Susan Bible wrote a detailed profile of Oklahoma City Thunder General Manager Sam Presti for HOOPSWORLD:
It’s hard to fathom how Sam Presti, a man barely in his 30s and with no prior GM experience, was given so much responsibility, not to mention how he so successfully meets, even exceeds, all expectations.
Born Sam Prestigiacomo in Concord, Massachusetts, Presti grew up a huge Celtics fan. He was a Dual County League All-Star in basketball at Concord-Carlisle High School, where former coach John McNamara called him “the hardest-working kid I ever saw come through here.” He graduated from Emerson College in Boston in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in communications, politics and law. Presti was the first Rhodes Scholar candidate in the school’s history. Law professor Mike Brown, now retired, said Presti was the hardest-working student he had in his 38-year teaching career.
At Emerson, Presti, a 6′2″ shooting guard, was a four-year basketball letterman at the Division III school and served as the team’s captain in his junior and senior years. He led his team to two conference wins and was twice selected to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference all-tournament team. In his capacity as team captain, he required every teammate to sign a contract agreeing to play hard or face removal from the team. And he once famously took six charging fouls in a game. “He was the same in practice as he was in games. That’s what separates him from other players I’ve coached,” said longtime Emerson coach Hank Smith. “He had such a tremendous work ethic and sense of team. There’s nothing he’s not prepared for. He’s a perfectionist. He’ll work until it’s right.” The day Presti was hired by the Spurs, Smith told his wife that he would be named a GM in the NBA by age 35 (he beat that by five years).
In the summer of 2000, Presti met Spurs general manager, R.C. Buford, at a basketball camp in Aspen, Colorado. The two hit it off, and Presti accepted an internship for $250 per week. “About a week after he was with us [in San Antonio], I made that decision that he was going to be a star,” Buford recalled to Percy Allen with the Seattle Times. “Just because he has a great combination of humility and intelligence and work ethic that you just knew he couldn’t fail.”
Click here to read the rest of Bible’s article.
