Kelvin Cato
American basketball player (born 1974)
Kelvin Tavares Cato (born August 26, 1974) is an American former professional basketball player. A 6'11" center from the University of South Alabama and Iowa State University, Cato played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets, Orlando Magic, Detroit Pistons, and New York Knicks.
College career
Cato was not a well-known player in his freshman year, averaging six points and six rebounds at the University of South Alabama in 1992–93. In 1993, he struck up a relationship with then University of New Orleans coach Tim Floyd, who saw potential in Cato as a rebounder and shot blocker. In 1994, Floyd took over as head coach at Iowa State University and convinced Cato to transfer to Iowa State after disagreements with South Alabama head coach Ronnie Arrow. Cato averaged 11 points, eight rebounds and four blocks per game for an Iowa State team that reached the Sweet Sixteen of the 1997 NCAA basketball tournament.
NBA career
Drafted 15th overall in the 1997 NBA draft by the Dallas Mavericks, Cato's draft rights were immediately traded to the Portland Trail Blazers for the draft rights to Chris Anstey and $800,000 in cash considerations. Cato averaged 3.8 and 3.5 points per game in his first and second seasons respectively in Portland, before being bundled in a six-for-one deal with the Houston Rockets that sent Scottie Pippen to the Trail Blazers.
He spent five years in Houston, averaging a career-high 8.7 points per game in 1999–2000, and started all but two of the games he played in both the 2001–02 and 2003–04 seasons. On October 28, 1999, Cato signed a six-year, $42,000,000 contract extension that increased in controversy as his playing statistics cooled.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Kelvin Cato” as american basketball player (born 1974). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american basketball player (born 1974). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q763614. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1974, 1992, 1993 and 1994.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kelvin Cato” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.