John Battle was 22 years old, and he was scared. He was in his first pro training camp, and he had an aching feeling deep in his gut that it would be his last.
”I`d get calls from him late at night, and he`d say, `Mama, they`re gonna cut me, I just know it,` ” said Marjorie Jackson, Battle`s mother. ”It went on like that night after night. Or else he`d call and not say anything. I`d say, `Are you going to speak or are you just gonna hold the phone?` That child was worrying me to death.”
Battle was the 1985 draft`s 84th pick, by the Atlanta Hawks. He was such an insignificant choice that today the NBA doesn`t bother to draft 84 players- it stops at two rounds and 54 selections.
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”John was having a horrible training camp,” said Bill Needle, who was then Atlanta`s public relations director. ”He was emotionally fragile. We trained in Charleston, S.C., and stayed at the Francis Marion Hotel. He`d sit around the lobby, and I`d see it in his face. He didn`t say a word to anyone. ”Then one day I walked into the lobby and I heard someone playing the piano from the balcony. It was John, and it was beautiful. The thing was that he never took lessons. He taught himself how to play.”
That is the essence of John Battle-he never took lessons; he taught himself.
Now Battle is a success story. Now he is a key substitute with the Cleveland Cavaliers, a 10-point scorer as a shooting guard, a seven-year NBA veteran and one of the team leaders. He can talk of growing up without a father, of the influence of his strong mother, of earning a criminal justice degree in four years. He can feel confident in his career, his life and his future.
Now, it all sounds too good to be true.
Well, it is good. And it is true. But it was never easy.
Battle was reared in Washington, the third youngest of 10 children-seven girls and three boys.
His father was estranged from the family. His mother ”was the backbone, because I had to be.” Marjorie Jackson cleaned the homes of the rich during the day and government buildings at night.
In her family, two things mattered: working hard and going to church.
”Every Sunday, I took all my children to the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church,” she said. ”Like all my kids, John went to Sunday School. When he got older, he sang in the choir and was an usher. Even now, when he`s in town, he goes to church with me. I know he goes on his own, too.”
”I got my first job when I was about 12,” Battle said. ”I`d get up at 4 in the morning and sell newspapers. I wanted to take care of myself, to help my mother put food on the table. Not long after that, I got a job at a grocery store and then working construction. I had jobs all through high school.”
There was time for play-for basketball.
”We have a nice four-bedroom home and a yard out back,” Jackson said.
”Behind our yard is a park, and when I couldn`t find `Tony` (her nickname for John), he was always there with his basketball. I`d tell him to be home at a certain time, and he`d get so caught up with his playing that he`d be late. ”More than once, I had to whip that boy. But I never had to worry about him getting into any real trouble.”
As Battle said, ”I had good friends, and I had bad ones. I knew the difference, and when things got thick, I`d shake hands with the guys who were the drug dealers and then we`d go our separate ways.”
But there were trouble spots.
By Battle`s junior year at McKinley High, school ended up third on the list-behind his job and basketball. If it weren`t for Lafayette Moseley, Battle might not have graduated from high school.
Moseley is one of the heroes you never hear about. He`s a lifelong high school teacher and coach, a man who knows there is more to life than the gym, a man willing to give of himself and expect nothing in return.
”I said I`d help John with school,” Moseley said. ”But he`d see me coming in his front door, and he`d head out the back to play ball. His mother didn`t like that one bit, and soon John came around.”
During Battle`s senior year, Moseley became the head coach and his star was a player named Bill Martin, who later would play at Georgetown and with the Indiana Pacers.
”We were scouted heavily because of Martin, but no one was interested in John,” said Moseley. ”Rutgers came around a lot. I knew their coaches, and I said, `Look, you`re not going to get Martin, but take a chance on John Battle.` I knew they were worried about his grades, but I explained that John had straightened out and he was working hard and getting good grades as a senior.”
”No one from my family had ever gone to college,” said Battle. ”I only did because of Lafayette Moseley. Rutgers had one scholarship left, and they gave it to me. Rutgers figured I`d just be a guy to practice and maybe help them off the bench.”
In his first two years, that scouting report was correct. Battle played little, but he studied a lot.
”It took a while, but I acquired this thirst for learning,” he said.
