i thought that team rocked and that for sure we were gonna either win it all or go to the finals at least,you think we would of beat utah if we hadnt waived kenny smith?
Don't think so. At that point, Maloney as a rookie was a more productive player, even if that isn't saying much. Hard to argue that Kenny as a backup would really be that much better than Eisley was off Utah's bench.
considering that he only played 48 games that year (with 3 different teams) - I doubt he would have been very effective. He was a good locker room guy and I enjoyed his time as a Rocket - wished he could have finished his career here (instead of trying to play past his time other teams)
what that has to do with any thing?teams give up on players all the time .just because a team don't want to slide you in there rotation or give you a chance dosent mean your garbage.look at ben wallace and c billips ,sura,jimmy jackson,and others for the pistons.
Kenny Smith was done as a basketball player. there was no reason to bring him back. In 95-96, he played so horribly for a month, that Eldridge Recasner replaced him in the starting linuep for a a couple weeks. The Rockets did lose a point guard in 96-97 that really hurt them vs Utah and I'm not talking about Brent Price. Emanual Davis was proving to be an effective player off the Rockets bench until he went down for the season in december of 1996 with an ACL tear on his knee.
I believe, to this day, that had BP not blown out his knee that team would have played da Bulls. He was peaking when he went down. Ouch. Sedale Threatt was ancient, Maloney was well, Maloney.
I agree--Emanual AND Price were both having huge years as backups when they went down. --I have to mention, I loved Price. His injury happened during a hustle play, diving after a ball. And afterwards, he knew what happened...just got up and went to the bench, knowing from past experience that his season was done.
But I remember that year while we were trying to get Brent Price we were going for DEREK HARPER at the time also. I think we could had a better shot if we had gotten Harper.
didn't he dive for a ball and barkley went for it too..... and he torn his acl again??? it was barkley's fault! ! !..... =)
I remember being at the game, he went for a loose ball between 2 opponents near the bench on the sideline. He either went up or came down wrong and when he went down, all of us stood up and just saw him on the ground pointing to his knee. It was so disappointing because he was having a good stretch
I love Brent Price also. That guy just couldn't stay health. His older brother had health problems also. Both of those guys could shoot the lights out and Brent used to really get up the court on fast breaks. That injury just gave me more reasons to hate Barkley.
I'll always remember the game Brent Price had against us when he was with the Bullets the year before... I was floored at how he was just driving into the lane (with dream there) with reckless abandoment, getting crazy layups to fall... and then, he'd run a fast break, pull it back and throw up a turn-around-3... and nothing but net. That was the game that pretty much guarnateed (in Rudy T's eyes)... that he was going to be a tremendous player for us. He was having a pretty good 2 weeks when he got hurt... that was jut a cursed season for him (I believe he broke his arm in pre-season, which opened the door for Maloney to be the starter).
Boy have we had nasty injuries that in essence ended careers. Davis, Price, Samson in Beantown & Rudy in LA. Any others?
I hope T-mac or Yao dont get hurt this year...I would go crazy if one of them goes down for longer than 10 games..
