Deep Bench Chronicles

An undersized-ego, oversized-impact backup center who built a 12-year NBA career on screens, toughness, and trust.

Paul Mokeski chose number 44 in tribute to his childhood idol, Jerry West. Let’s be honest: nothing in his game or his appearance brought him any closer to Mr. Clutch.

Lacking a doctorate in the fadeaway, Paul Mokeski instead became a PhD in screen setting.

In any case, Big Mo was a solid basketball player, good enough to play in the NBA throughout the entire 1980s, appearing in over 700 games across twelve seasons, including nine playoff campaigns.

California Roots and Early Formation

Born in 1957, Paul Mokeski came from the lower middle class in California (a Polish immigrant accountant father, a cleaning-lady mother). The tallest in his school years (as an adult he would reach 7-feet), skinny, shy and a little awkward, Paul was a self-conscious teenager, with unruly hair, often mocked, who preferred to isolate himself from his classmates. His only comfort: the basketball court, his one passion, he the fan of the Lakers of Chamberlain, West and Elgin Baylor.

There was no AAU basketball in those days, so he played for his high school, Crespi Carmelite. His high school years were far from insignificant. For his final year, Paul crossed paths at the Southern California regional Final Four with David Greenwood, Roy Hamilton, Bill Cartwright, James Hardy, Bill Laimbeer, Brad Holland and Reggie Theus: an improbable concentration of future NBA players even before the college years.

To put this in perspective: fewer than 3% of high school basketball players will play for an NCAA team in college. Then 1% of those will experience the NBA draft. Overall, the probability for a high school basketball player to end up professional is estimated at 0.03%.

In 1975, courted by many colleges, and notably UCLA, he decided to leave the California sun and join the prestigious University of Kansas, which had seen several great names in its ranks such as Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain, Clyde Lovellette or Jo Jo White.

The Midwest awaited Paul Mokeski. He was at the time the first seven-footer since Wilt to wear the Jayhawks jersey. Under Ted Owens, emblematic Kansas coach, Paul produced four good years, marked however by two significant injuries (hamstring the first year, ankle the second), but which would open the doors of the NBA to him, or at least the back door, the garage entrance, without lights.

In 1979 (the draft of Magic, Laimbeer, Donaldson, Moncrief, Eaton, Cartwright, Calvin Natt and Jim Paxson, all of whom would become All-Stars at least once), he was selected late in the second round by the Houston Rockets.

His senior year averages of 14 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks, all with a good shot and reliability at the free-throw line rare for a player of that size at the time, finally convinced scouts. The objective was now simple: make the summer camp roster to join the team.

1979–1982: Quiet but Noticed NBA Beginnings

Summer 1979, Paul Mokeski arrived in Houston on a veteran team, under the orders of the already greying Del Harris and reigning MVP Moses Malone, one year his senior. The average age was high: Rudy Tomjanovich, Billy Paultz, Rick Barry and Calvin Murphy were all at least in their thirties. Alongside these star players, Paul Mokeski, yet a good shooter and solid interior from one of the very best universities in the country, quickly realized he would have to offer something else on the court to earn minutes.

Obviously, everything Paul knew how to do, others would do much better than him. All the more so with Moses Malone as the starting center. If they shared the same nickname and the same position on the court, the comparison ended there. Adapt to endure. Paul Mokeski had only one wish when he was drafted: not to get cut right after training camp.

Calvin Murphy nicknamed him “Truck” because his game would be that of a blue-collar worker, durable and industrious. His successful camp earned him a roster spot, which given his distant draft position had not been guaranteed. For his rookie year he would play only a few minutes, spread over twelve games, and would not be selected to play in the disappointing Rockets playoffs, swept 4-0 in the second round by the Celtics (Houston was in the Eastern Conference in 1979).

This rookie year would nevertheless be beneficial for Paul, who benefited from the daily mentorship of Moses: the two men appreciated each other, and Paul Mokeski was impressed by Malone’s workload and constant seriousness, something praised by many of Moses’s teammates, beginning with Charles Barkley during the Sixers years. Mokeski became the daily sparring partner of Moses Malone, and considered his rookie year spent having to defend the three-time MVP at every practice as the most enriching individual experience of his twelve NBA seasons.

