Media availability NBA Draft combine. The league provides access for reporters to easily talk to some of the prominent players who appear to be at the top of the team’s draft board. However, not everyone. Very top players like Chet Holmgren, Jabari Smith Jr. and Paolo Banchero’s Consensus Stop 3 didn’t even talk to reporters in addition to not attending the combine workout.
However, the join has a separate layer. Some of the lottery caliber players skip 5-5 play in the combine, but most participate in private “agent workouts” this week. These are primarily 1-0 issues consisting of players drilling through furniture and cones.
It created an opportunity for our brave reporting staff. Everyone wants to talk to those top guys, but no one has ever thought of touching the base with their training foil.
These trainings are often not published in the media, so to be honest, I talked to veterans who participated in many of these. Chair.
Below is a copy of AthleticExclusive interview lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Let’s start from the top. Please tell me your full name again.
I’m a chair There is no name. Please check it out next time.
Do you think it strange that no one has ever contacted you about a draft workout?
right? This league, man … (sighs)
The NBA team will invest all this money to do a background survey of these players before the draft. They are conducting a 30-minute face-to-face interview with a player’s kindergarten teacher as if they gained insight into the Spanish pick and roll readings in the way Dr. Seuss was treated 15 years ago. I’m in the gym when they exercise, but no one wants my opinion about these guys? Not one call from all these years and any of them. Crickets.
I am really interested in your career. How did you choose basketball?
I think basketball chose me (laughs).
Reporters love to talk about the sobbing of these players, but there’s nothing in my life story. Spend every day in a crowded closet, choking old cigarette smoke during an illegal poker game, and spend the next minute picking a lottery ticket in front of 50 undressed, somewhat interested strangers. You will be asked to protect one-on-one. Someone who can’t pull himself away from his phone.
But that’s strange. No one really knows who I am. When I leave the courtroom, everyone treats me like ordinary furniture. But ask the agent about me.They go crazy Love myself. I’m the first choice for a draft workout every time because they know exactly what to get from me. They are the only ones who really respect my game.
What do you call your breakthrough moment when you know you can do this to make a living?
Probably my training for Yi Jianlian in 2007.. It really put me on the map. Until then, I had opportunities here and there, but I think it wasn’t well known nationwide. After Yi, it was all when it exploded for me. The agent started calling me more for other training.
This is strange. That day I was completely destroyed. It was a poster that was dunked one after another. It sometimes becomes that way. OK, most of the time. But I think people appreciated my toughness. In such situations, many chairs will fold.
By the way, how was your training this week?
Uh … not good. You see, you need some emotional resilience to avoid being dunked 47 times in a row and having no psychological impact. As it progresses, I must admit that I have begun to feel a little depressed.I don’t always look that way because I don’t express much emotion on the coat, but I Trying there.
It’s even worse because the scout behaves so that you can’t hear what’s going on. They all complained that it wasn’t the speed of the game, and I said, “Hey, have you seen me playing before?” My whole game is in my position It remains restrained and solid. If you want to see me move at speed, strap the roller skates and operate them with a drone or something.
Other things people have forgotten about these workouts are:Trainer is literally Tell a man Where are you going.. I don’t seem to be the most agile guy, but I wonder if he can predict in which direction he will go and cut the angle before he dunks a 360 degree video game on the YouTube channel. increase. It’s not rocket science. Half of these guys can’t even dribble with weak hands.
But before every drill, they show the guy exactly where I am and how they go around me!I swear, guy, just let me play these guys one time Without coaching, then we will see what happens.
But I have to give it to Shaedon Sharpe and others who played this week. Man, they didn’t retreat from me. I want to test myself against the best and play against Holmgren or Banchero, but it feels like those guys are ducking me. They don’t want that smoke.
Since the Scout has met you many times, you bring up some interesting points. Do they take your game for granted at this point and feel like they haven’t really reassessed your performance?
You see, I don’t want to sound bitter because I was able to lead a decent life in this way. But sometimes you wonder what these guys are looking at. Don’t start this.
Give an example
I (formerly Mavericks First round pick) Pavel Podkoldin In 2004.Bro, I had that guy beat. However, the trainer continued to change the rules to make it easier for him.
You see, why may some people be suspicious? I’m 3 feet 5 and I don’t have the opposite thumb and I can’t really move. But it’s basketball. We have been playing games up to 11 and I beat him 8-6. And some suits decide to cancel the rest of the training.
It’s all politics, I swear. I don’t seem to look like these scouts. For some reason, after the show I went to, Podkolzin continued to be asked for training and was invited to the Green Room on draft night. seriously?Then you will be like before I No game?
(pause)
it is what it is. Never lose your dream of building a bench for the NBA team someday. Literally like a bench. Continue these trainings until the rubber foot cap wears out.
People only meet you in training, how do you prepare? Is there anyone practicing?
Well, it’s not accurate. Most of my work is solo drilling, folding and unfolding, that type. I don’t do much aerobic exercise.
You will see a traffic cone for almost every workout. They’re all cool, but we’re not really hanging out. Between you and me, I haven’t gotten that family at all. There are about 100 of them, they all look exactly the same and participate in every training every year. They also travel in packs. There is never only one of them. However, only Jahlil Okafor has been drafted so far.
There is also a little rivalry. From time to time, the trainer pulls me off the court and starts lining up the cones instead. They also give no reason. I’m at work and I’m in charge of a clumsy Latvian tycoon, but suddenly everyone in the gym curses like crazy and pulls me off the floor with a backrest. It’s about this business that no one understands. There are many such BSs.
What’s next?
This is when I’m the busiest and hitting the training circuit. Every year, an agent trying to take me to court blows up my phone against mysterious guys who have never seen anyone playing in a real game.
Again, you get politics. No matter how well I play on the court, it’s just terrible to know they aren’t there to meet me. Check out my training for Vrenz Bleijenbergh last year. I really gave him a problem, and it seems that no one noticed.I want to see it only once Sam Bethenny At least acknowledge my existence.
But what do I say to you? From time to time, you wonder if it’s all worth it. But you provide your own footstool and remember looking at the world. I’m blessed, man, I really am. There are many other chairs thrown by Bob Knight.
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(Photo: John Holinger / Athletic)
