Chron: Rockets' Mobley wants to be a star on, off court

Rockets' Mobley wants to be a star on, off court By JONATHAN FEIGEN

Jan. 31, 2004, 12:50AM


Rockets' Mobley wants to be a star on, off court
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

Cuttino Mobley is talking, talking fast and loud, then faster and louder. He wants to excel, sure. But he wants more. He wants to be an All-Star. He wants to be an All-Star this season. Then he wants to be an All-Star next season. Every season.

He wants to act. He wants to act in movies. He wants to star in movies.

He wants to be famous, one-name famous. He wants to win a championship, then championships. He wants to make money, unbelievable amounts of money, and he wants to give it away in amounts huge and small.

He wants to be known everywhere. He wants to win at everything. He wants things he doesn't even know he wants.

"I always wanted to be a star, man," Mobley said. "I wanted everyone to know me, people to say they liked the way he kept himself, the way he walked, the way he talked. I want to be a person everybody knew. The things that are happening to me, I wanted them to happen, but I want more. I want more. It's crazy, man.

"I want my face on billboards. I want my name up with the top players. You have to earn that. I want to earn that. I want to be a leading man. I want to be in romantic comedies.

"You know what I want to be? I want to be an owner, like Les (Alexander) and like (the Mavericks') Mark Cuban. I want to go around with the team and have fun with the guys.

"I want to be a philanthropist, going around helping people, going to Africa, going to the poor parts of Europe, the poor parts of the States, just everywhere, the third world, and helping people."

The thing is, he is not without self-awareness. In fact, he is full of it. It is what drives him and convinces him anything is possible. He knows how far he already has come, how unlikely it all already has been. He got out of North Philadelphia, survived the night when a gun barrel was shoved in his mouth to see how he would react, and he assumed his life would end before its 13th year.

He made it. He became a starter and a scorer despite not playing basketball until eighth grade when he cut the bottom out of milk crates and nailed them to electrical poles. Someone is going to say he can't play the lead in When Cuttino Met Sally?

He was the overlooked player, the kid who played in a Catholic league instead of against the stars of Philadelphia high school basketball.

When Rasheed Wallace went to North Carolina, Mobley went to Maine Central Institute and was concerned that he was not worthy. But now he's the one with a publicist and four new college scholarship funds to announce this week, the one who feels the need, with Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall a frequent courtside guest at his games, to clear things up.

"We're just good friends," he said. "She's cool. We're friends."

He does commercials for the NBA. He has been a catwalk model. He has nibbled on the edge of NBA stardom, coming just close enough to taste everything, to believe it within reach and to want it all even more.

"I'm the type of dude, if I can't do it, I'm going to try my best," Mobley said. "I'm going to try so hard to accomplish as much as I can. My mom's like that. She's a hard worker, man. I watched her doing it. She used to work 12 hours a day, then come in and study. She'd be so tired. But she'd keep working.

"The more I accomplish, the more it helps me out. I'm doing well for a second-round pick. I talked about it with Nick Van Exel because he's a second-round pick. He said, `You have to make a name for yourself. Make them want you. Make them love you.' "


`Best-kept secret'
Van Exel found a willing student. Mobley has been playing catch-up for so long, he had gotten used to having to do more, in less time.

Afraid to turn out the lights at night because he knew what was out there in the dark, Mobley said he avoided trouble by following his mother Jackie's direction.

"Everything was out there," Mobley said. "You can get caught up. I had situations around my life I could have chosen. At the age of 12, I had a gun in my mouth. The guy could have pulled the trigger. I escaped that. That was a block party. I ran to my grandma's house, and I got chased down and he caught me. You can get stuck up, beat up. Some people died because of that stuff, or retaliated because of that. Some are in jail. But I don't know, my whole life worked out. I just thank God, that night, and other nights, He saved me."

A quarterback and boxer, Mobley was a high school freshman before he tried organized basketball.

"When I went to Maine Central, I was so scared," Mobley said. "I was the best-kept secret in our city, Rash (Wallace), Alvin Williams, Jason Lawson, Tyrone Weeks. All those guys went to Nike camp, they did all this stuff. I didn't go anywhere. I was the youngest, but I graduated before them. I graduated early. So I went to prep school. I was in Catholic school. People said, `Is he really good? He's playing against white boys.'

"When I went to Maine Central, all the top kids were going to the school. I was scared. I ended up starting. We were No. 1 in the country, and I ended up the second highest-ranked recruit at 2-guard. When Rick Pitino (then the Kentucky coach) told me he was interested in me, my eyes lit up. I decided right then I would spend hours and hours and hours in the gym.

"He recruited me. Tony Delk was there. I made the decision to be a big fish in a little pond, go to Rhode Island and make a name for myself."


Simply a privilege
He was Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, but he was the Rockets' fourth draft pick that year.

"When Cuttino first got drafted, he was really nervous about it," Jackie Mobley said. "He knew he went to a smaller school. He had won Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, defensive player of the year, all these things he accomplished. But we always talked about that he wasn't like the Rasheed Wallaces, a lot of cats that were highly recruited by Nike, and then went to the big colleges. He didn't go to the camps and all that."

As Eddie Jones and Aaron McKie did in Philadelphia, veteran NBA players began convincing Mobley that he belonged.

