[The Star.com] Childish Alston's matured after tantrums with Raptors

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Childish Alston's matured after tantrums with Raptors

Jan 03, 2009 04:30 AM
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Dave Feschuk

So this is what happens when you build a double-digit lead and actually protect it. This is what happens when three of your starters are out with injuries and you overcome the odds with a victory against a theoretically formidable Western Conference opponent.

If you're the Raptors and you blew out the Houston Rockets last night, 94-73, you pat your collective self on the keister, breathe a sigh of relief and say: Phew! Never mind the trade talks, we're right back on pace for a 32-win season!

It's hard to imagine it'll end quite that badly on nights like last night at the Air Canada Centre, when the home team is playing sharp-toothed defence, Andrea Bargnani is looking like a salvageable asset, and the opponents, conveniently enough, are putting up appallingly lax resistance.

And even if the inconsistency continues in Raptorland, we can say in all certainty it won't be anything like a 30-something-win season of ages past.

Rafer Alston, a member of the soap-opera cast otherwise known as the 33-win 2004-05 Raptors, was getting a little whimsical last night thinking back to those days.

"There was a lot of friction in that locker room. We had pretty much me-first guys," Alston, now the Rockets' starting point guard, was saying. "We had guys in contract years. We had Donyell (Marshall) in his contract year, MoPete in his contract year ... So instead of going out and getting the wins, you've got guys who were like, `Hey, I've got to get my numbers.' ... You have to think team first, and you have to think you second, sometimes you third."

It was revisionist history, and it wasn't exactly fact-checked (Morris Peterson actually wasn't in his contract year in 2004-05, although with Peterson that never seemed to matter). And yes, the recollections were coming from the unique circuitry of Alston's one-of-a-kind brain, whose mercurial output during his Toronto tenure was often selfish and childish and sad to watch.

But Alston has, four seasons down the road, bought himself a measure of credibility by carving out his space for a Houston squad that, despite its recent inconsistency and last night's complacency, is on pace for its third consecutive 50-plus-win season. Indeed, you'd be forgiven if you're a Raptor fan who misses Alston a little. The guys with the microphones certainly feel the same way.

Last night, after all, felt strangely reminiscent of Alston's last Toronto season, when fresh drama was written daily based on the point guard's pronouncements. He was asked if everybody in the Houston locker room is on the same page.

"Not at all. Not one bit," said Alston, 32.

"We had this happen the other night in Houston and to have it happen tonight, it's sad and it's unfortunate."

Keep in mind the Rockets were coming off a win over Milwaukee. Still, they're having their problems, injury-related and otherwise, and Alston kept the talk of crisis coming.

"It was ugly. That was another embarrassing performance. You always tip your hat to the other team. They were playing their behinds out there," he said. "But for us it's embarrassing."

No, he didn't threaten to quit the sport, as he did here. And he didn't quarrel with his current coach, Rick Adelman, as he did here with Sam Mitchell. But Alston said he felt a twinge of regret last night, the same regret he feels every time he comes to town, and it wasn't related to the final score.

"When I look back on it after all these years," he said, "if we'd communicated better as a team, I think I'd probably still be here. But you grow with that. You're less emotional. We have situations like we had in Toronto (in Houston), but we talk about it and nip it in the bud quick. You live and learn."