Naked Ambition : Chris Humbert Is Both the U.S. Water Polo Team’s Greatest Asset and Perhaps Its Greatest Liability

Chris Humbert, cover boy and U.S. Olympic water polo star, went straight outta Lodi and splashed into Life magazine.

But there’s a problem. Those at home have been hard-pressed to accept Humbert’s, well, minimalist approach to modeling.

His mother, Cindy, the assistant city attorney in nearby Stockton, was warned by her son about the cover shot, in which he and three teammates are wearing water polo caps and nothing else, each holding a strategically placed water polo ball.

“I live in Lodi, and it’s a fairly conservative community and I went to the local grocery store and couldn’t find it,” Cindy Humbert Neely says.

“But I knew it was out because Chris had called me and gave me a warning. So I asked the clerk and she said, ‘They’re locked up.’ I said, ‘Say what?’

“The clerk said, ‘That wouldn’t go over well here. You know how it is in Lodi.’ ”

For the record, Cindy wasn’t bothered in the least, although she had to field numerous questions from friends.

She pointed out that the ancient Olympians competed without clothes, and that the pictures don’t show much more than the swimsuits do, anyway.

Her 26-year-old son was enthusiastic about the lengthy photo shoot in Corona del Mar, twisting the arms of teammates Rick McNair, Alex Rousseau and Chris Duplanty.

“The other guys didn’t want to do it,” Humbert reported. “I said, ‘Fine. What’s the big deal? We can get some publicity here. Nude up guys, let’s do it.’ ”

No wonder the 6-foot-7, 220-pound Humbert has been called the chlorinated Dennis Rodman.

Humbert is the undisputed key to the team’s success but his temper has often threatened to overshadow his talent. In that respect, he was like another famous left-hander with a temper, John McEnroe.

Humbert has led the United States in scoring in every major international competition since 1991 but if he was pushed over the brink, the team usually would follow.

“Up until a few months ago, that was still happening to him,” said teammate Mike Evans, who will be competing in his third consecutive Olympics.

“He’d be kicked out of the game or have battles with people. He’s learned to suck it up and not get too up-tight. It took several talks--with everybody. If he turns around and slugs someone and they slug him--you can’t do that. You have to keep a poker face and you have the opportunity to get even without being seen, underwater.

“We have a term . . . young and dumb. He was breaking through that stage at the last Olympics.”

Humbert’s mother said her son didn’t help himself with referees, either, not saying anything but often leveling them with dirty looks. But she saw a mark of progress when he was playing with his Italian club on national television in Italy. He was pushed and didn’t push back.

Then the opponent punched. Humbert needed five stitches and the game was stopped because of blood in the water.

Still, Humbert stayed calm, whereas previously, his indomitable will to win frequently got the best of him.

“When it wouldn’t go my way, I’d just lose it,” Humbert said. “Most teams design their defense to stop me. And they’d talk about me: ‘Here’s how we do it--we [tick] him off, then he gets angry and starts hitting us and he gets kicked out.’

“I’m getting better now.”

What is driving him to stay self-possessed is his desire to avoid another fourth-place finish, as in the 1992 Olympics.

“It wasn’t a disappointment--I’m embarrassed,” he said. “Fourth. You may as well get 50th.”

Humbert’s maturing process, as well as his strength and quickness, have helped lift the United States back into water polo’s elite circle.

Generally, five or six teams, among them the United States, are considered capable of winning the gold medal, with the slight favorite being defending champion Italy. The United States plays Italy in its opening game.

Evans had thought the team was too inconsistent during the winter but changed his mind after it went undefeated against top-level competition at the U.S. Open in May. More recently, the Americans lost to Italy last month at a tournament in Rome.

“The last two years have been significant--everybody needed to improve,” Coach Richard Corso said. “Humbert, he is not the complete player yet. Until we win and are successful internationally, top four at all these tournaments, then the whole package of Chris will be complete.

“We’re going to need him to score goals, but we don’t need him to be the high scorer of the tournament.

“He does two things better than anyone else in the world. He can hide at a practice better than anyone else, whether it’s underwater, finding a trapdoor or hiding behind the chairs [on the deck].

“And he knows how to rest. He is the master of resting. And he knows how to taper. His work ethic has gotten better. But the one thing about Humbert, he can give you 110%, maybe too much in a game.”

His teammates tease him about being tired and complaining of working too hard in practice, often sidling up to Corso and mimicking Humbert. Yet Humbert contends that he’s been tired for two years and that his ultimate goal is to get 12 hours of sleep for a month every night after the Olympics.

That is, if he isn’t busy following Corso’s orders to complete his degree at Cal.

Said Evans, “When he settles down and plays his game, I don’t know of anybody who is as talented or gifted. He’s like a mix between a Shaq and David Robinson because he’s big and strong and also quick.”

Evans, the father of three youngsters, joked that he was assigned to Humbert as a roommate on the road because of his calming influence. But Humbert is the free spirit outside of the pool as well and drags the others along for the ride.

His non-water polo passions are many and varied. Radio shock-jock Howard Stern gets Humbert through the early morning commute from Newport Beach to practice in either Corona del Mar or Long Beach with teammate and buddy Gavin Arroyo.

“The guy is so intelligent and quick,” Humbert said. “He has the same humor I do, kind of. It reminds me of myself and a lot of people on the team. I think I’m actually taller than him. I could at least look eye to eye with the man.”

Then there is “The Simpsons.” Actually Humbert could sell advertising for Fox. He loves its entire schedule, particularly “The Simpsons” and “Melrose Place.” Hockey even drew Humbert in for the first time because it was on Fox.

“I like the blue puck thing even though most people hate it,” he says.

“The Simpsons” were so important to him that Humbert even taped the East Coast feed off his satellite dish, so he could watch it at 4:30 in the afternoon, after water polo practice. Not anymore, however.

“There was a problem with the bill,” he said.

His favorite episodes of “The Simpsons” involve Halloween, and he loved the program’s parody of the movie “The Shining,” and can recite dialogue verbatim, even lapsing into his Homer Simpson voice.

He likes computers and can spend hours at the keyboard. In fact, Corso ordered the team to leave the computers and cell phones behind during a final week of training and isolation before the Games.

“He likes to chat,” says Evans.

Said Corso, laughing, “I’ll get e-mail from him or pictures or cartoons. I’ll be real careful when I get on, make sure the rest of the family isn’t around.”

Besides reprogramming Evans’ computer to warble Simpson music and dialogue, Humbert took a turn at cybersleuthing after a buddy was dumped by his girlfriend for someone else on-line.

“It’s OK now, I think they’re back together,” he said.

Corso could easily fill a reporter’s notebook with other Humbert anecdotes but there’s one problem.

“There’s some things I’m not supposed to know about,” he said. “But you could never put them in the L.A. Times. He loves life and he loves to have fun. But he knows there are no sure things.

“If we’re going to do something--if he’s going to do something--with this ballclub, now is the time. So he’s figured out he’s got to seize the moment.”