Moses Malone, page 15
Moses took young players under his wing. Herb Baker was a local kid who tagged along with his parents when they worked out at Fonde. He sprang to 6 feet 9, and when he was sixteen Moses invited him to play with the professionals. Malone taught him how to use his body against smaller players and quickness against bigger ones. Baker went on to play professionally overseas for sixteen years. He had tryouts with NBA teams but never made the cut. Malone always encouraged him to keep working.15 Moses offered advice and encouragement to countless others. His greatest protégé was Olajuwon.
Hakeem joined his Cougar teammates at Fonde in the summer of 1981. The first thing he noticed were the cars in the parking lot: Mercedeses, Jaguars, and Porsches. Moses wasn’t there for the first few weeks because the Rockets were in the Finals. When he arrived, Big Mo showed the young Nigerian no mercy. He shouted, “Be a man!” to Olajuwon as he bullied him in the post.16 Hakeem was helpless. He’d never played against somebody that strong or quick.17 He couldn’t overpower Malone, so he built his game on agility and deception—spins, fakes, and double and triple pumps.
Off the court, Moses was gentle with Hakeem. The Rockets center poked fun at him in a playful way to make him feel like one of the guys. The two men were about the same size, so Malone arrived at Fonde with suits, pants, and shirts for the youngster. He handed Hakeem a wad of cash and said to let him know if he needed anything. Moses told reporters he was impressed by the Nigerian, which boosted Hakeem’s confidence.18
Before and after games, Malone taught Hakeem a jump hook and a drop-step countermove. Hakeem grew frustrated with his inability to execute the hook shot. Malone calmly explained that it was a two-part drill. The first part was to make the shot, the second to grab the offensive rebound. If you missed your shot, it was an opportunity to work on your reaction time and grab the board. Rockets guard Mike Dunleavy witnessed Malone’s explanation and later used it with players he coached in the NBA.19
The most important lesson Hakeem learned from Moses was resilience. “With Moses there were no rests, no breaks,” Olajuwon said years later. “He was working every time down the court—scoring, rebounding or just making you feel his body. He would laugh when he slammed into you. If you tried to take a breath, he went by you or over you. There was no stop.” While Hakeem’s peers spent their summer competing against college players, he was learning from the best big man in the world.20
Hakeem and Moses resumed their battles at Fonde in the summer of 1982. One evening, Drexler missed a jumper from left of the free throw line. Hakeem grabbed the offensive rebound, took one dribble, and dunked with his right hand, while pulling Moses to the ground with his left. The players in attendance were so excited, they ran out of the gym. “Oh my God! Hakeem just dunked on Mo!” Moses picked himself up off the floor, looked at Hakeem and said, “About time. About time.” Hakeem had learned to fight back.21
“Ain’t no secrets about playing basketball,” Malone said of tutoring Olajuwon. “Who wants the ball more? Who wants the shot? Who wants the rebound? Go get it. Don’t matter if you play in the NBA or you’re off a plane from Africa. It’s the man who’s the strongest, the man who won’t give up on the play, the man who does more work.”22
Moses advised Hakeem on whether to leave school early and how to choose an agent. He and Malone grabbed a bite to eat after their teams squared off in the NBA. But they were never close. Olajuwon blames himself. He was raised in a culture that emphasized respecting your elders. He kept Moses on a pedestal and was never able to view him as an equal.23 Olajuwon won an MVP award and two championships in the NBA. “I would never have accomplished what I did if I did not play against Moses at Fonde,” he said before being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Hakeem wasn’t the only Cougar to benefit from playing with Moses. Other members of the team that came to be known as Phi Slama Jama, including Clyde Drexler, Larry Micheaux, Benny Anders, and Michael Young, competed against Malone and the Rockets during the summer. The Cougars always played on the same team and matched up against the pros at Fonde on Mondays and Wednesdays and at the old Robertson Gym on U of H campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Moses hated to lose, and he and his teammates used their superior strength to push around the college kids. They beat the Cougars every time. Games were straight to 12. One evening late in the summer of 1981, the teams were tied at 11. Cougars guard Rob Williams missed a jump shot. Olajuwon grabbed the rebound. He faked right, turned back over his left shoulder, and flipped the ball into the basket. The Cougars won. They turned to Moses and repeated what he’d said to them countless times before, “Get your fucking ass off the court.”
