Moses Malone, page 14
Major knew Moses through Caldwell, and they played ball together during the summers at Fonde. Now teammates, they became best friends. Major’s family adopted Moses as an honorary brother. Moses attended Jones family gatherings, where he referred to himself as “Moses Malone Jones.” Major and Moses called each other’s mothers “momma,” and Moses traveled for the funerals of Major’s parents and siblings. If somebody asked Moses, “Aren’t you Moses Malone,” he usually said, “No, I’m Major Jones” or “My name is Mike Williams.” If he was with Jones, he’d point to him and say, “That’s Moses Malone.”16
* * *
Harris infused creativity into the Rockets’ attack. He even introduced a play where a guard threw the ball off the backboard so Moses could grab it and put it in.17 But the coach’s options were limited. Houston traded Newlin to the Nets prior to the season, and Barry and Tomjanovich were showing their age. The team had trouble scoring and hovered around .500.
Moses made the 1980 All-Star Game, where his Eastern Conference squad pulled out a hard-fought win. The Rockets’ center had been relatively quiet throughout regulation, then dominated Kareem in overtime. He finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds. It was evident as he iced his ankle after the game that he didn’t treat it as an exhibition. “No game is fun,” he told reporters. “Basketball at this level can’t be fun when you’re on the court with guys who are professionals. You don’t have time to have fun. If someone pays money to see you, you are at work. I wish I could play in a game sometime that was fun, but that’s not the way I play. Today I wanted to win. I was serious, and so was everybody else.”18
Travel in the NBA in the 1970s and ’80s was exhausting. Teams flew commercially, so players carried their own bags and waited at the gate like everybody else. If they had back-to-back games, they’d take the first flight out at six or seven the morning after the first game. Each team had stretches when they played three-consecutive nights.
Displeased with the team’s performance in the final games of a long road trip, Harris called for practice as soon as they landed in Houston. Mokeski had been watching Moses play over forty minutes per game against the likes of Abdul-Jabbar and Lanier and decided to take it easy on him. He went about three-quarter speed. Midway through practice, Moses yelled at him. “Don’t ever take it easy on me in practice. Nobody in the game takes it easy on me. And you can’t take it easy in practice, cause you’re preparing me to play these other guys.” Even in his tired state, Big Mo wanted to be pushed.19
The following season, the Rockets endured a brutal stretch of four games in five days, including Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon, in three different cities. Malone started off with a 41-point, 14-rebound effort against Chicago on Wednesday night. Friday night he scored 38 points with 12 rebounds in a loss at Phoenix. On Saturday, he tallied 26 points and 14 rebounds in a one-point loss at home to New York. Then he dragged his exhausted body on another flight to Denver, where the Rockets were transported directly to the arena for an afternoon game. Moses played forty-four minutes at high altitude, connected on 14 of 18 shots for 37 points, and pulled down 19 rebounds in the Rockets win. “I don’t know when I’ve seen such a gutty performance under conditions like that,” said Harris. For Moses, it was just another day of work. “There is never an excuse for not being ready to play,” Malone said. “If they wake you up at 4 in the morning to go play a game, you ought to be ready to go to work.”20
Moses averaged 25.8 points and 14.5 rebounds for the ’79–’80 season and was named to the Second Team All-NBA, behind Kareem, who won his sixth MVP award. The Rockets finished 41-41. They defeated the Spurs in a best-of-three first-round series, then were swept by the Celtics in the second round.
* * *
Houston moved to the Western Conference for the 1980–81 season and began the year with several home losses to bad teams. They lacked a dynamic playmaker on the perimeter who could shoot and drive to the basket. Without a wingman to share the load, Moses was “attracting more attention than Dolly Parton at a nudist camp,” according to the Houston Chronicle’s George White.21
Harris attempted to alleviate the burden on Malone by pairing him with 6-foot-11 center Billy Paultz, whom the Rockets acquired the previous season. Known as “The Whopper,” Paultz was a three-time ABA All-Star who won a championship with the New York Nets. Harris began experimenting with the twin towers lineup in November against bigger teams and inserted Paultz into the starting lineup permanently on February 19.
