Daryl Morey Luncheon (MORE details from the friend of Rileydog)

A shout out to my homeboy, Rileydog! Great job DAWG!!! This is his lucky friend whom he invited to the Daryl Morey luncheon. I wanted to vouch for him to let all our fellow clutchfanners that all he said is true and accurate. There were a few details he wrote that I didn't quite remember, but most all of it I remembered to be accurate.
I will try to add in any more details I recalled from the lunch that was left out. First of all, he didn't say a word about what we ate! We had:

1) APPETIZER: a delicious spinach salad drenched in a sweet vinaigrette, topped off with apple shavings and pecans (Only 6 out of the 8 chairs on our table were filled, so 2 salads were sitting there to my right all afternoon, with no one to eat them. I was sad. I did take one of the lingering rolls though... the butter tasted like Land o' Lakes)

2) MAIN COURSE: a thick, tender medium rare steak resting atop a rectangular layer of flaky potatoes, similar to an 'au gratin' style mixed with a croissant-like texture (DEEEE-lish!). This was topped with a sweet, dark sauce with blueberries? Not sure on that.

3) DESSERT: a creamy. whipped chocolate mousse (I think) with some almond flake, placed under a crispy cookie that resembled a fresh light waffle cone with smaller texture and holes in it. The sauce underneath was caramel.

I must say, I am not a season ticket holder, but being treated like that with such a small, select group, it made me WANT to buy season tickets!
We were served our food first, then a few introductions were made before Morey stepped up. He looked much taller in real life than on t.v. Probably because of his wide face and thicker build. But he's pretty tall.
Riley was right in saying he was approachable and open. I wanted to ask him if he wanted to play a round of golf after lunch, but I refrained. Morey starts by way of a speech. He spoke about how exhausting the process had been and how they tried hard to move up (Rileydog wrote about most of this) but here are some tidbits from my perspective:

1) One question asked was, "How can the Rockets improve their shooting percentage?"
Morey responded, "I think our shooting percentages have been about the same each year, but to improve on it, the focus must be on the 5 (center) and 1 (point guard) positions." He went on with some details and I thought he gave a comprehensive answer to a really dumb question.

2) When I asked him if he had "super powers" or if much of his success was luck, he said, "I appreciate the kind words... but ask me again in 2 years... and we have a great staff." Now he DID tell us his secret!
He said, "If there IS a secret... our secret is 'hard work.'"

3) He also mentioned that they do extensive research on players before drafting them. One detail that stood out to me was that he told us about Chase Budinger's story on how he grew up in a more fortunate family situation, so his family could afford basketball lessons for him at a very early age. So now Chase is one of the most skilled players he has seen.
I really see from this that he and his staff don't just look at stats and combine numbers, but goes beyond in finding out how how a prospect grows up and more about their lives to get a better idea on who will hit or miss.

4) He also said PP was #6 on their draft board, so that's why they wanted to make a trade up to as high as #9 to get him. So having him "fall in their laps" at 14 was a pleasant surprise.

5) He also started a thought by saying, "On the Las Vegas odds, they list the Rockets at having the #1 HIGHEST odds to land Bosh..." Sadly, he followed up with, "However we are tied with other teams with those same odds. But that does mean that we have as good a chance as anyone else to get him."
That makes me think, "Is there something they know that the media doesn't?" It seems that sports radio thinks we really don't have a chance, but Vegas AND Morey do! In fact we have the best odds (tied).

Anyway, that's all I can remember for now... Thanks again, Reillydog for inviting me!

 

Oh yeah... one other thing! Rileydog and I were each able to get in about 4 questions each!!!! So because there was only about 70-80 people there, most people didn't ask ANY questions at all. We let a few other questions go through and raised our hands every few minutes. If any of you get to do this next year, you can get lots of good questions in!!!

 

I think it was a light umber with apple flake chunks. I did go to a Rockets game before and visited a friend on the inside and saw Bill Worrell using the urinal. I forgot to check the color of the urine. Sorry... I will make sure to be more observant next time.

 

It was catered at the Toyota Center. We first drove into a special entrance just for the event, and drove up to park in an almost empty lot (our car was the 2nd car there). We then walked up to the entrance where other season ticket holders were waiting, since the doors were locked. When they opened, we were greeted by 4 Power Dancers in their tight red cheerleader outfits before signing in. One of the staff organizers (a tall, thin, well-spoken blonde female with a huge perpetual smile) walked us to the ballroom.
It was weird... the ballroom was set low, almost like the courts in the arena itself. We walked down corridor type steps with arena seats (but much fewer rows) down to the ballroom. There we were greeted again by another staff member who talked a little Rockets basketball with us as we sat down. We introduced ourselves to the other guests on our table and discovered this set-up was also formatted to be a business mixer.
All this first, then Morey spoke. It was pretty cool!

 

I agree! I think the best GM's go the extra mile to research these intangibles. But I really think lots of the perpetually bad teams have bad GM's and owners who may react too much on emotion or sheer stats and numbers... (see Al Davis)

BTW... this post really only makes sense if you have read RILEYDOG's post! Please do so if you haven't already... it's awesome!!!

*** A special thanks to Carl Herrera for reminding me about the importance of using the BOLD button!

 

LMAO!!! Maybe that way, after they leave Rockets University, they can make tax-deductible contributions to the organization!