0102190246
DETROIT FREE PRESS
010219
Monday, February 19, 2001
METRO FINAL
1A
Photo;Photo JEREMY LYVERSE/Associated Press
Piston Mateen Cleaves learned Sunday that his brother was killed.
The brother of Detroit Pistons guard Mateen Cleaves was killed in this house
in Flint in what police called a drive-by shooting. Herbert Cleaves was 27.
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 2001, Detroit Free Press
MATEEN'S BIGGEST LOSS YET
Aphone call away. No matter how far you go, no matter how desperate a leap
you make from the ugly city asphalt to the privileged, money-scented, luxury
hotel rooms of the NBA. One phone call brings you back. One ring on the
cordless. One beeeepity-beep of the cell.
Hello? Your old world calling.
It's your brother. It's your mother. It's your mother calling about your
brother. In Mateen Cleaves' case, the news was bad: his older brother,
Herbert, 27, was dead. Shot in a drive-by. He and a friend had been on the
friend's porch early Sunday morning, around 2 a.m., in Cleaves' hometown of
Flint, when two cars reportedly drove past. Several gunmen popped out, opened
fire. Herbert Cleaves, who they used to call "Sluggo," was shot in the
abdomen.
He was taken to the hospital. He died.
A phone call was made.
And Mateen Cleaves was spinning back, racing north on I-75, no longer
concerned about the Pistons' playoffs chances, or what time the private plane
left for the next city. His mother phoned the practice facility to say her son
would not be able to make the morning session: There'd been a death in family.
Mateen was back in Flint. For all the worst reasons.
"I don't care how big a star you are," Pistons president Joe Dumars said
Sunday night, "no one in this world is immune to dealing with real life.
"And in the NBA, because we have a lot of guys who come from tough situations,
this happens more than people realize.
"Players have to deal with things every day. They might be coming home from a
game, or getting onto a plane, and they get a phone call. 'Your brother's been
locked up.' Or your brother needs money."
Or your brother is dead.
Old world calling.
Always brothers
Now, Herbert Cleaves was not unknown to the Pistons, Michigan State, or anyone
else familiar with Mateen's story. According to those who knew him, Herbert
was upbeat, smiling, a big basketball fan. He was also, shall we say, in
deference to the deceased, a man with baggage. Drugs, in particular.
While Mateen, with his magical smile, became a local hero with the national
championship Michigan State team, his older brother was not so fortunate. Both
young men came from the same rough streets. But Herbert apparently made a lot
of left turns where Mateen turned right.
Never mind. He was still Mateen's brother. That doesn't change.
"Mateen loved him," Tom Izzo, his coach at MSU said Sunday. Izzo remembered
first meeting "Sluggo" when he recruited Mateen out of Flint. Sluggo was a big
Spartans fan. He would reassure Izzo after visits, saying "Don't worry coach,
we'll get him there."
Sunday morning, at 7 a.m., the phone rang at Izzo's house. It was Mateen, half
in shock, needing to tell someone that Sluggo, his booster, was gone. He
struggled with the usual phrases, "Why did this have to happen?" and "I can't
believe it". Mateen's mother spoke with Izzo and his wife, Lupe, as well.
Still, for all the grief, the conversation had a tone of resignation to it.
The thrust was "We tried."
"It's so sad," Izzo said. "Because as tough a city Flint can be, Mateen loves
it and he took some pride when we won last year in showing the country that he
was from Flint.
"And now this."
A few weeks ago, Herbert (Sluggo) Cleaves was down at the Palace, asking
Pistons personnel, "How's my baby brother doing?"
And now he's gone. There is no doubt a part of Mateen that wonders, "If I had
done this ...if I had done that ..."
What can you do?
Support system
This morning, upon reading this story, many feel a wave of sympathy. Even
though they never knew Herbert Cleaves, they felt as if they knew Mateen. His
high school heroics in Flint, his gritty lead in driving the Spartans to the
NCAA title, his first-round draft pick status with the Pistons, and his
surprisingly effective rookie season have all been sources of pride for people
of Michigan. We like when one of our own succeeds.
But if there is any comfort in this for Mateen Cleaves, it may come when he
returns to the Pistons. He will be surrounded by players who know best what
he's going through. Few fans can relate to the ying/yang pull between an NBA
millionaire's current life and the shadow in his rear view mirror.
Dumars knows. It was during the NBA Finals once that the phone call came for
him. His father had died, complications from diabetes. Come home now.
One minute, he was throwing up a huge basket. The next, he was stepping into
his childhood living room, and people's eyes were teary and heads were shaking
in grief.
"Once I stepped into the house, my basketball life seemed like a dream that
had never happened," Dumars said.
So it probably is this morning for Cleaves. But he should be assured that just
as his old world won't let go of him, his new world won't go away. It will be
there waiting, as will his many fans. He will return, older, sadder, certainly
wiser.
This is what he will know: No matter how far you step forward, you can never
step away. Old world calling. And you have to answer.
Contact MITCH ALBOM at 313-223-4581 or albom@freepress.com. Catch "Albom in
the Afternoon" 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WJR-AM (760) and simulcast on MSNBC 3-5
p.m.
THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED ARTICLE.
HOMICIDE;HERBERT CLEAVES;MATEEN CLEAVES;SHOOTING