<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">So, Rafer Alston, how was your summer vacation? Watched the Rockets bring in three candidates for his job. Been busted twice by the cops. The latest incident occurred when the Rockets point guard was arrested early Monday morning in New York City on charges he slashed a man's neck inside a nightclub. It was the second arrest in three weeks for the 31-year-old Alston, who was arrested on Aug. 5 in Houston following a confrontation with a parking attendant after his car was towed. The latest incident occurred when a member of Alston's entourage got into an argument with 41-year-old Wilbert Ashman at a trendy nightclub called Stereo, according to the New York Post and Daily News. The argument turned into a brawl and, according to Ashman, he was slashed on the right side of his neck. Alston was arrested and Ashman later picked him out of a police lineup. Alston did not return calls that I placed to him on both of his phones and the Rockets are still in the early process of shaking their heads and deciding what they're going to say. While Alston's legal troubles, at this point, do not exactly rise to the level of Michael Vick, they are troubling to the Rockets organization and could further grease the skids for the departure of a player who started all 82 games last season. Alston was already hanging on by a thread after the coaching change that replaced Jeff Van Gundy with Rick Adelman and the offseason influx of point guard talent. Since June, the Rockets have traded for Mike James, drafted Aaron Brooks and signed free agent Steve Francis. You've got to figure that for a guy who is already re-auditioning for his job, this isn't a good way to impress. Alston, according to some sources, was not handling the flood of challenges to his job well. He has rarely joined informal workouts at the Toyota Center with his teammates. He claimed that he didn't know any members of Adelman's new coaching staff were in town. Then he simply didn't show up. Sounds like Skip To My Lou is tripping toward the door. The question is: How much harder does this make it to move Alston? I can already tell you that the pipe dream of Rafer-to-Miami-for-Udonis Haslem never had wings in the Heat front office. The Rockets are on the hook to Alston for three more years at $4.5-million, $4.9-million and $5.2-million.</div> Source: Houston Chronicle
Looks like we waited too long to trade him. Hopefully, teams are desperate around Nov. 1 and we can still get something decent in return.
