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Typhoon20

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I'm in shock of how well the Hawks are playing, they got the Celtics on the ropes right now

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Yeah I agree, I would have loved to see Chris Paul get it, what he did with those Hornets was nothing short of amazing. 2nd best record in the West for a team with no where near the talent of a lot of other teams IMO should get the MVP, he made all his team-mates better and West an all-star. Put up great numbers too. Im just waiting for next year when Oden comes back, go Blazers.

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That's amazing to see the Celtics not winning a playoff game on the road when they led the NBA in road wins during the regular season

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Btw check out this Allan Houston interview from Allhiphop.com:

Allan Houston: Ballin' For All The Right Reasons

Published Saturday, May 10, 2008 12:00 PM

By Thomas Stuyvesant

Allan Houston is a lot of things: a father, a son, a brother, a husband, and as most people know him, a former two-time NBA All-Star guard for the New York Knicks.

He’s accomplished a lot in his life, on the court and off, but he’d be the first to tell you he didn’t do it alone. He had help - from his parents, from his coaches, and from his community. They supported him, but more importantly, they provided him with the tools he would need to succeed.

Now it’s his time to return the favor through the Allan Houston Foundation, which helps kids and young adults achieve success through a variety of different programs.

Houston, just like the foundation bearing his name, is all about hope. In 1999, he gave the city of New York hope with his last second, series clinching jumper that beat the Miami Heat and eventually led to his first and only NBA Finals appearance.

Today, he gives young adults hope through his charity, which provides a Business Education and Development Program (BEDP) and a "Father Knows Best" basketball retreat. The BEDP provides economic empowerment through entrepreneurship and encourages education and life skill development.

The basketball retreat brings fathers and sons together to work together on the court and in life. AllHipHop.com recently caught up with Houston to discuss two of his passions, basketball and his foundation.

AllHipHop.com: The NBA has had its struggles with image in the past. What are your thoughts on the state of the league today?

Allan Houston: I’ve never thought of the NBA as being down, from my perspective, I mean it’s a great game. I mean I feel like the time I’ve been traveling and going overseas, everyone’s been excited about the game. I think this year it’s become one of the best years in a long time because you’re starting to see a lot of young talented players.

You look at Atlanta, you look at Orlando, you look at teams like New Orleans. It’s fun because younger players are starting to really learn and grow, and David Stern has done a good job.

AllHipHop.com: You said you’ve been traveling a bit, have you had much of a chance to sit down and watch the playoffs this year?

Allan Houston: Yeah, every Monday morning we do a little conversation on KISS FM in New York and talk about the playoffs. I’ve had a chance to watch a little bit, but it’s hard to watch everything. In the playoffs you’re always going to have something unexpected that happens. We’ve come to expect the unexpected.

The exciting thing about the playoffs is you’re always going to have some guys that come out, step onto that stage and take advantage of that stage. There’s always going to be a couple thrilling shots and thrilling games but at the end of the day the best team is always going to win.

AllHipHop.com: You mentioned New Orleans. They are going into a battle with the San Antonio Spurs, and we all know about them. On the other side, it looks like LA will be matching up with Utah. So who do you like coming out of the West between those teams?

Allan Houston: For me, it’s hard to bet against the Lakers because Kobe, at the end of the day, is in a great position. They are well coached and they are very sound defensively. And I think if you throw Pau Gasol in the mix with anyone, he’s a very tough match up. With Pau, Kobe, and Lamar, I think they’ll be tough to beat. And then with San Antonio, everything [used to be] centered around Tim Duncan, but now it’s also around Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. So if you can stay on Tony Parker and guard him on the pick-and-roll, you may have a chance.

It’s tough, because Phoenix didn’t give us any ideas of how San Antonio is really going to be. I think the best series and the one I’m going to love to watch is Chris Paul and New Orleans against San Antonio in the West. Both [CP and Tony Parker] are extremely quick. I like Chris Paul because he controls the games a little more. He’s capable of getting you twenty something points but he’s also capable of getting you 15 assists.

AllHipHop.com: What is your favorite playoff memory?

Allan Houston: It’s split between a few. All in 1999. I was fortunate to be a part of the NBA Finals that year. The shot against Miami that got us out of the first round was special. But Game Six of the Eastern Conference Finals against Indiana was very special to me, because I knew that night that my daughter was going to be born the next day.

