longer want. Not only were Rice's 12 points a game last season a career low, he was unhappy about playing time, and there weren't enough balls in the gym for Rice, Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston. They found a taker in the Rockets because coach Rudy Tomjanovich loves guys who can shoot the rock for his new up-tempo offense. Few have done it better than Rice during this generation, but his game has deteriorated the past two seasons in similar fashion to another consummate All-Star who is aging, Mitch Richmond. Richmond, by the way, was bought out of his contract with the Washington Wizards and signed a minimum contract with the Los Angeles Lakers. Now we have Alexander panicking over the $21 million committed to Rice and the prospect of him limping around the 3-point arc hoping to get hot. Consequently, Alexander is trying to fleece the Knicks out of cash to cover it. He knows the Knicks can't take Rice back because bridges between Sprewell and him already are beyond repair. Plus there's nowhere else the Knicks could move him to now that the Rockets have raised the frequency level so high at liftoff. They never should have made the deal in the first place unless they were willing to take the gamble. Maybe this is Alexander's way of sticking it to Anderson and Dan Fegan, the agent who got Anderson the bloated contract from the Knicks he couldn't get from the Rockets. Regardless of whom Alexander is trying to gut at this point, it's time for him to show some class. This isn't even close to the scare they had with Sean Elliott's kidney disease seven years ago, which ended a deal that would have sent Robert Horry and Matt Bullard to Detroit. That was a shocker that still reverberates considering Elliott had a kidney transplant two years ago and Horry was a key component in the Rockets' title run that season. In other words, live with it, Les. The deal was made knowing Rice was a falling star, and you don't deserve a dime more in compensation. Either take him or default on the deal; trying to squeeze the Knicks is a pathetic move. Considering the respect Dawson and Rudy T have rightfully earned around the league, too bad a move like this makes the entire franchise reek. Mike Kahn has always gotten on my nerves, but I think he has gone too far this time. As owners go Alexander is one of the best, especially when compared to the likes of Reinsdorf and Colangelo. Even from the most biased angle it is hard to think of the Knicks and Fegan as victims
b****y New Yorkers. Wah, wah, wah! Poor, pitiful New York. Still pissed over that loss in the finals? Awwwwwwwwwwww! I weep for thou. Just to add, what the hell do they expect him to do? You mean an NBA owner is looking out for the best interests of his team over the interests of OTHER franchises??? How shocking!!!!
Not so fast........ I'm not so sure he's painting the Knicks and Fegan as victims. I think he makes some interesting points. We'll see what happens tommorrow.
The ability to cancel the trade due to health problems is completely legitimate, and the fact that Les is considering it is also legit. New York has a lot more problems that they haven't handled well that have put them in this tight situation. It doesn't have anything to do with Les, Rudy, or CD. It all started with Larry Johnson, and they didn't learn from their mistake.
DocRob, You're absolutely right......the Knicks have screwed themselves repeatedly over the last several years. And.......having concern over the players health is a legitimate reason to hold up a trade. I'm a little skeptical, however, that that is the whole reason behind the hold up. There could very well be a little fleecing going on by the Rox which, if we get away with it, is great. I just worry about the long term effects if that is in fact the case.
Bah. When has CBS.sportsline.com shown they do anything other than a pathetic job at covering any kind of sports, much less the perpetually ignored Rockets. If he's painting Les as a villian then there must be victims . . .
Okay, I say we default on the deal & send the Knicks a copy of the article & then say that Les's honor has been insulted(Hey, it worked for Dream). Then let's see what the whiney, thumb-sucking-pinhead has to say after that.
I definitely agree with you guys that Les Alexander is just looking out for his business interest like any owner should do. I don't think he's purposely trying to hurt anyone. He's is one of the best team owners in the league. Off-topic Les Alexander seems like a nice guy as well. He was here in LA for the Summer games laughing and smiling with everyone. He looks down to earth too, not like one of those snobby owners. At the games he look like he just woke up and came to the summer league when he was wearing a tight brown T-shirt with his belly hanging out and wearing these short red shorts while laying down on the bench relaxing streching apart his legs. He just looked cool. He look like a regular joe. Anyway my point is he didn't even looked bothered when the team lost or when or even tried to get involved in the game, he just look like he was just enjoying everything. He was talking to everyone that talked to him even the little kids. I don't know about you guys but I'm glad Les Alexander is the owner of the Rockets compared to Sterling(the clipper's owner). Sterling is much hated in Los Angeles. The media here just constantly puts him down for what he's doing or done with the clippers (the LA Times did a whole sports section of 8 pages of how bad a job he's doing with the clippers, the radio stations get ton of upset clipper fans, Billy Crystal stop going to games, Jay Leno makes fun of them, it goes on and on).
