A Surprise Voyage : Despite Friction With Management, Rockets Have Emerged as Contenders

Correctly answer these questions and you, too, can be a Houston Rocket scientist.

1. What is a Dream Shake?

a. An alarm clock.

b. Something with ice cream.

c. Hakeem (the Dream) Olajuwon faking with the basketball.

2. Who is Mad Max?

a. Mel Gibson.

b. Cornbread Maxwell.

c. Vernon Maxwell.

3. Is the “H” in Hakeem silent?

a. Yes.

b. No.

c. Sometimes.

If you answered c, c and c, you not only win the big prize, you also immediately qualify as a Junior Houston Rocket, or more specifically, a Space Cadet.

The Rockets have already answered more than a few questions about themselves, including the one raised by Warrior Coach Don Nelson about which team might best be avoided at playoff time.

“The most feared team in the league,” was Nelson’s description.

At the very least, it’s one of the strangest. The Rockets are a team with a “for sale” sign out front, led by a coach with no contract for next year, playing with one starting guard who doesn’t have a contract for next year and another starting guard who has one but hates it. A volatile mixture? Apparently not as long as the Rockets seem intent on proving that the team that plays together, stays together.

As restricted-free-agent-to-be Kenny Smith said about Maxwell, his backcourt teammate involved in a contract squabble with the Rockets:

“We’ve all come to the consensus that we’ve gotten a lot of passes from Vernon Maxwell and a lot of assists and defensive help, and we haven’t gotten that from any management on the court, so who we’re going to side with is pretty obvious.”

Then there is Olajuwon, who made the stunning announcement last month that the Rockets have misspelled his first name for the last nine years. It’s Hakeem, not Akeem, said Olajuwon, pointing out that Hakeem means “wise one” or “doctor” in Arabic. He was fairly emphatic about it. But when the matter of pronunciation came up, Olajuwon waffled a bit. First, Olajuwon said the “H” was silent. Then he said the “H” was not silent.

Many were confused, but not Tyrone Corbin of the Minnesota Timberwolves, who said, when asked how he pronounced Olajuwon’s first name: “I just call him ‘Sir.’ ”

Apparently, as far as the pronunciation went, Olajuwon was merely changing his tune with whatever media member asked about it. It must be noted, however, that when Olajuwon first came to the University of Houston from Nigeria, he lauded his then-35-year-old half-brother Adeyemi Kaka Olajuwon, whom he said was 7 feet 5. When a reporter went to Nigeria to do a story on the Olajuwon family, it was found that Hakeem had exaggerated slightly. Kaka was 5-10.

By whatever name you call him and however it is pronounced, Olajuwon pointed out that his name is sort of a personal thing and his property alone.

“It is my choice,” he said. “Nobody complain so far.”

There have been plenty of complaints about nearly everything else, though. The fact that the Rockets have somehow managed to separate the business side of basketball from their on-court performances speaks wonders for how talented this team is.

Consider the new role assumed by Olajuwon, who seems quite happy in an understated offensive capacity that relies heavily on the outside shooting of Maxwell and Smith. The Rockets are going free-lancing more often and playing two-man, pick-and-roll games rather than powering the ball into Olajuwon for a “Dream Shake.”

Olajuwon is not silent on his new role. “My shots will come with time. . . . Everything is fine,” Olajuwon said before pausing. “As long as I get a couple of dunks.”

Most, if not all, of the Rockets’ contract problems steam directly from the fact that club owner Charlie Thomas is attempting to unload the team. The asking price is a reported $100 million. Thomas, who made his fortune in selling automobiles, real estate and bull sperm, is the seventh Rocket owner since the franchise moved to Houston from San Diego in 1971. Speculation is that owner No. 8 might be the son of former Phoenix Sun owner Richard Bloch, Los Angeles developer Jonathan Bloch.

Of course, a little thing like selling the team tends to doom any new contracts for the employees, in this case Coach Don Chaney, Smith and Maxwell. Of the three, Maxwell seems the most restless.

“I think he’s a little bit concerned about it,” Chaney said of Maxwell.

Two weeks ago, Maxwell threatened to walk out on the team, but relented. This is the same Maxwell who spent a month away from training camp when the Rockets would not renegotiate his contract, then returned two days before the start of the season to play for the unchanged base salary of $200,000, which he figures to fall about $1.5 million short of what he would settle for.

Even though the Rockets talk a lot about the 6-4 Maxwell’s defensive ability, he does not become Mad Max until the ball is in his hands. In his first season as a starter after three previous mundane years in the NBA, Maxwell is averaging more than 17 points, leads the NBA in three-pointers and is closing in on Michael Adams’ one-season record of 167.

