It's nothing new, but it's nice to read a postive article about a Rockets player in an international magazine. I'm posting this for those who haven't read the latest SLAM magazine. In Your Face- Lift Off Every NBA career has a defining moment. For Carl Landry, the 6-9, 250-pound power forward for the Houston Rockets, that moment came during a 94-92 victory over the Utah Jazz in Game 3 of the first round of last season's Playoffs. Late in second quarter, the former Purdue standout took a hard Carlos Boozer forearm to the grill, resulting in the loss of a front tooth, a swollen nose and an involuntary Leon Spinks impersonation. Despite the injury and correlating pain, Landry re-entered the game and notched seven points, 11 rebounds and the game-winning swat against Deron Williams, all in just 23 minutes. That performance was just the icing on the cake for a season that saw Landry- a second-round pick- Deebo his way into the rotation with his tenacious D and rim-rattling dunks after riding the pine for the first 36 games. The Milwaukee native ended up averaging 8.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game and earning a spot on the NBA All-Rookie second team. With a rookie campaign like that, Landry thought he'd be welcomed back like Kotter. But then the business side of the L saw him come dangerously close to bouncing to Charlotte this summer. "I'm happy to be back," says Landry, showing off a newly minted Colgate smile paid for with his three-year, $9 million contract with the Rockets. "I like Houston- the fans, the city and the players have been good to me. The Bobcats were interested and that would have been a good fit, but I'm glad to be back." Landry took a flying leap into the collective hearts of Rockets fans with his gritty play last year, and he's built on that this season to the tune of 9.2 ppg and 5.3 rpg for the quietly contending Rockets. During my rookie year, things were moving 1,000 miles per hour," says Landry. "So I learned to just slow things down. It was all a matter of how hard I worked this summer. This year, I'm bringing whatever I can help this team win, whether it's scoring, defense or rebounding. I just want to win games." -- Maurice Bobb, SLAM
cant wait for the von wafer article. von is this years landry. How come we couldnt come across these guys when carrol was Gm. you know except for sam cassell (dont know if cd was GM back then) and cat who was another lucky pick. Yet last year we had 3 late picks that have made an impact already (ab, scola and landry). and to add to that von wafer, the youth movement has really gave us a boost. before last season we had no young players, two years later we have 4, 3 which are potential starters. Morey is awesome.
Our youngsters sometimes dont get any love cause of the tmac / yao saga. I love our role players, its the reason the Rockets are fun to watch
