Lucas Is Back With Rockets for a Fourth Time : NBA: At 36 and with a history of drug problems, point guard gets one more opportunity.

The first time John Lucas joined the Houston Rockets, he was 22 years old. The second time Lucas joined the Rockets, he was 30. The third time, he was 31. Now, three days after his 36th birthday, Lucas is a Rocket for the fourth time, which can mean just one thing.

“My heart pumps blood that’s Rocket red,” Lucas said.

Other vital parts that will be examined closely this season are his head and his legs. But if nothing else, give Lucas credit for being persistent. For years now, it seems as if the Rockets are always sending Lucas away only to have him keep coming back.

His birthday is on Halloween, and doesn’t that seem appropriate? Look at John Lucas’ career, and the whole thing, all 13 years of it, seem sort of scary. The first pick in the first round of the 1976 college draft out of Maryland, Lucas was a skinny, bow-legged, no-offense, 6-foot-3 point guard , for gosh sakes, who, once Moses Malone joined him, quickly turned the hapless Rockets into a powerful force.

But at about the same time, another kind of powerful force began working on Lucas. It was easy to put his problems behind him. A spin move to the hoop or a reverse dribble and he’d be out of trouble. If Lucas was only slightly bothered by pressure defenses on the court, he was totally stymied by what he put up his nose.

Twice released by the Rockets because of a dependency on cocaine, Lucas had a new experience this spring when Seattle released him because of his age. Lucas was sure he could still play, of course, and spent the summer keeping his legs in shape and listening to his wife, Debbie, and their children, who urged him to sign with the Rockets even if he had to take a pay cut.

And so, he’s back again, wearing that Rocket-red uniform that he says makes him feel 10 years younger. And with his heart pumping that Rocket-red blood, John Lucas is a survivor. He is a living, breathing testament to perseverance, a basketball-playing symbol of one who peeked over the edge, took a real good look and has never glanced back. He never will, Lucas said.

“It feels like, you know, you travel the road away from home after your father says, ‘Get out of here,’ and you were messed up, you put your life back together and then your family says, ‘Come back,’ ” Lucas said. “I feel like I’m home. This is the last stop for me.”

This is also Lucas’ last chance. In the eyes of the NBA, he is a two-time loser under the league’s drug policy, which means that if Lucas ever again tests positively for drugs, he will be banished for life. Yet all signs indicate that Lucas is nothing but a positive individual.

Lucas, who said he has been sober for 3 1/2 years, finds himself at the forefront of the anti-drug business. He heads the NBA Players Assn. Drug Program. He founded STAND (Students Take Action Not Drugs) and the John Lucas Fitness System, which offers drug treatment help in five Houston-area hospitals. Who would be better to start up such programs than an expert, Lucas reasoned.

“I knew what it would take because I’ve been through that,” Lucas said.

He also formed the John Lucas rehabilitation center as part of the NBA’s after-care program for those players with a history of drug problems. In perhaps the ultimate twist, two of his clients are also his teammates.

Lewis Lloyd and Mitchell Wiggins, banned from the NBA for life but readmitted by the league after being out for two years, are once again Rockets. Like Lucas, they say their drug problems are behind them, that people should leave them alone, but they are sure no one will.

It is a reunion of sorts for the trio. In 1986, when the Rockets made it to the NBA finals and lost to Boston in six games, Lucas, Lloyd and Wiggins were teammates. Lucas never played in the playoffs, though. The Rockets released him March 14 after he tested positive for cocaine.

Lucas was clearly distraught. Although he went on to sign with Milwaukee nine months later and also played for Seattle, Lucas said he never thought of himself as anything but a Rocket.

“I’ve never told anyone this before, but when the Rockets released me, I kept my uniform,” Lucas said. “I never gave it back. When I signed a two-year contract with the Rockets again this time, I pulled it out again. I never lost it. That’s always been a part of me.”

When the American Basketball Assn. folded, Tom Nissalke’s job as head coach of the Utah Stars disappeared, too. So in the spring of 1976, he scouted college players for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Rockets. The Bucks clearly wanted a point guard, Nissalke said, while the Rockets decided to go with the best player available.

Nissalke said he rated the point guards coming out of college, and his top four in order were John Lucas of Maryland, Armond Hill of Princeton, Quinn Buckner of Indiana and Ron Lee of Oregon. Just before the draft, the Rockets traded center Joe C Meriweather, guard Gus Bailey and their first-round pick to Atlanta for forward Dwight Jones and the Hawks’ first-round pick, which was the No. 1 pick in the draft.

The Rockets did not draft a 7-foot center out of Centenary in Shreveport, La., named Robert Parish, or a forward from Notre Dame named Adrian Dantley, or a freckle-faced guard at Pepperdine named Dennis Johnson, or even a skinny forward from South Carolina named Alex English.

The Rockets instead drafted John Lucas, and things began to happen. Nissalke became the coach when John Egan was fired after a 40-42 season in 1975-76; Malone came from Buffalo in a trade, and the Rockets went on to post a 49-33 record for the season, which ended in a six-game playoff series lost to Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference finals.

