Missouri forward Michael Porter Jr. emerged from his Hawks interview at the draft combine with a big smile as he closed the hotel door behind him.
Was Porter surprised by how much the Hawks already knew about him before he entered the room? The question elicited an even bigger smile by Porter.
"Yeah!" Porter said, eyes widening. "They knew a lot about me. They were just trying to get to know me. They had some speculation about some stuff they observed when they visited me (at Missouri) that they asked me about. But they were all real, real nice dudes just doing their jobs."
Judging by Porter’s response, the Hawks struck the balance with him that assistant general manager Jeff Peterson said team officials seek in all their interviews. Their goal during the 30-minute sessions is to put players at ease and try to get to know them while also asking them potentially uncomfortable questions about their backgrounds.
However, Peterson said the interviews are “just not the right time” for putting players under pressure, and that’s why Hawks officials usually try to disarm players with jokes and laughter.
“We don’t want to make it an uncomfortable environment too much,” Peterson said. “We want it to be a good feeling. But at the same time, we need to know the truth. We need to figure out who we are drafting. Because at the end of the day we are investing millions of dollars and time and energy in these guys. It’s important.”
If any players didn’t know the stakes are high before, it’s likely that they realized it by the time they left the hotel where interviews took place. A few of the players participated in individual workouts for teams before this week, but this is the first time they saw the scope of a league-wide event and their central place in it.
On Wednesday, the lobby at the hotel for interviews buzzed with conversations among NBA executives, scouts, coaches, agents, and media. It’s much quieter on the floor where interviews are conducted. It would be a bizarre scene in any other context.
Several tall, lanky young men dart from one room to another. NBA front-office personnel walk the hallways, from icons like Jerry West to the more anonymous aides to GMs. It’s a place where Clippers coach Doc Rivers bumps into Duke star Grayson Allen in the elevator and exclaims: “I just met you!”
That's another strange element of the combine interviews: In most cases, players and team personnel really are meeting for the first time. Contact between NBA team personnel and prospects is prohibited before players declare for the draft or finish their final season of college eligibility. (A few players at the combine had individual workouts with teams beforehand.)
Everything teams knew about most players before the combine came from second-hand sources such as high school coaches, teachers, counselors, AAU coaches, and college coaches. Peterson said team officials even look at feature stories in newspapers for clues about what prospects are like.
It’s not until the combine that teams actually get to talk to most of the top prospects.
“It’s weird because you never get their perspective on things (until now),” Peterson said. “It’s neat to actually sit down across the table and talk to them and get to know them as humans. What’s their family situation like? What (do) they like to do? You feel like you know them, you’ve been watching then the whole time, but you don’t really know them.”
Of course, it’s hard to get to know anyone in a 30-minute meeting, but teams do their best at the combine. Teams can and do set up interviews and workouts with prospects outside of the combine. But it’s possible that those 30-minute sessions can be the only time teams get to personally interact with some players before drafting them.
Before the combine teams submit to the NBA a list of 30 prospects they’d like to interview, ranked by priority, among the 60-plus invited players . The league assigns 20 players to each team for 30-minute time slots each. Wednesday is the busiest day: Each team interviews 10 players, with back-to-back meetings for six hours with only a brief break in the middle.
Villanova junior guard Donte DiVincenzo, a catalyst for his team’s NCAA title run, walks out of his interview with the Hawks and ducks into the hospitality suite. He seems unsure if he has time to speak to a reporter who approaches him — he nervously glances at his phone, another interview awaiting — before stopping for a brief chat.
DiVincenzo, 21, is older than many of the prospects at the combine. Maybe that’s why, at least outwardly, he appears more stoic and self-assured than others.
“It wasn’t nerve-racking at all,” he said of his Hawks interview. “It was a comfortable setting. I was just myself. I wasn’t trying to go by a script in any way. I wasn’t trying to say the right things. I was just being myself. I think it went really well.”
When players enter the Hawks’ interview room, they are greeted by five front-office personnel: Peterson, GM Travis Schlenk, director of player personnel John Treloar, director of basketball operations Mike McNeive and college scout Rod Higgins. A sixth person joins those five from a rotating list of Hawks personnel.
Peterson said that he’s sure the interviews can be an “eye-opening, intimidating” experience for the players. Keep in mind, too, that for many of these players, it’s the first job interviews they’ve ever had. They’ve been prepped for it by their agents and other advisers, but how much can you really prepare for a first real job interview for a position that potentially pays millions of dollars and comes with intense public scrutiny?
Porter said these were his first job interviews. What was his plan?
“Just look them in the eye, answer their questions honestly and let them know who you are,” Porter said.
Duke guard Gary Trent Jr. was the last interview scheduled for the Hawks on Wednesday. He’s projected to be a first-round draft pick like his father, Gary, who went 11th overall to the Bucks in 1995.
Tracked down near the elevator on his way out, Trent Jr. said he appreciated the chance to hear what teams have to say and letting them “feel me out.” He said the pre-draft process has been “super exciting” for him.
At that moment, though, Trent’s voice was weak and his eyes droopy. He was fatigued after 10 interviews in one day, but he said, it’s all part of fulfilling his dream.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long, long time now,” Trent said. “All my life I’ve been working for it, and now that I’m finally here, it feels good.”
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