[Keown] Mark Daigneault on Sam Presti’s evaluation process: “One time we were discussing a player, and he said to me, ‘All the guys are standing there watching film before practice, and I’m just imagining him standing there with them, and I just don’t see him fitting in.’ And that was it.”
Full Quote: “As he’s evaluating the player, Sam’s really imagining that he’s looking at them on the team,” Daigneault says. “It’s like method acting. He really goes deep. He’s really trying to evaluate what the guy would be like walking around our building. One time we were discussing a player, and he said to me, ‘All the guys are standing there watching film before practice, and I’m just imagining him standing there with them, and I just don’t see him fitting in.’ And that was it.”
Chet Holmgren added: “I found out he wasn’t paying any attention to anything having to do with basketball,” Holmgren says. “I was still a kid, and I knew how I acted mattered for my future and where I wanted to be, but I didn’t realize it had that level of impact. Now I know he was doing his Mr. Miyagi mind-reading routine on me. And apparently, I passed the test, so I’ll just keep being myself.”
Source:
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/48751531/oklaho ma-city-thunder-roll-western-conference-finals-nba -playoffs-2026