Dale Robertson Article About Carroll Dawson

Expect the same driven Dawson in new Toyota digs
By DALE ROBERTSON
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
In a small touch of irony, Carroll Dawson recently bought a home within walking distance of Compaq Center, a building where he went to work for almost a quarter of a century but one the insides of which he might never see again.

For now, the Rockets' general manager sits surrounded by boxes in his other longtime workplace at the Rockets' Westside Tennis Club training facility, waiting to relocate to their fancy downtown digs. Because the practice court at Toyota Center is being varnished, the basketball half of the operation has had to stay put in far west Houston, although the rest of the front office moved last week.

So it wasn't until Dawson attended a social function at the arena Wednesday night that he had the chance to thoroughly check out the complex. After doing his duty -- schmoozing the high-roller fans who had been invited to the soirée -- Dawson and his wife, Sharon, snuck off by themselves to take a couple of "laps" around the arena the NBA team will call home for however many years he has left.

"It took my breath away," C.D. said.

Dawson definitely wasn't in the Heart-'O-Texas Coliseum anymore, of that much he could be certain. His introduction to the NBA came while he was Baylor's coach, when the Rockets played the Lakers in Waco at the Bears' drafty old gym in 1975.

"I was one of maybe 500 people in the stands," he says.

Touring the $235 million playpen served as a reminder of how far he, the Houston franchise and pro hoops at large had traveled since then.

But the journey has turned especially frenetic of late, with liberal dollops of the exotic and even the poignant. Change is coming fast and furiously for Houston's currently longest-tenured sports executive, who became Rockets GM in 1996 after 16 years as an assistant under Del Harris, Bill Fitch and Rudy Tomjanovich.

In the last 12 months, Dawson has had to travel to Beijing to negotiate with the Chinese for Yao Ming's services, come to grips with Rudy T's battle against bladder cancer, spearhead the search to replace Tomjanovich as head coach and change all of his relevant mailing addresses.

"It's been a pretty strange summer," he admits.

After thousands of hours together, poring over videotape and talking ball at all hours of the day and night, Dawson and Tomjanovich grew so close they could have finished each other's sentences. Forget the geographical upheaval. Rudy T's sudden departure and Jeff Van Gundy's hiring represented the biggest change of all. And that's despite Van Gundy's laudable effort to make the transition as seamless as possible.

Van Gundy and Dawson knew each other going back to the Knicks-Rockets Finals in 1994 -- Van Gundy was a Pat Riley assistant -- but they weren't close. When Dawson pitched him on replacing Rudy, it's not too much of a reach to compare the tone of C.D.'s spiel to a father's conversation with a potential son-in-law. He spoke with a lot of emotion. He was selling more than a job.

"I've put about half my life into this franchise," he said. "I knew the fit had to be right."

Apparently, it was.

"We've already bonded pretty well," Dawson said of his three-month partnership with Van Gundy. "I think he really liked our situation here -- even if he didn't have great memories from '94 -- so it was a comfortable fit for everyone from the start. We're lucky to have hired Jeff. With the nine openings in the league, there was a lot of interest in him."

Dawson's setting up shop in the heart of Houston at the end of September shouldn't prove unduly difficult. Visitors to his office, once it's decorated, will see the same photos and memorabilia, all of which pertain to the Rockets' two NBA titles and the Comets' "four-peat." He won't be living in the past, but he's hardly divorcing himself from it.

Nor has Dawson been forced to cut his tethers to Rudy T. Between cancer treatments, Tomjanovich will do some scouting for Dawson, having gone full circle. It was C.D. who convinced him to try it when he retired as a player and later also encouraged his interest in coaching, which only led to the lengthiest, most accomplished tenure at the professional level in Houston's history.

Dawson's run as GM could be similarly judged, a few lean years notwithstanding, but he's reluctant to mount any pedestals. The consummate publicity-shy, back-room operator, he's happiest when he's left alone to do his work without celebrity. That he'll be inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in February amuses him nearly as much as it flatters.

"It's like when I was in Beijing last summer," he said. "Who would have ever thought that possible? It would have been a safer bet I'd be back picking cotton, like I did when I was a kid, than being there."

New everything else perhaps, but still the same old C.D.

 

Nor has Dawson been forced to cut his tethers to Rudy T. Between cancer treatments, Tomjanovich will do some scouting for Dawson, having gone full circle

Anyone know how many treatments RudyT has left?