http://northwestern.scout.com/2/971100.html
The traditional résumé of an NBA general manager is littered with trophies and highlight reel exploits. At the very least, the average GM could have probably handled T.J. Rayford – just look at the list. Larry Bird was a three-time NBA champion and three-time NBA MVP; Joe Dumars was a two-time NBA champ and six-time All-Star; Pat Riley won one NBA title as a player and six more as a coach; Steve Kerr owns five championship rings; Daryl Morey once attended Northwestern’s open tryouts.
Morey was prepping himself for being an NBA GM in a way that had never been done before: computer science degree, consultant for MITRE, M.B.A. from M.I.T., consultant for Parthenon, then a job with the Celtics that, while in the NBA, was nonetheless out of the limelight, relegated to a nary-seen office lit by a computer screen. Morey was pouring over spread sheets and crunching numbers, cutting his teeth not on the hardwood but on a computer.
The headline on HoopsWorld.com read: “Daryl Morey? Are You Serious?” And during a conversation with Morey on his “B.S. Report” podcast, ESPN.com personality Bill Simmons recalled the decision to hire Morey thus: “When you got hired everyone was like, ‘What the hell are the Rockets doing? Why have they hired this 33-year-old M.I.T. guy?’ On the message boards it caused almost a riot – ‘They just hired some nerd! This is ridiculous!’”
“(Morey) really took advantage of Kings GM Geoff Petrie in that deal,” Doolittle says. Petrie, by the way, was a two-time NBA All-Star and the 1971 Rookie of the Year. “Petrie is very astute, but I don’t think he fully appreciated what he had in Kevin Martin. When he’s healthy, he’s probably the most efficient scorer in the NBA in terms of being able to generate points off of the fewest number amount of shots.” Proof: Martin once scored 50 points on 11 field goals – the lowest number of field goals for any 50-point scorer in NBA history. He is also the only NBA player to ever average eight free throws and shoot 40 percent from three-point range in a season. And he did it twice.
