Hard work has made Theo one of best on the block

by Phil Jasner
Daily News Sports Writer

This was before the 1993-94 season, Joby Wright's first as the men's basketball coach at the University of Wyoming, Theo Ratliff's third as a player. The new coach, succeeding Benny Dees, was visiting with Ratliff in his office.

"I had a big picture window, from which you could see the Snowy Range," recalled Wright, now coaching the Harlem Globetrotters. "I asked Theo if he had ever been up on those mountains. I asked him if he had ever driven a snowmobile up there. He looked at me like I was crazy. He said, 'Snowmobiling? Coach, I'm from Alabama.' "

There was a method to Wright's madness. He knew the wiry young center he inherited averaged just 1.8 points and 2.0 rebounds as a freshman, 9.2 points and 6.2 rebounds as a sophomore. He wanted Ratliff to visit the top of the mountains as a sheer college experience, but he also wanted him to lift his game to new heights.

Wright, whose background included being an assistant to Bob Knight at Indiana, did what coaches do as they attempt to breathe life into a program. But as optimistic as Wright might have been about the potential lurking inside his 6-10 center, he could not have foreseen a leap to NBA All-Star status.

That is the mountain Ratliff has climbed. The league leader in blocked shots with 187, the core of the 76ers' defense, he was to be the starting center for the Eastern Conference in Sunday's All-Star Game in Washington. He is an All-Star purely on merit, he was to be a starter by circumstance.

That circumstance changed dramatically yesterday when an MRI exam and a clinical examination by Dr. Lee Osterman, a hand specialist, uncovered a stress fracture in the scaphoid bone of Ratliff's right wrist. He will miss four to six weeks and could face surgery.

The fans chose Miami's Alonzo Mourning to start, but Mourning is out indefinitely with kidney disease. Ratliff, who placed second in fan balloting, was chosen as a reserve by East coaches. With Mourning and injured Orlando Magic forward Grant Hill unable to play, commissioner David Stern named the Atlanta Hawks' Dikembe Mutombo and the New York Knicks' Latrell Sprewell as replacements. But the East's coach is permitted to choose the starters in place of Mourning and Hill.

The East's coach is the Sixers' Larry Brown. He gleefully named Ratliff, terming it "an easy decision."

Now, Brown will choose between Mutombo and Toronto's Antonio Davis, who was named to replace Ratliff. Still, Ratliff was expected to be in Washington for the weekend's festivities, including today's media availability session.



"I just remember seeing a long, lanky young man with a quiet demeanor who had a way of carrying himself that wouldn't lead you to believe he was an athlete," Wright said.

"But he had a commitment, an ability to focus. I remember he appeared weak in physical strength, but he gave me his undivided attention. As a coach, you know when you connect with someone. From our very first conversation, we connected."

Wright directed his players to the weight room and the track. Ratliff responded. He averaged 15.4 points and 7.8 rebounds as a junior, 14.4 points, 7.5 rebounds as a senior. He became the No. 18 pick in the first round of the 1995 NBA draft, going to the Detroit Pistons. The transformation continued Dec. 18, 1997, when he and Aaron McKie were traded from the Pistons to the Sixers for Jerry Stackhouse and Eric Montross. Ratliff, unhappy and uncomfortable being in and out of the Pistons' lineup, embraced the move.

In his heart, Ratliff knew it was time to blossom. He developed a soft jump hook from the baseline, a nice medium-range jump shot - in recent games he has shown an old-fashioned rolling hook. Ratliff is averaging 12.4 points, 8.3 rebounds and 3.7 blocks per game.

But his major effect on the team with the league's best overall record (36-14) and best road record (21-6) has been at the defensive end: He has blocked five shots or more in 18 games, including a season-high nine against Washington on Nov. 29 and three performances of eight.

He has flirted on several occasions with a triple-double that would include 10 or more points, rebounds and blocks. His current total of 187 blocks is the sixth-highest single-season total in the franchise's history. The Sixers have kept opponents under 100 points in 42 of their 50 games, allowed 90 or fewer in 27 games and 80 or fewer in 11.

"The first time he went in the weight room, I patted him on the back and realized my hand was bigger than the small of his back," said the 6-8 Wright, who played for the Seattle SuperSonics in 1972-73 and spent parts of '73-74 and '75-76 with three ABA teams. "His rear end was the size of two baseballs. I began telling him about guys that I had played with and against. I told him that I had had an opportunity and didn't work hard enough. I told him to take advantage of the opportunity of a lifetime."

Before the 1998-99 post-lockout NBA season, Ratliff signed a massive seven-year contract that pays him more than $7.8 million this season and more than $39 million over the next four seasons. It includes a bonus of $1 million for becoming an All-Star and a similar bonus based on the number of games the Sixers win.

"I feel like a parent," Wright said, "extra proud that I had him play for me for a couple of years."



Demopolis, Ala., with a population of about 8,000, sits in Marengo County, in the west central part of the state, referred to as the "Black Belt Region" and the upper coastal plain area. Tuscaloosa is north, Mobile to the south, Montgomery is East. The county population is roughly 24,000, with an estimated 70,000 within a 30-mile radius. Theo Ratliff's hometown is located at the confluence of the Tombigbee and Black Warrior rivers, serving as the gateway for low-cost barge service to Tennessee, mid-America and world ports.

