Carl Landry: A Retrospective

You know, I haven't felt this way about a trade since, well, ever. Sending Steve Francis to Orlando? We knew it was coming for a while. It hurt, but I was prepared. Sending McGrady away? I came to terms with that months ago.

But trading Landry away? That came out of nowhere, and I think we're all a little choked up to see him go.

Kings fans, you're getting a special player. No, he's not Kevin Martin, but he's a beast. Excellent offensive rebounder, seemingly automatic around the rim these days (and from the free throw line), and willing to put a team on his shoulders at the end of a game.

So, with that in mind, let's do one of those teary-eyed clipshows that all TV shows do when a character leaves/dies/gets abducted. I'm only going to include (what I feel is) the best, but feel free to add whatever you like.

So, in no particular order, Carl Landry's Best Rockets Moments:

Carl Landry Sends Dirk Sprawling

As noted so many times, the incredible part of this is that Dirk looks like the one who got the worst of this impact. Dirk goes to the ground, but Carl stays on his feet and calmly walks over to Keith Jones. Outstanding.

Carl Landry Shows Off for Deke

I think you can reasonably argue that Mutombo was the Rockets' soul for a couple years: the (oddly enough, for a guy in his 40s) energy guy off the bench whose efforts kept everyone else in line. And Landry was that guy this year. It's appropriate, then, that Landry imitated Deke when he got the chance.

Carl Landry Destroys the Lakers

As I recall, the Lakers were mounting something of a rally at this point during Game 6. Landry stopped that pretty quickly with one of those mythical "momentum changers." I don't know what's better: Carl's finger wag at the end, or Kobe's reaction.

Carl Landry Stuffs Deron Williams

Oh so perfect. (Though this version omits Alston's kiss, and Landry's hilarious reaction to it).

Favorite Landry moments: go!