CLINT CAPELA
IN HIS FOURTH SEASON, CLINT CAPELA EMERGES AS A KEY COG FOR ASCENDING ROCKETS
The Rockets’ big man is on the verge of becoming Houston’s latest young star.
It’s easy to feel kind of stupid when you’re speaking with Clint Capela. Although he’s only 23 years old, Capela speaks three languages fluently and could answer most basketball-related questions in a fourth — German — should it ever be necessary. Also, his English comes just slightly accented, never mind that when he arrived in Houston as a Rockets rookie four years ago he admits, “I was trying to get away from people” rather than risk getting trapped in a conversation he couldn’t understand.
He’s of Angolan-Congolese descent. He was reared by his mother in humble surroundings in a working-class Geneva neighborhood, then moved to Chalon-surSaône in France, which is about 185 miles southeast of Paris, at the age of 15 to, in effect, go to a basketball university. The five years he spent there gave him enough of a foundation to become an NBA first-round draft pick and, he proudly adds, a modest working knowledge of French wine. Fortuitously, Chalon is just a short drive from the great properties of Burgundy.
Capela didn’t know Houston from nothing, or even Texas for that matter, when he found out he was going to be a Rocket in June 2014. Now, he’s as comfortable with us as we are with him, saying he “feels the love from Houston’s fans.” Fact is, it would be hard to find a more ideally representative face of the diverse, robust, imperfect but ever trying to figure things out city in which he plies his professional trade.
H-Town, of course, is as down with immigrants and people of color as any place in melting-pot America. If they can shoot, hit and lead at a big-league level, then so much the better. Think about something here. Three of Houston’s brightest young sporting lights happen to be Capela, Carlos Correa and Deshaun Watson. In order, that’s an African-Swiss who’s shooting a higher percentage from the field than any NBA player, a Puerto Rican who became an All-Star shortstop before he had completed three full American League seasons and an AfricanAmerican quarterback who briefly led the NFL in passing touchdowns as a rookie before his knee gave out.
Born during a special time
They were born in a span of 484 days between May 18, 1994 (Capela) to Sept. 14, 1995 (Watson). Correa, who turns 24 on Sept. 22, is 51 weeks older than Watson and 17 weeks younger than Capela. You probably remember what was happening in Houston during that time frame.
The Rockets, led by another man of African descent, the Nigerian Hakeem Olajuwon, who has become a mentor and an inspiration to Capela for all the obvious reasons, were winning back-to-back NBA championships — the last by Houston’s teams until Correa helped the Astros blow through the Red Sox, the Yankees and the Dodgers and win the World Series last fall, a glorious, historic run that closely paralleled Watson’s throwing for 19 touchdowns over the first seven weeks of his Texans career.
Capela? The Rockets have won the first 19 games he shared space on the court with both James Harden and Chris Paul, the latest a workmanlike 104-97 thrashing of the Mavericks in Dallas on Wednesday in which Capela contributed his 11th double-double of the season, scoring 16 points and snaring 13 rebounds in 33 efficient minutes.
If this isn’t the planets aligning, there is no such thing.
Capela says he has never met his baseball and football alter-egos/brothers-in-arms, but he hopes to make that happen soon. He also has for a goal following Correa’s footsteps and becoming an All-Star in his own right, sooner rather than later. He’s not afraid to suggest — in any of his languages — that’s achievable and he also believes, apparently much to the irritation of Kevin Durant of the lordly Golden State Warriors, he’ll soon be positioned to help the Rockets become what the Astros are, champions of their sport.
Durant bristled at Capela’s unfiltered assessment that the Rockets are better than the Warriors when they play at their best. You’ve probably heard his response 100 times now.
“You hear from guys like Capela,” Durant groused. “Usually, he’s catching the ball and laying it up off a pass from (Chris Paul) or James Harden. His job is not as hard. When your job is that hard, you know you can’t just come out and say (expletive) like that. I don’t expect that (candor) from CP3 and James and (Trevor) Ariza and the rest (of the Rockets) because they know how hard it is to come out and do it every night. Capela? Catch and dunk every night, it’s pretty easy.”