What is the guy b****!ng about? If he's a cheat, I'm damn glad he's cheating FOR the Rockets... I love to see our owner do what he can to get every ounce possible out of the deal... He realized that he had leverage, therefore, he's a wise man to use his leverage... At worst case scenario, Rockets receive the original deal... At best, we get a draft pick or someone like Harrington... This seems to be a win-win scenario for Houston... If only Drayton McLane had this kind of passion for the Stros...
I don't know why it would be cheating to squeeze the Knicks for another pick/cash. The simple fact is that it is necessary to play hard ball in negotiations with other GMs in the NBA. If the Knicks don't want to cough up a little extra to get rid of Rice, they certainly have the option to take him back (lol!). Since Les OWNS the Rockets, he is entitled to step into ANY of these negotiations ANYTIME he wants. This guy makes the ridiculous argument that the Rockets should not ask for more because they heard of Rice's injury. I believe it is a legitimate move even if the Rockets planned to let the deal get this far before squeezing the Knicks. The Rockets are dealing from strength and the Knicks from weakness, so to act like the Rox should not get the best possible deal is really silly.
Also I thought a "carpetbagger" was a Northerner who relocated to the South during Reconstruction. Since when is South Florida north of the Mason-Dixon? Now McMullet was a carpetbagger...
Where did he move from to get to South Florida? I ask because that accent sounds miiiiighty northern. Or maybe I haven't heard Alexander speak in so long that I'm remembering incorrectly...
Les can say; "I'll take an injured Glen Rice plus a draft pick in exchange for Anderson" If the Knicks don't like it then they can have their injured star back again and we'll S&T Anderson to another team (if there are any out there still looking for him), or sign him to a lower contract. It's not fleecing to ask for some compensation for taking on an injured player - that's fine IMHO.
Kahn is a dimwit. Typical know-it-all sportswriter confusing opinions with facts. He writes as if it's undisputed that Rice's health isn't worse than the Knicks initially let on. That may be a fact, but neither he nor any other sportwriter on the face of the earth can say for sure. His pre-draft analysis was similarly one-sided and ignorant.
I'm glad you guys support the franchise so much, but... Trying to squeeze a draft pick out after the deal was done (and everyone on this board knew about Rice's condition, so it wasn't exactly a surprise) is not an honorable thing. The Rockets credibility with other teams will rightfully take a nosedive after this.
I do have to question the deal for a shooter with a bad foot. The first thing he has to do is push off his feet to get his shot off, and if his foot is in constant pain he will not have as good results,as his numbers show from last year. Saying that, I don't blame Les at all if after his cast came off that he still has pain in his foot. Les is buying a contract on Rice that is paying numbers when his foot was healthy, and now his foot is still questionable as to whether it will fully reach the potential that his salary pays! STICK TO YOUR GUNS, LES!!!!!!!
You're making one key assumption here, and that's that the Rockets new ahead of tiem how bad Rice's foot was. It's entirely possible that they knew it was a problem, but thought it was healing. Then suddenly, POW, it's still injured. A conditional draft pick makes sense in this situation. If it's a false alarm, nothing happens. If it's for real, the Rockets get what they deserve. What doesn't make sense?
Whoa! Where were all these accusatory people when the Magic did a little draft extortion back in June? How about Detroit's little tricks so that we had nothing to lose by using a first round pick to get Terrence Morris? How about the little Vancouver extortion? When they do it, they are "Yankee traders," an admirable trait in their eyes. When we do it, we are "carbetbaggers." I wrote earlier in another thread the Rockets should get draft picks from both the Knicks and Dallas (the Knicks because we are getting damaged goods and the Mavs because Kyle Hill signed in France before we could even talk to him). Aaahhhhh!!
I think Rudy and CD did know, since they signed off on his health. That's the whole point I think--the GM says it's a done deal, so a press conference is scheduled and everyone packs their bags. This deal is presumed DONE at this point. Then the owner comes in and wants more compensation. What doesn't make sense?
