Guest Post: Chuck Hayes Once In A Short Lifetime
Michael Pina is a contributing author for the Hoop Doctors and Hoops Addict. He checks in today with a look at the Rockets’ diminutive center.
Professional basketball is a grind like no other. The rigorous winter travels away from your home and family; the two to three hour daily practices that make your legs feel like jello and your lungs like somebody planted a turbo vacuum cleaner in your chest. But nobody faces the night in night out task like Chuck Hayes.
He’s like an impoverished and belt-less Batman going up against a Bizarro Justice League member 48 minutes at a time. As a 6’ 6” center (Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey insists he’s at least an inch shorter) he’s like a young boy off playing pickup with his older brother’s high school aged friends. At just 240 pounds, he’s a half back impeding a nose tackle. Hayes is the most unforeseen, undersized starter in the NBA today, arguably of all time.
The physical limitations are duly noted but what keeps him around is his amoeba like fluidity on the defensive end. Hayes is quick, he can stifle guards out on the wing. Hayes is strong, with a low center of gravity he’s able to out muscle the league’s most enormous from getting to their favorite places on the court. This isn’t to say he’s perfect but he manages to hold his own.
Hayes, a starting center mind you, is shorter than everybody on his team except for Aaron Brooks and Kyle Lowry, two point guards.
He’s the shortest center to start the first 29 games in the history of the league, for a team that’s currently five games over .500 and headed to the playoffs.
Offensively Hayes is understandably in over his head. Finishing around the basket for him is like a small child on his tip toes, right arm stretching, trying to grab a treat from the cookie jar. (All the while his mother within ear shot.) Hayes has to be sneaky around the rim. Quick, sly and tricky. There’s no overpowering seven footers and getting by them isn’t easy with the amount of room he’s given to work with.
Hayes contributes a measly 5.3 points per contest which obviously isn’t anything to brag about. On basketball-reference.com, his short list of awards, honors and appearances on leader boards is highlighted with a fifth place finish in accumulated personal fouls his rookie year. Instead of trying to push a square peg in a round hole and relegating himself as a tweener likely to see a short career, the former Wildcat decided to carve out his own niche. In an organization that does there thing in a revolutionary yet slightly unorthodox fashion, Hayes found a comfortable home as the personification of what Morey is trying to create in Houston.
While his points and rebounds per game don’t necessarily add up with the rest of his competition, Hayes currently finds himself near the top of the league in offensive rebounding percentage, a stat increasingly viewed by decision makers around the league. Add an ability to guard all five men opposing him and his aforementioned defensive prowess also can’t be accurately quantified. With his extremely quick hands, quick feet, ability to slow down men three, four, five inches taller and an uncanny determination to remain on the floor, Hayes is the definition of intangible importance.
He’s flat out fun to watch, holding his own as the biggest (or smallest) underdog in his sport each night, his worth to the Rockets might not be that of Brooks, Trevor Ariza or Carl Landry, but his persistence is downright inspirational. Breakneck point guards, corner ball three men, seven-foot shot blockers, they are all cyclical regulars in professional basketball.
A man who finds himself in a hole before the ball is even tossed up at mid court each night. A player who hadn’t suited up at the center position since he was in junior high yet has locked down the spot for the first third of portion of the season, this guy, Chuck Hayes, he’s a special, once in a generation type dude.
There’s a different awe that should be bestowed on him, a different one than that which Kobe Bryant receives after hitting a “should’ve been reneged” game winner over Charlie Bell last month.
Forget about the numbers with Hayes, the fact that his well respected head coach decides to have him begin the battle each night is an under appreciated fact in itself. Watch this guy play and study his effort, his grit and his flat out determination. There might not be another one like him for a long time coming.
Oster-Tags: Chuck Hayes, Houston Rockets