”I wasn`t thinking about the NBA. I was thinking about my BA (bachelor`s of arts degree). It got to the point where I`d be studying, and the phone would ring and I`d be upset because someone interrupted me.”
By his junior year, both came together.
He was on track to earn a degree in four years, and he did an internship at a prison in New Jersey, ”the same place they filmed `Lockup` with Sylvester Stallone. I figured I`d get a job in the corrections system.”
After four years, Battle had his degree, ”and he and I both hugged each other with tears in our eyes,” his mother said. ”I still can see him throwing his graduation cap in the air.”
But on the court, he was a 21-point scorer in his last two seasons. Then came the call from the Hawks. Like Rutgers, they viewed Battle primarily as a body, someone to practice hard and get the real players in shape.
”(Coach) Mike Fratello liked my defense. I signed for a pair of sneakers, a T-shirt and a tryout. I made the team only because some guys were hurt and others got traded. Even after I made the team, I didn`t know if I`d stick.”
He is not a conventional player. At 6 feet 2 inches, he is the smallest shooting guard in the league. Nor does he have great range, most of his shots coming in the 12- to 15-foot area. He sometimes has the grace of a man falling down a flight of stairs as he releases his jumper while leaning forward, ending up flat on his face as the ball goes through the net.
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”Sometimes, it is as if he doesn`t even see the basket,” Needle said.
”He just sees the color of the floor change under his feet. He knows he`s in the paint area, so he takes the shot.”
After six years with Atlanta, Battle became a free agent and signed a six-year, $7.35 million contract with Cavs-the first time he has made any real money by NBA standards.
”Cleveland was the team he wanted to sign with,” Moseley said. ”He liked their general manager (Wayne Embry), the coach (Lenny Wilkens) and the team. He wanted to go with a team that had a shot at a championship.”
The Cavs wanted Battle for his fire. ”He`s just a fierce competitor,”
Wilkens said.
Battle is a player who once came back in eight days after arthroscopic knee surgery. This fall, he made it back to the Cavs after three weeks-most players need at least 4-6 weeks after that procedure.
He dives for loose balls, and even crawled after one when he sprained his ankle during a Jan. 13 game against New York. He couldn`t stand up, but he still managed to whack the ball off an opponent`s leg and keep possession for the Cavs.
”If Larry Bird did that in Boston Garden, they`d build a statue right on the spot,” Needle said.
Battle also made an outrageous 70-foot pass between his legs-like a center snapping to a punter-that led to a Craig Ehlo layup. His spark off the bench is part of the reason why the Cavs were 35-17 entering Sunday`s game with Milwaukee.
There also was the well-publicized incident when Battle was sucker-punched by Indiana`s George McCloud in front of the Cavs` dressing room. Battle grabbed a 2-by-4 to defend himself before security guards broke it up. ”John`s toughness has meant a lot to this team,” said Embry. ”He`s a tremendous asset to us off the court.”
You can see it in little things. He often talks to rookie Terrell Brandon. There was a game when a discouraged Brandon did not get off the bench to go into the huddle during a timeout. Battle quietly made eye contact with Brandon, nodded and then Brandon got up and joined the rest of the team.
Battle has made several appearances in the NBA`s Stay in School Program. His message carries credibility because he really did stay in school and graduate.
He also brings humor to the team. He loves to walk up to Cavs broadcaster Joe Tait and say, ”Joe Tait-that`s the ticket,” which is a play on Tait`s Cavs commercials.
Last year, Battle married rhythm and blues star Regina Belle, an old friend from Rutgers.
”Regina adopted a daughter as a single mother,” said Steve Kauffman, Battle`s agent. ”Now she is 2 1/2 years old. Her birth mother had another child-a boy. Under New Jersey law, they have the right to adopt him. John and Regina are in the process of doing that now.
”John told Regina that it wouldn`t be right for that boy not to be with his sister.”
Just as family meant so much to a young John Battle, it is important today.
”John loves children and I know he wants a big family,” his mother said. ”He has his youngest brother living with him. He has two Rottweiler dogs. Regina, she is a such a down-to-earth girl. I was so happy when they finally got married because she always has been like one of our family. I look at my son now and I can`t help but be so proud of him, not because he`s a basketball player but because he`s such a good man.”