Allan Houston

I waited till after it was official to write this since I wanted to make sure I had some time to collect my thought on his retirement. And as happy as I am that Allan won't be a drain on the Knicks payroll anymore, it's still a sad day. No matter what he did afterwards, I'll always remember that shot in Game 5 against the Heat. It was like Aaron Boone's homer against the Sox in 2003, it was that memorable and that stinging to the Knicks' longtime rivals. And it completely changed both franchises: the Heat, eventually, became what they are today and Riley (Pat not Brian) began to realize he wasn't an immortal basketball god. The Knicks foolishly figured that Houston was the man and gave him a max contract which led to all the problems we've seen over the last four years. The fact that the last memory many will have of Allan is the "Allan Houston Rule" is sad close to a good, but not great, NBA career that ended far too soon.

For more, here's Mike Lupica's column from today's Daily News:

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/356829p-304138c.html