Presti apparently has some basketball experience at the D3 level (how much he played I don’t know), but that doesn’t necessarily translate into awareness of athletics as sporting competition. He comes across as an astute businessman, not an aware athlete. He’s got the confounding vocabulary as you well illuminate. But what empathy he has, as a high level competitor, for competition, for the ever-pressing drive to play at apex level to win, doesn’t seem evident at all. For athletes to hear that their manager who determines program trajectory is hopeful their effort is “developmental” at best is disheartening and disingenuous. “I want you to play well,” it sounds like he’s saying, “but not so well that you win often enough to look like a competitive team.” To an athlete, that sounds like a coach who’s happy enough with mediocre play and only seeks to posture for the next great revenue opportunity. That kind of non-encouraging presence is ugly and sucks! Athletics, sadly, at the professional level (and now increasingly so at the collegiate level with NIL), has become sport for money, not for the glory of competition and athletic performance. It’s a wonder that any athlete would want to come to OKC to play for the Thunder. Thanks for another stimulating column, Clay.
Unfortunately the last time I saw him we were both in the cancer treatment room at a northside hospital.
He could’ve had a private room but instead his wife and Billy chose to sit out amongst the rest of us.
The nurse attending him had attended me several times in the past and I ask her do you know who that man is she said only by his name who is he. All I could say was that’s Billy Tubbs. She still didn’t know who it was. My wife would not allow me to talk to him and his wife going through cancer it takes all those unwritten society rules and throws them out the window. But I listen to my wife and I adored the conversations and the love that Billy and his wife shared with each other from a distance.
Two weeks later he was gone from this earth but I bet wherever he is now they’re playing fast break.
Presti apparently has some basketball experience at the D3 level (how much he played I don’t know), but that doesn’t necessarily translate into awareness of athletics as sporting competition. He comes across as an astute businessman, not an aware athlete. He’s got the confounding vocabulary as you well illuminate. But what empathy he has, as a high level competitor, for competition, for the ever-pressing drive to play at apex level to win, doesn’t seem evident at all. For athletes to hear that their manager who determines program trajectory is hopeful their effort is “developmental” at best is disheartening and disingenuous. “I want you to play well,” it sounds like he’s saying, “but not so well that you win often enough to look like a competitive team.” To an athlete, that sounds like a coach who’s happy enough with mediocre play and only seeks to posture for the next great revenue opportunity. That kind of non-encouraging presence is ugly and sucks! Athletics, sadly, at the professional level (and now increasingly so at the collegiate level with NIL), has become sport for money, not for the glory of competition and athletic performance. It’s a wonder that any athlete would want to come to OKC to play for the Thunder. Thanks for another stimulating column, Clay.
Billie Tubbs
Nobody does it better…….. Bond 🎶
I agree 100% with you on Billy Tubbs!!!
Unfortunately the last time I saw him we were both in the cancer treatment room at a northside hospital.
He could’ve had a private room but instead his wife and Billy chose to sit out amongst the rest of us.
The nurse attending him had attended me several times in the past and I ask her do you know who that man is she said only by his name who is he. All I could say was that’s Billy Tubbs. She still didn’t know who it was. My wife would not allow me to talk to him and his wife going through cancer it takes all those unwritten society rules and throws them out the window. But I listen to my wife and I adored the conversations and the love that Billy and his wife shared with each other from a distance.
Two weeks later he was gone from this earth but I bet wherever he is now they’re playing fast break.