This is not good..... Rafer is being targeted by the haters! it's going to be a tough decision for management.
Quoted for truth. Losing Rafer Alston on the court doesn't really bother me like it does some, but this year? Losing Rafer would be too much -- he's from the streets of New York and a friend of Ron Artest, which we badly need to keep the dude in check. We need him here in Houston to be a ballboy if necessary. He's Skip 2 My Haley.
You know, i have a cousin that was paralyzed from the waist down in a drunk driving accident (before i was born) and has limited movement of his arms and from what i've heard from him and other family members he had a pretty promising football career ahead of him. I care about him. That's not what i was talking about. I don't care to hear about Rafer's DWI's because there is nothing anyone here can do besides talk. I don't mean its any less important. I don't mean he should get a pass. I don't mean driving drunk is no big deal, it is. I just don't see how i can help the situation by doing anything other than what i already do (which does not include talking about much of a bad person Rafer is). Also, i don't see why everyone seems to want Alston to keep Artest in check. How do you all conclude that he's an off the court leadership type guy?
Then your posts are loaded with ignorance that you didn't mean. You can't say more or less, "hey, who doesn't drive drunk?" -- then tell us now that you didn't mean drunk driving wasn't a big deal. You can't say more or less "wake me up when he kills someone" -- then tell us how much this personally impacts you. I don't really have Rafer's off-the-court leadership statistics in front of me ... what I'm saying is he'll be a good friend of Artest's off the court and he understands/relates with Artest's New York roots. They have already gone out together atleast once since the trade. Rafer doesn't have a great off-the-court track record (as this report shows), but much better than Artest's and despite his faults, Rafer is a very team-oriented player. I can't say for sure it will have an impact -- who knows -- but I'm confident neither T-Mac nor Yao will be doing much off the court with Artest.
dude we're signing Artest in 2 days or so. Ofcourse Rafer is our partying, hes thinking championship year baby. Shoulda been more responsible then driving drunk and instead shoulda called a cab. This isnt a big deal though who knows he was probably out with artest. In my opinion bad combo for a night out.
I guess what is really good thing about Rafer is that he seems like a nice guy, very open minded and social and that's a plus always for fans and teammates. Lots of people drive when they're drunk, accidents happen but luckily he didn't finish like Eddie Griffin.
I don't understand how people can equate, "Who hasn't gotten behind the wheel after a few drinks" with "DWIs are okay." Unless you're really small and haven't eaten anything in a while, you can have a drink or two and not be drunk, and be okay to drive home. And yes, people do that all the time, and I don't see a problem with it, that's why we have a legal limit. I do see a problem with driving drunk, or having more than a few drinks in a small amount of time and getting behind the wheel. There's a difference between having two beers at the bar and pounding shots at the nightclub. The other thing I don't understand with these rich celebrities, is why do they bother driving when they go out? Hire a driver! It's so much more convenient, you still look like a baller, and you don't have to worry about driving home when you're tired or had too much to drink. Even if you drove to the club, when you get too drunk, just call up a driver and a friend to come pick you and your car up. For normal people that's prohibitively expensive, but for someone like Rafer that has to be chump change. Lastly, if he's not smart enough to hire a driver, he should at least be familiar enough with the law (considering his experience) to know what to do when you get pulled over. Don't take the breathalyzer! Do exactly what the cop tells you to do, but refuse the test and don't say anything, except that you will not talk until you see your lawyer. They'll suspend your license, but you can't get a DWI. Once again, that's a huge inconvenience for a normal person, but for someone like Rafer it means hiring a driver to take him everywhere. No big deal. I know some people will interpret that as "trying to beat the system" and thus, immoral, but I dont' see it that way. Breathalyzers are far from 100% accurate, and cops do unfairly target some people more than others. You have to do what you need to do to even the playing field. As a rich black celebrity, Rafer will be targeted much more heavily than others. Unfortunately though, I have seen enough DWI cases to know that there's a pattern. There are the people who made terrible mistakes and do it once and never again, and then there are the people that get DWIs over and over and over and will probably continue to drive drunk until it kills them or someone else. There doesn't seem to be an in between. Rafer, at this point, appears to be the latter.
Rafer, you should go to the on line training course, and spend six hrs for a defensive driving training if you have not done yet, then you will learn something more about the driving with alcohol, not only it is not allowed to do it so, but could result in killing someone, going to jail for a life. Keep you a good life to save a rockets's chance to get a ring this year.
An accident is when your waiter spills hot coffee on your pants. Drunk driving is just an utterly stupid decision.
Didn't the mother who kids died from a drunk driver, that started the M.A.D.D organization get arrested for drunk driving? It's funny all these self righteous people, "don't drive drunk cuz your gonna kill my somebody". This is Texas, I thought all Texans drove around in their pick-ups, shooting shot guns and drinking?
Well, from the responses I got i guess that's the way most people took it. When i say "has no one here ever driven drunk?" i meant that most of the drinkers i have encountered have at some point. I was not condoning it, at all. It is a big deal in the sense that it is wrong. It is not in the sense that i tend to not spend my mornings discussing these types of events because they happen quite often and i can't control it. Me not caring to hear about celebrity DWI's does not mean i think it isn't important. It does not impact me personally at all though, which is why i told you about MY cousin. I care about him. I don't, however, care to gossip about someone's DWI, which was my main point. There are plenty of terrible things going on in the world that i choose not to talk about because it serves no purpose. It is along the same lines as Michael Jackson dangling his baby out of the window. It is a big deal that he threatened that poor child's life but i didn't spend my timing telling people how sorry he was as a father. That's pointless to me.
As far as Artest is concerned, i hope you're right. You probably know more about that situation than i do. Ultimately, Artest and many ball players from New York really respect Rafer so he really has a chance to show his worth to this team. Don't know if he will need to though, Ron ron's in a contract year.
Rafer is already off to a rough start......just when you thought he was getting better........he lets his selfishness and bad decision making and ill advised shots hurt him off the court......Tinsley?
If I made $7MM a year to play a sport, I'd make damn sure I didn't do anything to EVER jeapordize that. Not that a DWI would jeapordize it, but killing myself or (worse) someone else certainly would. Get a driver man. Don't take unnecessary risks. Lord knows I've driven in far worse condition that just a couple of drinks, but as I've matured I realize how incredibly stupid it was. Now I call a cab to TAKE me to the bar so I can't even run the risk of driving home. Rafer should be able to do the same. You can fit a lot of ho's in a limo. He should know that.
I'm not sure who has a worse off-the-court record. Rafer: Slashing a guy in the neck at a club (no witnesses/tape evidence to prove it) Assault and public intoxication (spitting on a security guard) DWI Artest: Domestic abuse Dog abuse Asking to take part of a season off to promote his rap album You be the judge. Modify this list or add anything I missed.
Um, that's not even close. And no, the slashing a guy in the neck was not even close to being the truth. Eye witness accounts and video back the whole thing up. On the bad crimes scale: Drinking crimes < Abuse of women and animals
Or was it the lack of witnesses willing to come forth and video just didn't capture the incident? I don't know all the facts. I'm just saying that OJ got away with murder. The fact is that he was accused of having done it. It's unlikely that he didn't do something wrong that night. Some dude was treated for an injury after leaving that club. And as far as animal abuse, I think that stuff is a joke. We slaughter animals every day to get our fill, unless you are a vegetarian. And the rap album stuff wasn't a crime. I don't think the dog abuse and rap album were a big deal which leaves only the domestic abuse incident that I know about. I think Rafer has been more of a problem off the court.
