University basketball welcomes Tom Konchalski, revered in sport but unknown beyond

The legendary explorer Tom Konchalski was standing next to one of the many crowded basketball courts inside the Sewall Center on the campus of Robert Morris University. It was easy to spot. It can be difficult to put it in a crowd of players, but among the few journalists who have gathered to watch the action at five-star basketball camp, a person standing 6-6 would surely rise above a crowd.

Konchalski was also above the other figurative explorers. Few people have the same eye for talent, which is why it separates a good basketball player from high school from an excellent prospect of college basketball. The Hall of Fame coaches asked for his advice. All-Star players remember how he discovered them.

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That day, in July 2000, I was visiting Pittsburgh with my wife to spend a few days with family and friends. She was shopping with her sister and our niece, so I had an afternoon to sneak into the five-star basketball camp and enjoy the rim scene. But I only had that afternoon. We would meet later for dinner, and missing was not an option.

"You must see this young man, LeBron James," Konchalski told me, pressing me to his side.

"Really? OK, when are you playing? What field?

"He won't be playing until tonight. You have to see him," he said.

The urgency with which he made this statement made it clear that I would be missing something extraordinary, even historic. It was as if the New York Times theater critic had told him that there must be a performance of "Hamilton" at the Public Theater, before hitting Broadway and everyone found out .

Even many years ago, however, I had been married long enough to understand that an afternoon room pass had expired by the end of the day. afternoon. Konchalski seemed almost defeated. He knew how he would have enjoyed this moment.

At 73, Konchalski retires from his working life publishing the HSBI report, the scouting service to which most of the best college basketball coaches have subscribed, and which has taken him on a journey over 40 years and thousands of kilometers, none of which have driven.

Born in New York, Konchalski never owned a car and used public transportation for much of his travel. He also didn't bother to learn how to use a computer and he doesn't carry a cell phone. He composed his exploration reports using a typewriter. He compiles them for coaches to review and use, not for public distribution.

He fell in love with the game while watching Connie Hawkins and finished his last reports in a year that will produce future stars like Cade Cunningham and B.J. Boston. In between, he explored Michael Jordan, who is currently celebrated in "The Last Dance", a long-running documentary series on ESPN. Jordan entered a five-star camp session on Konchalski's recommendation and finished as the best player.

"Tom Konchalski is one of the kindest and most sincere souls in basketball," Villanova coach Jay Wright told Sporting News. “He really lived for others, always berating the great players, respecting each player. I think he is the most honest and accurate talent tester of all time. One of a kind, it will never be matched.

Early in Konchalski's career, he helped Tennessee find Ernie Grunfeld and Bernard King in New York. The "Ernie and Bernie Show" continues to be one of the most revered periods in the history of Basketball Flights, offering a SEC championship in 1977 and five wins in six attempts against SEC Kentucky. Shortly after this success, in 1979, Konchalski decided to quit his job as a full-time school teacher and explorer for Howard Garfinkel, the creator of the five-star camps that owned HSBI. Konchalski subsequently purchased the service from the man known in basketball as "Garf" and has continued until now.

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Hofstra coach Joe Mihalich told Sporting News that he had followed Konchalski's work: "Only for 40 years! I'm so sad. There may be more screening services, but there will never be another Tom Konchalski. He is an icon and he is really loved by everyone in basketball. It is the end of an era. "

For the past decade, basketball writer Adam Zagoria has been Konchalski's "driver and roommate", primarily at the annual Nike EYBL tournament at the Peach Jam tournament in North Augusta, South Carolina.

These are long days, with four to six games taking place simultaneously and often taking place from 9 a.m. until prime time. Konchalski is so respected that Zagoria would often be frustrated by simply trying to leave the community center gymnasium when the games are over.

"It's 11 am at the end of the day and you want to go out and have food … and it takes another 30 minutes because everyone wants to talk to him and hang out with him," said Zagoria. he said to SN. "I'm not going to lie: it's getting a little frustrating.

"Last year, in the parking lot, we met Jamal Mashburn. He was there to watch his son. Jamal's face lit up when he saw Tom, he couldn't have been happier to see him and shake his hand. So we spent an additional 10 to 15 minutes in the dark, listening to Jamal talk about how Tom first discovered him and was one of the first people to ;assess. "

Konchalski has an incredible memory of the players he has explored; The players who had been on his reports would tell how, even decades later, he would recognize them and immediately tell which school they had attended and some of their former teammates.

He also has an encyclopedic knowledge of the game. When he returned last winter from the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Massachusetts, a three-day tournament for the best high school teams, Konchalski and Zagoria stopped at a restaurant and went started discussing the provenance of the Montverde Academy team last season, with Cunningham and Florida State. Scottie Barnes, ranked among the best high school teams in history.

Konchalski told Zagoria that the top three high school teams were the Power Memorial teams with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor) from 1963 to 1965. He also cited the 1970 Power Memorial team with Len Elmore, Jap Trimble and Ed Searcy, in the early 1980s, Baltimore Dunbar teamed with Reggie Williams, Muggsy Bogues and David Wingate and the Jersey City St. Anthony team in 1988 which included Bobby Hurley, Terry Dehere and Jerry Walker.

Zagoria thought it was worth sharing it with the world, so he put Konchalski's thoughts on Twitter.

Almost immediately, Zagoria received a response from Oak Hill Academy coach Steve Smith, eager to find out where the best Oak Hill teams could join this discussion. When Konchalski spoke, the basketball world was listening.