READ: Clint Mathis chat today at 9AM MT

[bordelais7]

I actually asked about the mohawk. Asked him if it would make a comeback. He said "it's always a possibility."

I know some people with Insider. I'll see if I can get the hookup.

[realPDX]

Originally Posted by AreliusII

Anyone planning on sporting a Mohawk for Apr. 16? What would it take for all the guys to get one? That would be sweet!

already got my mohawk going. shaved it the night before last. i thought it would be too short this time around, but it looks good. its only about a inch high. this is the 3rd mohawk i have done. the previous one i dyed red. this one should hopefully last the month. mohawk upkeep is crazy, you go through so much gel (i actually use this glue stuff).

[Scilaci]

Here's an article about Checkett and Mathis from the New York Times:

Mathis Brings Sparks to Checketts's New Team
By GEORGE VECSEY

Published: April 1, 2005


T took Dave Checketts about two seconds to answer the question.

Checketts used to run the Knicks but now he runs Real Salt Lake, the expansion team that opens its Major League Soccer season against the MetroStars at Giants Stadium tomorrow night.

The question was: Did anybody back in the Knicks' glory days of the 1990's remind Checketts of his new acquisition, the well-traveled Clint Mathis?

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"Clint has a little John Starks in him," Checketts said quickly, and over the phone you could hear the fondness for Starks. "He's streaky and he's feisty. One time John broke his nose and he went to the locker room and he came out with a huge mask and he stuck five out of five 3-pointers.

"John went 0 for 11 in the final game against Houston," Checketts said, recalling the 1994 finals, "but we wouldn't have been there without him."

"Of course," Checketts added, "just like John, Clint is subject to days when he might be a little out in left field."

Starks pounded his chest and played with his emotions on the edge. Mathis has his rash moments, but he is usually good for one or two shots a game, just like the 30-yard rocket he unleashed for the United States national team against Honduras a couple of weeks ago that hit the crossbar and bounced back for an easy tap-in by Eddie Johnson.

However, when the United States played Mexico and Guatemala in qualifying matches for the World Cup in the past week, Mathis was training with Real Salt Lake. The word was that United States Coach Bruce Arena felt Mathis's conditioning was not good enough.

Almost inevitably, there was a moment in the Mexico game when the Yanks might have used Cannonball Clint. When the United States battled back for a 2-1 deficit early in the second half, even in the heat and bad air of Mexico, there was a case for 20 minutes of Mathis, for that one shot that could have made the difference. Trailing, 2-1, in the 70th minute. That's Mathis time.

"Bruce wanted to play other guys," Mathis said the other day by phone from Salt Lake City. He had just arrived from training camp, and he was being mature about not being with the national team.

"I was fine with it," Mathis added. "Actually, it was a blessing for me because I got to train with the guys on my team. I'll be back, I'm sure."

Just like John Starks, Clint Mathis is not always mature. It is part of his charm. He is back in the M.L.S. because he could not hide his opinion of Ewald Lienen, his coach at Hannover 96 in the German Bundesliga.

Inserted into the closing minutes of a game last fall, Mathis promptly produced a goal, and it all bubbled up in him, that heightened sense of unfairness that sometimes drives him, and he tapped an imaginary watch on his wrist, as if to say, too late. Then he made a vulgar gesture at the coach and he was soon gone from Hannover.

However, it worked out because Mathis contacted John Ellinger, the coach at Real Salt Lake, who had a rapport with Mathis on American junior squads.

"John is a very good people person," Mathis said. "He's honest. He lets you know where you stand. You don't open a curtain and find out he's different behind the curtain. He's pretty much the only reason I'm back in the M.L.S., to be honest with you. I got in touch with him, and it worked out."

Mathis, only 28, previously played with Los Angeles and the MetroStars, and does not expect fans in New York to make anything of his return tomorrow. The only reunion in his mind is with Ellinger.

Just like Mathis, Starks could infuriate his coaches, but they all saw the battler in him. There were times when Checketts had to deal with Starks's latest little crisis, but a decade later he remembers the finals in the Garden, the big Eastern Conference series against Jordan and Miller and Mourning, the good days.

Checketts lives near New York, but he now runs a soccer team back home in Utah. He remembers two of his brothers coming back from their Mormon missionary years, unpacking jerseys from the European soccer powerhouses as gifts. Many Utahns speak foreign languages because of their church service and they also play soccer.

Now they have a team, with a lot of talent, including Clint Mathis. If Checketts is still comparing him to Starks in six months, that will be even higher praise.


E-mail: geovec [at] nytimes.com



Sorry it's so long but the NYTimes web site makes you register and within a few days you have to pay for it.