MITCHELL WIGGINS : Houston’s Moody Guard Is Young Man With Many Goals--Sorting Them All Out Has Been the Tough Part for Him

Mitchell Wiggins has set a number of goals for himself in his life and not all of them involve shooting jump shots for the Houston Rockets.

It’s all a matter of finding the proper position for Wiggins.

So far in the NBA finals, Wiggins has stepped forward as a slightly off-center guard, who just happened to score the winning basket for the Rockets in Game 3 Sunday.

Wiggins only wishes he could have dunked instead of merely tipping in the missed shot, because one of his goals is to win a game with a slam dunk.

And should the Rockets manage to tie their championship series with the Boston Celtics at 2-2 with a victory tonight in the Summit, that wouldn’t be too bad either, since that’s also a goal.

But basketball is only one part of the life of Mitchell Wiggins, 26, a one-time “head case” who now seems to have set his mind to realizing more important goals.

How about Mitchell Wiggins for President?

“Being President has always been a goal of mine,” Wiggins said just before bending over and cackling with laughter.

Robert Reid had only one question: “President of what? Bulgaria? The United States? Oh-oh, we all in trouble.”

In just about every championship series, a new, unexpected hero emerges. Wiggins is one of this year’s candidates.

But first . . .

What makes Mitchell Wiggins tick? Is it a time bomb about to go off, as before, or is it his internal alarm clock counting down for the wake-up call of his career?

Those who know him best among his Rocket teammates are no longer surprised at anything Wiggins says about his goals in life.

“ Everything is his goal,” forward Hank McDowell said. “I’ve got a wife and two kids. He told me that’s his goal, too. Hey, let him find his own wife and kids.”

There were times when Coach Bill Fitch wondered whether Wiggins would ever find himself. That became Fitch’s goal after the Rockets had traded center Caldwell Jones to Chicago for Wiggins and two draft choices after the 1983-84 season.

Wiggins, who had developed a reputation with the Bulls as a moody, up-and-down player with a sometimes terrific jump shot, wasn’t much different with his new team.

No one knew quite what was going on in Wiggins’ mind, and he wasn’t giving any clues. Wiggins remained largely quiet, totally introverted and if he wasn’t on Fitch’s bench, then he was in his doghouse.

Privately, Fitch wondered whether Wiggins was manic depressive. If he could wait long enough, Fitch also knew that Wiggins might come out of his shell.

“He’s been up and down, sure, but that’s just a part of growing up,” Fitch said. “Sometimes it takes longer for some than it does for others. It wasn’t anything that Mitchell couldn’t get over.”

Wiggins, who played at Florida State, the jump-shooting factory, was drafted by the Bulls and played in every game during his rookie season, averaging 12.4 points and 2.3 sullen fits a game.

Even now, Wiggins has little good to say about his first NBA season in Chicago.

“Well, it’s a great city,” Wiggins said.

“I thought I had a very good rookie year, except for about one awful month when I relaxed,” he said. “I learned you can’t do that. I had a lot of learning to do. Chicago was my first year and when I got to Houston, it seemed like it was my first year, too.

“Everybody is human,” Wiggins said. “When you wake up, you sometimes get out on the wrong side of the bed. Maybe I was getting out on the wrong side of the bed more than once. I’m a different type guy. I’m introverted but nice. I think it was time for me to think. That was one of my goals.”

So Wiggins started carrying around a book called “Life of the Mind.” He underlined passages that meant something to him.

“That book helped me open up my mind,” Wiggins said. “One of my goals is to open up my mind.”

And what did he discover when he looked inside?

“I found out that Wig is Wig is Wig,” he said. “A lot of people knew I had talent, but I knew I wasn’t mature.”

After nearly three full seasons in the NBA, Wiggins is at least well preserved. Fitch used Wiggins as a starter for 24 games in the 1984-85 season, but he played 600 fewer minutes than his rookie season with the Bulls.

Then during this season, Wiggins’ playing time was cut even more and he played nearly 400 fewer minutes than he had the previous season with the Rockets.

Most of the time, Wiggins kept to himself. The rest of the Rockets either left him alone or struggled to fathom the depths of his silence.

“We just had to understand where Mitchell was coming from,” Ralph Sampson said. “What we learned was that when he made a mistake, he just needed to be picked up.”

Reid said that the mystery of Mitchell Wiggins was fairly easy to solve once the Rockets understood all the clues.

“When he came here, he was a very moody individual,” Reid said. “He was the type of player who didn’t like sitting on the bench. He’d make two mistakes and he’d be sitting down and he sort of withdrew from the world. Once he understood what Coach Fitch wanted, he started playing better and better.

“But before that time, we weren’t sure if he could even talk,” Reid said.

“When he started to talk, we’d all, like, fall down in shock.”

At about the same time, Wiggins became engaged to Marita Payne, a former sprinter who won two silver medals in the Los Angeles Olympics as a runner on the Canadian women’s relay team.

Payne, now an assistant women’s track coach at Rice University, got Wiggins to calm down and open up.

“She’s tough and she’s demanding and she had a lot to do with it,” Wiggins said. “But everybody has to grow up sometime.

“You know, that’s one of my goals.”