If you could sit down and chat with an NBA player, past or present

[Tim Kempton]

Kobe.

Whats it like in hell and how is David Stern doing?

[LakersLegacy]

Kobe seemed to be accumulating stories from:

Learning how to pay attention taking dance lessons with Michael Jackson as a teenager

Learning how to not flinch by diving with great white sharks

Learning to play music by ear and trial and error sounding out songs

Being fascinated by robots wanting an educational statue that taught young aspiring athletes foot work outside Staples

Wanting to be a story teller and direct films

Co-writing a book with Paulo Coelho the author of ‘The Alchamist’

Ghost writing music under an alias so it wouldn’t be recognized

Highly creative

Business advice from just about everyone, mining knowledge

Sharing lots of advice and stories at UCSB when there were no cameras around

I was hoping the stories would come out one day. I would record a 90 minute conversation with him and make an Indy film animated like the Dear Basketball of each and every fun behind the scenes story. He was really unique. And his unique upbringing had a lot to do with it

[wojoaderge]

John Brisker or Bison Dele

[JShuttlesworth]

Vince

[Ugalde]

probably KD or Kyrie. would love to hear the crazy they spew. plus i could probably convince them to stay with the Nets. i'm a really good people person.

[wadenation305]

I've gotten to speak with a number of NBA players. A lot of them aren't really nice when the cameras are not on.

Not nice People

Joe Johnson
Birdman
Alonso Mourning
Derrick Jones Jr
Dorrel Wright

Nice/Friendly

Shaq
Max Strus
Udonis Haslem
Mario Chalmers

and hands Down the coolest and nicest dude I ever met, Michael Beasley.

For the most part it's true what they say.... Don't meet your heroes, they'll disappoint you.

[MarcusBrody]

Kareem would be at the top of my list. I'd love to talk basketball with him, but I also think he'd be great to talk about non-basketball stuff with too. Social change. Sherlock Holmes. He just seems like an intellectual guy who came through a changing world - both athletic and otherwise - so he'd be fascinating to talk to.

[PistolPeteJR]

Shane Battier. Guy comes off as very, very intelligent and well-spoken. Feels like one can learn a whole lot about the game from him.

[Ruma85]

Kobe, then i will decide after that conversation who to talk to next.

[dk1115]

Gotta be Klay. I aint about that hardcore basketball **** anyway.

[oldschooled]

Sir Charles no doubt. Have a beer with, play casino with, have a conversation with, you name it.

[Bob Ross]

Probably Kareem

[Fencer reregistered]

Bill Russell is near the top of my lists both for basketball and non-basketball topics.

Tom Heinsohn was engaged with pretty much the entire history of the Celtics. Of the 21 players whose Celtics numbers are retired, he played with, coached, and/or broadcast games featuring 20 of them.

(Trivia: Who is the exception?)

I'd guess that Jerry West has the best understanding of the game's evolution of anybody in NBA history.