Despite growing up seeing traumatizing things, Moore turned his life around

LAS VEGAS – By his own admission, Taze Moore said he used to be “a hothead.” As a football player in high school, he said his nickname was the Tasmanian Devil.

But all of the shenanigans Moore experienced, he said he left that behind him when he transferred from Bakersfield College to the University of Houston and played basketball last season under Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson.

“Just me being from Bakersfield – the school that I went and played at for four or five years – I didn’t have the best attitude, and I didn’t have the best mindset,” Moore told Mavs.com. “I kind of put myself first instead of a lot of my teammates.

“When I got to coach Sampson, he just kind of taught me, ‘You’re too into yourself, you’re too worried about yourself, you’re too worried about things that you can’t control, and you’re angry for no reason. Why are you angry about stuff?’ A lot of that had to do with stuff off the court in the past, stuff that I had been through. But I can say he held me to a higher standard, and he taught me more than I could ever imagine.”

Growing up in Southaven, Miss., Moore said he saw things as a kid that he wishes he didn’t see, and that those appalling moments stayed with him for years.

“In Mississippi, I was 10 minutes away from Memphis,” Moore said. “Where I’m at it’s Memphis, and the style of everything is Memphis.

“You see some pretty harsh things growing up. You see kids not being able to eat at night, shootings, and stuff you shouldn’t see as a kid. It kind of traumatized you until you get older and you know how to handle it. For the most part, it was just tough, but I had fun with it. I learned the do’s and the don’ts. I know where to go, where not to go, how to be around people, how not to be around people. It taught me more than anything.”

What it taught Moore is that life is indeed a struggle, and sometimes it’s not fair. That there are pitfalls that can be difficult to digest, mitigating circumstances which will drop a person to their knees.

Such was the case with Moore, a guard who is trying to make it on the Dallas Mavericks’ roster, and who remembers when things started unraveling for him prior to his arrival at Houston.

“When I went to Bakersfield and I was kind of like everywhere in my head, that’s when it all started,” Moore said. “I lost my granny (Katie Sutherland to heart failure), and I lost my best friend (Lonnie B. Jones, who was murdered).

“I lost a lot of people in those upcoming months, and I ended up breaking my leg and it kind of messed everything up. So mentally, it had me not wanting to play basketball. Honestly, it had me not wanting to be around anybody. I just wanted to be in my own little bubble.”

Moore broke both the tibia and fibula in his right knee, and wound up having five surgeries to repair the damage. In a weird way, the 6-5, 195-pounder was a victim of one of his greatest gifts – the ability to fly in the air seemingly like a bird and hang there.

“I ended up breaking it on Feb. 11, 2017 on a fast break dunk,” Moore said. “I jumped halfway in the air and had to figure out how to land.”

Recovery from surgery lasted a painstaking 634 days.

“It was really rough,” Moore said. “There were days where I didn’t want to play basketball, days where I didn’t even want to see a basketball court. I thought it was over for me.

“But (God) ended up blessing me and ended up showing me. Like I said, the change in character, I feel like that’s what helped everything. God hooked me up.”

Armed with this new lease on life, Moore has dazzled thus far with the Mavs. On Monday, he came off the bench to score 13 points on 6-of-7 shots and grab five rebounds in just 16 minutes as the Mavs rallied from an 18-point deficit in the second half to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers, 111-103.

Moore may be a long shot to make the Mavs’ final roster, but summer league coach Jared Dudley said:  “He’s a glue guy, and everyone respects a glue guy. Defensively, his athleticism is elite.

“(He’s) a lefty, he hit shots, he hit threes. You wish he could play more, but it’s unfortunate how the business goes.”

Mavs guard Jaden Hardy likes the way Moore – who is the king of the sky-walking dunks – seems to always make an impact on the court.

“Taze was great (Monday),” Hardy said. “He came out with a lot of energy, being a pest on defense and getting out in transition.

“He’s super athletic. He made some plays for us.”

Moore also made plays for Houston, which was an impressive 33-4 last season and made it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament. Two of Moore’s UH teammates – Jarace Walker and Red Oak’s Marcus Sasser – were first-round picks in last month’s NBA Draft.

“Coach Sampson is a great coach, and the assistant coaches – coach Quannas White, coach Kellen Sampson, coach K.C. Beard – all those guys, they care,” Moore said. “They care about all their players.

“At the end of the day, they teach us discipline and how to win games, and I loved it.”

Moore was first-team All-Big West while leading Bakersfield in scoring (12.2 points), free throw shooting (82.8 percent) and steals (30) during the 2020-21 season. He subsequently transferred to UH mainly to challenge himself.

“I just wanted to see if I could play at a different level to get recognized more,” Moore said. “I wanted to see if a different conference such as the American Athletic Conference was difficult, and it was.

“It was fun, it was difficult, it was challenging, but it was everything that I imagined.”

So far, summer league has been everything Moore has imagined. He obviously would like more playing time, starting with the Mavs’ contest on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. CT at Cox Pavilion against the Golden State Warriors in a game that will be televised on NBA TV.

“I see myself getting pretty far,” Moore said. “I see myself getting in the mix, hopefully. At the end of the day, I learn that if they need an energy guy, I can bring that. That’s something I can control.”

And as he looks at his past and examines everything that transpired, Moore knows he has gotten pretty far. He has a bachelor’s degree in child, adolescent and family studies, and life’s good.

Moore said his days of being a hothead – he can now laugh about that period of his life – are light years behind him, and that he has transformed himself into being a consummate team player.

“I’m willing to run through a wall if you want me to,” Moore said. “I’m just trying to do everything the right way and be a good teammate for the rest of the guys.”

As he describes where he’s been and where he is now, he said he owes a huge debt of gratitude to his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

“I always call them my sugar mommas – my ladies,” Moore said. “They just mean so much to me. My momma is my right hand and my go-to.

“They always have been there for me at times when I couldn’t be there for myself, at times when I broke my leg and had to have five surgeries. They were just there for me at times when I didn’t want to be there for myself.

“So, I will always love and appreciate them.”

Twitter: @DwainPrice