Cage Is Uncaging His Talent : Clipper Forward Shows Strengths on Ailing Team

Forward Michael Cage has been carrying the woeful Clippers on his massive shoulders this season.

Cage, 24, has posted all-star numbers in his third season in the National Basketball Assn.

The 6-foot 9-inch, 240-pound power forward has averaged 19.2 points and 14.1 rebounds in his last 10 games. He has been in double figures in rebounding 10 times in the last 11 games and has scored 20 or more points six times.

“I’m what you call a garbage man,” Cage said. “I pick up everything around the basket and try to out-hustle my big man, the guy that’s guarding me. I pick up those balls that people are just about ready to let go out of bounds. Or, if someone is not jumping, I’ll tip it in. I get a lot of garbage points. I’m not a great leaper but I know when to jump and get position.”

Cage has led the Clippers in rebounding 11 times, including a team-high 18 rebounds twice--and in blocked shots 7 times. He scored a career-high 26 points in a game against the Lakers Nov. 30.

So Cage, who is part Indian, is the Clippers’ big chief.

“My great grandfather was a Cherokee Indian medicine man,” he said. “My Indian name is Flying Cloud.”

Cage is seventh in the NBA in rebounding this season with an 11.0 average. He’s the only Clipper in the top 10 in any statistical category this season.

“Cage in one respect is kind of a soft guy,” Clipper forward Cedric Maxwell said. “But he’s animalistic when he gets on the court. Lately he’s just been a killer.

“I think the difference between this year and last year is that he’s got confidence in himself. Maybe he’s discovered himself this year.

“With him rebounding it takes the pressure off me.”

There appear to be three factors contributing to Cage’s impressive start this season.

--Coach Don Chaney has spent extra time working with Cage.

--Cage attended Pete Newell’s big man’s camp last summer, and also gained 10 pounds of muscle during a rugged off-season conditioning program.

--Cage is in the final year of his contract, and a big season would help him make big money. Plus, he’s getting more playing time this season because the Clippers have been devastated by injuries.

Don Chaney was an assistant coach when the Clippers selected Cage from San Diego State in the first round of the 1984 draft. Cage was the 14th player drafted. He had averaged 24.5 points and 12.6 rebounds as a senior, and was the all-time leading rebounder in the Western Athletic Conference when he left college.

Cage, who also considered an offer to play in Italy, became one of Chaney’s projects. Chaney has long spent extra time after practice working with Cage and is beginning to see the results this season.

“He’s really determined to become a great player and he’s working toward that,” Chaney said. “He went to Pete Newell’s camp and he worked all summer. He knows he has to play aggressive and be mean to be effective. I don’t think this is a fluke. He’s been very consistent.

“The most impressive thing is his rebounding. He’s going after every ball. Last year, he had a problem moving laterally and estimating where the ball would come off the rim. This year, he has an instant instinct where if he knows the ball is shot from the side it’s going to rebound in a certain area and he gets the jump on his guys to get position.”

Said Clipper General Manager Elgin Baylor: “He plays with a lot of intensity and enthusiasm every time he goes out there on the floor. He wants to be a good basketball player.

“He’s asking questions. He wants to know everything there is to know and he’s willing to work and he works hard. And it shows out there on the court.

“I wasn’t here last season to see how he played. But there’s no doubt he’s rebounding better. He’s going after the ball with more authority. Being a good rebounder takes desire and determination. He doesn’t quit. He’s making other people around him play better.

“Unfortunately, we’re not winning because of injuries. But we’re playing better as a team, and a lot of that has to do with Michael. We’ve been in every game. Earlier, we were just getting blown out.”

Cage is beginning to see the results of his off-season conditioning program. He spent last summer in San Diego, where he ran on the beach, played two hours of basketball and also rode his bicycle for conditioning every day.

Cage is nicknamed Flex because of his muscular development.

“I think it all started during the summer,” he said. “I worked out real hard. I can play almost a whole game and I won’t be fatigued after the game. I jump just as strong in the second half as I do in the first. I gained 10 pounds of strength, and my stamina is better.

“Don (Chaney) helped me with a lot of things. He would call me and tell me what I should be working on. He wanted me to go to Pete Newell’s big man’s camp.

“That camp more or less molded me right now. It gave my game a lot of focus, offensively and defensively. It showed me the fundamental skills a big man can use to be successful in this league. It started me to thinking about what I can do in this league. I came into camp in good shape. My attitude was super.

“I know I’m not going to be a great scorer in this league. I’m not going to be a great defensive player. But I can be a great rebounder. I was a rebounder in college. That was my trademark then and it’s going to be my trademark now and for the rest of my career in this league.

