NBA GREATEST MANGER

OF ALL TIME
Sam Presti (born November 1, 1977) is an American basketball executive who is the

current general manager of the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder. Presti has held the

position since 2007 when he was hired at the age of 29, was the second youngest

person in NBA history to hold the position after Jerry Colangelo Presti is currently the

longest tenured active general manager in the NBA.

parents divorced when he was a teenager. A 2017 Sport Illustrated profile noted that

he wasn’t much of a student at Concord-Carlisle Regional High, but eventually got

traction when he spent time with a group of mostly African-American kids bused from

neighborhoods far from his suburb and the teacher (Harriett Stevens) who supervised

them. As a basketball player, Presti impressed his teammates enough to earn the

nickname “Bob Sura,” after the Florida State product who played 10 NBA seasons.

Teamwork, defense came early: Presti enrolled at Virginia Wesleyan and spent two

years there before transferring to Emerson College as a way to get back to Boston. He

served as a team captain in his junior and senior seasons, establishing himself as a

player willing to chase 50/50 balls and draw as many charges as possible. He also

coaxed teammates to agree that, if one of them wasn’t working hard enough, the others

could vote that guy off the team. Of Presti’s work ethic, Emerson coach Hank Smith told

the New York Times in 2010: “That’s how he’s been since the day I met him. He’ll be

like that today, tomorrow, the next time I talk to him … How does anyone drive

themselves that hard, that long?”

A break, an internship, an NBA career: How did Presti get his big break? A teammate

at Emerson got hurt and was thinking of quitting. Presti talked him into continuing. That

player’s father was the superintendent of schools in Aspen, Colorado. Every summer,

San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich and GM R.C. Buford ran a basketball camp there.

They needed one more camp counselor. The superintendent thought of the young man

who had helped his son. Presti scraped up money to make the trip, and on the final day
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persuaded Buford to take him back to San Antonio as an intern. His salary? $250 a

month. The opportunity? Priceless.

Tony Who? Presti soon impressed Buford, Popovich and others in the Spurs

organization with his energy and diligence. He tackled all the usual menial intern tasks,

both basketball-related and otherwise. Buford later said, only partly in jest, that he might

have learned as much from the Emerson kid as the kid learned from the Spurs exec. He

was promoted quickly up the ranks in San Antonio, where his signature moment came

In 2001. By then serving as assistant GM(general manager), poring over videos with

Buford, Presti encountered a point guard from France who hadn’t shown well in his

workout. But Presti edited together a highlight reel of the guard’s play, influencing the

bosses to bring him back for a second look. Tony Parker — six-time NBA All-Star, four-

time NBA champion and 2007 NBA Finals MVP — was still on the board when the

Spurs made the final pick of the first round.

The boss’ choice: Lenny Wilkens, Hall of Fame player and coach, was serving as

SuperSonics president in 2007 when the team needed a new GM. So he interviewed

former Orlando exec John Gabriel and Atlanta assistant GM Gary Fitzsimmons.

Meanwhile, team owner Clay Bennett — who had been a partner in the Spurs —

interviewed Presti by himself. Guess whose opinion mattered most. Bennett even

demoted Wilkens to “vice chairman” to eliminate any doubt about Presti’s newfound

power.

MV3: Three weeks after Presti got his GM job in Seattle, he grabbed Kevin Durant

second in the 2007 Draft, right after Portland took eventual flop Greg Oden. A year later,
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he zagged when others zigged, picking UCLA’s Russell Westbrook fourth overall. In

2009, Memphis’ choice of Hasheem Thabeet left James Harden on the board for Presti

at No. 3. That trio not only helped OKC to the Finals in 2012, but also and perhaps even

more impressively, earned the NBA’s highest individual honor — Most Valuable Player

— in 2014 (Durant), 2016 (Westbrook) and 2017 (Harden). No NBA exec has ever

pulled off anything comparable

Some people who aren't so smart will say anyone can do what Sam Presti has done,
thanks to Kevin Durant. These people are wrong for a hefty sack of quality reasons, but
two stand out above the others: 1) financial constraints, 2) evaluating talent.

Let's talk about the second reason first. Sam Presti did not just draft Durant, sit back
and kick his feet up on a coffee table. In 2008 he took Russell Westbrook with the fourth
pick (ahead of Kevin Love and Brook Lopez) and Serge Ibaka 24th overall. In 2009 he
selected James Harden with the third pick.

These decisions should never be overlooked. For example, the year after LeBron
James was drafted, Cleveland selected Luke Jackson with the 10th pick while Al
Jefferson, Josh Smith and Jameer Nelson were still on the board. The following year
Cleveland did not have a draft pick. It effectively wasted what could've been a special
time.

Presti was patient, careful and smart enough to understand the importance of building a
team through rookie contacts instead of rushing into Durant's golden years. It was wise
team-building, and the results have proven his strategy correct.

Another reason why Presti is the league's best general manager is his ability to navigate
through financial constraints. If Presti's bosses held enough financial clout to disregard
the luxury tax (like the Los Angeles Lakers or Brooklyn Nets), he'd have no reason to
trade Harden, arguably the best shooting guard in basketball.

Instead, he was forced to make a difficult decision, and he did it the best way possible.
Now the Thunder are still built to be title contenders through Durant's prime, and as the
Heat descend, Presti's positioned his team to rise.
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