Chase Budinger’s NBA career is off to a good start. He was a big part of Houston’s defeat of the Spurs on Tuesday night. That Daryl Morey knows what he’s doing. Watching Budinger showcase his skills against San Antonio reminded me of an interview I did with him at the Chicago Pre-Draft Combine. I never [...]
Graydon and I wanted to create a space to dump some of our leftover notes and anecdotes from the Combine, which seemed like as good a reason as any for a long list of bullets. So, without further ado…
Ed. Note: Sorry about the title. I couldn’t resist. Feel free to leave further puns in the comments section. Never have I met a man whose surname so properly captures his demeanor. Dionte Christmas is generous with his smile and his time. Christmas also possesses the two characteristics that I came to find most endearing [...]
Tyler Smith is a soft spoken kid. You won’t notice him if he’s standing in the room. He just blends in. As soon as I mentioned that 48MoH covered the Spurs, he kept up his nonchalant thing, but with a little dry wit, “Oh good. Then you can tell them to draft me.”
Whenever I had opportunity to talk with a player projected second round to undrafted, I wondered what they thought about the possibility of spending the majority of their first season on D-League assignment, a reality for many guys who have gone before them. This question produced some of the most revealing answers of the media sessions. [...]
Everyone is pretty upbeat about the Combine, but one constant question from many of the people here, including the players, is what’s the point of holding a Combine without scrimmages? You can only learn so much from watching guys run around cones. I just bumped into Omri Casspi again and he echoed the familiar sentiment. [...]
Currently projected to be taken by the Nets at #11, DeJuan Blair seems beyond the Spurs’ grasp. But that didn’t stop the organization from interviewing Blair on Wednesday night. I spoke with Blair earlier this afternoon and asked him, given current projections, why a team with the 37th pick took the time to interview him. [...]
There was a moment of levity yesterday as everyone hung out in the hotel lobby after practice. I was sitting next to a group which included Blake Griffin, who was attempting to make his way through the lobby one photo op at a time. A father had just brought his son to Griffin for a [...]
When you are sitting 3 feet from Sam Young, he looks 40. It’s not uncommon for NBA players to physically resemble men much older than them (Lebron James, Greg Oden) but when you’ve been mingling with 19-year-olds all morning it catches you off guard. His maturity level matches his appearance: Although not particularly well spoken, [...]
“I love the game of basketball. I’m one of those guys that would play basketball no matter what.” And so began my conversation with Omri Casspi. He was enthusiastic. Omri Casspi plays with passion. And he loves to win. “I’ll play hard every time I get on the floor, I’ll play as hard as I [...]
The Draft Combine media sessions can be a bit tedious. After the tenth player tells you he wants to “work hard” and his “defense needs improvement,” you can start to lose interest. So when the opportunity to entice a bit of intrigue out of a player arises, you take it. For me, that moment came [...]
