“If you meet a girl in the city, you can bring her on the plane” – Cuttino Mobley shares the wild rules on the early 2000s Rockets originally appeared on Basketball Network.
When reflecting on the trajectory of the Houston Rockets after their back-to-back championship triumphs in 1994 and 1995, it’s surprising to see how, despite acquiring major superstars like Charles Barkley and Scottie Pippen among a few more, the team never made it back to the NBA Finals again. This naturally raised questions about whether the internal environment of the organization was truly conducive to success.
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Cuttino Mobley, who represented the team during that rough stretch, recently opened up about the bizarre and unproductive traditions within the team’s culture — ones that certainly did not help the players blossom on and off the court.
Cuttino on the strange tradition that the Rockets players followed
Cat entered the NBA in 1998 and quickly made a name for himself in Houston. By his second season, Mobley was the runner-up for the Sixth Man award, averaging 15.8 points per game. Then, by his fourth campaign, Cuttino hit a career-high with 21.7 points and 1.5 steals per game. Yet, despite his individual growth, the Rockets made the playoffs only twice during his six-year tenure, and both times failed to get past the first round.
During his appearance on the “All The Smoke” podcast, Cat spoke candidly about the lack of discipline in the team. He revealed that things were often chaotic, even on the team plane, indicating a profound absence of structure and accountability.
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“Our team was so crazy at that time, dog. If you meet a girl in the city, you can bring her on the plane. Listen, ain’t nobody had wives back then. There were no old dude. Brought the work on the plane, bro,” Mobley recalled. “I’m just staring at her like, ‘You don’t even know what you’re doing. What are you getting yourself into? This is crazy, sweetheart. Who’s your father? That’s crazy, bro.”
Discipline is vital for every team in the NBA
This is particularly striking considering the Rockets had franchise legends like Hakeem Olajuwon and Yao Ming on their rosters during those times. Thus, Houston’s struggles demonstrate that no matter how much talent a team possesses, it cannot succeed without a disciplined culture and a strong, authoritative voice in the locker room to hold everyone accountable.
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Perhaps that is why today’s NBA players emphasize a family-oriented environment more. It has become a common sight for players to often travel with their partners, children, or loved ones, which only highlights how more and more players are choosing stability and maturity over the kind of undisciplined culture Mobley described in Houston. It is a shift that reflects how success in the modern league depends as much on off-court cohesion as on talent.
Nevertheless, unfortunately for the Rockets franchise, who knows if there had been more accountability and discipline, Mobley and the other stars could have had a legit chance of making them feature in the championship round, especially considering their quality on paper.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 6, 2025, where it first appeared.