Hennigan travels the world for his Spurs
http://www.telegram.com/article/2008...11/1009/SPORTS
Rob Hennigan grew up a Celtics fan in Worcester, and now he’s director of basketball operations for the San Antonio Spurs.
Obviously, he’s rooting for a Celtics-Spurs NBA Finals.
“That would definitely be special,” Hennigan said, “and probably a pretty good series.”
Hennigan, 25, helped St. John’s High win a state basketball le in 2000, became the all-time leading scorer at Emerson College in Boston, then joined the Spurs as an intern 3-1/2 years ago.
Since his promotion to director of basketball operations in September, Hennigan has helped the team prepare for the draft by scouting college and international players and overseeing the team’s regional scouts.
Hennigan scouts three or four college games most weeks, but he travels overseas about four or five times a year. After spending eight days in Australia, he flew 14 hours from Melbourne to Los Angeles, then flew four more hours to Boston to attend a conference yesterday at MIT on the use of statistics in sports. Hennigan flew back to San Antonio this morning to attend staff scouting meetings so he won’t be able to attend the Spurs’ only regular-season appearance at the Garden against the Celtics at 1 p.m. today.
Hennigan attends only 10-15 of the Spurs’ 41 home games, but he does travel with the team in the playoffs. So if the Celtics play the Spurs in the finals, he’ll come to Boston.
Hennigan’s father, Bob, has also switched his allegiance to the Spurs.
“He definitely has more Spurs gear than anyone else in the state of Massachusetts,” his son said. “He’s probably up there for the state of Texas. My mom can’t stand it. That’s all he wears. They go out to a nice dinner, and he has a Spurs fleece on.”
Bob, an attorney, said he doesn’t wear his Spurs jacket to court.
“Just in case the judge is a Celtics fan, I have to be careful,” Bob said.
Rob Hennigan can appreciate what Danny Ainge did to turn the Celtics around.
“It’s proven that veterans win championships,” he said. “I think they have a legitimate chance to win the whole thing.”
Hennigan owns rings from San Antonio’s NBA championships in 2005 and 2007. Injuries, however, have slowed the Spurs after a 17-3 start this season.
“We’ve had a lot of health issues this year,” Hennigan said. “It’s been a little frustrating in that sense. We have a chance if everyone can get healthy, but I’m not sure we’re the team to beat at the moment.”
Over the past three years, Hennigan has scouted players in Australia, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Finland, Russia, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Turkey and Brazil.
He survived dining on Baltic Sea fish pizza in Helsinski, but had a lot more trouble digesting a Turkish meat and bread dish that had him sick to his stomach throughout a 13-hour flight from Istanbul to New York.
“It was probably the worst day of my life,” Hennigan said.
For the most part, Hennigan enjoys the travel, even though it can get lonely because he does most of it by himself. His wife, Marissa, accompanies him only on occasion.
“It’s a lot of fun, no question about it,” he said. “I really do enjoy it. Getting a chance to travel to some great places, meet different people, learn more about the game and the way it’s played over there. I try to soak up as much culture and history of the places that I can.”
Interpreters aren’t usually necessary at games because coaches and players overseas speak at least some English. The language barrier becomes more of a problem away from the basketball court.
“I’ve had a few problems,” Hennigan said, “but I try to learn how to hail a taxi or order a sandwich before I go, and I can get by with that.”
Hennigan raved about the Australian beaches, prompting the question: “Is that where he did his scouting?”
“I try to find the most exotically beautiful location and hope that people play basketball there,” he joked.
The Spurs rely heavily on international scouting. The last four players that they drafted in the first round were from overseas, Tiago Splitter of Brazil, Ian Mahinmi of France, Beno Udrih of Slovenia and Tony Parker of France. Splitter is playing in Spain this season, but the Spurs hope he’ll join them next year. Manu Ginobili of Argentina was a second-round choice in 1999.
On a typical day of college scouting, Hennigan will wake up at 6 a.m. to catch a flight, check into a hotel, make background checks on players, exam box scores and other statistics, then scout the game. The next day, he’ll do it all over again.
“Scouting is a future business,” Hennigan said. “It’s about projection, it’s about forecasting a player’s talent and how it will evolve five or 10 years down the road. You really need to have your mind in fast-forward mode. You’ve got to be really focused and locked in when you watch these guys.”
Hennigan estimates he has compiled reports on about 1,000 prospects, some as long as a book, others merely a paragraph. The Spurs staff goes over the reports, but Gregg Popovich, Spurs executive vice president of basketball operations and head coach, has final say on all draft picks.
Is this the guy we can blame for drafting Marcus Williams?
Seriously though, sounds like he's on the Sam Presti career path. I know he's friends with Presti ... I wonder why he didn't take Hennigan with him to Seattle?
With the way the Spurs have drafted domestically recently, Hennigan might as well stay overseas where there isn't as much scouting compe ion.
I was just going to post this article.
I should have known timvp would be all over it long before I woke up this morning.
For good or bad I thought the article was worth posting.
Thanks timvp.
We need to find someone with the same level of commitment to stay at home for us.
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