Nba Mothers Soak Up Limelight

When Donna Cassell, whose son, Sam, plays guard for the Houston Rockets, was asked earlier this year to do a commercial about her son, she was hesitant.

“I had never done anything close to that,” she said last week. “I was just a little bashful. … But I love talking about Sam.”

In fact, Cassell said she talked so much that the commercial director frequently interrupted her with the word “cut” to get her to shut up. “Once (the director) got me started, he couldn’t stop me,” she said. “My tongue would get tied up (from talking), and I would holler, ‘Cut!’ The director asked me if I was trying to take his job.”

When she wasn’t talking, the moms of four other NBA players were, and now television viewers are being treated to conversations between Donna Cassell and the moms of Kenny Anderson of the New Jersey Nets, Muggsy Bogues of the Charlotte Hornets, Glenn Robinson of the Milwaukee Bucks and Nick Van Exel of the Los Angeles Lakers.

The three 30-second spots are sponsored by Reebok. The mothers were filmed as they sat around a table in a diner and also as they watched game footage of their sons on a television in a private home. They showed off their sons’ childhood pictures and a couple of mothers even imitated their sons’ moves on the basketball court.

Cassell said she knew Bogues’s mom, whose son and Cassell’s son played at Baltimore’s Dunbar High School during different years. But she met the other moms for the first time when she arrived in New York to film the commercial.

“After a day, it seemed like we had been knowing each other for years,” Cassell said. “It was a pleasure meeting those ladies.”

Elaine Bogues, Muggsy’s mom, said, “At first, we were nervous.” But she said the moms loosened up and relaxed after the director asked them questions to spark their conversations.

Bogues said in an interview that she is pleased with the commercial, though she isn’t as fat as she appears on television. She also said she and the other mothers are very supportive of their basketballplaying sons, but their sons “should be the ones to get the credit.”

Cassell agrees. Sam “was so devoted,” Cassell said. “He would be out here in the back (of her Baltimore home), yelling, ‘Get it, Bill. Go at it, John.’ … And I would look outside, and I wouldn’t see anybody but him. He would be out there playing and having a whole team… .

“Where he is today, he truly deserves to be,” Cassell said. “He motivated himself to be where he is. … He would watch Michael Jordan on TV and say, ‘Mom, I’m going to play with him one day.”’

Carr to coach Celts?

It must be that M.L. Carr, chief of Boston Celtics basketball operations, wasn’t serious about interviewing Paul Silas for the coaching position. Otherwise, Carr looks a bit silly.

After firing Chris Ford, Carr waited two weeks to request permission from the New Jersey Nets to speak with Silas, a Nets assistant. Carr said he was interested in Silas, who said he was interested in the Celtics’ job. But Carr never arranged a meeting.

As Carr dragged his feet, the Phoenix Suns pounced.

A day after assistants Lionel Hollins and Scotty Robertson were fired by Suns coach Paul Westphal, Silas was named Westphal’s No.1 assistant. The deal went down Thursday. It is a coup for the Suns. Silas is highly respected and well-versed to the kind of transition game Westphal favors.

The way Carr handled the situation fueled speculation that Carr will become coach.

College coaches Roy Williams of Kansas and Lon Kruger of Florida turned their backs on Carr. Spurs assistant and former Celtics center Dave Cowens is a candidate, but Carr has yet to contact him. “Maybe I should call him,” Cowens said. “I’d love to talk to him.”

Hakeem’s dream

Imagine the Houston Rockets without Hakeem Olajuwon.

Olajuwon raised that possibility Sunday when a reporter asked him about the time several years ago when he wasn’t sure if he would end his career in Houston.

“I’m still not sure,” he said, “because I like Vancouver also. That might not be a bad place to do it…. Because I loved this city before it even had a team.”

Olajuwon, 32, has lived in Houston for 15 years and has spent his entire 11-year NBA career with the Rockets. His contract doesn’t expire until 1999.

He became a U.S. citizen two years ago, has many friends and family members who live in Vancouver and visits there often.

Answering the call

Chucky Brown was on his way back to Yakima, Wash. Charles Jones was about to take a vacation.

But each received a phone call in February from the Rockets.

Along with Mario Elie and Sam Cassell, Brown and Jones have formed a closely-knit support group that has helped the Rockets turn their season around in the playoffs.

Brown gained national recognition when Charles Barkley asked, “Who’s Chucky Brown?”

In February, no one knew. He was about to resume his CBA career with the Yakima Sun Kings after being named to the CBA AllStar team when he learned his fate.

“I’d already packed my clothes and told my CBA coach I’d be back on a Friday,” Brown said.

But the phone call came this time, and Brown has made the most of his opportunity. He scored a career playoff-high 15 points in Game 5 of the Rockets comeback against Phoenix.

He played a key role in Game 4 against Utah in the first round with seven points and seven rebounds.

Jones, 38, doesn’t have impressive stats. His value is the rest he gives Olajuwon.

“I try to take some of the defensive pressure off Dream and I don’t mind doing that,” Jones said.