The move paid immediate dividends for Malone. “It really takes a lot of pressure off me,” Moses said. He continued:
Billy is so physical; the other team just can’t push me around like they do when he’s not in there. And when he’s playing the center, I’m matched up against a forward. I feel like I can overpower every forward in this league. When you’re out there at forward, they can’t risk putting two and three men on you. When you’re right under the basket at center though, it’s very easy for the other team to double and triple team you. It’s awfully difficult when you’re fighting through three guys trying to get to the basket.22
Houston lost its first game with the Malone-Paultz tandem to fall to 28-33. Then the Rockets rattled off five-consecutive wins, followed by five-straight losses, then three-straight wins and three more losses. On March 20 they were 36-41, one game behind the Kings for the final playoff spot. They won four of their last five and snuck into the playoffs as the sixth seed, with a 40-42 record. Moses averaged a league-high 14.8 rebounds and finished second in scoring with 27.8 points per game.
Houston faced the defending-champion Lakers in a first-round best-of-three miniseries. The Lakers were heavily favored, but Moses was the equalizer. “Kareem hated to see him [Moses] because he would kill him on the offense and defense,” said Rocket guard Tom Henderson. “He would beat him up all night, so he knew he had to work against Moses, cause Moses was so physical.”23
The Lakers preferred to run, so Houston slowed the game down and took a large percentage of its shots in the last five seconds of the shot clock. The Rockets stunned Kareem, Magic, and company by stealing Game One in Los Angeles behind 38 points and 23 rebounds from Malone. The Lakers overcame a 33-point, 15-rebound effort by Malone in Game Two to even the series and send it back to L.A. for a decisive Game Three.
Mike Dunleavy knocked down a fifteen-foot jumper to put the Rockets up 1 with fifteen seconds remaining in Game Three. Magic drove the length of the floor on the ensuing possession and attempted a scoop shot near the basket that fell short. Houston pulled off the shocking upset. Malone averaged 31.3 points and 17.1 rebounds in the three games compared to Abdul-Jabbar’s 26.7 points and 16.7 and played all forty-eight minutes in each of the last two games after sitting just two minutes in Game One.
The Rockets’ next opponent was the San Antonio Spurs, a 52-win team led by George Gervin and a physical front line known as “the Bruise Brothers.” Houston won Game One in San Antonio, followed by a Spurs win in Game Two. At practice between Games Two and Three, Moses walked onto the court at the Summit with boxing gloves tied around his neck, ready for a fight, and delivered a vintage performance in Game Three.24 Big Mo played all forty-eight minutes and pounded the Bruise Brothers into submission with 41 points and 15 rebounds. The Spurs won two of the next three games, setting up a Game Seven in San Antonio. Harris inserted Murphy, who had been coming off the bench since November, into the starting lineup, and Murph responded with 42 points to punch the Rockets’ ticket to the Western Conference Finals.
Next up was the Kings, which also finished 40-42. Before the series, Moses walked around the airport gate with his chest thrust forward inviting teammates to ask about his shirt. It was a white pullover with a big M on it and the word Maryland underneath. “The ‘M’ doesn’t mean Maryland. It stands for ‘money,’” Malone said. “I’m wearing it to remind me that each win means more money.”25
The Rockets disposed of the Kings, 4-1. Moses contributed 36 points and 11 rebounds in the clincher, prompting Robert Reid to reflect on his greatness. “Someday, it’s going to be an honor to sit down and tell my grandkids what it was like to play basketball with Moses Malone,” said Reid. “You hear guys talk about how it was to play alongside Wilt, Russell, Mikan. We on the Houston Rockets are playing alongside a guy who might one day be recognized as greater than all of them.”26
The 40-42 Rockets were headed to the NBA Finals. “Anyone caught a month ago believing they would have gained the final round would have been placed in a straitjacket without a hearing,” wrote Ed Fowler of the Houston Chronicle. “And yet here they are smelling the roses.”27 They faced a Celtics squad that boasted a frontcourt of Larry Bird, Robert Parish, and Cedric Maxwell, with Kevin McHale coming off the bench. The starting guards were Chris Ford and future Hall of Famer Tiny Archibald. The Celtics had won their last thirteen matchups with the Rockets, including a four-game sweep in the playoffs the previous season.
