Tender side leads Natt to new job

The Denver Post

He earned the nickname “Pit Bull” because he wasn't as big as most National Basketball Association forwards, but he was a tenacious as they come. If he were 6-foo-9, he would be illegal, was the word around the league.

When 6-6, 220-pound Calvin Natt stepped on a basketball court, he took his job seriously. He never smiled much. And he showed opponents no sympathy.

Which is why some find it hard to believe the former Nuggets all-star has immersed himself in the sympathy business.

Calvin Natt Family Mortuary is scheduled to open in Denver at the end of this month.

“I know it seems strange,” Natt said, “going from being a basketball player to an owner of a funeral home is kind of a 360. I've gone from sweat suits every day to suits every day.”

It's a big transition, but one Natt has made smoothly. He spent the past three years traveling to different funeral homes, researching the business and studying different techniques and styles.

The three-year period also gave his wife of 11 years, Brenda, time to adjust to the idea of her husband caring for the dead and the bereaved. His wife hasn't been the only one reluctant to embrace Natt's dream.

“I talk to people every day about it (opening a mortuary) and they shake their head and say, ‘What made you get involved in this?' “ Natt said. His friend and former Nuggets teammate, Lafayette “Fat” Lever, now with the Dallas Mavericks, told his buddy he wouldn't set foot in his funeral home. Natt's brother Kenny said, “You've definitely gone off the deep end now.”

“They think of it as a yucky business,” Natt said. “They say, ‘how can you be around dead people all the time? Aren't you scared?' I would rather be around a dead person than a living person I didn't know. I'm not worried about that dead person. It's the living people who will hurt you.”

At one time in his life Natt, too, was afraid of death and its ceremonies and rituals. But his father was a minister and young Calvin spent time around funerals as a child, which partially explains his desire to open a funeral home.

But deeper reasons have motivated Natt.

He easily could have opened a restaurant or a car dealership like other retired professional athletes.

“The reason I wanted to open a mortuary – I know it's going to be hard for people to believe – but it's the inner feeling you get from helping people,” he said. “We're trying to not only do the mortuary, but my wife and I are starting a non-profit organization out of the mortuary, using our own money, to help with the gang problems, the homeless, nursing homes and illiteracy.”

If Nuggets fans find it hard to believe Natt has the pathos to run a funeral home, it is only because he did such a convincing imitation of a hard-nosed, tough guy his five NBA seasons in Denver.

New Jersey made Natt the eighth pick in the 1979 draft. Three months later he was traded to Portland for Maurice Lucas. Then came the blockbuster trade of the 1984-85 season: Portland 's Natt, Lever and Wayne Cooper, and first and second-round picks to Denver for Kiki Vandeweghe.

“I wasn't really bitter,” said Natt, who had just signed a six-year contract with Portland . “I just didn't really understand the trade. To give three quality players and two draft picks, I thought that was a lot to give up for one player.

“When you look at it, people think, ‘If Denver got three players for one, then those three guys must not be any good,' “ said Natt, who set out to prove his worth.

He responded with the best season of his professional career. He averaged 23 points and NBA coaches voted him to the Western Conference all-star team that season. He, Lever and Cooper led Denver to the Western Conference final, where injuries to Alex English and Natt contributed to the Nuggets' 4-1 elimination by the Los Angeles Lakers.

Natt played through pain in that series, a move he now realizes probably cost him five years of his career. “I had floating cartilage in the right knee,” he said. “At the time I didn't think of the consequences.” His knee, an Achilles tendon problem and severe burns on his hand from a fire he accidentally started while cooking for his kids at home, kept him under the knife in every off-season from 1984-89.

His knee worsened. After he restructured his contract to accommodate the Nuggets' desire to sign Jerome Lane , Denver traded him to San Antonio in the 1988-89 season for David Greenwood and Darwin Cook. “That was probably my lowest point,” Natt said. The Spurs released him. He signed with Indiana the next season, 1989-90, then retired.

He has left the tough-guy image far behind him, farther than fans realize, said Natt, who describes himself as a cream puff.

“People look at me as a strong muscular guy who is really aggressive playing ball and kind of intimidating on the court,” he said. “They don't see the sensitive side of me.”

The ending of the movie “The Ten Commandments” moves him to tears no matter how many times he watches it. He is an empathetic man who says if he could have been any other person he would choose Martin Luther King.

It is only natural he chose Denver to start a business. This is where his fondest basketball memories rest, memories of playing Doug Moe's free-wheeling style with friends English and Lever.

The praise he earned here made him aware of a need to give something back. “I've seen a lot of deaths the past three years and been involved with them,” he said. “There is nothing to compare when you help somebody out who has had a young child who has passed away. People are hurting from that kind of thing. When you're involved in sports, people are praising you so much for what you're doing, you never really get a chance to help other people.

“The accolades you get are nice. The money is nice, and winning and having people admire your for playing basketball is nice. I appreciate it because God gave me the talent to play. But there is always life after basketball, and I think that I have found the perfect thing for me that is going to make me happy and make me feel good.

“It's not a business for everybody. If it was, you would see one on every corner, like a 7-Eleven. It's something only a few people can handle.” Ive seen a lot of deaths the past three years and been involved with them,” he said. “There is nothing to compare when you help somebody out who has had a young child who has passed away. People are hurting from that kind of thing. When you're involved in sports, people are praising you so much for what you're doing, you never really get a chance to help other people.

“The accolades you get are nice. The money is nice, and winning and having people admire your for playing basketball is nice. I appreciate it because God gave me the talent to play. But there is always life after basketball, and I think that I have found the perfect thing for me that is going to make me happy and make me feel good.

“It's not a business for everybody. If it was, you would see one on every corner, like a 7-Eleven. It's something only a few people can handle.”