Lucas was a smash hit. He had 463 assists in his rookie season, which had been bettered by only Oscar Robertson, Ernie DiGregorio and Norm Van Lier. Beginning the season as the third guard behind veterans Mike Newlin and Calvin Murphy, Lucas was a starter for good within a month.

It was Newlin, a noted gunner as was Murphy, who was sent to the bench so Lucas could play. Newlin, 40, lives in Houston, where he has real estate interests and works as a color commentator for Rocket home games on local cable television. Even 14 years later, Newlin harbors no grudge.

“You had to like him right off the bat,” Newlin said. “You automatically like a guy who passes the ball. Whenever they draft a passer, you’ve got to be pleased.

“He was a pure ballhandler, a true playmaker,” Newlin said. “He was probably the truest playmaker I have ever seen.”

Within 15 months, Newlin was seeing Lucas at a distance. Although Lucas averaged 9.4 assists a game, the Rockets slumped badly the next season, and Ray Patterson, then the general manager, came up with a bold plan to shake up the team. He signed free agent Rick Barry of the Golden State Warriors, who were due compensation from the Rockets. But when neither team could reach an agreement on compensation, Commissioner Larry O’Brien intervened, and on Sept. 5, 1978, sent Lucas and $100,000 to the Warriors.

“Point guards were a commodity that were just not out there,” said then-Warrior Coach Al Attles, now a Warrior vice president and assistant general manager. “All our organization were assured that we were getting one of the best point guards, if not the best, in the game.”

In Oakland, Lucas’ life took a turn. His scoring average dropped from 16.1 points in 1978-79 to 12.6 and then to 8.4, but that wasn’t the most mysterious part. Lucas had begun to act erratically, and Attles noticed, although he couldn’t figure out just what was wrong.

When Attles reflects on those circumstances with Lucas 10 years ago, it’s a lot easier to see what was going on.

“I just had a hard time thinking in terms of any athlete who uses his body in his job being involved in drugs,” Attles said. “That’s how naive I was. We’re all educated a little more now.

“He’d say things like . . . well, I would get a call before practice, and he’d say, ‘I got to take care of some parking tickets or I’ll go to jail,’ ” Attles said. “It was always sort of plausible, just enough truth in it. They were so close to reality, nobody could make that up.

“Once I got a call at practice that he couldn’t come. He just had a wreck and he was waiting to be towed. One time, he deliberately missed a game. I remember telling him in my office, ‘I’ve been around this game a long, long time and I’ve never, ever heard of a player who intentionally misses a game.’

“There were some telltale signs going on, but you just can’t go around accusing people. Right then, he was telling me he didn’t have a drug problem. You don’t know if that was some kind of disguise, veneer he put on.

“But I’ll tell you, the way Luke is now, you can only stand and applaud.”

Yet, before Lucas arrived where he is now, there were more problems. There were other voices in other rooms calling him; Lucas heard them and gave in. A long journey back to Houston began.

The Warriors traded him to Washington. He missed a game there, violated team rules and was waived after two years. Cleveland picked him up and waived him after three weeks. San Antonio signed him in 1983, and he played there a year before the Rockets traded for him before the 1984 season. Lucas also spent some time with the minor league Lancaster Lightning.

The Rockets waived Lucas on Dec. 10, 1984, when he failed a drug test, then re-signed him Feb. 19, 1985. They waived him again 13 months later for failing another drug test, and Lucas moved on to Milwaukee and Seattle for a total of three years before coming full-circle back to Houston.

Through it all, Lucas has made his mark. He is 10th on the NBA’s assist list with 6,216, spread over a career that wavered between dazzling highlights on the court and the plunging depths of drug addiction.

“Had he not had all the drug problems, I think he would have gone on as one of the top assist leaders of all time,” Nissalke said.

Attles, who has made his peace with Lucas after a series of soul-searching talks, offers much the same opinion but goes even farther.

“At 36, he’s still playing,” Attles said. “What does that tell you about his ability? There aren’t too many 36-year-olds playing anything. It tells you what a great athlete he was to go through what he went through and still be playing.

“Sure, you can say he was never able to reach his full potential because of his problems,” Attles said. “And he was still very good. On the other hand, you can ask how much has he grown as a person because of all this?”

At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be too much difference between Lucas as a Rocket in 1976 and Lucas as a Rocket in 1989. Gray hair springs from his head like topsy, and his legs are positively ancient for a guard, but his voice hasn’t changed at all. He still sounds like a throaty disc jockey or cheerleader or something like that.

Lucas is still exuberant, as though he might be trying to get you to do something right away and feel good while you’re doing it.

“I always used to accuse him of running for class president,” Nissalke said. “Well, he’s still running for class president.”

But, at least, this Lucas is not running from anything. The Texas Legislature honored Lucas for his creation of STAND, and he seems to be a role model for many of those who share his problem--Lloyd and Wiggins, to name two.

“We have three guys, and it’s just real rewarding,” Lucas said. “We all have an opportunity to right a wrong. We are not bad people. We made bad choices. People understand now that it’s a disease, not a weak person or lack of willpower.”

