News came over the wires 2 days ago that Houston Rockets legend and NBA Hall - of - Famer Calvin Murphy has been charged with sexual molestation and assault of five of his daughters. The alleged molestations occured between a period AROUND May 1, 1988 through April 1, 1991. Man, oh man.
Notice that I said the word AROUND in the opening paragraph. To make a contrast, if memory serves correctly, from what I remember of the O.J. Simpson's "trial of the century" in 1995, there was an extreme dispute between prosecutors and defending attorneys over the time line of just a few dozen minutes regarding the events surrounding Nicole Brown Simpson's murder.
I should say right off the bat that I am not a big fan of Calvin Murphy the man. I WAS a big fan of Calvin Murphy the basketball player. I've lived in Houston since my family moved here in July 1969 (at the same time that the Apollo 11 mission went to the moon), and with the exception of my time in China / Asia and at the South Texas Nuclear Project, I've lived in Houston all of my life. As such, I've been following the Rockets on and off for a lot of years.
My first Houston Rockets basketball game that I saw was at Hoffeinz Pavillion at the UH in 1973, where the Rockets lost to the Milwaukee Bucks 114 - 107. The Bucks had a certain pair of players named Oscar Robertson and a young dynamic center named Kareem Abdul Jabbar. I probably have seen between 50 - 100 Houston Rockets games over the many years, particularly when I was a kid growing up. As such, I saw plenty of Calvin Murphy's dynamic hustling style of play as a kid. I can still vivdly see in my mind's eye when he would dunk the ball during game warmups, a feat which always brought a cheer out of the crowd. He was a very very good player, especially with his 90% free throw percentage. However, I would not consider him a "giant" of the game. As one of my co - workers at a former employers once pointed out when Murphy was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame, "he didn't lead them to an NBA championship." This ex - coworker of mine wasn't too great at his job, but you have to admit that such a statement is a strong benchmark with which to measure a basketball player.
Having established my Rockets credentials, there are several things that Murphy has done since the end of his playing days that have irritated me. Murphy has had a way of what I call "banging the drum" whenever he wants something. What I mean by that statement is that whenever he wants to "accomplish" a feat, he often goes public and essentially lays some media pressure on the interested parties to tilt a decision his own way.
Do you want examples of this? Murphy did this to some extent in the early 1990's when he was being considered for entry into the NBA Hall of Fame. I remember that he went around essentially making a minor media blitz trying to drum up his accomplishments as a player. He went on about his 80+ straight free throws without a miss and his 90% free throw shooting accuracy. He went on about his "small man in a big man's game" image. What can I say? It worked!
Two other examples - One was when Murphy went before Houston City Council to get support for a children's program. On another occasion, Murphy had a near miss public relations disaster because it was alleged that he was claiming to be working hours on the City of Houston payroll, when he was actually spending those hours as a broadcaster for the Rockets. Former Mayor Bob Lanier came under some moral pressure to look at the matter, but the matter was fobbed off as some kind of error and largely forgotten.
My own biggest gripe about Murphy though has to do with his broadcasting. When the Rockets are on television, I can't stand it when he would (he is currently on leave of absence because of his legal problem) rattle on and on about some trivial issue. If you really wanted to watch Houston Rockets games, you should turn on the TV set, but then mute the sound. Then you would turn on your radio and listen to legendary Houston Rockets broadcaster, Gene "Heart Attack" Peterson. Peterson, with his rapid gun vocal delivery, wild exclamations, and partisanship towards the Rockets, is something that every Houstonian must experience at least once in this life. Listening to Murphy call games is nothing but irritation once you've listened to Peterson.
As an aside, Peterson actually suffered a heart attack several years ago. I, along with thousands of fans nearly had our own heart attacks when this happened to Peterson and sent him gifts, cards, get well notes and so on.
But what about the here and now about Murphy? Well, I'm not very happy about anything where somebody can come out of the blue and press charges against somebody over something that happened 15 years ago. Murphy has hired famed Houston defense attorney Rusty Hardin to defend him. Hardin is saying that the issue is over money and inheritences from the death of Murphy's wife. Also, Murphy has 14 kids. The five daughters who are making the accusations are offspring through three different women.
Sorry Calvin I don't like you very much, but I do lend you my sympathy. In this part of the basketball court of public opinion, The Mighty Wizard is with you.