As my friends can attest, I’m not always the smoothest guy around. But even I know to make a little small talk before trying to score a number.
Apparently, the Spurs just rushed to the point when they were set up with Ohio State’s Deshaun Thomas. Jason Lloyd of Ohio.com:Thomas said teams asked him plenty of difficult and interesting questions during his interview process at the combine. But the most interesting, he said, was the fact the Spurs’ first question was for his cell phone number and his e-mail address. He gave them the e-mail, but not the phone number.
“I can’t go around giving it out to everyone,” Thomas said Thursday with a laugh. “Now if they want to draft me, I’d be happy to give it to them.”
Sadly, a silly little incident like this might actually hurt Thomas’ draft stock. Too many teams fear players who question authority and prefer someone who will blindly follow their commands. Ben McLemore could probably get away with safeguarding his phone number, but a marginal prospect like Thomas might get passed over because of this.
Maybe the next team that interviews Thomas will play it a little cooler. And maybe Thomas will realize giving up his phone number is worth the increased chance of going higher in the draft.
