Houston, we have a problem

As one of our esteemed readers brought up in response to the Kanye West piece, Allan Houston has signaled to ESPN that he is 90-95% ready to return to the hardwood, but, and here is the key, he doesn't expect to return to the Knicks. Allan Houston is my least favorite Knick of all time. I do not count the Knicks who arrived with or since Isiah because that era simply doesn't exist for me. I choose to remember the Knicks of the late 80s through the exodus of Spree only.

As Ewing's tenure was winding down the Knicks were faced with several choices on how to transition, they could trade Ewing for 45 cents on the dollar to escape his balloon payment contract or let his contract finish and then get under the salary cap, they also had to choose between which type of team they wanted to have. The choices were simple, keep Vanilla Allan Houston and build around a sharp shooting soft as a Dairy Queen parfait non-defending 2 guard or pick a maniacal, yacht driving, computer geek, lock down defending swing man in Latrell Spreewell. Compounding this was the growing rift between the GM and Coach Van Gundy who favored an attacking offense and a strong physical defense. As with most Coach GM battles, the owner chose the GM, the Knicks got rid of Camby and Spree and banked on Houston, Charlie Ward, Howard Eisley Shandon Anderson, Antonio McDyess and Kurt Thomas among other superstars.

Maybe Houston has what it takes to return, but keep this in mind, the NBA instituted a rule allowing teams to cut an injured player and not have to absorb the cap number just for Allan Houston. Forget about his soft play, its been a long time since Houston contributed in any meaningful way, can his body take the pounding of an NBA season, does he really have the desire to play again? Only time will tell, but at least he is not the Knicks problem any longer.