Chron: Vin Baker's latest battle: more playing time

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/3073777

Bouts with alcohol, despair give ex-All-Star perspective, but he longs for action
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

SEATTLE - If Vin Baker pretended he was comfortable sitting and watching, he would be lying. He has done enough of that over the years.

For all he has been through, all he has given up in a career that gave him so much, Baker has not changed in every respect. Part of Baker, once an All-Star and an Olympian back when U.S. Olympians were still called Dream Teamers and came home wearing gold medals, is still itching to get back on the court with the ball in his large, soft hands.

He is different, though. That's what he keeps hearing. He looks different. Thinner. Younger. The puffiness in his face is gone. A smile has replaced the scowl.

He thinks differently, too. Now with the Rockets, Baker yearns to play, but at the same time he knows there are much greater battles to wage than the one with patience.

Mostly, he lives differently. His fights with depression and alcoholism are not won, only because they never end. But he says he is winning. And after all the issues that have kept him off the court, Baker still knows about winning.

"There's so many things I've gone through and been able to fight through in my personal life, in my professional life, it's easy to have perspective," Baker said. "But at the same time, I want to be on the floor. When I leave the court, leave the gym every day, I look at my averages and say, 'Gosh, how did I get here?' "


Origin of decline
If Baker could forget how he went from front and center to the end of the Rockets' bench — and he can't — he'd get a reminder tonight. Though he left Seattle after the 2001-02 season, he has been back just once. He played, coming off the bench. He doesn't really remember much about the game.

But he said visiting Seattle tonight would be special — and not for the reasons players usually find in games against their former teams.

It all happened here, the best and worst of his career. Baker was an All-Star forward with the Bucks from 1995-97. Then, after he was traded to the SuperSonics, he moved up to All-NBA second team in 1998.

In 1999, he began binge drinking and started to fall into a downward spiral.

When Baker was traded from the Sonics to the Celtics in July 2002, the thinking was that a return to the East Coast (he had played collegiately at Hartford) and the support of his family would help. But his two seasons in Boston were filled with alcohol dependency and emotional breakdowns. Baker broke down in tears on the bench and in a practice. He checked into Silver Hill Hospital in Connecticut for rehabilitation, but soon after his return to the Celtics, he began drinking again.

When Boston voided his contract in February 2004, Baker filed a grievance, reaching a settlement under which the Celtics will pay him $5.3 million for three seasons.

The Knicks signed Baker that March and again last summer. In explaining their willingness to give Baker another chance, New York president Isiah Thomas cited his brother's alcoholism, and team CEO James Dolan spoke of his alcohol dependency.

Baker cried at the news conference. When he got to Houston, he could not stop smiling.

"I have been through some things," Baker said. "I went through alcoholism for a while. I got down on myself. There are 18 million Americans that have been through it. But I've been through rehabilitation. I attend meetings. Those are things I work on constantly in my personal life that get me prepared to come play every day."

Asked how long he has remained sober, Baker said: "One day. I don't count. We learn that every day you start over."

He has also learned that success in that arena is greater, more vital. But it does not seem to satisfy completely. Seattle is a reminder not just of where his career went wrong but of the kind of player he once was.

"When he was at his best, he was a hard cover one-on-one inside," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "He had explosive athletic ability, high release, good hands, was a very good rebounder. A very hard guy to guard. He can't be what he was in his prime. That doesn't mean he can't be effective. It's been a long time. How much is left? He believes a lot. I don't know."

Like a rookie again

As far removed as Baker seems from that prime — he averaged as many as 21.1 points and 10.3 rebounds per game for a season — it really wasn't that long ago.

"It's very difficult," said Baker, who scored two points in his only game as a Rocket so far after averaging 1.4 in 24 games with the Knicks this season. "In your mind and in your heart, you feel like you're the player you were, that you could do some things on the floor. That you can help your team, especially coming from the situation I came from, from 1989 in college on up. I was always thought of as an unheralded player. I had to scratch and claw to become an All-Star and an Olympian.

"Now, at 33, it takes me back to where I was in 1993 (as a rookie). I've got to continue to fight to get respect and get back on the floor. It's not an egotistical thing with me. It's more that I've been here before. Now I've got to work my way back."

To Baker, who has played all of six minutes as a Rocket since he was acquired on Feb. 24, he will not be all the way back until he is on the court.

Surplus at power forward

As the fourth power forward on a team that usually plays no more than two, Baker might continue to find playing time scarce. After the trade with the Knicks — made largely so the Rockets could dump Maurice Taylor's contract — Van Gundy made it clear he had an established rotation at power forward.

But the more Baker spoke of how far he has come, the more he seemed to want — and need — to take those remaining steps.

"There's always a burning desire in me," Baker said. "As much as I can put things in perspective, there's a huge part of me that wants to be out there. I study the game. I study every night when I sit there watching, like, 'I can do this. I would have done that.' I don't think that will ever leave me.

"With my family and my children, things will always be put in perspective now. I've been blessed to have overcome and to have fought through a lot of things in my personal life ... I have great people around me. But the basketball part of me wants to be on the floor."

jonathan.feigen@chron.com

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Rockets Summary

Tough week coming

With a four-game lead on the lottery, the Rockets took off for a four-game trip that could be crucial and certainly could be telling.

The Rockets will face the Sonics, Suns, Kings and Warriors over the next week. But rather than the last tough road test, the trip will be the first of three remaining four-game trips this season.

"It's a challenge for us to see where we're really at and where we're headed," forward Tracy McGrady said. "They're winnable games. We got to believe that. We got to come out. We got to be focused. And we got to play 48 minutes. On the road, it's tough."

The road would seem tough if only because Seattle is 21-8 at home, Phoenix is 22-7 and the Kings 20-11. The Rockets have gone 15-13 on the road this season.

JONATHAN FEIGEN
and MEGAN MANFULL