After games, I used to go behind the Summit where the players came out. Rodney McCray was the nicest guy on the team. He would come outside and stand against the wall and sign autographs for everyone and take pictures too. I have one of framed of Rodney and my 4 month old son (now 17). Rodney wouldn't leave until everyone was taken care of. Jim Peterson was the same way. Ralph Sampson would sign but he would sign as he was walking. All in all Ralph tried. Hakeem was the rudest guy on the team. He was downright arrogant and wouldn't sign anything, much less acknowledge anyone's existence. Does anyone remember the incident where Hakeem slapped the convenience store clerk? Or the camerman at his girlfriend Lita's apartments? Or the fight with his brother in the Summit parking lot? Before Hakeem dedicated his life to religion, he was not a nice person.
Rodney McCray shouldn't have been picked over Drexler but he was not a bust. He was the best ball handler on the team when John Lucus was suspended. He averaged 12,5,3 with the Rockets, one season averaging 14,7,5.
Jim Jackson was pretty comparable to R-mac. Also, when I think of recent Houston SFs, I think Mario Elie. Alltime? Wasn't Rudy T a SF? Also, I'd throw Rob Reid in there. Definitely R-mac was not a bust. Although I still can't think of a player with a flatter, more frustrating shot than R-Mac. The contrast between his flat shot and Purvis Short's rainbow jumper is amazing. 2 completely geometrically opposed approaches to getting a bucket. And both did well in the same year as I recall.
RMac was the 3rd pick in the draft.......pgabriel,you just stated he averaged 12,5,and 3.Hey,listen I wear Rocket colored glasses too and that was a crappy draft,but after reviewing his career, do you honestly believe that Rodney was anywhere close to being worthy of #3?
I wrote he wasn't worthy of being picked over Drexler, which means I don't think he was worth a number 3 pick. But not being worthy of your draft position and being a bust are two different things. Sam Bowie was a bust. Kwame Brown is a bust. Eddie Griffin is a bust.
I said,AS THE THIRD PICK,he was a bust.....and I made it a point to say he was an average NBA player....very pedestrian.Yes,there are out and out busts like you referred to,but when a player is picked this high and puts up those kind of numbers(without helping his team to a title),I consider him a bust too.#3 is supposed to be a cornerstone for a looong time. Here's the 83 draft...... 1.Hou - Ralph Sampson 2.Indiana - Steve Stipanovich 3.Hou - Rodney McCray 4.SD - Byron Scott 5.Chi.- Sidney Green 6.GS - Russell Cross 7.Utah - Thurl Bailey 8.Det.- Antoine Carr 9.Dall - Dale Ellis 10.Wash.- Jeff Malone 11.Dall. - Derek Harper 12.NY - Darrell Walker 13.KC - Ennis Whatley 14.Port. - Clyde Drexler 15.Den.- Howard Carter 16.Sea. - Jon Sundvold 17.Phil. - Leo Rautins 18.Mil.- Randy Breuer 19.SA - John Paxson 20.Clev. - Roy Hinson 21.Bos. - Greg Kite 22.Wash. - Randy wittman 23.Ind. - Mitch Wiggins 24.Clev. - Stewart Granger Craig Ehlo and Dan Ruland went in the 3rd round. Charles Jones and Manute Bol went in the fifth. Sedale Threatt went in the sixth. Ray McCallum who tried to coach the Coogs went in the seventh. I will say this,it was a damn good draft for guards...but not much else.
There are a few guys on that list who definitely should have gone in front of McCray. Ellis, J. Malone, D Harper, and obviously Drexler. Harper would have been a definite keeper for many years considering the Rockets have always had point gurad trouble. Thurl Bailey had a couple of good scoring years but was never a good rebounder considering he played power foward. At worst he should have gone seven or eighth. McCray was also a highly thought of player coming out of college so it wasn't that much of a reach.
Rodney Mac was one hell of a defender. That was his strong point. He could shut people down, and really did a great job on some of the toughest assignments in the league when he was with the Rockets. There was a summer league, that he was in as was Jim Peterson, and one or two guys from the phi slamma Jamma Couger days who weren't in the NBA. Rodney drove a super nice jeep cherokee grand, as one of his cars, and was always in the parking lot by it signing autographs after the games.
A good portion of his prime years were spent at SF, with Malone and Eaton in the post positions. Not that Big T was a great rebounder, but I wouldn't say he wasn't good.
By your logic, the Rockets should have picked Clyde #1 since everyone knew back then that Clyde would be a top-50 greatest of all-time player and Ralph had crummy knees (forget the two-time college POY and Kareem comparisons). It was Dale Ellis who should have been picked #3 by the Roxs. Without Rodney McCray, the Rockets don't go to the '86 Finals and I may never be a Rockets fan.