The town was established in 1817, settled by political exiles who had been banished from France by King Louis XVIII following the abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte. Beef cattle, dairying and the lumber industry eventually replaced the area's dependence on cotton as the primary sources of income. But the pride of Demopolis, other than the rising star of Ratliff, has been "Christmas On The River," a weeklong festival that has been in place since 1972, including the lighting of love trees, candlelight tours, fireworks and a championship barbecue cook-off. That celebration drew approximately 40,000 visitors last year.

This is the town in which Theo Ratliff grew up, with brothers Thaddius and Timothy, raised in a single-parent household by their mother, Camillia. Thaddius, 29, is a chemist; Timothy, 25, is a financial consultant. Camillia is the director for programs for senior citizens in 10 of the 67 counties in Alabama. Theo's father, Ralph Hunter, is not in the picture.

This is the town that is planning a "Theo Ratliff Day" this summer, getting clearance from Mayor Austin Caldwell.

"I didn't feel any different than anybody with two parents," Theo recalled. "My mother was basically my father, also. She had to tell us about manly things, she had to make sure we learned how to grow up and be successful. We grew up a very close-knit family. We were always together, always supported each other."

The town was small. Everyone knew everyone. That was good for Theo, because he knew if he did anything out of line, word would quickly get back to his mother.

"That's where I got the discipline I have," Theo said. "We knew we couldn't do whatever we wanted. You don't understand why at the time, but as you get older, as you look back, you realize why it was that way."

Theo had seen his mother battle back from a broken kneecap and a torn anterior cruciate ligament, suffered in a softball accident.

Coincidentally, the surgery was done by Dr. James Andrews, the nationally respected specialist frequently sought out by professional athletes, including Theo.

When it was time for Theo to leave Demopolis High, Camillia let him make his own choice. She liked the recruiting presentation Dees had made, but she would not direct her son. She remembers Dees, now out of coaching and living in Georgia, telling her what it would be like.

"I told Theo I don't decide schools or careers, but that whatever he decided I would live with," she said. "You prepare your children for life, that's what parents are for."

Dees saw Theo as a sleeper.

"He could do three things - run like the wind, jump and use great timing," Dees said. "He got a little better, a little better, a little better. We took chances on kids with potential. I had no idea he'd be an NBA All-Star."

Camillia wondered whether Laramie, Wyo., might provide culture shock for her son, but if he was prepared for it, so was she.

"It wasn't [culture shock]," Theo said. "Laramie was small, too, the same type town as Demopolis, except there were less black people. But as I became popular for basketball, it was the way it was at home.

"Joby Wright told me all the time, 'You don't know how good you can be.' He told me I had a special gift. He'd push me. The more I was around him, the more knowledge I got. And then I spent time around him and his family, with his kids, and the more I realized I needed to be around when I had kids."

With his wife, Kristina, Theo has two daughters: Yasmeen, 2, and Alexis Florence, approaching 10 months. He has another daughter, Stacia, 4, from a previous relationship.

"I said to Theo at the beginning of this season, 'I think this is your year to go to the All-Star Game,' " Camillia said. "God has a plan for Theo. I believe he's at the point he's supposed to be. Faith without work is dead."



The combination of faith, love and work that Camillia Ratliff imparted to her children was equally carried out by Luke Hallmark, Theo's only coach from the seventh grade on. When Theo moved to the high school, so did Hallmark, becoming the junior varsity coach. When Theo began his junior year, Hallmark became the varsity coach.

"I don't know what kind of influence I had, other than trying to instill good work habits, things the kids weren't always crazy about," said Hallmark, now superintendent of education in Marengo County. "I worked on rebounding and blocking out with Theo, I didn't work on shot-blocking.

That was innate. "When I first had him in seventh grade, he had a small upper torso, long legs and arms. He looked like a deer on ice, the way he would be sliding around. By the time he was a senior, he had a little nasty in him. I first saw it when he was a junior, when we were playing a team from Tuscaloosa that had a big man. There was a play when Theo caught the ball, took two or three steps and slammed on their guy. I had never seen anything like it. He was a completely different player after that.

"He blocked everything that came in the gym. But we didn't showcase him. We believed in a team effort.

"Sometimes we got the most out of him by getting mad at him. We'd tell him he wasn't blocking out, he'd block out a tree. If he was dragging at practice, we'd ask him who he thought he was fooling. He'd work like crazy. We'd tell him he couldn't make a pivot move, he'd go down the other end of the court and work on it. I wouldn't let him know I was watching."

Demopolis was 19-6 during Theo's junior season, climbing to 25-4 the following season. But there would be no state championship, losing to the eventual winner Tuskegee on the road.

"But that's all right," Hallmark said, laughing. "Charles Barkley [from Leeds, Ala.] didn't win the state in high school, either."



Theo Ratliff completed his college career with 1,142 points and 655 rebounds, hoping he would be included in the first round of the NBA draft. He hired Joel Bell as his agent, and let Bell do the research and groundwork.

"The day of the draft, no one really knew where Theo would be going," Bell said. "But I had a commitment from Detroit that would be the No. 18 pick. When I know something like that, normally I tell my client.

"Theo and his family were having a party at a hotel in Demopolis, and for the only time ever in my career I decided not to say anything. He wasn't expecting it, so it would be a good experience. I gave the hotel phone number to the Pistons and waited.

"One of their assistant coaches called him as soon as the pick was made, and then I called. I'll never forget - I couldn't get through. The phone lines in Demopolis were jammed. I think I talked to him at 1 in the morning. That was the first time I could get a line."

That's Demopolis.

This is Theo Ratliff, NBA All-Star.