Moses demanded a rematch. Again, the game was tied at 11. Moses had most, if not all, of the Rockets’ points. Hakeem released a mini hook shot that fell through the hoop. The Cougars won again. “And a couple of things happened that day,” said Cougars guard Eric Davis. “I think Moses had a newfound respect for us, and it was like us thanking the master, ’cause he taught us. And that day was the day that we thought we really can win the national championship.”24 The Cougars didn’t win a championship, though they came close, reaching the Final Four three times, and the national championship game in 1983 and 1984.
The fun continued after the games. Moses, Hakeem, and Drexler engaged in heated ping-pong battles at Fonde.25 There was a regular dominoes game in the back of Major Jones’s truck in the parking lot, where the trash talk was as animated as on the court.26 Sometimes the guys grabbed a bite to eat. Moses enjoyed Otto’s Barbecue and Hamburgers, where he played Pacman after chowing down.27 Frenchy’s, a takeout fried-chicken restaurant near the U of H campus, was another popular destination. The athletes ran to their luxury automobiles and raced each other to Frenchy’s after the games. Moses always won and would be waiting with buckets of chicken for everyone by the time the whole crew arrived.28
Malone loved being in the gym. He believed in staying in shape and constantly working on his game. One summer, he went on a Nike trip to China. Moe Vines was surprised to see him walk into Fonde the day he returned. Moses went directly from the airport to the gym. “I told my wife I gotta go to work,” he told Vines.29 For most of the Rockets and Cougars, Monday through Thursday was enough. Not Moses. On Sundays, he and Rob Williams played three-on-three on the concrete court at MacGregor Park.30 He also participated in a league at the Second Baptist Church with Rodney McCray, U of H star Lynden Rose, and their friend Tony Dale on Saturday mornings.31
Big Mo formed a team to compete in tournaments around the country. He named them the Houston Regulars because although most of them played professional ball they were just regular guys.32 Major Jones, Allen Leavell, Drexler, Chris Morris, Rodney McCray, Ricky Pierce, Terry Teagle, and Robert Reid were some of the Regulars over the years. Moe Vines was the coach.33 When the Regulars hit the road, they went by the name Moses Malone’s Traveling All-Stars and Motorcade or the Houston Regulars Traveling All-Stars and Motorcade. They competed against Dominique Wilkins and his crew in Georgia, George Gervin and the boys in San Antonio, and Mark Aguirre’s team in Dallas. There were trips to Shreveport, Louisiana, and the Bahamas.34 Moses always took care of his boys. When the Regulars were invited to participate in a tournament in Atlanta, the organizers offered to fly Moses first-class. He informed them that he and the Regulars wouldn’t come unless they all received first-class tickets.35
Ron Foster, the sports director at Fort Hood army base outside of Killeen, Texas, met Malone at a basketball game and nervously asked if he’d come entertain the troops. Malone didn’t hesitate. “Yeah, I’ll do that,” he said. “I respect soldiers.” It became an annual summer trip for the Traveling All-Stars and Motorcade. They played softball and basketball on the base. In between, they met with the generals and soldiers, played golf, attended a concert, visited hospitals, and fired M16s at the range. Foster offered to take Moses and his friends out to dinner, but Malone chose to eat with the soldiers instead.36 He drove around the base in a tank with his head sticking out the top and a big grin on his face, and when the officers band played a song for their guests, Big Mo broke out into a crazy dance that had his teammates in hysterics.37
Po Bill’s Tournament in Dallas was another annual stop for the Traveling All-Stars. Bill Patterson grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After serving in the army, he barnstormed with Harlem Globetrotters legends Marques Haynes and Goose Tatum. Bill was the first Black salesman for Kinney Shoes, and when the company opened an office in a Black neighborhood in Dallas, Kinney asked him to move there. His wife jumped at the opportunity, believing he was messing around with other women in Tulsa.
One day a friend saw him coming and said, “Oh, that’s Ol’ Big Money Bill.”