I'm not quite sure I understand the thrust of what your saying.I was defending Ralph earlier in the thread in response to a poster who said drafting him was a mistake...by saying he was a great center,whose career was cut short by injury.And that it had a lot to do with playing the 3/4. As far as Clyde goes,I saw him play in high school and college.And I don't think it's asking too much for an NBA GM to see what most serious area hoops fans saw. Dale Ellis Derek Harper Jeff Malone Clyde Antoine Carr Darrell Walker Hindsight is 20/20,but I didn't like the RM pick then,and it still looks bad. Actually if the Rockets pick Drexler instead of Rodney,we don't get Dream,and most likely Ralph doesn't rip up his knees.We have a long window for titles.
hardwood, it's just the hindsight thing that bugs me. I don't remember as much as you do but there had to be a reason Clyde fell to #14. Maybe scouting is more advanced these days but I can't fathom anybody thinking that a #14 pick should have been picked #3 in today's NBA draft. It's only a couple of years down the road when people start talking about guys like Cuttino Mobley, Rashard Lewis, and Nick Van Exel and how all the teams who passed them up screwed up. Rodney McCray was just the better player coming out of college and I think that was the majority opinion. Good point about the many "What if's." I remember in a thread about Ralph a long time ago that brought up the possible scenario of trading Ralph in the 84 draft to Chicago/Portland for the 2nd/3rd pick (forgot who exactly it was). No twin towers, but Air and Dream together.
Darrell Walker and Carr were not great pros. They were good solid players like McCray. As far as your logic that Hakeem forcing Sampson out of the paint and therefore ruining his knees, the knock on Sampson his whole career including College is that he wanted to play guard. You can't blame that on the Rockets scheme. Lastly I listed Harper but Harper wasn't a need with John Lucas.
it had nothing to do with playing the 3/4 (especially since he never played the 3) it had to do with a bad fall he took in Boston Garden ...thats what created all his knee problems
When I say 3/4,I'm indicating that yes,he played the PF,but he handled the ball on the wing too.The Rockets let him roam waaaay too much.His duties were too broad.Ralph should have been in the paint..and I would wager that if he had been left there,the injuries wouldn't have happened. All those Leprechauns in the Garden seemed to torment Ralph at every turn,but I'm not so sure about that being the root cause of all the problems.
the injury DID happen in the paint when he was going for a rebound it has nothing to do with leprachauns ...i saw the fall he took Ralph admitted as much in later interviews that the fall was what started his run of knee injuries its well documented
OK codell,I saw it too.I hear ya. Apparently I've either forgotten or somehow missed Ralph saying this. I still maintain that he should never have been roaming around like we allowed him to do.Maybe it made him more susceptible to this injury. ...and I was joking about the Leprechauns,seeing as that place was a Hellhole,and there are so many brutal memories for Ralph and us Rockets fans.I guess my brain has subconciously blocked out much of the bad that went down against Boston.
but the fall wasn't due to him roaming around it was simply him going up for a rebound Sampson's hope for tomorrow By FRAN BLINEBURY Staff SACRAMENTO, Calif. - There are nights when his wife and daughter are asleep, the house is dark and the only sounds are the click and whir of the VCR as Ralph Sampson sits with the remote control in his hand, pushing the buttons and staring at the images that flicker across the screen. He watches a 7-foot-4 figure go up to the top of a backboard with one huge hand to spear a lob pass and spike it through the hoop. He sees the man dribble along the right baseline, spin left under the basket and come out on the other side to scoop in a layup off the glass. He looks with eyes widened at those long legs taking such graceful, easy strides across the midcourt line, then finishing a fast break with another resounding slam dunk that would send a bolt of electricity through the crowd. He can hear the roar. "That was me?" he asks the darkness. "Yeah," he says, hitting the rewind button. "That was you.' Then. Now, Ralph Sampson's days are filled with silence. The stillness of an empty gym punctuated only by the chirp and squeak of his sneakers on the polished floor. He shuffles from side to side. He works on pivoting and changing direction. He moves forward and back, concentrating on bringing his knees straight up to his chest. Then, the biggest trade Two years ago today, the Rockets sent Sampson and Steve Harris to the Golden State Warriors for Sleepy Floyd and Joe Barry Carroll in what then was regarded as the biggest NBA trade of the decade. Since that time, Carroll has been shipped to New Jersey; Floyd has lost his job as the Rockets' starting point guard to 36-year-old John Lucas; Harris has been waived out of the league. And Sampson is learning to run all over again. If there is anything sadder in sports than watching an aging athlete whose skills are slowly eroding, it is to see youth struck down by injury. This is supposed to be the prime of Sampson's career, and yet, at 28, as excess baggage on the roster of the Sacramento Kings, each step is loaded with questions and every day is filled with the knowledge time is running out. He says the pain is gone now. But that would be the pain in his knees, which