Game One was tight throughout. Uncharacteristically, the Rockets were beaten on the offensive boards. Bird had 7 himself, including a spectacular one in the fourth quarter. He fired a shot from about 20 feet on the right side of the floor. Immediately realizing it was off, he sprinted toward the baseline, grabbed the rebound, switched it to his left hand while in the air, and made a beautiful scoop shot before falling out of bounds. Celtics general manager Red Auerbach called it the greatest play he’d ever seen.28 Another Bird offensive rebound and putback with eighteen seconds left sealed the game.
Game Two felt like a must-win for the Rockets, and tempers ran high during a timeout. Harris issued instructions and concluded by saying, “And Mo, you have to get on the boards, man!” Moses interpreted that as Harris questioning his effort and fired back, “Fuck you, coach!” Harris kept his cool and offered the perfect retort to diffuse the situation. “Mo, we can talk about our sex life after the game, but right now I need you to get some rebounds!”29 Big Mo played all forty-eight minutes, and his 31 points and 15 rebounds lifted the Rockets to victory, 92–90.
Boston thrashed Houston in Game Three. Then Houston evened the series in Game Four behind 24 points and 22 rebounds from Malone, who once again played all forty-eight minutes. Between Games Four and Five, Moses expressed his opinion that the Celtics weren’t that good, adding, “I could get four guys off the street from back home in Petersburg and beat them.”30 The quote was out of character for Malone, who rarely exposed his feelings publicly. His teammates weren’t pleased.31 “Why poke the bear?” asked Tom Henderson years later.32 But they supported the man who carried them to the Finals. “Hey, we ain’t from Petersburg, but we’re gonna ride with him,” recalled Major Jones.33
Reid explained his interpretation of Malone’s comment. “What happened to him [Malone] is what happened to all of us,” said Reid. “We are all so sick of being ridiculed every time we pick up a newspaper and every time we turn on the TV. The people in the East have been unbelievable. We have been called a farce and a disgrace and all kind of trash. We’ve been treated like outcasts and given the same kind of respect you would give a man who broke into your house. The stuff that’s been written and said about us, I think it has been disgraceful.”
Reid added, “Moses is a very proud man, one of the proudest men I know. I know how proud he is of the basketball team and things we have accomplished, things which no one wants to give us credit for. You know, you can push a man and push a man until he finally breaks. That’s what happened to Moses.”34 Malone was also physically and emotionally exhausted from banging with a cadre of bruising bodies over four playoff series.
The Boston Globe ran the quote in giant type, and Celtics coach Bill Fitch personally pasted a copy in the locker of every Boston player.35 The Celtics took out their anger on the court, crashing the Rockets down to Earth, 109–80, in Game Five. They wrapped up the series in six.
Moses averaged 22.3 points and 15.7 rebounds against Boston but shot just 40 percent. Harris and Malone believed Houston was outworked, though there was a significant talent gap between the two teams, and Moses received little help from his teammates.36 Still it was a remarkable achievement for the Rockets to make the Finals after a losing season. No team has done it since. They also set a record with eight playoff road victories.
A few days later, the Celtics attended a celebration at Boston’s City Hall Plaza. Bird spotted a sign in the crowd that said, “MOSES EATS SHIT.” He told the fans, “You’re right, Moses does eat shit.”37
14
King of Fonde
Hakeem Olajuwon walked into the office of Ganiyu Otenigbade, the high school basketball coach at Muslim Teachers College, in late 1979 and announced his desire to play basketball. He was months shy of his seventeenth birthday. Like most boys in Lagos, Nigeria, Olajuwon grew up playing soccer, though he’d recently moved on to handball. The basketball coaches watched him excel on the handball court and told him basketball was the sport for him. It’s a big man’s game, and Hakeem was 6 feet, 8 inches tall.