Two days before the start of the 1980–81 season, Paul Mokeski, preparing to play his second season in Houston after a summer camp spent battling (essentially against Steve Hawes for the backup center spot), was traded to the Pistons for a second-round pick, and Hawes was also cut then signed by Atlanta. Such was the law of the league. Paul left a future NBA finalist Houston team for one of the worst teams in the league, Detroit, which had won only sixteen games the previous season.

Here, no reigning MVPs, but rather Kent Benson, Terry Tyler, John Long, and Phil Hubbard. A weak roster, but a blessing in disguise for Paul, who would become the sixth man of this team that would slightly improve its record for the 1980–81 season, with 21 wins under Scotty Robertson. This sophomore season was the one with his highest number of games played (80, the only two missed were to be with his father, undergoing cancer surgery) with entirely respectable backup center numbers (7 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block).

Paul Mokeski gained confidence, and now saw himself taken seriously in the league. At the end of the year, Detroit held the first pick in the 1981 draft and selected Isiah Thomas, as well as Kelly Tripucka at twelfth. Combined with the acquisition of Vinnie Johnson, the Pistons launched their revolution. Paul lost minutes at the start of his third NBA season. In February 1982, mid-season and with fifteen minutes left before the trade deadline, Big Mo was traded for Bill Laimbeer: Cleveland awaited Paul, who had just bought a house in Detroit with his wife, reassured only hours earlier by general manager Jack McCloskey.

Arriving on a Cleveland team deep at the bottom of the standings and which would have four different coaches in the 1981–82 season, Paul regained playing time. Retained by the Cavaliers in the summer of 1982, he would even begin the 1982–83 campaign as a starter for about twenty games, only to be cut in one of owner Ted Stepien’s many follies (considered one of the worst managers in American sports history). Total disbelief for Big Mo, who suddenly found himself without a contract in mid-December.

But proof that his profile was sought after, six teams contacted his agent to sign him. He was even endorsed by Red Auerbach, who would have liked to recruit him to strengthen his bench, calling him a perfect Celtic in spirit. The signing fell through, but on December 24, 1982, he finally signed with the Bucks, four days after being cut by the Cavaliers, for what would become an adventure of more than six years on one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference.

1983–1989: The Bucks Years

Milwaukee was a solid team, led by Don Nelson, in place since 1976 and holding the dual role of coach and general manager. Bob Lanier, 34, in his penultimate season, arrived a few weeks later to replace the retired Dave Cowens as starting center, backed up by Alton Lister. The All-Star duo of Marques Johnson and Sidney Moncrief led the team, while rookie Paul Pressey already asserted himself as one of the best defenders in the league.

Beat Boston, lose to Philly. Beat the Sixers, lose to the Celtics: such was the Bucks’ cross to bear during these eighties.

The regular season ended with 51 wins, followed by an explosive 4-0 over the Celtics of Bird and company. The conference finals against the Sixers, future champions, were lost in five games, but gave great hopes to the Bucks, who progressed year after year. In this context, Paul Mokeski was certainly less used in the playoffs, but remained in coach Nellie’s plans. The atmosphere was good in Milwaukee. Nelson was a coach close to his group, smoked in the locker room, which he even shared with certain veterans like Bob Lanier, invited his players regularly to restaurants, while being the frank type, little inclined to the mannerisms of more political and polished coaches. The exact opposite of Del Harris.

In 1983–84, Milwaukee again reached the Eastern Conference Finals, lost to the Celtics, avenging the previous year, and future champions. Paul Mokeski, a rotation player in 68 regular-season games, asserted himself in the playoffs, playing the entire campaign while doubling his minutes, becoming Lanier’s designated backup. From good role player on a rebuilding team (his sophomore Pistons season), Paul became a solid role player on a title contender.

He confirmed this during the 1984–85 season, playing 20 minutes on average across 79 games of an impeccable Bucks regular season (59 wins), third-best record behind Boston and the Lakers. The trade with the Clippers sending Marques Johnson for Terry Cummings was already considered a success. But after easily eliminating the Bulls of rookie Michael Jordan in the first round of the playoffs, Milwaukee fell heavily to the Sixers of Moses and Barkley, swept in the conference semifinals.

Life was hard for these Don Nelson-era 1980s Bucks, who never entered the collective imagination as a major team of the decade, and yet were not so far from reaching the NBA Finals.

