Newest Jazzman just wants a chance

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — He was born Clinton Renard Moore, but to everyone except the one grandmother who insisted on calling him Clinton, he's Mikki Moore.

"Everybody said (Clinton) didn't fit my personality — because I was silly," Moore said.

That was when he was 2, a toddler being raised in Cherokee County, S.C.

Ever since, he's been Mikki.

That's Mikki, by the way, like Mikey, the precocious Life cereal kid, not Mickey, as in Mickey Mouse.

Not that everyone knows.

Substitute teachers. Certain public-address announcers. TV talking heads.

Mikey? Mickey? Mikki?

Stop.

No Moore.

It seems appropriate, though, that no one ever appears certain what they should call the Jazz's latest acquisition.

He's only spent a lifetime trying to make a name.

"I feel like I can play in this league," said Moore, signed to a 10-day contract Wednesday and perhaps about to play his first game for Utah when it visits Memphis tonight.

At 7 feet and 225 pounds, the 28-year-old University of Nebraska product has heard the raps.

Too skinny, can't bang. Allegedly questionable work ethic. Just not good enough, especially when roster decisions become a numbers game.

He doesn't buy any of it. But he's had to deal with it.

Moore spent his first four NBA seasons under one coach after another in Detroit. He played sparingly his first two seasons, an almost-full 81 games averaging 14.2 minutes per the next, then was scaled back to 30 games.

Heading into the 2002-03 season, Moore was determined to make the most of his contract's final season — one worth $2.9 million, as it were. He even stayed in the Detroit area after the season, just to train. He planned to play for the Pistons' summer-league entry in Orlando, too.

Until, that is, Pistons brass apparently told him not to bother with Orlando. They didn't want him there. Didn't even fit into Detroit's regular-season plans — instead, according to Moore, he was destined to whither on the injured list.

This time, Mikki — remember, Mikey — didn't like it. He wanted out, and agreed to a buyout.