Watching the Laker vs. Bucks game tonite sure brought back some memories. Bucks had basically lost the game late in the fourth quarter. Horry had rebounded a ball and had been fouled. As he was striving to gain his balance, Sam gives him a hard push out of frustration. Horry almost falls into the stands, but looks back smilingly at Sam. You can tell they both were just having a good time bugging each other. It just brought back the memories of 94 & 95 and makes me wish we still had those two.
Cassell's a whiny, selfish a-hole. I'm glad that cancer is gone. Horry could be useful as a garbage guy we desperately need.
Cassell was the heart and soul of that championship team! Far from the cancer. As for his wanting more pay these days, who could blame him, he isn't make anything close to nba standards for a point guard of his caliber. Horry, on the other hand, has always been an underachiever but I still enjoyed having him.
Yeah he is a selfish player for demanding what he deserves. Ray Allen has a max contract. Glenn Robinson has a max contract. Tim Thomas has close to a max contract. Geogre Karl I think is the highest paid coach in the league. Sam Cassell on the other hand has no where close to a max contract. He is the heart of the Milwaukee Bucks, yet he is not really appreciated. Without Cassell we would have had a much harder time winning those two championships. That game two vs. Orlando was nothing but Sam I Am time.
Cassell is one of my all time favorite players. Elie, Cassel, and Horry were awesome, they ruled the Summit with their games and personalities. The good ole days, for sure.
Trading those guys for Charles Barkley is the all-time worst Rocket personnel move. That and signing Rick Barry. That and cutting James Silas. And trading Moses Malone. And not trading Ralph Sampson for Michael Jordan. And not trading Hakeem to Toronto a couple of years ago. It's also too bad we lost Alex English when Denver matched our offer to him. That's a lot of woulda, coulda, shouldas.
I was listening to an interview with Don Nelson yesterday. He was asked about the most painfull trade he has made. He immediately said that he should have never traded Sam Cassell.
I have the highest respect for Sam Cassell. He was the spark plug as a rookie coming off the bench and scoring big. We wasted many resoures after the Barkley trade trying to find a point guard. I wish we would have kept him-I don't care about Horry -no heart and soul. I heard on 610 radio - Charlie Palillo that Hakeem did not want Casell as point guard -that he was a ball hog. This is the only time since the Barkley trade that I ever heard this. Anyone else ever hear this rumor?? You want to talk dead weight during the Championship years -how aout Kenny the Jet??
Say you don't trade Horry and Cassell for Barkley, and you sign them to what they want. Our cap is screwed, and we're stucking with an aging Drexler and Elie, and a Dream who isn't capable of dominating like he used to and is more injury prone. You don't have money to add people to the bench or improve the frontcourt, and then Elie wants HIS money, because remember soon after the Barkley deal Elie wanted an extension. What then? We don't have Francis or Mobley, we have an injury prone Horry and Dream had started getting injured more, sometimes the best trades are the trades that you don't want.
While I would have been happy to keep both Cassell and Horry, we <b>didn't</b> have to trade them for a broken down old Barkley at the end of his career. Cities like Houston have to keep their talent because they don't attract the top-flight free agents at the peak of their careers. We attract the broken down superstars who want one more expansive contract-- that they don't really deserve because they haven't been underpaid by us, the Rocket franchise. We got a #1 draft pick from the team that went to the NBA Eastern conference finals (so the pick won't be that high). Meanwhile, we gave up two of our young centerpieces for Barkley. Toronto wouldn't give us any players, would they? Toronto will get a couple of years out out of The Dream just like we did out of Barkley. BUT .... are Cassell and Horry the equivalent of a 20-something pick in the first round of next year's draft? I don't think so. We gave up too much.