have had arthroscopic surgery three times, not the ache that comes from watching the videotapes and remembering the way things were. The moves that used to be so easy and so fluid are now unsure and embarrassing. He can't jump, he can't cut sharply, he can't do much of anything except tiptoe around as if barefoot on thin ice. If you were watching him on the floor under game conditions for the first time, it would be hard to imagine he was an All-American in college and an All-Star in the NBA. McCray shocked by deterioration "Last summer, we got together to work out one day in Houston,"recalled Rodney McCray, again Sampson's teammate with the Kings. "I had heard a lot of different things about his physical condition, but I was shocked. I mean, I remember what he could do a couple of years ago. He was a great player. "When we finished, I had to talk to somebody about what I had just seen. I went home and called my brother. I said, `You're not going to believe this, but Ralph can't play ." The prevailing theory is that Sampson's problems began March 24, 1986, when he took a frightening fall at Boston Garden and landed hard on his back and head. He began to experience back problems after the fall and tried to compensate for the pain by changing the way he ran. That altered running style is said to have caused his knees to deteriorate and has left his career hanging by a thread of hope and his own determination. Sampson works out on his own now, ever since making the decision to go on the injured list Nov. 25. He is following a program intended to build up his strength and agility, designed by Bruce Frankie of Phoenix, Ariz., a personal trainer. "When they traded for me and brought me here back in October, what I heard from the Kings' management was that they only wanted me to be able to play to 75 percent of my ability and they'd be happy,"Sampson said. "They said if I could just stand in the middle, block a few shots and get the rebounds that came to me, they'd be better off than they were before, and it's all they asked. "So I tried that, but I found that I wasn't happy that way. I don't want to be just part of who I was. I want to be the whole player again.' Just how much of a player the whole Sampson was is the subject for another debate. But let it be said the Rockets have not had anyone post the numbers of a healthy Sampson at power forward since he left. In fact, even in his crippled state this season, Sampson has blocked more shots (11) than Otis Thorpe (five). "I really don't think much about that situation," Sampson said. "I'd say that personally, I don't have any bitterness anymore about the way they handled me or who took my place. My ill feelings are about the way they broke up our team after 1986. I don't think they gave us a chance to get healthy again, or we'd have won a championship. Look what's happened now.' The truth is, Sampson is difficult to know. Never beaming with a smile on the floor or quick with a quote in the locker room, Sampson has left himself open to detractors. They toss around such labels as uncaring and without heart, perhaps revealing much about their own prejudices and ignorance of the game. During the past two years, they have hooted derisively at a man hobbling on bad legs. Quit, they tell him. Sit back and collect the more than $2 million a year you've got coming for three more seasons and live off the interest. "I've slammed doors in the faces of people who've suggested that," Sampson said. "Financially, I could definitely do it. But I don't want to wake up someday 10 years from now wishing that I had tried to make it back. "There came a time when I had to ask myself two questions: "Did I want to play ? The answer to that was a definite yes. "Can I play at a high level again? I've gotten closer to that answer in the last few weeks, and I believe it's yes. Because I've had stretches now where I'll have two or three real good days in a row in my workouts. I'm able to jump and move and have no pain. "But I have to break through from one level to the next. It's a slow process.' There has been no clamoring from the sideline. The Sacramento fans have directed their wrath at Pervis Ellison, the No. 1 pick in the 1989 draft, who suffered a foot injury and is probably out for the season. Letters to the local papers suggest changes in personnel and moves in management. No one even mentions Sampson anymore. They regard him as part of the past, and he thinks only of going back to the future to a time when he can play the game instinctively again and not have to take lessons to do something as basic as walk or run. Can he make it all the way back? McCray just shrugs, and you know it's a long, long road. Sampson sits on the bench in street clothes during home games, slaps backs enthusiastically and comes in early the next day to begin another solitary workout in an empty gym. Then, there are those nights when he turns on the VCR and stares at the pictures that appear on the screen. The reason he looks at the tapes is to study his old running style, to try to recapture former habits. But there are times when he just can't help watching the games. There are the games against Sacramento in the 1986 playoffs. The Denver series. The win over the Lakers when he hit the winning shot in Game 5 at the Forum. Two years and a lifetime have passed. "Sometimes," said Ralph Sampson, "it feels like yesterday. At other times, he just hopes for tomorrow.
Thanks codell.That really saddens me,what he had to go through. Ralph was a special player,to say the least.And people rag on him to this day.