It was during this season that he finished eighth in defensive rating among all players in the league (an advanced statistic allowing individual impact on opponent offensive efficiency to be judged, the mathematical formula is by statistician Dean Oliver). Milwaukee was simply the best defense in the NBA that year, and two of his teammates were also in the top 10 (Lister and Cummings), the Nellie Ball took shape and coach Nelson was named Coach of the Year, for the second time in three years. Paul Mokeski acquired the nickname Speed Bump (traffic calming device), coined by Bucks broadcaster Eddie Doucette.

The 1985–86 season was of the same kind: third-best record in the league, an easy first round with a 3-0 elimination of the Nets, then a seven-game semifinal victory over the Sixers, before ultimately losing to the … Celtics 4-0 in the conference finals, who would finish champions for one of the greatest teams in league history. Paul Mokeski was injured during the season, missing nearly half, but played the entirety of the playoffs in his usual role. It was during these 1986 playoffs, and in the winning series against Philadelphia, that he became the only player ever to foul out of an NBA playoff game with six fouls within a single quarter (the fourth).

Same again in 1986–87: validated regular season, then elimination of the Sixers in the first round, to lose the next round against the … Celtics, 4-3.

After twelve seasons on the bench, Don Nelson left for the Warriors, and it was Del Harris, Paul Mokeski’s very first coach, assistant for one year in Milwaukee, who took over as head coach for the 1987–88 season. The transition was not without difficulty, and Harris’s early tenure was mediocre, despite playoff qualifications achieved. Big Mo remained in his plans, at least for two years.

1989–1991: The End of Paul Mokeski’s Career

Eager to renew an aging roster, Del Harris, like Nellie before him holding the dual coach/general manager role, decided to rejuvenate his squad and did not re-sign 33-year-old Paul Mokeski, who landed in Cleveland in September 1989. The franchise had radically changed since his early-1980s stint, and now the Lenny Wilkens Cavaliers, with Mark Price, Brad Daugherty, Larry Nance, Craig Ehlo or Hot Rod Williams, looked formidable in the East.

But this season would be marked by the beginning of physical problems for center Brad Daugherty, one of the most promising big men in the league, coming off two All-Star seasons: he missed half the year. Combined with the unexpected trade of Ron Harper to the Clippers after seven games, in exchange for a disappointing Reggie Williams, Cleveland would not confirm its excellent previous season, and Mokeski, injured much of the year, played only 38 games.

For his last stint in the elite, Paul Mokeski joined mid-season, at 34, his former Bucks coach Don Nelson and his promising Golden State Warriors, led by the fleeting but incandescent Run TMC trio (Richmond / Hardaway / Mullin), also composed of Rod Higgins, Tyrone Hill, Šarūnas Marčiulionis or Mario Elie.

Paul Mokeski did the job despite a knee showing signs of fatigue, and played the entire second half of the season, off the bench for handfuls of minutes. After eliminating the Spurs in a general surprise in the first round of the playoffs (San Antonio second in the regular season, Golden State seventh), the Warriors would fall honorably in five games (despite a red-hot Tim Hardaway) in the conference semifinals against the Lakers of Magic, future finalists.

At 35, in search of a summer camp that would not come, he signed in France, for a two-month fiasco in Sceaux and only four games. Back home, Paul Mokeski wished to begin his transition into coaching. He became player/assistant coach of the Quad City Thunder, a CBA team (a minor league that disappeared in 2009, which had seen John Starks, Anthony Mason or Bruce Bowen pass through, and where George Karl and Phil Jackson had coached for several years).

Since his official retirement, in 1995, Paul Mokeski successfully transitioned into coaching, serving as assistant with the Mavericks (reuniting with Don Nelson and Del Harris on staff) then the Charlotte Bobcats, and would spend most of his coaching experience in D-League franchises (renamed G-League since 2018), the NBA’s development league.

He also had a brief experience on two national-team staffs: Jamaica, with Roy Hibbert, under head coach Sam Vincent (the former Magic and Bulls shooter), as well as Great Britain at the London 2012 Olympics, under Chris Finch, with Luol Deng as star player.

Paul Mokeski is probably the ultimate definition of a role player. In twelve NBA seasons, he experienced no fewer than nine playoff campaigns, totaling 763 games played. Backup to four Hall of Fame centers (Moses Malone, Bob Lanier, Dave Cowens, Jack Sikma), his career stat line does not jump off the page. But Big Mo ultimately occupied a respected niche: that of a blue-collar, durable center, defined by professionalism, humility, and longevity, and one coaches trusted to put on the floor in important playoff games.