This season's Cleveland Cavaliers rookie Evan Mobley has performed well, he will have a high probability of winning the honor of best rookie, looking at his name I am very kind, and the same name immediately came to mind, Yao Ming's earliest partner, nicknamed "Old Cat" Cardino Mobley.
The nickname of "Old Cat" must be given to him by Chinese fans, his English nickname is Cat, the origin of this nickname is because his name "Cuttino" is abbreviated as "cut", the Same Sound as cat in English cat, over time everyone calls him Cat, when Yao Ming just joined the Houston Rockets, it may be because he is the oldest in the team, CCTV commentary directly called him Old Cat, so this title began to spread among Chinese fans, In 2015, the Chinese media reported a news of Mobley's participation in the Drew Summer League, the news picture of forty-year-old Mobley's hair and beard became gray, far looking like a 60-year-old man, which made the former Rockets fans can't help but sigh, of course, don't worry, he just looks a little anxious, in fact, his physical condition remains very good, and he is still the main player of the US Basketball BIG3 Commercial League.
Mobley was born in a slum neighborhood in the Olney District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and many black basketball players grew up in the same way, that neighborhood is full of drug trafficking, gunfights and other ugly phenomena, Mobley was chased several streets by a big kid with a gun when he was 12 years old, the latter chased him and put the pistol barrel into his mouth, looking at his fearful look Haha laughed, children who grew up in this environment will fall into the abyss if they are not careful, fortunately, Mobley is very disciplined, he has a low-key and humble personality, Mobley's basketball talent was valued at the beginning of high school, and he became the starting guard of Cardinal Doherty High School, and in 2002 Doherty High School also deliberately retired Mobley's no. 12 jersey.
In 1993, he was admitted to the University of Rhode Island, but due to unqualified cultural class results, he studied for one year, and was officially admitted in 1994, and then he joined the school basketball team for 4 years, and in 1998 was the peak of his college career, he led the unknown University of Rhode Island Rams to the NCAA quarterfinals, announced his participation in the draft after graduating from college, and was selected in the 41st overall pick in the second round of that year.
In the summer of 1998, the Rockets formed the then famous Big Three, the center had the legendary superstar Olajuwon, the big forward had Charles Buckley, who joined himself in order to realize the dream of the championship, the small forward position was the Bull superstar Pippen recruited by the huge salary, the guard position they selected Michael Dixon with the first round of signing, the second round of the draft selected Mobley, that season the league was suspended due to labor disputes, and finally played only 50 games. The Big Three team achieved a 31-19 record in the regular season stage ranked fourth in the West, Mowbury was also selected for the best rookie team second team, but in the playoffs, they were easily eliminated by the fifth-ranked Los Angeles Lakers, the elderly Olajuwon was exhausted in the face of young O'Neal, and pippen who lost Jordan was also magical, with Olajuwon's state plummeting, Barkley's injury impact, the Big Three team lasted only one season before announcing the dissolution, the Rockets were forced to enter the rebuild.
The following year, the Houston Rockets made a big deal involving 3 teams, 11 players and 2 future first-round draft picks, and finally exchanged for the talented guard Steve Francis who was selected by the Vancouver Grizzlies with the second overall pick, he joined the Rockets in the first season to sit in the main position, the Rockets officially entered the Francis era, Mobley and he joined the team one after the other, coupled with similar growth experiences made the two hate each other late, and it didn't take long to immediately become the old iron brothers who didn't say anything. In 2000, Francis participated in the NBA dunk contest, he specially arranged for Mobley to be a partner to pass the ball for himself, and the two sat intimately on the floor after completing the dunk to be interviewed together, and the relationship was the same as brotherhood.
After the expiration of Mobley's rookie contract, the Rockets quickly renewed his contract, his performance on the court is getting better and better, slowly becoming the second scorer of the Houston Rockets, Yao Ming joined the Rockets in 2002, the combination of backcourt twin stars and Yao Ming makes people full of expectations, for Yao Ming, the little brother who just joined the league, Francis and Mobley are very caring, Francis helps Yao Ming quickly integrate into American life on the sidelines, and Mobley's help to Yao Ming is more on the field. Like a mentor, he often explained tactics to Yao Ming and the issues he needed to pay attention to on the court, and he once warned Yao Ming in the locker room: "Do you want to stay in this league?" If you don't want to go back to your home country, you have to play hard. ”
In the summer of 2004, the Houston Rockets and Orlando Magic completed an amazing star player swap deal, the Rockets got Maddy, Juwan Howard, Tyrone Lou, Reis-Gainis, and the Magic got Francis, Mobley and Kevin Cato, which was nothing for Maubley, because he and his good brother Francis still played on the same team, but it didn't take long for the Magic to break up the two, and Moffrey was traded to King Salamento, who was full of reluctance for Francis. But that's what the league is, everything is business, and he continued to play well that season, ranking third in the league in three-point shooting.
In the summer of 2005, Mobley became a free agent, he was the second only point guard in the free agent market that year, the los Angeles Clippers owner Sterling, who had always been stingy, offered Mobley a 5-year, $42 million contract for Mobley, and before that they had never spent so much money on a free agent, and the investment paid immediately, that season Mobley was paired with All-Star Player Brand and veteran Cassel, directly evolving the Los Angeles Clippers, who had previously been a weak team in the West, into a Western powerhouse. In the first round of the playoffs, he eliminated Anthony's Denver Nuggets 4-1, and in the semifinals, he played seven games against the Suns led by Nash.
After this brief peak, the Los Angeles Clippers missed the season again the following year with a gap of 2 wins, and then the team immediately returned to mediocrity, mainly because the team's main players were injured continuously, the second was that the Wild West was strong at the time, and the third was that the team owner Sterling was notoriously miserly, he was completely for the purpose of making money, the team's record did not care at all, in the fourth year of the Clippers, the New York Knicks, who were eager to clear the salary space, took a fancy to his expiring contract. They traded Mobley and Tim Thomas with Zach Randolph and Maddie Collins, but during the trade checkup, the doctor found that Mobley's heart had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy problems, and after the review, it was diagnosed again, and the Celtics player Reggie Lewis died of this disease, the Knicks themselves could refuse the trade, but in order to pursue the big fish James in the next free market, they still completed the transaction at all costs. In December 2008, Mobley joined the New York team and officially announced his retirement for his own health.
Despite leaving the competitive NBA due to illness, Mobley did not stay away from basketball, as stated at the beginning, he would attend various training camps in the offseason, and later joined the more performative BIG3 League, a 3-on-3 exhibition game made up of many retired NBA stars, and now he has become the iconic figure of the BIG3 League.
Old cat Mobley's career is still relatively successful, as a scoring guard can suddenly shoot, personal ability is very comprehensive, put in the present is also a very good 3D attribute player, career positioning has been between role players and star players, the ideal position should be to be the best sixth person of a team, famous in the Houston Rockets, in the Los Angeles Clippers got a good contract, because of Yao Ming's reasons, he has gained a lot of popularity among Chinese fans, Referring to the state that he can still play on the basketball court now, if 2009 is not because of heart problems, he could have played a few more seasons in the NBA League, and when the Mo Silly incident broke out the previous year, he bravely spoke out for China, which made the fans who loved him warmly, during the 2019 Men's Basketball World Cup, he also personally came to Wuhan, China, and the former Rockets fans immediately came up with his swift and athletic figure on the court, and the time of more than ten years was fleeting. He is like an old friend who has not been seen for many years, and when they get together again, they can't help but sigh a lot, and the gray hair is the mark left by the passing years, but what remains unchanged is the deep friendship that once was.