NEW YORK _ As the Knicks prepare for their summer free-agent chase, it's worth revisiting a bit of history. Allan Houston was 25 years old and coming off of his rookie contract with the Detroit Pistons when he entered free agency in the summer of 1996 with no intention of leaving the only NBA home he'd known.
Growing up in Kentucky and then playing for his father at the University of Tennessee, he was comfortable in Detroit. In a star-studded free-agent class, he was recruited for the first time in his life with the plan to use the player movement and his own visits simply to push the Pistons to pay him what he thought he deserved.
And then he got on a private plane with Patrick Ewing in the seat next to him.
