What he lacked in talent, the 6-foot-3 Cassell made up for in grit. His jump shot, not a beautiful thing, won many games down the stretch. In high school, he would have practiced all night, had coach Pete Pompey not turned out the lights.
"Even then, he would shoot in the gym in the dark," Pompey said. "Finally, we had to put a chain lock on the doors to keep Sam out."
Eat. Sleep. Dream.
"We had better shooters and leapers at Dunbar, but he had a never-back-down mentality, a bulldog attitude," Green said. "Those guys in the NBA who have gotten by on pure athleticism can learn some things from this guy."
Cassell retired last year with three championship rings, having averaged 15.7 points per game while playing for eight teams in his career. Not bad for a guy who an NBA general manager once said would "never be more than a minor league player."
He displayed a flexibility on the court that should prove useful in coaching, Len Elmore said.
"Sam was never so structured in discipline that he couldn't adapt," said Elmore, a former Maryland star who was once Cassell's agent. "He has a high IQ for the game. He can read defenders. He can read situations. He can read people."
Cassell, who has a home in Baltimore and a son who attends Towson Catholic, wants to be a head coach and has given himself five years to do it.
"Hopefully, sooner," he said. "But if it takes five years, then five years it will be."
That might sound fanciful, but don't bet against Cassell, acquaintances say.
"Coaching? I can't see Sam doing anything else," said Charlie Ward, the three-sport star and 1993 Heisman Trophy winner who played basketball beside Cassell at Florida State. "He's a good networker who knows how to sell himself. He can sweet-talk the refs. He's very loud and he says what he thinks, but he hasn't gotten in too much trouble for that.
"Mostly, he has a wealth of knowledge of what it takes to win, and maybe sharing that with the Wizards can make it happen."
A retirement ball honoring Sam Cassell will be held at 9 tonight at the Hippodrome Theatre. Tickets are $47.50 at the box office and Ticketmaster. Proceeds benefit the Sam Cassell Charitable Foundation, which helps inner-city youths.
Sam Cassell
Age: 39 Job: Assistant coach, Washington Wizards Hometown: Baltimore Education: Dunbar High, Florida State Family: A son, Sam Cassell Jr., attends Towson Catholic Career highlights: No. 1 draft pick of Houston in 1993. Played for seven other NBA teams over 15 years (Phoenix, Dallas, New Jersey, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Los Angeles Clippers and Boston). Scored nearly 16,000 career points.
