Even the fastest players cannot catch up with the past. Summer 1994. Trail Blazers flashy point guard Rod Strickland is on his third team in six NBA seasons. He is working to change his reputation.
Inevitably, this kind of migratory bird with mercenary plumage does not have a good press. The media spoke of him more often for fights and for his bad bed side than for his exploits with the ball in hand. Rod Strickland (1m91, 56 years old on July 11) was nicknamed “Twirl” (the Spinning Top) for his ability to spin in the air and his ability to pass the ball at the very last moment. But even spinning around, Rod couldn’t avoid bad luck and a reputation as a “nasty boy”.
“Rod is misunderstood, says his ex-partner Mario Elie who grew up with him in New York. He’s an awesome guy. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I believe he wants to erase that image and show everyone he’s not a bad boy. »
There are two different personalities in Rod Strickland: the sometimes selfish, self-centered gambler and the well-behaved son from a tight-knit South Bronx family who calls home at least once a week. The problem surely stems from the fact that he had to live with fame and expectations from an early age.
He took Harry Truman High School in New York to the pinnacle of high school basketball in Co-Op City. He then had to spend a year in Virginia, at Oak Hill Academy, an establishment that helps ghetto children achieve a good academic level. Then he joined DePaul’s college where he was considered one of the ten best players in the country.
It was at DePaul that he began to build his sulphurous legend. The Blue Demons’ four consecutive appearances in the NCAA Final Four, from 1985 to 1988, didn’t change that. There are repeated absences and lateness, a bad habit he will keep during his year and a half spent with the Knicks.
Spurs leader in the early 90s
Drafted by New York in 1988 (19th position), Rod does not really support the competition of Mark Jackson, rookie of the year 1988. His rants and his surly behavior divide the group. The press, skeptical from the start, wondered about this incongruous coupling and this delicate cohabitation. Rod Strickland had few supporters in the locker room, but the team’s results led to his departure for San Antonio in February 1990, in exchange for veteran Maurice Cheeks. Spurs badly needed a point guard. Also, Rod is welcomed with open arms.
With David Robinson under the circle, Terry Cummings, Sean Elliott and Willie Anderson on the wing, Strickland “just has to” get the ball up, pass and avoid gaps off the field. What he is incapable of… He is held responsible for the elimination in the semi-finals of the Conference against Portland (4-3) for having, in Game 7, attempted a suicidal no-look pass before making a mistake on Clyde Drexler. In February 1991, he fractured his right hand fighting in a bar and missed 21 matches. He resumed his place in April but the damage was done.
Underdogs for the NBA title after a 56-26 loss season a year earlier, the Spurs did not regain their level of play. They were eliminated by Golden State in the first round of the playoffs (3-1). On a personal level, the leader from the “Big Apple” has little to reproach himself for: over 42 minutes, he shot 18.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, 8.8 assists and 2.25 steals…
During the summer, Strickland goes to clash with the management of the Texas franchise to obtain a new contract. He only agrees to dress up after getting $1.3 million for the year and thus misses the first 24 matches. To make matters worse, the New Yorker finds himself at the center of a dark story of indecent assault. Whatever his performance on the field, Rod is judged by his behavior off it.
Sportingly, the outcome is hardly happier: San Antonio (47-35) is swept away by Phoenix, still in the first round of the playoffs. Strickland misses Game 3 with a broken bone in his left hand. Free-agent during the summer of 1992, he took over the management of Portland while Vinny Del Negro, the former coach of the Bulls and former partner of Toni Kukoc at Benetton Treviso, came to Spurs. Reassured, the San Antonio spokesperson defines the “Rital” as follows (Del Negro is American-Italian): “It’s the complete opposite of Rod Strickland”…
Lieutenant of Clyde Drexler at the Blazers
Portland gives Rod a third chance. Who attacks the press, stigmatizing the “fixette” of which he is the object. “My problem is that the media talk a lot more about what is happening away from the courts than about my qualities as a player. All of this distorts the public’s perception of me. I have changed, believe me. And yet, I remain the same player. Hope Portland fans take notice. »
The Trail Blazers believe in Strickland. They made him sign a 6-year contract. The interested party agreed to share his playing time with the titular point guard, Terry Porter. For his first season in Oregon, he reported 13.7 points and 7.1 assists over 31 minutes. Portland fell in the first round of the playoffs against… San Antonio (3-1). The next (in 1993-94), he climbed to 17.2 points and 9 assists over 35 minutes. It’s the third offensive option behind Clifford Robinson and Clyde Drexler.
