Basketball’s Nerd King

Fun article on Morey by Slate. Lots of interesting little anecdotes and quotes, mostly about interviewing potential draft picks. Haven't seen it on the board, but perhaps it's hidden under all those DMo threads.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/...conomics_to_revolutionize_the_art_of_nba.html

A brief excerpt:
"You never knew what a kid in the interview room might say to jolt you out of your slumber and back to your senses and force you to pay attention. And once you were paying attention, you naturally placed far greater weight on whatever he had just said than you probably should: The most memorable moments in job interviews for the National Basketball Association were hard to consign to some appropriately sized compartment in the brain. In certain cases it was as if the players were trying to screw up your ability to judge them. For instance, when the Houston Rockets interviewer asked one player if he could pass a drug test, the guy had gone wide-eyed and grabbed the table and said, “You mean today!!!???” There was the college player who’d been arrested on charges (subsequently dropped) of domestic violence, and whose agent claimed it had been a simple misunderstanding. When they’d asked the player about it he’d explained, chillingly, that he’d grown weary of his girlfriend’s “b****ing, so I just put my hands around her neck and I squeezed. ’Cause I needed her to shut up.” There was Kenneth Faried, the power forward out of Morehead State. When he showed up for his interview they’d asked him, “Do you prefer to be called Kenneth or Kenny?” “Manimal,” Faried said. He wanted to be called Manimal. What did you do with that? Roughly three out of every four of the black American players who came for NBA interviews—or at least came for interviews with the NBA’s Houston Rockets—had never really known their father. “It’s not uncommon, when you ask these guys who their biggest male influence was, for them to say, ‘My mom,’ ” said the Rockets’ director of player personnel, Jimmy Paulis. “One said, ‘Obama.’ ”

Then there was Sean Williams. Back in 2007, Sean Williams, 6-foot-10, was an off-the-charts player who had been suspended from his Boston College team the first two of his three seasons after being arrested for possession of mar1juana (a charge that was later dropped). He’d played only 15 games his sophomore year and still blocked 75 shots; the fans referred to his college games as The Sean Williams Block Party. Sean Williams looked like a big-time NBA player and was expected to be a first-round pick—in part because everyone assumed that his ability to get through his junior year without being suspended meant that he’d gotten his mar1juana use under control. Before the 2007 NBA draft, he’d flown to Houston, at his agent’s request, to practice his interviewing skills. The agent cut the Rockets a deal: Williams would talk to the Rockets and the Rockets alone, and the Rockets would offer the agent tips about how to make Sean Williams more persuasive in a job interview. It actually went pretty well, until they got onto the topic of mar1juana. “So you got caught smoking weed your freshman and sophomore years,” said the Rockets interviewer. “What happened your junior year?” Williams just shook his head and said, “They stopped testing me. And if you’re not going to test me, I’m gonna smoke!”

After that, Williams’s agent decided it was best for Sean Williams not to grant any more interviews. He still got himself drafted in the first round by the New Jersey Nets, and made brief appearances in 137 NBA games before leaving to play in Turkey."

 

A few of my favourite bits:

"when the Houston Rockets interviewer asked one player if he could pass a drug test, the guy had gone wide-eyed and grabbed the table and said, “You mean today!!!???”

“Do you prefer to be called Kenneth or Kenny?” “Manimal,” Faried said. He wanted to be called Manimal. What did you do with that?

"Later, when basketball scouts came to him looking for jobs, the trait he looked for was some awareness that they were seeking answers to questions with no certain answers—that they were inherently fallible. “I always ask them, ‘Who did you miss?’ ” he said. Which future superstar had they written off, or which future bust had they fallen in love with? “If they don’t give me a good one, I’m like, ‘**** ’em.’ ”

"In his job interview, Dorsey had been funny and likable and charming—he’d said when he was done playing basketball he intended to explore a second career as a p*rn star"

" in the 2007 draft there had been a player his model really liked: Marc Gasol. Gasol was twenty-two years old, a seven-foot-one center playing in Europe. The scouts had found a photograph of him shirtless. He was pudgy and baby-faced and had these jiggly pecs. The Rockets staff had given Marc Gasol a nickname: Man Boobs. Man Boobs this and Man Boobs that."

"Morey hadn’t found anyone—inside or outside basketball—who could answer those questions, though there was no end to psychologists who pretended to be able to. The Rockets had hired a bunch of them. “It’s been horrible,” says Morey. “A horrible experience. Every year I think there’s got to be something there. Every year we find someone with a different approach. Every year it is totally pointless. And every year we try again. I’m starting to think psychologists are complete charlatans.”

“Who do you think you are most like in the NBA—similar in terms of game?” asked Morey.
“Jowman and Shkinoonee,” said Singh, without missing a beat.
A silence followed. Then Morey realized. “Oh, Yao Ming.” Another pause. “Who was the second one?”
“Shkinoonee.”
Someone made a guess: “Shaq?”
“Shaq, yes,” said Singh, relieved.
“Oh, Shaquille O’Neal,” said Morey, finally getting it.