Chronicle Report on Taylor Signing; Quotes from Steve, Cuttino, Rudy, CD, and Mo...

Taylor signs on with Rockets, eyes `amazing things'
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2000 Houston Chronicle

Free at last from three years of Clippers incarceration, Maurice Taylor celebrated.

He didn't leave Carroll Dawson's office. Then again, he didn't have to. The final few pages of his contract to join the Rockets as a free agent were completed, and Taylor marked the occasion by becoming transfixed by Dawson's collection of championship reminders.

He read the newspaper stories framed on the wall. He studied the pictures of championship celebrations, gazing longingly at those of downtown parades. For a moment, he felt as if he had been there for them. And he enjoyed believing it could happen again.

"Just being in the atmosphere of a team that wants to win a championship, it gave me chills," Taylor said. "Looking at the pictures, hearing C.D. talking about the parades, about the rings, I had chills going down my spine. It proved to me I do belong here.

"You look a team that's been to the mountaintop like the Houston Rockets, I'm going to put pressure on myself to be the best possible player that I can be. With the pieces they already have in place and myself, we can do some amazing things next season."

Taylor, 23, signed a one-year, $2.25 million contract Friday, moved by the chance to grow with the young nucleus that had worked so hard to recruit him.

Steve Francis -- who Taylor said should be on the Rockets' payroll as a recruiter -- and Cuttino Mobley traveled the country to woo Taylor. And both guards agree Taylor's presence will make each of them stronger.

"I told him," Francis said, " `We've got years together. We have an opportunity to be good immediately. We were missing a physical forward, and you can be it. We haven't proven anything in the NBA yet. We're all young. We all have potential. A lot can happen.' "

Mobley would not divulge his sales pitch, but he declared Taylor's signing the first of many planned successes with his newest teammate.

"We talked to him, not just in Houston, but in D.C., wherever Steve and myself were," Mobley said. "We need Mo. He knows it. And now that we have him, we're a more explosive team. Mo averaged 17 on a team that wasn't a good team. The way we run, play `D,' get steals -- the way we're young, he's going to be even better."

Taylor said that fit -- rather than the SuperSonics' failed effort to trade Vin Baker for the Knicks' Patrick Ewing and open a spot on their roster for Taylor -- convinced him to choose the Rockets.

"I really took my time and tried to be patient," he said. "I tried to show Seattle some consideration. I wanted to wait and see if the deal went through so I could judge both teams with all the options, all the intangibles there. After talking to the guys on this team, I felt this was the best place for me. It came down to I'd rather live in Houston.

"I'll cross (next summer's free agency) when I come to it, but my decision was based on a team that I would want to stay with. I have the luxury of a one-year deal to see how I like the city, see how everything goes. But I wouldn't make the decision (to sign with the Rockets) if I didn't think it was a possibility of me signing here (long-term)."

Taylor, 6-9, said another reason he wanted a one-year deal was to have a chance to prove himself worthy of the more lucrative offers he did not receive this season.

"I didn't want to get trapped into a long-term deal, because I feel a lot of people haven't seen me play my best basketball," he said. "With me coming into a new situation with Houston, people will see me play my best basketball.

"If you watched Houston's team, they needed another presence in the post to score some baskets, get some rebounds, help the guys on the perimeter. With Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and myself, we can do a lot of things that the Houston Rockets are used to doing, such as making it to the playoffs, playing well, and the ultimate goal -- winning the championship."

Taylor averaged 17.1 points and 6.5 rebounds last season. His scoring, rebounding, blocked shots and assists have increased every season in the league.

"I think we have a real gem of a player in Mo Taylor, a potential superstar and a great kid," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "Larry (Smith, Rockets assistant coach) and I went up to see him and had a great three-hour talk, and we left that meeting convinced he was right for us and we were right for him."

Dawson, Rockets executive vice president for basketball, said it became "an obsession" to add Taylor's versatility "because he fits our team so well."

"He can play out on the floor, with his back to the bucket; he's got range, and he can put it on the floor," Dawson said. "He makes your mouth water when you watch film of him. The more film we watched, the more we got to want him."

But when Dawson found Taylor studying the reminders of glory days, he was sold again.

"He stared at them for a long time," Dawson said. "I like that. That's his goal. That's our goal. It meshed well together."

Hours earlier, Francis had for the first time found himself in Dawson's office.

"I couldn't stop looking at those pictures," Francis said.

And with that, the Rockets' point guard and new power forward were already in sync.


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4th Friday of August= Rocket Day
1999-Steve Francis
2000-Maurice Taylor