“Rod wants and knows how to do whatever it takes to win, cuts his coach, Rick Adelman. His bad image? Cliff Robinson, our winger, was also supposed to be a problem player. No one wanted it on draft day and everyone advised against it. You saw the result… It’s the same for Rod. I have unlimited confidence in him. »
What is even more amazing is that Strickland succeeded where the late Drazen Petrovic and Danny Ainge had more or less failed. In third back, he proves capable of creating as well as scoring. We then think that this is the missing piece for the Trail Blazers to return to the NBA Finals, two years after the failure against Chicago… “It has the style of the big cities” analyzes Mario Elie. “Accelerations, feints, great dribbling and a lot of flair when he goes into penetration. That’s New York-style basketball. »
Strickland, who was raised on the 17th floor of a council estate, has a brother and two sisters. Despite an unsavory environment, the family always remained united and knew how to avoid worries. Contrary to what his basketball background might suggest, Rod is not unfaithful. In the mid-1990s, Sheryl Browne had been his companion for seven years. Nothing compares to his career as a wandering player, a real journeyman. At 28, we say to ourselves that Strickland has found everything he needed in the mildness of Oregon: calm, a peaceful life.
“The NBA has its pros and cons, then comments the No. 1 Trail Blazers. You can do a lot more things there than a normal citizen, but you are also constantly watched and spied on. Here, I don’t feel like a curious beast like often in the past. Even the journalists are starting to leave me alone… It’s true that everything anyone could write about me drove me crazy. Some were writing all kinds of stuff about me when they lived 5,000 miles away and never met me once or talked to me for a second. The worst part was that my parents were reading those infamous papers. Even though they knew the truth, they were hurt. It was disturbing. I think it’s all over, fortunately.”…
We also get to know the third personality of Rod Strickland: the man who comes out of the bench. “I have no problem with that. I was a starter before but I always wanted to be part of a team in contention for the title. This is the case of Portland. For an NBA champion’s ring, I’m ready for anything and even a little more. »
Difficult all the same to exist in a Pacific hen where Seattle and Phoenix make reign the law. Portland compiles 47 victories before falling in the 1st round of the 1994 playoffs against the future champion, Houston (3-1).
NBA leading passer in 1998
The following year, the transfer of Drexler to the Rockets during the year dealt a fatal blow to the franchise in the North West of the United States. Strickland (18.9 pts, 8.7 pts) sees his team being pulverized by the Suns, still in the 1st round (3-0). It will not pass either despite the reinforcement of a gifted European pivot named Arvydas Sabonis (3-2 against Utah in the 1st round in 1996).
Rod packs his bags, heading to Washington where Harvey Grant accompanies him. Rasheed Wallace and Mitchell Butler do the reverse. With his old friend from Michigan Juwan Howard, Chris Webber brought the Bullets (future Wizards) back to the playoffs for the first time in nine years (sweep against Chicago in the 1st round in 1997). It was said that fate would not smile on Strickland, often quoted in the compositions of the rap group Wu-Tang Clan: the child from the Bronx finished best passer in the League in 1997-98 (10.5 pds plus 17.8 pts average) but Washington, which now hosts the Magicians, finished only 4th in the Atlantic Division.
The team is on vacation. Chris Webber is dispatched to Sacramento and begins what is mistakenly believed to be a crossing of the desert. To get “C-Webb”, the Kings let go of their house scorer Mitch Richmond plus Otis Thorpe (who had already served as bargaining chips in the Drexler trade in 1995). And here is the drama…
For three years, the Strickland-Richmond-Howard trio crystallizes criticism. The results of “Wash” (18, 29 and 19 victories) are inversely proportional to the income of the three moguls, endowed with pharaonic contracts. The point of no return will be reached in 2000-01. Michael Jordan, back in business as GM, is cleaning up. He gets rid of Juwan Howard, sent to Dallas, in February 2001. Mitch Richmond is going to smell the scent of a title with the Lakers a few months later. Rod Strickland, whose contract is bought out, begins a new way of the cross.
An underrated playmaker his entire career
He passed through Portland, Miami, Minnesota, Orlando, Toronto and Houston before bowing out in 2005, after a 17-year career that would have earned him $43 million. Inducted into the New York Basketball Hall of Fame in September 2008, he assisted John Calipari in Kentucky after serving as director of basketball operations at the University of Memphis. We then saw him on the USF bench, as an assistant to Orlando Antigua.
In the end, and despite the praise of his peers, “the spinning top” definitely leaves a cloudy image. Not called for the 1998 All-Star Game, during his best year (All-NBA Second Team), he explained that he would decline any future invitation. There was none… The 25th player in history to compile 10,000 points and 5,000 assists might have simplified his life with a hint of less character and a bit more discipline.
Awards
17 years of career
1,094 matches (740 starter times)
All Rookie Second Team (1989)
All NBA Second Team (1998)
NBA’s Leading Passer (1998)
13.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, 7.5 assists, 1.4 steals
45.4% on shots, 28.2% on 3 points, 72.1% on free throws
