Is There Hope For Cato?

Outlook overhaul lifts Cato
Center decides it's a wonderful life
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2000 Houston Chronicle

Kelvin Cato sat in the hospital with a few friends and family members and laughed. Nothing was funny.

"I was distraught," he said.

"He was scared," said Rockets strength coach Anthony Falsone. "He was joking, laughing. But he was freaked out."

For his second season as a Rockets center, Cato had not exactly rededicated himself to his conditioning and career. That would imply he had been dedicated before. He had found religion in the form of faith in a professional attitude.

But in the second game of the rest of his life, Cato suffered a high ankle sprain and found himself in the hospital for tests to determine if his season had ended.

Cato escaped that threat. No surgery was needed. But his new dedication would be tested as offseason visits to a weight room could not. He would spend the next six weeks going from rehabilitation sessions to weight-room workouts.

More remarkably considering his season spent with a scowl, he worked without complaint, even beginning his rehabilitation before the tests were done. He is expected to be removed from the injured list tonight, less than seven weeks since the injury.

"The injury made him see, `I could get hurt and I could be done,' " Falsone said. "It woke him up. If you told me last year he'd be like this, I never would have believed it. I knew he'd give me more. I didn't know he'd give me everything. It's completely night and day. He's a totally different person."

The change ends with weight-room attendance. It began with an attitude change, as if Cato cut loose baggage that had weighed him down.

There had seemed little reason for Cato to feel burdened last season. He had been freed from the end of the Portland Trail Blazers bench, designated Hakeem Olajuwon's successor and rewarded with an act of faith in the form of a six-year, $42 million contract.

But Cato resisted training, felt persecuted by officials and never took to coaching.

But an offseason scolding by his mother and counseling by Rockets vice president Carroll Dawson seemed to allow Cato to call off his fight with the world and instead find a place in it.

"I'm stronger physically and mentally, mentally, definitely," Cato said. "I got a little stronger (physically). That can't hurt. I've been lifting every day with Anthony Falsone. Mentally, I'm real positive right now. I don't have any problems with anything. My family is great. Everything is great with me.

"I was real distraught when I got hurt. I didn't know the severity of it. I didn't know how long I was going to be out. I didn't know anything. When I heard six to eight weeks, I thought, `Man, that's a long time.' To come back in six, 6 1/2, I feel good."

Cato's sudden dedication to his workouts is the most obvious sign of his new outlook.

Actually, an even better indication might be a broader, stronger set of shoulders that inspired Cato to walk around shirtless longer and teammates to chide him for his still not chiseled, but obviously strengthened, physique.

But it says more that he has worked out so consistently even though he has not learned to enjoy workouts. He still must force himself to work out, but he has.

"I still don't like lifting," Cato said. "But it makes my body look better, and it might make my game better. I'm going to do whatever it takes to make myself a better player. The Rockets put a big investment in me. So far, I haven't been able to live up to it. But mentally I have. That was one of the main things C.D. was worried about, my mental approach. I've done a good job of that. I started lifting now. It's just going to keep getting better and better.

"The Rockets have given me time. They never said we're going to give you this money so next year you'll come out and give up 20 points per game. They said we'll give you this money to be here to try to help make this team better. That's what I'm here for.

"Nobody will ever replace Dream, nobody they can draft, nobody they can bring in, nobody. Tim Duncan might have been the last good center/power forward to come out of college and change the complexion of a team. I can't replace Dream. With the style of play we play in, we have four guys that go score every night, one-guards, two-guards. If I go out there and rebound, get the same number of rebounds he got when he was coming up and block some shots like he did, the Rockets will be happy."

The Rockets have been happy with the change. They also know that it is just a start. The season is beginning again for Cato. The team is winning, taking its best record of the season into tonight's game against the Denver Nuggets.

But even before the Rockets were four games better than .500, the change in Cato was clear. Instead of helping them, it helped him rejoin them on schedule.

"He can go with the flow a lot more than he used to," Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "I don't know if he was fighting or resisting. But he's not. Nothing's changed on our side. It all comes from his side, knocking the barriers down. It's a step in the right direction.

"We'll see. It should be a big plus. There is a little fitting in to the whole that's important. But I think he's willing to do that."

Cato is not even concerned with how he is used. He is not worried with much of anything, including explaining the change in him. To Cato, it's simple.

"I'm just a lot happier," Cato said. "I can't explain it, but I know I'm happier. Last year, we had so many injuries. We had so many changes. I went from a contender to a team fighting for a playoff spot that fell real, real short. Now we're a team that everybody gets along, everybody's got great attributes, ways to contribute to the team. We're almost all young. We know what our strengths are. We know who our go-to guys are. We know what Dream can give us. It's a good mix. I'm happy here. I love the weather. I am happy.

"Things have changed with Rudy. I have a good rapport with Rudy and the coaches, a lot better than last year. I'm happy. I feel blessed to be here."

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I truely believe that he can continue his domination from the preseason two seasons ago, but it is all up to him. If he were to play his heart out each and every night like Karl Malone (hate to say it), Houston would have the most dominating front court and back court in the NBA. At the very least Cato should be able to play better than Theo Ratliff.

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