http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2194071
Allan Houston retires because of bad knees.
He went to NY after his first 3 years in Detroit. While he was still in Detroit he gave me and some buddies a gentle reminder of why pro athletes make millions and we buy seats.
I was playing in a lunch time game Tuesday and Thursday with a group of guys that included one really old former NBA player, several ex-college players and other solid players. The health club we played at offered free membership to the Pistons. The summer after his rookie year Allan shows up one day and plays. There were 3 teams, loser sits.
I'm on Allan's team, and its clear he is just stretching his legs. He isn't shooting much, and he just pushes the ball and dumps to us. His passes were on some other level and a couple of times hit people in the head. Anyway we lose and sit down.
The next time we get out he pulls up for a mid range shot and this guy BLOCKS HIS SHOT. We're quickly down like 3 nothing or so. Maybe someone said something to him, maybe he jsut decided this was bullshit, but he came down, drove to the hole and dunked 15 times in row. By the end he was being triple teamed and it was still like he was just doing layup drills. We won.
The guy who blocked his shot never bragged about, given the outcome. Allan seemed like a nice guy, until he got focused on winning.