Patterson responded, “No, I’m Po’ Bill.” The name stuck.
Po Bill loved basketball and started a tournament in the late seventies. His friend Frank Fields from Houston called one year and said Moses wanted to enter a team. Bill asked for the team’s name.
Fields said, “Houston Regulars Traveling All-Stars and Motorcade.”
“Damn, that’s a long name,” replied Bill.
Moses was the first professional to take an interest in the tournament, and his involvement drew other NBA players, such as Spud Webb, Dennis Rodman, Karl Malone, Mark Aguirre, and John Starks. In later years Richard Dumas and Larry Johnson participated, as did Arkansas Razorbacks Lee Mayberry, Corliss Williamson, and Oliver Miller. Po Bill added a subtitle to his tournament: “The Tournament that Moses Malone Built.”38
One summer, Moses set up a game for some of the Regulars in a prison where he knew the warden. The guys arrived and had lunch with the inmates, then played a game. The Regulars were up in the fourth quarter when Mo called a timeout and told them they had to lose. He noticed that the inmates were gambling a lot of cigarettes on the action and knew there would be trouble if the Regulars came out ahead. For the only time in his life, Big Mo didn’t provide maximum effort. After the game, the Regulars were signing posters for the inmates when Reid felt somebody looking over his shoulder. He turned and saw a man “as big as the guy from the Green Mile.”
“Hey man, you good?” asked Reid.
“Yeah!”
“You want an autograph?”
“I don’t want no graph.”
“You want a picture?”
“I don’t want no picture.”
“What you want?”
“I want them kicks you wearing.”
Reid wore size 14 shoes. He looked at the man’s enormous feet and thought he must have been a size 24. He said, “Bro, I’ll tell you what, I know a guy with 24s back at the gym I can bring out.”
“I don’t want. I want them you wearing.”
Reid looked around for the warden, but there was no help in sight. He removed his shoes and gave them to the inmate. When they left, he told Moses he was never going back. Then Moses shared the story of the Milkman, whom he played against in prison when he was in high school.39
Malone started a Houston Regulars softball team as well, which joined a local YMCA league. Major Jones was the catcher-coach, Moses played first base, and Drexler was the shortstop. Rodney McCray, Jim Petersen, and Allen Leavell were some of the other pros on the team. In later years, Chris Morris, Nick Van Exel, and Robert Horry joined the squad. The Regulars often stayed on the diamond talking shop until well past midnight.40 Whether it was basketball or softball, after the games they discussed where to meet up later that night.
Houston was booming in the 1970s and early ’80s. The city added 670,000 jobs during the ’70s. Bank deposits jumped from about $6 billion to $24 billion, and office space grew to 100 million square feet from 30 million. The rising tide included a growing middle and upper class of African Americans. The number of Blacks who counted themselves as professionals or managers tripled from 1960 to 1980, and the amount of Black college graduates in Houston almost doubled between 1970 and 1980.41
The growth led to a vibrant nightlife. Faces was the hot spot for Black athletes and entertainers. A tiny club near the Astrodome, it featured a projector that displayed images of famous people on the wall. Moses and his friends were frequent guests, as was the other top athlete in Houston, Oilers running back Earl Campbell. Nearby, Paseo was another popular stop.42 Sometimes Mo chilled out to reggae music at the Caribana Club or listened to jazz at the Red Rooster.43
Malone partied during road trips as well, though he never stayed out late the night before a game. You could find him prowling the hotel lobby in search of breakfast by 7:00 a.m. If he ran into an opponent the night before a game he’d warn, “Get your rest, cause you know I’m gonna bust that ass.”44
Moses didn’t drink alcohol or smoke. He had a sign in his house that read “PLEASE DON’T SMOKE OR I WILL PUT YOU OUT.”45 If he smelled marijuana at a party, he’d leave. Barry Warner, a broadcaster for the Rockets in the late seventies, went out with Moses and Major one night in Phoenix and lit a joint while driving. Moses told him to pull over, took the joint out of his mouth, and threw it out of the car. Then he asked Warner to turn over whatever was in his pockets and discarded that too. “Don’t be doing no drugs around Big Mo,” he said.46 Cocaine was the drug of choice for athletes and entertainers at the time. Malone told Playboy Magazine in 1984 that he never tried it and never would. Coke was expensive, and that’s not how he wanted to spend his money. “Look at me: I’m 6’10”—I’m high enough,” he said.47
Moses’s vice was women. Star athletes confront the endless temptation of women throwing themselves at them at clubs and hotel lobbies. Moses was wary of those women. He preferred to quietly scope out the ones he was interested in, then make his move. Big Mo could be smooth with the ladies. He slowed his speech, annunciated words, and became quite loquacious. Other times, he confidently sidled up to an attractive woman and boldly asked, “Are we fucking?”48
Moses and Alfreda moved into a new nine-thousand-square-foot house in Sugar Land, Texas, in 1981 and were married on May 12, 1982. Their second son, Michael Earle, was born two years later. Big Mo still pursued other ladies, both in Houston and on the road. It would be an ongoing issue in his marriage.
