At 24 Hour at Voss and San Felipe. I walked in and he was playing 3 on 3. After the game, I asked if they wanted to play 4 on 4. Matt's friend said, "No...we're playing for money." I said, "I've got money." I started to talking to Matt for a little bit. He lives here and is starting a music/recording company. I asked him how many 3's he hit in game 7 against Seattle. He said, "Umm...8." We talked about losing to the Jazz and how much that sucked. I thanked him for his service to the team. Anyway, seems like a nice guy.
Did you ask him how many Porsches and Benzes he has as a result of that looooooong contract that the Rockets just stopped paying him for? Well, all I can say about Maloney is this: God must have REALLLY liked the guy for him to cash in so much money for not even being good enough to play in the CBA. It is amazing what one good year will do for you in the NBA with these guaranteed contracts.
It wasn't even one good year that got him the contract. It was one incredible SERIES against the Sonics. We definitely would have lost to them without his unconscious 3 point shooting. It was a truly unforgettable experience for me to finally get the Seattle monkey of our backs. Problem was, we had to play the Jazz next round. Some of us Rox fans took for granted we would win. Maloney was just as horrible against the Jazz as he was great against the Sonics. I blame his complete tank job (among other things) for losing to the Jazz. If he was just average or slightly below average, I think we would have won the series. When he got that contract, I was wondering what the Rox were thinking. To me, the Jazz series proved Maloney's performance against the Sonics was a complete fluke.
Well, although Rudy T was a great coach whom I loved, he just wasn't a good talent evaluator, and seemed to ditch out big contracts to players over and over again, which I think was his real downfall as a coach. Malony was just another "Rudy T contract". The organization had (and still has) to live with it. It might take another couple of seasons to completely get rid of the Rudy T contracts/players we are stuck with for now.
Good point. I definitely took the Jazz for granted in 1997. Seattle was always our unbeatable hurdle to playing the Bulls in the Finals, and when the Rockets finally beat them in 1997, I thought we would cruise by the Jazz like we did in the mid 90s. At the end of the day, trading for Barkley changed the Rockets matchup problems from the Sonics to the Jazz.
Matt Maloney went to an ivy league school, the fact that he was the starting point guard on a playoff team is remarkable. I remember playing a pick up game on an opposing team of his once and he just drained incredible shot after shot. Amazing the difference between a pick-up game and the NBA huh?
Thats the gym I workout at...never seen the dude. Will keep my eye out for him in case Im in need of some cash.
Wasn't Maloney's contract 7 years, $21,000,000? I'm pretty sure. So we're done paying Maloney, Stacy Augman and Don McClain? Awesome. Now we have Baker, Moochie, Spoon and Ward? Sheesh.
Ha..yeah no doubt....but still, you see this guy and there are scrubs flying at him and smacking his arm while he still hits nothing but net...and you think, damn, this ivy league guy is awesome but you never think he could make it in the nba....and the guy actually makes it there, and you're watching him on tv, wondering how the hell is that guy on tv??? and your excited for him, and hope to see something magical, but then you see him brick a lot of wide open threes and have Charles Barkeley hugging him and you ask yourself... why can these guys light it up then, but can't hit an open J for the life of them when they are on TV!?!? And then you think....it's gotta be the shoes!
It's kind of stupid that Maloney is playing for money. With all the money he sucked out of us, is he broke now?
Yeah man, how dare he sign that contract and take all that money! I would have given it all back! I don't need 21 Million Dollars!
I was up there as well when I was up there around 430-445. Maloney looked a bit out of shape. Rocket...Did you play 4-on-4 on the other court while Maloney and Co. was playing? Reason I was asking was some wierd **** was going on with the opposing team hit their 1st 11 or 12 shots against decent defense.
