HE USED TO BE NATHANIEL

Three weeks ago in Tempe, AZ, former Mt.Vernon Ram/SIU Saluki/LA Laker/Phoenix Sun, Nate Hawthorne passed away from a massive heart attack at age 54. I'm pretty sure he's in the MTV Hall of Fame. He should be if he isn't.

Nate was one of my shouldofs. I'll explain later. When I first met Nathaniel Hawthorne, as he was called back in 1960, I laughed at his name. I knew the author simply because of the card game Authors, kind of a gin rummy kind of game where you build suits. And right here on my Little League team was this guy who said his name was Nathaniel Hawthorne.

He was a good size kid with some baby fat or flab on him. And that may not be right. He had kind of a round face, but not really. He was hard to describe. He wasn't muscular at all, but he was strong. Most of the time he looked like he wasn't giving his all, his best effort. He looked like he played in spurts. But you know what? That was because he was so smooth. There was never any wasted effort, and he was the first I ever noticed that about.

He had the million dollar smile that was like Mona Lisa's. Or Scott Gill's. What the heck are they thinking? It's like they're in on some inside joke that only they understand.

The last time I saw Nate, except on tv during that 1976 championship run of the Suns vs the Celtics in that famous famous triple overtime game, was at the old Washington School just off South Tenth Street. I was in junior college, still on the campus of MTV High, and we were playing a pick up game there. It was at that time the YMCA. Nate was on the other team and he was just superior.

I had come down twice on a fast break (imagine that to begin with) and stopped and popped a couple of 18-footers. He said,"It looks like somebody's been practicing," gave me that Nate smile and proceded to take over the game. If I scored another bucket I don't remember it.

And back to the shouldofs. I knew Nate was in the area. Bob Brown had told me before I moved out here. I shouldof (should have) looked him up. I did try to hook up with a high school buddy of mine Danny "Hoobie" Hester when I first moved here. We played phone tag for two weeks till I guess we thought we really didn't need to get together. Another shouldof. Those happen.

But I'll long remember Nate and some of the classic high school games against Les Taylor of Carbondale. They billed them Nate the Great vs. Les the Best. I have another Nate story that I could never write on a blog, but when you see me ask about it. It's one you'll never forget.