http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/1831700 Rudy doesn't want to be distraction Mickey Herskowitz Houston Chronicle If the Rockets are worried about their coach, distracted by his recent illness, vowing to gain the playoffs as a gift to him, they can forget about it. Rudy Tomjanovich is tough enough and smart enough to do his own suffering. He doesn't need partners. Coaches come and go. So do players. Championships are forever. This is what Rudy T needs his team to understand. As a player, he overcame the indignity of starting his career with six straight losing seasons. He survived a brutal, unseen punch that broke his face and almost killed him. He was 29 then, at the peak of his game, averaging 20 or more points in three of the previous four seasons. He was the 11th man on the bench in 1981, the year his overachieving teammates went to the NBA Finals against Boston. The Celtics won in six, and Rudy T spent most of the series sitting there, cheering for his mates. Coach Del Harris sent him into Game 1 to take the last shot, a 3-pointer that would have tied the score. During the timeout, when Harris called his play, the startled Rudy blurted out: "Are you joking? I haven't played the whole game." In truth, he hadn't played most of the month. With a reluctance he had rarely, if ever shown before, Rudy checked in for the final 19 seconds. The shot was a touch long, and the Rockets lost. He would have loved to be the hero, he said, but he didn't want to be the first option. He was hoping Calvin Murphy or Mike Dunleavy would get open. Before his injury, you might have needed a winch to get the ball out of his hands. That was a hellish time for him, not playing. He didn't know that he was finished, at 32. He had waited so long to be part of something big, to coin a phrase. "People may think it's strange," he said, "that I'm not disgruntled, and I'm happy for the guys. But it could be worse. I could be at home watching on television." Which is what he happens to be doing right now, talk about your strange coincidences. As a coach, he has been admitted to the hospital on two or three occasions with exhaustion so total it raised fears of heart trouble. Always, he bounced back. He might not remember playing for a coach he loved, who faced a life-threatening illness. But in every other way, there are no crises his players can face that he hadn't met. It would be less than accurate to say the Rockets reflect the personality of their coach. This is mainly because Rudy T does not have 12 personalities. The Gestapo probably could not get him to admit this, but he would love to coach a couple of players just the way he was: serious, loyal, unselfish, puppy-dog eager to please and win approval. He was a pure shooter, with one of the smoothest jump shots the game has seen. He was also one of the last of the bank-shot artists, who used the glass even when he was firing from the corner. He would score in streaks, hitting seven or eight in a row, and he crashed the boards. He didn't get a lot of credit for playing defense, but often found himself guarding some turkey like Julius Erving. And many nights, he would match him point for point. "I didn't see many guys stopping the Doctor," he once said. "It had to be a team effort." Which is part of the gospel Rudy T preaches today. He is one of a handful of coaches whose teams won back-to-back titles. Success came early, in the seasons of 1994 and '95. This is what he wants his players to think about, instead of him, rings on their fingers, a banner hanging from the roof. Once, we thought he might be too normal and modest for the job, but he is every inch a coach now. We know this because the fans feel free to criticize for having a system and believing in it. He is the all-time company man, in his 33rd year as a player, scout, assistant coach and boss. In 1994, when the Rockets were going against the Knicks for the NBA crown, he was too new and genuine to preen for the media. He had several players dinged and banged up, including Hakeem Olajuwon, Mario Elie and Kenny Smith. He rattled off the list for the hard-boiled New York scribes, and one of them finally asked, "Are you as healthy as you want to be at this point?" "Me, personally?" Rudy responded. Another asked him if there was any real way to prepare for Hakeem? His answer was a surprised look, followed by: "You want me to tell you?" Beating New York was all the sweeter because his boyhood hero had been a Knick, Dave DeBusschere, who tried to recruit Rudy for the University of Detroit. "Came over to my house and shook my mother's hand," he said, "and she wouldn't wash it for a week." Somehow, it should reassure the Rockets to know they have a coach who had heroes.
GET WELL SOON RUDY!!!! Even though we won last game, we need you desperately! When you feel better, hop on our train because you're going to lead us to the playoffs!