Follow Max’s tracks: 51 points in a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers and 30 in one quarter . . . Eight three-pointers and 45 points against the Denver Nuggets . . . 58 points in consecutive games . . . 34 points in 41 minutes against the Clippers . . .

When the season is over, Maxwell will have set franchise records for most three-pointers made and attempted, then probably sign his new contract at the three-point line and lend his name to a petition to change the name of the Summit to Maxwell House.

As Maxwell says: “When you’re feeling it, you know you’re feeling it, you know when you’re feeling it, too.”

That pretty much sums it up. Yet Chaney’s decision to leave this business of three-point shooting to the discretion of a player called Mad Max has left himself open to second-guessing. Critics have said that Maxwell’s three-point shooting is a nightly clinic for what not to do. By and large, Chaney defends Maxwell’s shot selection.

“I give him the green light, but sometimes I have to hold up the red flag,” said Chaney, who claimed that Maxwell is sometimes guilty of shooting three-pointers early in the shot clock or late in the game when a drive to the hoop is preferred.

“All I need do is remind him,” Chaney said. “I just don’t want him to stop taking them.”

The person who gets the ball to Maxwell the most often is 6-3 former North Carolina point guard Kenny Smith. With his fifth coach and third team in four years, Smith’s mail may never catch up to him.

Smith, 26, didn’t fit in at Sacramento after getting drafted with a lottery pick and eventually came to the Rockets from Atlanta in September for backup center Tim McCormick and 37-year-old point guard John Lucas, who promptly retired upon hearing the news.

Smith has contract problems, too, but the Rockets can match any offer he receives after the season and keep him in town. Averaging 17 points and seven assists, Smith will certainly improve on his 1991 salary of $700,000. In the meantime, he supplements his salary as a part-time sports reporter for KTRK-TV, the local ABC affiliate. Two weeks ago, Smith did a story on Maxwell’s contract problem.

Maxwell’s reaction? “I was like really relaxed about the whole thing.”

Amid such apparent turmoil, the Rockets have relaxed enough to win. In their last 38 games they are 31-7, which is startling considering what happened in Chicago Jan. 3. When Bull center Bill Cartwright swung his elbow and broke the bone around Olajuwon’s right eye, the Rockets were 16-13. Olajuwon sat out 25 games, but the Rockets were still 15-10 in his absence, with 6-8 forward Larry Smith, 33, filling in.

They lost to the Clippers in Olajuwon’s first game back, but are 19-4 since and challenging the San Antonio Spurs for the Midwest Division title. The way things stand now, the Rockets would play the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs.

Said Smith: “We aren’t even thinking about the Lakers.”

Even if the Rockets don’t catch San Antonio, at least they have proved that their own peculiar mix can be pretty potent stuff.

“I think it was inevitable that they were going to end up being good,” Utah Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan said.

For a long time, it seemed likely that Maxwell would end up as something other than a millionaire basketball player. The native of Gainesville, Fla., caused an uproar when he was the chief witness in a grand jury investigation into the University of Florida program.

Maxwell, 25, the school’s all-time leading scorer, received immunity for his testimony, which detailed his own drug use and that of other athletes, the drugs often bought with money from boosters. Florida was later put on probation, and Maxwell’s scoring records were removed from the books.

Drafted by Denver in the second round in 1988 but traded to San Antonio, Maxwell’s off-court problems continued. He was accused of assaulting a fan outside a nightclub in 1990, and a week later was ordered to stay away from his wife, Resharita Rachelle Maxwell, who claimed Maxwell threatened her, threw her to the floor and broke her wrist.

But Maxwell has been on his best behavior since becoming a Rocket. General Manager Steve Patterson got Maxwell from San Antonio for only $50,000.

Maxwell said he has been drug-free for more than three years and is tested once a week. Lucas, who after a career tainted by drug abuse has established his own drug clinic, has become something of an authority figure for Maxwell and even moved out of his house in suburban Sugar Land so the Maxwell family could move in. Maxwell takes part in the aftercare portion of Lucas’ treatment, said Lucas, who added: “He’s just a kid.”

Said Maxwell: “He’s been like a big brother to me. He helped me out in a lot of areas in my life. We’ve been through similar situations, you know, the drug thing, and we can relate better than anyone else, I think.”

And all this talk about the Rockets? It could be too much of a good thing, according to Olajuwon. Everyone is saying so many nice things about the Rockets that, to Hakeem, it looks like trouble, no matter how you spell it.

“I like to sneak up on people,” he said. “Now, we cannot do that. It is not good for a team to be overprepared for you, especially when you have to go through all this trouble.”

Trouble? What trouble? It may look like trouble to some, but think of the entertainment value. This is one Rocket ship that could be headed for the moon in the playoffs. And even if Hakeem is right and trouble prevents the Rockets from taking a very long ride, well, it sure promises to be a fun trip.