Reminded of the Durant rant after the Rockets had ground out a 99-90 victory over the Heat on Monday, coach Mike D’Antoni smiled.
“That’s Clint’s job,” D’Antoni said. “He’d better do that. Clint is going to be fed pretty good with the two guys we’ve got.
There has been no better example of same than Harden’s needle-threading 45-foot lob that gave Capela
an easy jam in the fourth quarter Wednesday night. But, for all his smarts and athleticism, the latter showcased by a late monster man-vs.-boy block of an ill-advised Harrison Barnes shot Wednesday night, Capela’s role won’t allow him to influence games to Watson’s degree — football quarterbacks are a different species — and it’s unlikely he’ll ever duplicate Correa’s star power, which in these early stages already suggests Hall-of-Fame fiber.
Key cog in Rockets’ machine
It’s a crazy reach, too, at least in January 2018, to suggest that Capela might join Olajuwon on basketball’s Mount Olympus. But, barring injury setbacks, he’s going to become an evolving, increasingly significant cog in D’Antoni’s multi-faceted, welloiled machine.
Ask Harden about Capela and you’ll get an earful — of good.
“He works so hard,” Harden said, “and he listens. He competes at a high level. When you’ve got a guy like that, the sky’s the limit. He’s smart. He rarely makes the same mistake twice.”
D’Antoni concurs, saying: “He’s come a long way, made unbelievable strides. It’s cool to see the progress he making and it’s happening because of his work ethic. He’s adding moves to the basket off the dribble, posting up. He just needs to get older, stronger and tougher.”
Capela wasn’t old enough to remember Olajuwon in real time, but the NBA had become enough of an international melting pot in its own right by the time he got serious about hoops for him to understand that doors wouldn’t be closed to him if he found the right set of keys. Capela had an older brother who had become a basketball player and, as he grew taller, he became increasingly intrigued by the sport. He saw a future for himself.
“I started playing with him and I began watching NBA videos, learning about the game,” he said. “Everything came so fast.”
Rockets general manager Daryl Morey saw enough of Capela holding his own as a spindly teenager playing for Élan Chalon in the French pro league to make him the 25th pick in the 2014 draft. But eyebrows were raised locally when Capela played in only 12 games while averaging just 7.5 minutes as a rookie. As an
NBA sophomore, however, those numbers increased to 35 and 19.1 respectively, and last season he started 59 games while averaging right at 24 minutes. Now, the current season qualifies as a breakout year. He’s on pace (joined in lock-step by Miami’s Hassan Whiteside) to become one of just three players in NBA history to score at least 14 points and grab 10 rebounds while playing less than 27 minutes per game.
In Texas, that’s called making hay while the sun shines.
“Hakeem, when he sees me, talks a lot about consistency, about staying aggressive,” Capela said. “I know I have to get stronger, so I have to keep working hard. Some nights you’re not always feeling good, but you have to always fight. I like that (challenge). It’s exciting.”
By the way, he offered no apologies for the blunt assessment that got Durant’s dander up. He reemphasized, too, that he wasn’t speaking about the long-term big picture. In an interview following the Rockets’ uniquely scripted Miami victory, their first of the season in which they failed to score 100 points, he observed: “We were scrappy and hardnosed tonight. We came back and found a way. That’s what great teams do, and this is what we did tonight. I’m very confident about what we can do this year.
“It’s been great so far. We’ve proven we can’t be beat when we play together, be aggressive and play our best.”
Real talk. Correa’s Astros proved same for an entire season. Watson’s Texans aren’t quite there yet, but we see the possibilities, don’t we? Young doesn’t imply dumb. These guys are a holy trinity of upside potential. Very good years, 1994 and 1995.
“HE WORKS SO HARD. AND HE LISTENS. HE COMPETES AT A HIGH LEVEL. WHEN YOU’VE GOT A GUY LIKE THAT, THE SKY’S THE LIMIT. HE’S SMART. HE RARELY MAKES THE SAME MISTAKE TWICE.” JAMES HARDEN ON CLINT CAPELA