"He still says, to play in the NBA is a privilege," Jackie Mobley said. "There's so much talent in Philadelphia, and these guys never get an opportunity to play. Along with those privileges, you have to do certain things. In Cat's mind, he thinks that it's an awesome opportunity to play this game. And to be whatever he is, say one of the top 25 guards, that's an accomplishment. He worked for it, and he played catch-up."

But even in the NBA, he arrived as a second-round choice, overshadowed by Michael Dickerson on a team with Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon and Scottie Pippen. It said something about his talent that on a team that loaded, he was selected to take the final shot of his first playoff game. Even now, on a team that has not been to the postseason since, Steve Francis and Yao Ming are so enormously popular that they were voted All-Star starters for the second season.

Mobley, typically, has instead been invited to the 3-point shooting contest. He has played in the three-on-three exhibition, tossed passes to Francis in the dunk contest.


No time to lose
"It doesn't bother me," Mobley said. "Nothing comes easy. If it's this year, if it's next year, it's cool. If I don't, I don't. As long as we're in the postseason, as long as I do what I have to do for our team, I'm cool. You have to sacrifice. Like Sacramento and Dallas. Mo Taylor's playing so well right now, so is Jimmy Jackson. We have five guys in double figures. I don't want it to be like Steve scoring 35 and me 30, and we lose. And then you go out, and people say, you need help. Now it's beautiful, because it's spread around.

"If it's meant to happen, and if it comes, I'll be ready. But I wouldn't force anything trying to average 20 or average 25. Our chemistry's good. It's balanced scoring. I wouldn't be happy with me averaging 25 if we we're losing. That's not good. You get sick of that. When you're 22 years old, averaging 22 in the pros is good. But if you don't make it to the postseason, it's sickening. I've done that.

"My dream is to make it to the All-Star Game. But I'd rather make it to the playoffs, to be a part of the big team. I'd rather have that than individual success. Everybody has individual goals. If it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen."

But few have goals quite like Mobley's. So for now, he will announce the start of the Philly Cat Foundation to give away four college scholarships a year (two in Houston and two in Philadelphia). He will bring a few friends -- Justin Timberlake, P. Diddy, Victoria Rowell and Star Jones -- to today's game. And he will wait for the world to notice him.

"My mom taught me well," he said. "She taught me my charisma, my way of talking to people.

"If I was a first-rounder, it would be more. But I'm a second-rounder, so it's harder work. I don't mind doing it. A lot of players don't want to do that. They're lazy or whatever. I want to be on TV. I don't have a problem doing commercials. I want to be a movie star. Jimmy (Jackson) always says, `Cat likes the camera.' I might as well like it, now, because it's gone sooner or later.

"Why waste it? Why waste the talents that I have?"



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Rockets summary
No Griffin
With the New Jersey Nets coming to town today, the Rockets expected to catch a glimpse of their former teammate Eddie Griffin.

Three weeks after signing with the Nets, however, Griffin took a leave from the team. He told the Nets he was returning to Houston to undergo "further rehabilitation." Earlier in the season, Griffin was treated for substance abuse and depression.

"Eddie has informed the team that he is not ready to resume his NBA career at this point in time," Nets president and general manager Rod Thorn said in a statement released Wednesday.

While the Rockets will not see Griffin, they are thinking of him.

"I don't really know what his situation is now, but I do feel for Eddie," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "I only knew him a little bit, but what I did know I liked very much, and I'm hopeful that most importantly he can get himself where he feels good and he can go on and be a productive adult, whether it's in basketball or whatever he chooses to do."

Steve Francis is hopeful Griffin will find the help he needs.

Francis compared Griffin's continuing problems with those of Boston's Vin Baker, who is battling alcoholism. He was suspended indefinitely by the Celtics last week for failing to comply with his aftercare program for the second time this season.

"It's similar to the Vin Baker situation," Francis said. "Hopefully, (Griffin) is thinking of himself rather than the Nets now. And, hopefully, he can get some help."

Yao picks Shaq
Yao Ming didn't want to insult all of the fans who voted for him. But one day after being named the starting center for the Western Conference in the All-Star Game, he admitted again that he felt the honor should go to Shaquille O'Neal.

"If everybody looks at ability at this point, it's pretty obvious who should be starting," Yao said.

In his second NBA season, Yao is averaging 16.3 points, 9.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 45 games. While injuries have bothered O'Neal, he is averaging 19.6 points, 11.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in 28 games.

Yao said he doesn't know how the crowd will react to his starting since the Feb. 15 All-Star Game will be played at the Lakers' home, the Staples Center.

Steve Francis, who will start at guard for the West, was surprised Yao came out on top of O'Neal in the voting, especially since Los Angeles is hosting the game.

"But Yao's a very popular figure," Francis said. "He's international, man. In just two seasons, he's affected a lot of people, and I think it's good."

Digging deeper
Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy continues to look for consistency from his team. He is tired of letdowns after a couple of victories.

The team won six of seven before losing its last two games, to Miami and Sacramento. The Rockets have not won more than four games in a row this season. They have accomplished that feat twice, the most recent four-game stretch being Dec. 3-9.

"I just look at it as most teams soften up when they win, and we're trying to be a different type of team and not do that," Van Gundy said. "But we keep making that mistake. We have to play real hard and real disciplined on offense, and we did neither against Sacramento."

-- MEGAN MANFULL