The Rockets are chartering flights on the majority of their trips this season. Steve Patterson, the son of Ray and the current general manager, said that decision was not made to limit temptation for the players on the road but rather to ease the burden of a long season of travel.

“Any other benefits would be OK, too,” Patterson said.

By sheer numbers, the Rockets seem to have established new boundaries for altruism. With Lucas, Lloyd and Wiggins on the roster, that means one-fourth of the team has a history of drug problems. Whether this is a wise decision is yet to be seen, although club President Ray Patterson said the Rockets have no illusions.

“You go into this thing with your eyes wide open,” he said. “However many recovered addicts there are, I don’t know. The numbers aren’t good. But forget all the philosophizing and moralizing and give the guys a fair shake. We play by the rules of the league, and if the rules of the league say give the guys another chance, you do it.”

Said Nissalke: “They’ve done their penance. They’ve been humiliated, embarrassed, the whole gamut. I think they deserve another chance.”

But should that chance occur all at the same place? Attles isn’t sure.

“You can be a social worker to some point, but I’m sure they checked it and researched it and they know those people really well,” Attles said.

Rocket Coach Don Chaney said he understands what the presence of Lucas, Lloyd and Mitchell means off the court when the Rockets have hired them to perform on it.

“Sure, it’s a gamble,” he said. “To a degree, you’re walking on the edge. But if a guy can still play, I don’t see what his past has to do with it. I believe in second chances. And third chances, too.”

Of course, this is Lucas’ fourth chance with the Rockets. Chaney expects Lucas to be a backup to Sleepy Floyd, who really isn’t a point guard anyway, to play anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes, depending on how his legs hold up, and to deliver the ball to the right people at the right time. As for Lucas’ problems, Chaney is prepared.

“You have to deal with that, but of all the guys who have been in drug treatment or rehab programs, right now, he’s the No. 1 guy who can emerge clean and free from it the rest of his career, I think,” Chaney said. “There’s always a chance he won’t, but his chances are a cut above everybody else’s.”

Wiggins, 30, said he has been sober for 21 months and Lloyd, 30, for eight months. They both have one-year contracts. Wiggins said he will donate $10 to the Salvation Army for each point he scores this season.

“Each day I play on these legs is extra special,” Wiggins said. “I see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it is getting brighter.”

Of the two, Lloyd’s return to the NBA was the rockier. He began by reporting to camp overweight at 234 pounds, the same as backup center Tim McCormick. That prompted Chaney to say: “I can’t have a guard weighing more than my center.”

Lloyd’s progress was further slowed when he injured an arch after a dime was lodged in his shoe as he danced at a disco. It got worse when Lloyd spent 48 hours in an Iowa City, Iowa, jail in late September after pleading guilty to an old drunken driving charge. Lloyd had been arrested in April and failed to appear for his arraignment in May. Lloyd’s attorneys said he never received copies of court documents notifying him of the arraignment because of a mix-up over his address.

Now that he has returned to the Rockets, Lloyd is pleased to hear the fans at the Summit in Houston holler, ‘Lewwwwwww!’ when he scores a basket.

“I enjoy the way they be hollerin’ my name,” Lloyd said.

As for his past problems, Lloyd said he has hung in there and is glad the Rockets hung in there with him.

“Gamble?” he said. “Life’s a gamble. You got to take a chance. We made mistakes and we got the second chance. We just got to look forward and do the right thing. Definitely, it’s going to be tough, the pressure’s going to be on myself, on Luke, on Mitch. But, heck, a lot of positive could come out of it right now, and that’s what we need right now--positives.

“Me being clean and sober is the most important thing in my life,” Lloyd said. “If I wasn’t clean, I would probably be dead now. It was like living in hell. Now, I been given a God-bless. I got a second chance.”

Lucas said it is not solely his responsibility to take charge of his two teammates, to monitor their actions and be their conscience.

“I can’t take charge because I’ve been sober the longest,” he said.

Maybe he can take charge on the court, though. Why, it would be like old times in Houston. Actually, it is old times when a 36-year-old plays an important role. And so, on the fourth time around on this very same team, John Lucas prepares himself for the rigors of a trying season and waits for a chance to make the most of the time he has left.

“My main thing now is to win a championship,” Lucas said. “Do I have enough left in me to do it? Yeah.

“You know, I’ve been sober for 3 1/2 years now, but people don’t ever let you forget. And that’s probably good. I have the kind of disease that waits and waits and waits for you. I’m ready for that, too. Because I always want to remember where I came from.”

AGELESS WONDERS

John Lucas is the oldest guard in the NBA, but he is only the league’s third-oldest player. Here are the NBA’s 10 oldest players.

RANK PLAYER CURRENT TEAM AGE 1 Caldwell Jones San Antonio 39 years 91 days 2 Robert Parish Boston 36 years 65 days 3 John Lucas Houston 36 years 3 days 4 Alex English Denver 35 years 302 days 5 Rickey Green Indiana 35 years 77 days 6 Walter Davis Denver 35 years 55 days 7 Dennis Johnson Boston 35 years 46 days 8 Mychal Thompson Lakers 34 years 276 days 9 Moses Malone Atlanta 34 years 225 days 10 Tree Rollins Cleveland 34 years 141 days