The BlackBerry development, though, undeniably stung. Rosas, you see, is one of four lead decision makers for N.B.A. teams known to still do the bulk of their business on a BlackBerry. Rosas, Houston’s Daryl Morey, Oklahoma City’s Sam Presti and Toronto’s Masai Ujiri compose the confirmed quartet. Milt Newton, Milwaukee’s assistant general manager, is another Blackberry devotee. Perhaps more will become known after this article hits, but Rosas described the adherents as “a small community.” BlackBerry stopped producing its own phones in 2016 but had a licensing agreement with a Chinese company (TCL Corporation) to keep making them, which led to the KEYone model in February 2017 and the KEY2 in June 2018. According to the Feb. 3 announcement, no new phones will be released through TCL after Aug. 31.
Sam Presti Rumors
Rosas, you see, is one of four lead decision makers for N.B.A. teams known to still do the bulk of their business on a BlackBerry. Rosas, Houston’s Daryl Morey, Oklahoma City’s Sam Presti and Toronto’s Masai Ujiri compose the confirmed quartet. Milt Newton, Milwaukee’s assistant general manager, is another Blackberry devotee. Perhaps more will become known after this article hits, but Rosas described the adherents as “a small community.”
Royce Young: Dennis Schroder on trade rumors, says it’s not a distraction, just a business. Also says, “The GM Sam Presti is probably the best GM I’ve ever seen. He’s an honest person.”
Barring an end-of-season collapse, OKC should make the playoffs. But that doesn’t mean it’s looking for an addition to carry it deeper into the postseason. Nor is the Thunder entering tanking season. “What we want to do is be playing meaningful basketball at the end of the year,” Thunder general manager Sam Presti said back in September. “We want to try to do everything we can to put ourselves in position to optimize the group that we have, and there’s just no shortcuts to that.”
Either way, decisions will have to be made on the front office after the season. Both Mills and GM Scott Perry have separate mutual contract options for next season, according to a source, meaning they’d have to be picked up by both themselves and the Knicks to return. Dolan would love to pry Masai Ujiri out of Toronto, but there’s skepticism it can done with the team president under contract. Such a deal would be very complicated if the Raptors play hardball. Another name being mentioned around the league is Thunder president Sam Presti. Rockets president Daryl Morey is expected to be a free agent but is saddled with the China controversy. According to ESPN, Morey’s tweet supporting Hong Kong cost the NBA between $150 million and $200 million in Chinese-driven revenue. The league can say whatever for PR purposes but the preference is Morey’s departure.
There were countless text messages and phone calls and then two in-person meetings at Drake’s house in Hidden Hills, California. (Drake had befriended Leonard during his season in Toronto and let Leonard — who lives in San Diego — stay there when he was in Los Angeles for free-agent meetings.) By July 1, they had decided to put their plan in motion: Leonard told the Clippers that he was interested in playing for them but only if they could improve their roster by adding an All-Star-caliber player like George. The next day, Leonard met with George in Los Angeles. Shortly after their meeting, George’s agent placed a call to Thunder president Sam Presti, asking if he would look for a trade to help George and Leonard play together.
Presti was stunned, but he said he’d consider it. His only request was to meet with George face-to-face before proceeding. He flew to Los Angeles on the evening of July 2 and saw George on July 3. George reiterated the request and talked through his reasons for wanting to make such a move — he wanted to play with Leonard but mostly wanted to play at home — just a year after re-signing with the Thunder. It wasn’t what Presti wanted to hear, but he respected the way George went about it. Presti said he’d look for trades that would help him play with Leonard and made sense for the Thunder.
