Honestly, this sounds a little shady ... were there witnesses that saw Rafer slash the man's throat? ID'ing Rafer out of a police lineup isn't too difficult when his face is easily recognizable from TV. If there are witnesses though, Rafer's in serious trouble. Either way it's bad news for the Rockets when you and "your entourage" are involved in a brawl ... even if there was no knife involved. The dude could be Mother Theresa and his trade value would still be zilch with 3 years and $15 million remaining on his contract (see: Doleac, Michael) ... ... but now? The Rockets would be lucky to get Doleac (a player with one-year remaining on his contract) just as a savings.
Haha dang all these obvious jokes have already been used. Anyway, I'm serious about liking Rafer as a person. If we didn't have to rely on him scoring he wouldn't be so hated
Now I understand why many posters wanted Rafer to be on the roster no matter how much money Les is going to pay. Mr. Alston needs as much help as ......Eddie Griffin .. We should show some love to Rafer, indeed.
Agreed on both points. You know how they knew it was Rafer? He could handle the knife better than anyone, he just couldn't do anything else with it. You know how they knew it wasn't Stevie? It didn't take 24 seconds to happen.
yeah, because threatening a woman with a gun and being "accused" (with no witnesses to validate the accustation i might add) of slashing someone are the exact same.
Fishy is a good word for this. I find it interesting that Rafer was released without bond. If this was really serious, he'd be up on some serious charges and would have to face a hefty bail.
Yeah. A flawed roster in great part BECAUSE OF HIM. He didn't "run" this team anywhere but into the ground. McGrady was the guy who ran the team. It lived and died entirely by him. Hopefully that won't be nearly as true this year now that we actually have other talent in the backcourt, but Rafer was absolute garbage. Yes, he was (sort of) asked to do more than he should have, but how hard is it to make a wide open 18-footer more than 35% of the time? How hard is it to finish a layup every once in a while? How hard is it to repost Yao a couple times, or get the ball to McGrady and get the **** out of the way on a fast break rather than taking a boneheaded 14-foot runner that everyone knows is a brick before it even leaves his hands? And BTW, since when did our offense "flow"? Any flowing that occured was when McGrady was in his game in the half-court.
... What exactly is your point? If you're saying that they're thugs, then why exactly do we need another one?
http://blogs.chron.com/franblinebury/2007/08/what_rafer_did_on_his_summer_v.html August 28, 2007 What Rafer did on his summer vacation: Got busted again. So, Rafer Alston, how was your summer vacation? Watched the Rockets bring in three candidates for his job. Been busted twice by the cops. The latest incident occurred when the Rockets point guard was arrested early Monday morning in New York City on charges he slashed a man's throat inside a nightclub. It was the second arrest in three weeks for the 31-year-old Alston, who was arrested on Aug. 5 in Houston following a confrontation with a parking attendant after his car was towed. The latest incident occurred when a member of Alston's entourage got into an argument with 41-year-old Wilbert Ashman at a trendy nightclub called Stereo, according to the New York Post and Daily News. The argument turned into a brawl and, according to Ashman, he was slashed on the right side of his neck. Alston was arrested and Ashman later picked him out of a police lineup. Alston did not return calls that I placed to him on both of his phones and the Rockets are still in the early process of shaking their heads and deciding what they're going to say. While Alston's legal troubles, at this point, do not exactly rise to the level of Michael Vick, they are troubling to the Rockets organization and could further grease the skids for the departure of a player who started all 82 games last season. Alston was already hanging on by a thread after the coaching change that replaced Jeff Van Gundy with Rick Adelman and the offseason influx of point guard talent. Since June, the Rockets have traded for Mike James, drafted Aaron Brooks and signed free agent Steve Francis. You've got to figure that for a guy who is already re-auditioning for his job, this isn't a good way to impress. Alston, according to some sources, was not handling the flood of challenges to his job well. He has rarely joined informal workouts at the Toyota Center with his teammates. He claimed that he didn't know any members of Adelman's new coaching staff were in town. Then he simply didn't show up. Sounds like Skip To My Lou is tripping toward the door. The question is: How much harder does this make it to move Alston? I can already tell you that the pipe dream of Rafer-to-Miami-for-Udonis Haslem never had wings in the Heat front office. The Rockets are on the hook to Alston for three more years at $4.5-million, $4.9-million and $5.2-million. In the grand scheme of things, Alston's legal transgressions -- no matter how they turn out -- barely register on the modern day pro athlete scale of bad behavior. There would still likely be a point-guard-starved team out there somewhere who would take him on. But how much longer are the Rockets willing to give him a chance? They are a team that is trying to make the step up to the level of the elite, a true championship contender. To do that, you need players who can perform under pressure. What Alston may be showing is that in the face of pressure for his job, he is wilting. That kind of weakness has a way of showing up on the court in the playoffs. Posted by Fran Blinebury at August 28, 2007 11:34 AM
