I remember Clutch had some info on what was going in the locker room. I know he probably wouldn't tell us until way later in the future but it sure would be cool to know what happened in that locker before Rafer was traded and McGrady was shut down for good.
I remember him saying he would tell us more info after the trade deadline because he assumed Ron was going to be the one traded. Guess we will never know unless Ron is gone this off-season.
So Artest wants to stay believing management is gracious to him so far is because of this? Finally, somebody sided with Artest in a fight.
YEAH i think there is a possibility that Alston was bad in the locker room. Has a hard head, and felt the need to take over, and be a leader when maybe he didnt have to. But Mclazy was deffinately a greater negative influence. You could just tell when he went out how the team just changed totally, what happened is they got the huge weight of MClazy of their back and felt better.
Its not like Rafer has a squeaky clean image. Nobody remembers because Rafer is a nobody. Rafer had a rep of having an attitude problem which is why he was shipped from Toronto. He was also arrested 3 times in 2 years although he was acquitted in 2 cases. If its between Ron and Rafer taking and ill advised shot, I'll take Ron any day. Any shot Rafer took other than his 3 from the top of the key was a bad shot in my opinion.
I believe that is Randy Galloway a sports writer for the Fort Worth Star Telegram. He host a weekly show in Dallas called Galloway and Company. He does sound like the Whataburger guy though.
I think Doc Rocket actually singled out Rafer in one of his rants about the rockets chemistry problems, so it seems marc stein does know what hes talking about.
nice find. I really hate it when guys do a phone interview. It's usually hard to hear which sucks . Marc Stein knows his stuff and I agree with everything he said. If you think about it no one really knows what went on in the locker room besides the players, coaches, and reporters. The team does have more pep in their step now that they know who is in and out. When he spoke about Rafer it made me believe that he was mentally weak. He let the injuries of McGrady and Artest get the best of him because they were coming in and out. That's not the way to go. If he was the so called "leader" he should have took charge instead of calling them out. That's no leader. I find it funny also that guys kept calling McGrady the cancer and Alston the leader but Alston got traded and not McGrady. They did have a deal in place to ship Mac out but I wonder why they didn't do it. I agree with what Stein said about the playoffs also and hope that actually happens. Hopefully we can get a match up with Dallas instead of Utah. I would really feel comfortable playing against them then going against the Jazz. Also I agree with Stein about who is going to be the guy to take over in the 4th quarter. Yao can do it sometimes but it seems like he only goes off on someone when that guy gets him mad. McGrady can go off anytime and so can Yao but I only see Yao go off when he gets mad and thats not going to cut it. Artest isn't consistent and we really don't have no one else.
This is correct. Rafer and Artest bumping heads was no secret -- I distinctively remember seeing Rafer yelling at Artest during games and calling timeouts out of frustration because Artest didn't run the play Rafer wanted. Most people didn't notice that because they were so obsessed with McGrady and whatever related gossip they could lay their hands on. It seemed obvious at the trade deadline that Adelman and Morey decided that only one of the two (Artest and Alston) could stay for the team to remain cohesive, and it was a relatively decision to let Alston go -- he was much less talented, and his preference for a more structured/dictatorial style wasn't in harmony with Adelman's vision for a read-and-react type of offense anyways. Artest, despite his issues at the time, was still someone who had played successfully for Adelman before and could be coached. Not unsurprisingly, the Rockets' offensive efficiency has actually improved since Alston left.
Any one remember that couple months ago that there was a chinese reporter said there were some issue in locker room? as a matter of fact he was implying about She-Mac? talking about Respect and Getting respected? And possibly a big bomb in the locker room he could not talk in the public. Definitely we were in difficult period at that time. (we had a big talk on this rumor in this BBS) How about now? T-Mac is gone, Alston is gone. Any rumors / issues?
The lockerroom issues aside, the Rafer trade was directly related to McGrady going down. We needed a scoring boost, so Brooks needed more time and Lowry was a guy they always liked. If T-Mac was reasonably healthy, there is no way Morey would trade his starting PG. We'd be a championship contender.
Man, been a while since I heard the Galloway and Co. show. Takes me back to my dark days of living in Denton. *shudder*
I don't know about you guys but if the vocal leader of my team was putting up consecutive 1-7, 2-9, 3-11 shooting performances, I would probably but heads with him too. For whatever "good" Rafer supposedly brought to this team, I think it is safe to say that we are just fine without him, if not better.
A lot of the issue with Rafer was up until Brooks started getting better in the middle of his 2nd season, the Rockets had nothing comparable behind him on the bench. It wasnt so much what Rafer did, but what the other guys didn't do. (Mike James, JL3, VSPAN, even Aaron as a rook) So when you took the guy who had been the captain of the ship for 3 years away, the ship looked lost. Its only after Brooks started proving he could do almost as good at running the ship with improvements in the speed and scoring department that Rafer became expendable.
Fixed it for ya . And it's really sad because I had high hopes for him. I don't know what happened. Maybe he did what McGrady did and came back way too early