Olajuwon had never played basketball before. Coach Ganiyu taught him the basics, beginning with a layup. Step with your right foot, then your left, then release. Hakeem couldn’t get the footwork down. Then Coach Ganiyu demonstrated proper shooting form, how to position yourself for a rebound, the way to use your pivot foot, and how to flick your wrists to pass the ball. Two days later, Hakeem participated in a tournament, after which Coach Ganiyu placed him on the Lagos State basketball team. That summer, Richard Mills, an American who coached the Nigerian national team, saw Olajuwon play. The boy had grown to 6 feet 11 and was remarkably agile for his height. Mills offered him a spot on the junior national team.1
The national team lost to the Central African Republic in a tournament in Angola that fall. After the game, Central Africa’s coach, Christopher Pond, sought out Olajuwon. Pond was shocked to learn that he had started playing basketball months earlier and told Olajuwon he could land him a scholarship in the United States. Hakeem had never seen American basketball before, though he was excited about the opportunity to attend an American college. Pond was well connected in the basketball world. He made some calls and set up campus visits for Hakeem.2
A few weeks later, Olajuwon departed for the United States. The first school he tried out for was the University of Houston. Coach Guy Lewis saw his potential as he scrimmaged with the Cougars. Less than a year after picking up a basketball for the first time, Hakeem had a scholarship at an elite program in the United States.3 U of H classes had been in session for a couple months when he arrived in October, so he enrolled for spring semester. Meanwhile, he worked out with the team. “We knew he’d get better,” said teammate Clyde Drexler, “because he couldn’t get any worse.” Lewis decided to redshirt Hakeem for his first season.4
Olajuwon watched the Rockets on television and noticed their dominant center, Moses Malone. One night, Cougars assistant coach Terence Kirkpatrick told Hakeem, “You’ll play against him this summer.” “Really?” asked Hakeem. He couldn’t believe Malone played with nonprofessionals. “Yeah,” replied Kirkpatrick, “he plays at Fonde.”5
Fonde Recreation Center is an unassuming one-story brick building just west of downtown Houston. The gym is dark, with dirty windows and no air conditioning in the humid Houston summers. There’s one full court, divided by a blue curtain down the middle into two minicourts. In the ’70s and ’80s, one side held pickup games for anybody who wanted to play. The other was reserved for serious ballers.
The University of Houston basketball team began practicing at Fonde when its facility was under renovation in the mid-1960s. Cougar stars Elvin Hayes and Don Chaney were impressed by the talent there and began attending regularly. In the early 1970s the Rockets showed up.6 By the time Moses arrived in Houston, Fonde’s summer runs were among the best in the country. Many Houston Rockets, including Major Jones, Jacky Dorsey, Dwight Jones, Allen Leavell, Robert Reid, and Alonzo Bradley, were regulars in the late ’70s and early ’80s, along with college stars, like Ollie Taylor of the University of Houston, Carl Belcher of the University of Texas, George “Stretch” Campbell from Prairie View, and Dave Lattin of the legendary Texas Western national championship team. Tomjanovich, Calvin Murphy, and Elvin Hayes stopped by occasionally, as did NBA All-Stars, like George Gervin and Otis Birdsong, when they were in town.7
Angelo Cascio, a short former referee from Louisiana, was the center’s evening recreation director and gatekeeper for the main court.8 He protected the stars from the “rinky dinks,” as he called them. College players and professionals weren’t guaranteed entrance. “If you wanted to play, you had to go through Moses,” said James Clayton, a longtime Fonde employee.9 Moses would send word to Cascio.
Cascio picked six captains at the beginning of the night and determined which teams played first. Moses was always in the first game. The other captains, who had third, fourth, fifth, and sixth “ups,” could select players from the teams that lost. Some nights, only eighteen or twenty players saw action. If someone lost a game, he might not get back on the court, so the competition was fierce.10 The games started between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays and ran until the gym closed at 9:00. One team was shirts, the other skins, and they played to 12 by ones.11 Players called their own fouls, which led to arguments. If Moses called a foul, there was no discussion. Nobody challenged the King of Fonde.12
Malone set the tone for the games. “It wasn’t pickup,” said Olden Polynice, a fourteen-year NBA veteran, “because Moses made it so, because he wasn’t out there to have fun per se. He was like, ‘This is a workout.’ So it was literally like a practice, like an NBA practice or NBA game. It was that intense.”13 Malone held everybody accountable, demanding excellence from his teammates and forcing opponents to match his intensity. One evening, Drexler was taking it to Robert Reid. “You better come on and play ’cause he’s busting your ass,” Malone told Reid. “And if he’s busting your ass now, he’s going to bust your ass in the season.”14
