look for 1)francis 2)anderson 3)williams 4)taylor 5) hakeem and the bench to consist of 1)norris 2)cat 3)langhi & bull 4)kenny 5) cato & collier. los or bull on injured list. these names will be the rocket roster barring any unforeseen multiplayer trades, i expect drew to be traded for future pick, or mayde put on IL. ------------------
Leon Smith a One-Man Crime Wave Associated Press Last Updated: Dec. 6, 1999 at 7:50:04 p.m. Leon Smith came home last week and turned Chicago upside down. Just not in the way most people hoped. ``Police are looking for the 19-year-old former King High basketball star ...'' the newscasts began Thursday. Updates followed fast and furious throughout the weekend, often from breathless reporters doing their stand-ups in front of the police station. ``Charged with aggravated assault ... allegedly threatened his former girlfriend with a gun outside her high school. ... Leon Smith out on bail. ... Just hours after being released, Leon Smith is back in custody ... charged with smashing out the windows of his ex-girlfriend's family car, then ramming it with his own.'' In the span of six months, a local hero has gone from NBA first-round pick to one man crime-wave. This is one of those too-much, too-soon stories that should serve as a reminder: for every spectacular success, like Kevin Garnett, there is bound to be an equally spectacular failure. Whether the story ends here will depend on whether Smith's few friends, family members or the NBA players' union gets through to him before it's too late. But it's not fair to say no one saw this coming. Just the opposite. Smith's mother gave him up to the state of Illinois when he was 5, and he was shuttled from one foster or group home to the next until the NBA draft in June. That's when the San Antonio Spurs plucked Smith out of high school, and in short order traded him to Dallas. There, Smith signed a guaranteed three-year, $1.4 million contract and moved into a new townhouse. Yet his future was anything but assured. Problems first surfaced when Smith wouldn't hustle in summer-league play, then exacerbated once practice began, when he refused to follow instructions from Dallas assistant coach Donn Nelson. When head coach Don Nelson proved no more successful at handling the disruptive rookie than his son had, the Mavericks decided to separate Smith from the rest of the team. First they put him on the injured list, then tried to convince him to ship out to Europe or the CBA for some experience. At about the same time, Smith's 16-year-old girlfriend told him she wanted to break up, adding to his sense of loneliness. On Nov. 14, despondent over one or both developments, he scribbled a suicide note and swallowed 250 aspirin. Suddenly, Smith had more advice and more people around than he could use. The players union got involved and tried to keep Smith in counseling and aftercare programs. He kept walking out. Last week, with the Mavericks coming to Smith's hometown for a Thursday game against the Bulls, he made the return trip, too. On his own. Thursday, Smith turned up outside Marshall High School and allegedly flashed a handgun when his former girlfriend, Cappie Pondexter, turned down his offer of $30,000 to help her family. He spent the night in jail, being released after posting $100 of a $1,000 bond. But instead of checking into a hospital Friday morning, as union chief Billy Hunter pleaded not long after rushing to Chicago, Smith allegedly went to the Pondexter's home. There, he began breaking the windows of Vanessa Pondexter's car, then smashing it with his truck. Not far away, Pondexter, who plays for Marshall High with two of Smith's sisters and is considered one of the nation's top prospects, was scoring 41 points and earning MVP honors in a tournament. She didn't have time to discuss the honor, since she and the rest of defending state championship team, were escorted out of the gym by school security guards. According to an account in the Chicago Sun-Times, all the while Smith was damaging the Pondexter car, he kept cursing the NBA, the Mavericks, the union, the hospital and even his very hefty contract. ``Things were a whole lot better before all this ...,'' he was quoted as yelling. ``I ain't going nowhere.'' Smith did go back to jail, of course. At a hearing Saturday, several family members and Smith's former high school coach, Landon Cox, showed up, but no lawyer was there to represent him. A public defender consulted briefly with Smith and appeared before Judge Nicholas Ford. ``With all these people and all the millions of dollars he's made, I'm amazed there's no (lawyer) here,'' Ford said. Eventually, Cox came forward and posted the required $1,500 of Smith's $15,000 bond. Some relatives accused Cox of trying to control the 19-year-old, but Smith left with his old coach through a side door, reportedly to check into yet another hospital. Cox said it wasn't the first time arrangements had been made for Smith. ``We had it all set up,'' he said. ``Then Leon said, `I ain't going' and drove off and left me standing on the curb.'' Only luck will keep it from happening again. ------------------
Wow, I hadn't heard that. But I wasn't the one who brought him up, I was just responding to another post. ------------------
Rockets Deadly Dozen: Dream Cato Taylor Anderson Franchise Langhi Norris Thomas Mobley Williams Collier Rogers Please clean out your lockers as quickly as possible: Drew,Bullard,Miller,Gray.
