Allan Houston won a gold medal as part of the U.S. Olympic basketball team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, scoring an average of 8 points per game. In the 1999-2000 season, Eastern Conference coaches voted the Knicks player onto the NBA All-Star team. His dedication is evident in his personal quote: "You set goals because you never know, you may exceed them. You just keep working hard, come to play hard every day."

In 1993, Houston joined the Detroit Pistons. In 1996, he joined the New York Knicks and plays as a guard. During the 1999-2000 season, he started 82 games and averaged 19.7 points per game, a score which is a team-high and a tie for career-high, putting him in 21st place in the NBA. On May 16, 1999, Houston scored 12 points, ending with one of the most memorable shots in Knicks history: a running one-hander that went off both the rim and backboard, then dropped into the basket with 0.8 seconds left, helping New York win 78 to 77. During the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Houston scored 17 points against New Zealand, 16 points against Lithuania, and 8 points in the game against France to help the team clinch the gold medal.

Houston is outwardly quiet and unassuming, but likes to make his teammates laugh with impersonations and other comedy material. Sports have always been a big part of his life. He played basketball and ran track at Ballard High School in Kentucky. At the University of Tennessee, he played basketball for his father Wade, who was the head coach at that time. Houston earned a Bachelors degree in African-American Studies from Tennessee.

Houston is also active in community service. He was named as one of The Sporting News' "99 Good Guys in Sports" in summer 2000. "Allan's Courtside Classroom," funded and supported by Houston and the Red Holzman Knicks' Kids Foundation, gives deserving ninth graders Knicks gifts and special seating as a reward for outstanding classroom efforts. Over 800 area ninth-graders were guests of Houston and the Knicks in 1999-2000.

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