Is the Houston contract the worst of all time? I feel like it has all the makings of it.

1) Huge dollar amount and length
2) Player was old and declining
3) player was overated (b/c defense is harder to measure)
4) was in a league with a salary cap (thus, it makes it "worse" than a baseball contract b/c in baesball, even crippling contracts aren't impossible to work around)
5) wound up hurting a team that was consistently good and had aspirations of being championship caliber
6) there was a viable alternative to the position (moving spree back to SG)
7) no other team would have come close to offering a contract close to that one.
8) every single team / media mocked the contract immediately. There wasn't one justification for it. It was hated from the very beginning
9) Not only was it blasted at the beginning, but it turned out WORSE than expected.
10) he wasn't even marketable as a player. too uncle tomish / religous.
11) there were a lot of great free agents coming up in the future that the knicks had to pass on.

#7 is what really gets me. Teams always overpay for vetrans, so that's to be expected. But i've never seen a home team overpay for their own player like this; they LITTERALLY were bidding against themselves. Allan was a loyal guy. I think they very easily could have said "see what you can get on the market and then come back to us, we'll match it". Or, if you wanted to be lazy, you realize that he was about the 5th best SG at the time, so you pay him less than what Kobe, Ray Allen, etc are getting.

The Houston contract upsets me on two levels. First and foremost, it destroyed the Knicks team. But, I also regret having to turn on Houston. As much as i liked him, i just couldn't get past his contract. I used to have so much fun watching. His jumpshot was so pure, and like i've said before, the three-point attempt is the most exciting play in all of sports (you have just the right amount of anticipation between -- set up ---> shot attempt ----> hang in the air ----> make)

What competition does this contract have? albert belle, mo vaughn, shawn kemp? not even close.