“This team isn’t going to look to me for big points night in and night out, but they will look to me for the big rebound. When that ball goes up I feel like it’s mine.”

Cage started 12 games last season but has been starting regularly this season because of the injuries to the other front-line players.

“I’ve been staying on the floor so much longer because we’re so thin,” Cage said. “Last year, Don told me that I was going to have a big year. It all started last summer. It didn’t just start during camp.

“I went through major withdrawal in my first year because I wasn’t playing that much. I had averaged 39 minutes a game at San Diego State, and all of a sudden I went down to 14 minutes a game. The first couple games, I didn’t play, and if I did it, was only for like a minute. I rarely played the first 30 or 40 games, and it was frustrating.

But I was on a team with a lot of great veterans--Marques Johnson, Norm Nixon and Derek Smith. I didn’t feel so bad after I heard what some of the guys went through their rookie year.

“They used to always go at me in practice, and Don told me, ‘Don’t back down and you’ll get your chance.’ He was so right.”

Money.

Cage signed his three-year contract with the Clippers after almost three months of negotiations. At one point, he signed with a team in Italy after the talks with the Clippers had reached an apparent impasse, but he eventually signed with the Clippers.

If recent Clipper history is any indication, however, more acrimonious negotiations lie ahead if Cage has a big year and demands big money.

“I like being a Clipper,” Cage said. “I don’t want to jump ship. I like to finish what I start. In college, there was a lot of talk about me transferring because people said I’d never make the pros from San Diego State.

“(A contract hassle) is something I don’t want to go through. I’ve seen it change players and I don’t like what I see. I saw what it did to Derek (Smith)--it made him bitter. Norm (Nixon) was a different kind of player after his holdout.

“I know it’s something I have very little control over. I’m going to take a good attitude about the whole situation. All I can do is control what I do on that floor. The rest is out of my hands.

“When I was drafted by the Clippers, I didn’t have any bad vibes. I was willing to put away all the other things I had no control over, all the litigation and negotiations with other players.”

Can a kid from a small Southern town find happiness in La-la Land?

Cage grew up in West Memphis, Ark., a town of 40,000, but he has adapted well to Southern California.

He drives a late-model white Mercedes-Benz sedan with darkened windows and personalized license plates--Benz 22. Cage said he got the plates because he was 22 years old when he bought the car.

The Cagemobile is equipped with a $5,000 stereo system with 16 speakers. He also has a mobile phone. Cage even has personalized floor mats. The ones in front have his initials, the ones in back his jersey number, 44.

Cage lives in an apartment in Marina del Rey.

“I’ve been spending more time at home this year,” Cage said. “The Marina is isolated and it’s peaceful there. I go down by the beach a lot. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my career--what am I going to be in this league? It’s time for me to make my move.”

His passions off the court are clothes, music and world travel.

Perhaps the best dressed player on the team, Cage designs his own clothes. He has shown up for games wearing turquoise leather pants with a matching T-shirt.

“I love clothes,” Cage said. “I’ve never had the luxury of being able to fit into clothes because of my body size. When I was a kid, I could never wear little boy’s clothing, and when I was in college I outgrew the big-men’s store. I read a lot of magazines about male grooming, like GQ and Esquire.”

Cage raised a few eyebrows at training camp last October when he showed up with a new hair style. Cage’s hair is chemically processed, like singer Michael Jackson’s, but Cage wears his in tight, slicked-back curls.

Cage is also into jazz. He majored in telecommunications in college and would like to have his own radio show someday.

“I love jazz,” he said. “It’s the ultimate music for me. I’m into compact discs now. I have 40 CDs, and 20 are jazz. I have an album collection of jazz that’s incredible. I have over 200 albums, and they’re all spread out on my floor.”

Cage has been to Japan, Brazil and Europe. “Last summer, I went to Italy and visited the same town I almost played basketball for,” he said.

But California is home, and has been since Cage moved here to attend college.

He played high school basketball with Keith Lee, now of the Cleveland Cavaliers. They lived two blocks apart. West Memphis High went unbeaten in 30 games during their senior year and won the Arkansas state title in 1980.

Lee went to Memphis State, and Cage went to San Diego State.

“I was recruited by every school,” Cage said. “I got letters from all over the country. I took one visit to San Diego State and I knew it was the place for me. It was not known for basketball and I thought this team was waiting for someone to establish their basketball program.

“When I first went to San Diego State the press back there (in Memphis) said I would never be heard from again because San Diego State wasn’t that well known for basketball.”