It was really my favorite one, because it lasted the whole game and not just one second. Going through that game was kind of like an out-of-body experience for me and I was just having fun.

AllHipHop.com: Let’s talk about the Allan Houston Legacy Foundation. What inspired you to create the program?

Allan Houston: I think the goals of the program are very similar to my goals growing up. The various things we’d talk about with my parents in terms of having character and your faith in God, the attention to education, and discipline. I was fortunate enough to see what its like at any early age, where a lot of people, especially in the African-American community, don’t get to see what that’s like.

We learned those things, and we learned at the end of the day you have to be equipped, so we wanted to have somewhere that will help equip young adults and children [with the skills they need to succeed]. The Father Knows Best basketball retreat stemmed from my relationship with my father. He’s a man of character, of principle, and of extreme love. We still share a great relationship so I felt like him being a coach, there so many parallels between his role in my life and a coach - a basketball coach and a life coach and that’s really what a father figure should be.

And then even as a coach you have to have relationships, you know, from senior management. We call God our senior management, and we kind of embrace parallels between basketball and life. We play basketball, do fun activities, and shooting drills and at the end of the day, we just try to understand what being a real man is.

AllHipHop.com: They both sound like great programs. As far as the business education development program, what is the selection process like?

Allan Houston: A lot of people come to allanhouston.com and they register and we let them know through some promotional activities when the classes start and when they can sign up. There is a process. We have an interview stage and there are some requirements. The age is usually 18-25 years old. The biggest requirement is that you really need to have a serious business interest. You can’t come in and say “I’m just trying to figure out what I want to do in life.”

Everybody has to come in focused on their business. Some of them are already in operations, they just need to understand a little bit more about how they can improve it and some people have a great business idea but they’re just starting out. And that’s really one of the main requirements for us. The two winners of the program get $20,000 and 12 months free office space. We have great sponsors in Lenovo and Citigroup who have helped us start the program, so everything we do at this point is really about equipping our young adults and young people.

AllHipHop.com: Have any classes graduated already?

Allan Houston: We graduated Harlem this past September, and we’ll graduate New Orleans at the end of June. And right now, we’re probably going to be raising some funds and trying to get some support so we can continue to grow in different cities.

AllHipHop.com: Let’s talk more about the Father’s Knows Best Basketball Retreat. What can we expect from your event coming up on Father’s Day, a two-on-two celebrity event at Rucker Park?

Allan Houston: We have a two-day event. That Friday we’ll kick off the retreat, and we’ll probably have about 200 fathers-and-sons, or mentors-and-mentees. We’ll have games, workshops, you know, a shooting camp me and my dad put on. The Saturday before Father’s Day we have competitions and then we go to Rucker Park, where we’ll probably have the finals of the shootout and a celebrity two-on-two shootout, so we’re still looking forward to that. We’re just waiting on some confirmations but it’s going to be a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to it.

AllHipHop.com: Are you participating in the shooting contest yourself?

Allan Houston: Yeah, I participate in everything. I go through everything, so that’s what makes it fun for me and my dad and my son.

AllHipHop.com: What is the main message that you want to get across through your Father Knows Best Basketball Retreat?

Allan Houston: I think growing up many of us, you know, as young men, we’re all getting taught by media and by so many different angles about what being a real man is, what we were created to be. And the message is, we want to understand what that is and teach our young men what it means to have integrity, what it means to work hard, what it means to treat women with respect and how to handle those relationships.

It’s basically a skill development message for young men, and those same principles are applicable on the basketball court. So we try to draw parallels, and at the end of the day we want coaches, and the fathers, and the father figures to be that main influence and coach our young kids through life as well as on the basketball court.

AllHipHop.com: Are you planning to expand the basketball retreat into other cities?

Allan Houston: We’re looking to start a camp which is more a one day event in the Burroughs of New York with the same concept. We’re putting that together now. And then after that, once we are effectively operating and managing that, then we’d love to take it to different cities, but the camp will have the same mission and goals as the Father Knows Best retreat.

AllHipHop.com: Where can people find out more about your foundation?

Allan Houston: People can go to the website at AllanHouston.com, and they can find out how to support or participate.

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