http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/basketball/knicks/blog/2009/03/mike_not_happy_with_larry.html Nate Robinson and Rafer Alston got into it a little bit late in the third quarter after Alston fouled Robinson with 4:58 left in the quarter. They got tangled up and Alston went chest-to-chest with Robinson and then stared him down with his arms wide open. A double-technical was called on both. It was Robinson's 11th tech of the season. "It was fun, Nate's competitive," Alston said afterward. "I love the challenge. I know he's going to bring it every night. We just got tangled up a little bit in the third. Nothing major."
*sigh* Rafer with his big mouth again. Rafer always talks big and says stuff a franchise player would say then you look at his stats ang wtf 20+% from 3s lol.
Except that Rafer's 29% in Orlando is the first time he's averaged that low in 8 seasons. He's always been 35% from deep, give or take 3%. Lowry is a 25% artist. And McGrady has almost always shot slightly worse than Rafer from outside, not that you'd know that on this BBS. Rafer's not an all-star, he's a serviceable point guard that doesn't have a reliable shot (inside or out). Unfortunately, with all of the injuries we sustained each year, he kept getting pressed into being our 2nd or 3rd scorer, a role he was never going to succeed in. Juwan, Chuck, Battier, Deke....who was going to fill the scoring void? It's over with - we've got nice scoring options now, and Rafer's in Florida. Isn't time we let it go? Evan
Rafer's always been a pretty good outside shooter, imo. Especially for a guy who takes the volume of 3s that he does, he shoots a decent percentage. It's his miserable shooting close to the basket, often with those pathetic tear drop shots, that's held him back from being a more effective offensive weapon.
Not singling you out, but why is it that Ron is a 'tru warier!' when he goes nuts, but Rafer is ridiculed? Unlike Artest, except for that one game against CP3, it's not like he let it affect his play and tried to outduel the other guy. For the most part, Rafer sucked, sure, but one thing I always appreciated about him was that he always stood up for his teammates and never took crap from anyone. EDIT: after reading the post below mine, just realized you were talking about his comments. hafta agree with shaud on this. someone had to be the leader on this team and it was him, for better or worse.
The only reason Rafer said things a Franchise player would say is because both our franchise players were not leaders. Most of the stuff Rafer said was overblown. He didn't even call them out by name people just assumed he was talking about T-mac and Artest when that whole drama went down.
I saw at the end of the article's link mike_not_happy_with_larry.html and thought how in the heck is Jordan not happy with Larry Brown in Charlotte? And was gonna rip into his GM'ing ability but of course it was Mike D'Antoni and Larry Hughes
I haven't called Artest a tru warier or anything. IMHO, Artest just likes to push people around and play rough because he's built like defensive tackle, if anything Gerald Wallace is the Tru Warier because he's not afraid to take contact even if he has a very puny and thin body. My issue with Rafer is his mouth, and his feeling that he just right under the franchise players in the player totem pole. I think you have to have a certain amount of cred before you start talking about "leading" and stuff, and that cred is gained by your play on the court. He is not a scrub, in fact I was against trading him before I know Grizz were open to trading Lowry for just a pick, but I think his elevated sense of importance hurts the team performance. Look at the amount of shots he's taken, it has stayed relatively the same despite the fact that he's now the 4rth best perimeter scorer on his new team. Obviously he thinks he the next best option after Orlando's big 3.
I meant 4rth best perimeter scorer on the floor at any given point in time. He's the probably the only shooter on that squad who can't hit open 3's at a decent clip.
The guy is a streetball legend and an NBA starting point guard for multiple playoff teams. Rafer has plenty of cred, and he runs his mouth like any New York-raised point guard.
