http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060118...aq1N1Ie_7QF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE- Ex-NBA Star Sampson Charged With Perjury Former NBA player Ralph Sampson has been indicted on charges of lying about his finances to obtain court-appointed counsel in a federal child support case. Sampson, 45, was indicted on one count each of perjury and making a false claim, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Tuesday. The charges are related to an affidavit Sampson submitted to obtain a court-appointed lawyer in a child support case. The 7-foot-4 former Virginia All-American and top NBA draft choice is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 1 on charges he failed to pay $307,036 in child support to two daughters by different women. The children live in northern Virginia. Under a plea agreement, Sampson would pay the tardy child support and be spared fines and a 30-month jail term. A judge must agree to the sentencing. At an October hearing, Sampson's attorneys told a judge the Harrisonburg native had spent the summer trying to raise money to settle his debts. Prosecutors claimed he worked for an online communications firm; Sampson's attorney said it was on an unsalaried basis. Court documents showed Sampson earned more than $500,000 in 1999, but less than $12,000 in 2001. Sampson scored 7,039 points during his nine seasons in the NBA. He retired in 1992 after playing for Houston, Golden State, Sacramento and Washington.
How is talking about Ralph Sampson off subject? He was one of the Twin Towers for crying out loud! (and a couple of bad knees away from being an NBA champion)
A Rocket Legend. Screw these gold-diggers. Ralph can't pay cause he had bad knees. I'd like to see these women get a job and support their kids. Ralph beat the Magic/Kareem Lakers. What have they done? We need to donate and bail him and Maxwell out of the slammer. these guys are great humanitarians and true heroes.
Damn straight! Really sorry to hear he's in trouble. He should have paid his child support, worn a condom, had better lawyers... heck, all three! Doesn't he get a good pension from the NBA??
this sadly proves thats only a small percentage of CLutchfans are TRUE Rockets fans. I'll always be grateful to the Rockets of yester year. Ralph Sampson was the Vince Young of the time. People were talking about how great the Lakers were and how the Lakers and the Celtics were going to play again. Ralph put HTOWN on the MAP with that series.
Sad story. In other memories, I remember my Algebra teacher (a bball coach) had an SI cover on his wall with Sampson and Kareem on the cover... it had a quote like "How does it feel to be be 7'2" and not be tall enough?" Kareem was shooting the jump hook over his head. Carry on.
Actually, it wasn't a cover, but rather an ad for SI in one of their magazines. Great shot and slogan wish I still had mine.
I'm pretty sure the quote was "How does it feel to be 7'2 and a little too short" and Ralph was blocking Karrem's shot. Kareem was the one that was a little to short
Ralph was a gifted athlete, but very irresponsible. He and Akeem playing together in 1985 and 1986 was truly impressive. Ralph was so tall and had such a smooth shot-unbelievable!!!
It may be hard for some to believe today, but Ralph was a huge story coming out of college. It far surpassed Yao getting drafted. Sampson had had an amazing college career... was player of the year, on all the sports magazine covers several times, and was written up all over the country in the newspapers before he entered the draft. Yao was really an unknown. Ralph was a star on the national stage. And he didn't disappoint. Voted to the All Star game, he was the MVP. The world was his oyster. Then we got Akeem. We had Lucas, and how I wish we had a point like that today. We had a deep team... young and deep. The Rockets were going to be a dynasty. We were on the cusp of it in the '86 playoffs. This is from Wikpedia: Ralph Lee Sampson (born July 7, 1960 in Harrisonburg, Virginia) was arguably the most heavily recruited (for both college and the NBA) basketball prospect of his generation. Playing for the University of Virginia, he was the only three-time National Player of the Year in the history of college basketball, and was a #1 Draft Pick, three-time NBA All-Star, and Rookie of the Year for the Houston Rockets. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated an unprecedented six times in a span of less than four years (issues of December 17, 1979; December 1, 1980; March 30, 1981; November 29, 1982; December 20, 1982; and October 31, 1983). Standing 7'4" (2.24 m) but at a lean 220 pounds (100 kg), he could dunk the ball almost without jumping yet was agile enough to dribble behind his back and often even tried to emulate the role of a point guard. His NBA career quickly deteriorated as he became burdened with numerous knee injuries, as though he was well over 7 feet tall, he played power forward for the Rockets and often bent over to guard men much smaller. This was because 7'0" (2.13 m) Hakeem Olajuwon played center and the versatile Sampson preferred to play forward. Together, they were called the "Twin Towers" between 1984 and 1988. By the time he was traded to the Golden State Warriors, the rest of his career was very limited. Ralph Sampson won numerous individual awards in the short period of time he was healthy, but one thing he was not able to do was win a National Championship or an NBA Championship. He played in the Final Four with Virginia in 1981 and his Houston Rockets played in the NBA Finals of 1986, but each time he was turned away without winning the elusive championship. In a great irony, UVa made the Final Four in 1984—the year after he graduated. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Sampson Imagine what he's feeling right now.
Now we complain about Yao only fans --- but I was a ROF (Ralph only fan). I started rooting for the Rockets when they drafted Ralph Sampson. But I stuck around.
Really sad to hear. I remember Sampson during his heydey in the mid to late 80's and for a long time he was my favorite Rocket, even more than Akeem at the time. How does someone go from $500K to $12K in 1 year? I've always felt that if Yao resembled any previous NBA player it was Sampson and that Yao should style his game more along Sampson's line. Sampson was a finesse player but was also one who wouldn't back down or take crap from others. He could use his long frame to squeeze around defenders but wasn't one to hesitate from throwing an elbow, even at a much smaller players trying to sneak in to steal or do the take out the chair trick. Consider how many times a smaller player has taken the ball away from Yao or dropped him on his butt. Players like Bill Hanzlik tried that on Sampson and got the business end of an elbow back for it.
easy, not working. yeah we should bring him in to work with yao. 1. he's closer to yao as a player than ewing 2. he needs the cash.
