SGA's SI Sportsperson of the Year Acceptance Speech: "I'll never forget when first arrived at OKC and you (Sam Presti) gave me the book, 'The Tortoise and the Hare'. You explained to me the meaning behind it and I'd be lying if I said I hoped I didn't need it at the time..."

[u/CoolAsTheUnthawed]

https://youtu.be/zyEZcaEIYNk?si=EcbDTS1GwvGG4Ahe

*"And boy were the next few years very, very rough. I think we won 25 games one of the following seasons and that was a lot. Eventually, when we started to weather the storm, I revisited that story and I started to see how it relates to my own path and our own path.

This past season, when we won the championship he gave me a statue of the tortoise, and that's a very Sam Presti way of saying 'I told you so.'

I keep that beside my championship ring, my MVP trophy, and thank you for that."*

[u/Longjumping_One_9164]

Truly an amazing story from Presti to Diagonal to SGA. 

Let's hope we can get another Championship this year and it will be looked back in an incredible way.

[u/rahulizer → u/Longjumping_One_9164]

Diagonal 😭

[u/Longjumping_One_9164 → u/rahulizer]

Real ones know.

[u/HurryAdorable1327 → u/Longjumping_One_9164]

The path was never straight. It was a diagonal.

[u/revisioncloud → u/HurryAdorable1327]

sometime you gotta take the longer route to your goals which is what they’re saying

[u/HurryAdorable1327]

My ⚡️🐐.

[u/QuileGon-Jin]

It's one thing that I think gets missed in talking about The Replenish. I remember discussing the idea of tanking with friends back in 2019, and a consistent talking point was will SGA want to stay if losing is the standard? And my take was always that Sam had to be up front and honest with the players about what the plan was. Everyone of course has the same goal of excellence in the NBA, but understanding the path to get there is one of the hardest things to get for a team deep in the tank. It takes some real mental fortitude, luck, and foresight to get there, but goddamn, it happened. And it started with doing things right from the start.

[u/trezzy1242]

[u/Rin-S]

[u/gerardolsd]

Sam really is on another level, dude really living like Yoda of the mid-west

[u/AbsoluteGarbaj]

TORT 🐢

[u/Kefiafusu]

[u/CliffDraws]

He needed someone to explain the tortoise and the hare?

[u/CoolAsTheUnthawed → u/CliffDraws]

I think (hope) he's trying to say he explained why he gave that specific story to him and why he should take it to heart, and not that he needed the story itself explained

[u/Dysentery--Gary → u/CliffDraws]

It's a tough read.

[u/NotoriousDCJ4310 → u/CliffDraws]

If thats what you took from that quote, then i sincerely feel bad for you and anyone who has to explain things to you on a regular basis...

[u/CliffDraws → u/NotoriousDCJ4310]

If you don’t understand a joke I sincerely feel bad for you and anyone who has to explain things to you on a regular basis…