Apparently NBA Draft interviews have a decidedly Law & Order feel to them now:
Ty Lawson, the point guard out of North Carolina who is seen as a middle to late first-round pick, went into his interviews expecting to be asked hard questions and wasn’t disappointed.
“They were grillin’ me man,” said Lawson, who added that he is scheduled to work out with the Kings soon. “They ask you everything. One person asked me, ‘Would you rather go to a team with the 29th pick and sit on the bench behind two players or would you rather go to a team in the second round, and get picked up by a bad team and play a lot?’ It’s things that make you think.”
In the case of his interview with the Memphis Grizzlies, there were questions that made Lawson think the team executives knew more about him than he knew about himself.
“One person (with the Grizzlies) was like, ‘Hey, I heard you have an uncle?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I (have) five of them,’ ” Lawson began.
“Then he said, ‘One’s a musician.’ I said, ‘I don’t know that.’ He said, ‘Does he cut hair?’ I was like, ‘I have no idea.’ The guy said, ‘He’s my barber.’ So I called my dad and asked him, and he was like, ‘Yeah that’s him.’ ”
Lawson went through this process last season so the fact he thinks the questioning is tough is a tad shocking. Then again if some random NBA exec started telling me things about my uncle that I did not know which was later confirmed by my father, I would probably be a little freaked out. The first question about where he preferred the bench versus playing was all about testing a player’s attitude. Will he be a team player willing to accept any role he is given or does he want to be on the court? Is that because he is just ulta-competitive or a ball hog? All of these guys should memorize Ed Davis’ answer to almost every question he was asked this past season: I will do whatever is asked of me.