15
Straight Cash
The 1982 All-Star Game took place on January 31 at Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. “You want to win this game,” Moses said, “because it’s nice to have $2,000 (the winners’ share) instead of $1,000. You can have a lot better night out on the town with $2,000 instead of $1,000.”1
Pat Riley coached the West squad. His center with the Lakers, Abdul-Jabbar, was voted the starter over Malone. Moses had 12 points and a team-high 11 rebounds in a close contest, when Riley sent him to the bench early in the fourth quarter for the remainder of the game. The West lost by 2 points. “That made the big fella mad,” said Robert Reid.2 Malone took out his anger on the rest of the league. He began with a career-high 53 points and 23 rebounds against the San Diego Clippers in the Rockets’ first game after the All-Star break, then followed that up with 45 points and 20 rebounds against the Suns and 47 points against the Kings.
The Houston Chronicle published an article on February 11 in which writer Neil Hohlfeld noted that Malone’s recent hot streak had come at the expense of “centers incapable of slowing a man of half his talent.” The Rockets played the SuperSonics that night, and Hohlfeld suggested their big man, Jack Sikma, would be a true test for Malone. Sikma was an All-Star and the second-leading rebounder in the league.3 Moses scored 38 points and grabbed 32 rebounds, including an NBA record 21 offensive boards (still an NBA record), while holding Sikma to 16 points and 3 rebounds.
Moses averaged 40.1 points on 60.2 percent shooting and 19 rebounds over seven games. His numbers for February were 38.1 points and 17.3 rebounds, while shooting 55 percent and playing 44.6 minutes a night. “Naw, I’m not the greatest player in the game today,” Malone said. “There are a lot of guys who could do this if they were in my situation. I’m not the greatest player, but one thing I do want to be remembered for, that I have always tried to be the greatest worker.”4
His teammates knew better. “I think if Moses went out on the court one night and jumped over the backboard, I think I’d probably take it in stride,” said Allen Leavell. “What’s left to surprise you after the way he’s been playing?”5
Between December 12 and April 6, the Rockets went 36-17, finishing 46-36 with a matchup against the SuperSonics in a first-round miniseries. Moses looked fatigued after playing at least forty-four minutes in thirty of the Rockets’ previous thirty-eight games, and the Sonics prevailed in three games, with Sikma outplaying him in the decisive one. Malone averaged 31.1 points (second to George Gervin) and 14.7 rebounds (first in the NBA) for the season and was named MVP for the second time. The greatest player in basketball was about to become the most coveted free agent in NBA history.
A new phase in free agency went into effect the previous summer. Teams no longer had to compensate a player’s former team for signing him. Instead, the old team had a “right of first refusal,” which allowed it to match any offer the player received. There was concern that wealthier franchises like the Lakers and Knicks would buy championships by signing players to contracts that small-market teams couldn’t afford. Malone would be a test case.
* * *
The only adornment in the office of Rockets GM Ray Patterson was a Moses Malone poster, one of a series produced by Nike in the late 1970s and early 1980s to promote its foray into basketball sneakers. The image is a play on the biblical Moses, with Malone parting a sea of orange basketballs. He’s holding a ball in his right hand and a staff in the shape of Nike’s swoosh logo in his left.
