Over the last few months, a Boston Globe letter resurfaced and made the rounds online. A 16-year-old Sam Presti was the author of the letter. In it he vouched for the Boston Celtics to draft Jason Kidd in 1994.
“The rebuild of this once-massive dynasty must begin now,” Presti wrote. “We need to clean house; let players go and clear up salary room for our draft pick. Although the draft is not incredibly deep this year, I do see a future star on the horizon.”
While researching Pipeline to the Pros, we found the earliest document of Sam Presti's team-building philosophy – a letter to the editor in the Boston Globe on 4/10/94.
Presti argued it was time to "clean house," "clear salary room," and draft JKidd
He was just 16 years old. pic.twitter.com/F3OCtaOgwJ
— Ben Kaplan (@bkaplan4) April 19, 2024
That didn’t happen. Kidd was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks with the No. 2 pick, and the Celtics settled for Eric Montross at No. 9.
But the letter foreshadowed Presti growing into one of the best general managers in the league. The 46-year-old has been the Thunder’s GM since 2007, building two separate title contenders with a short rebuild sandwiched in the middle.
Presti was asked about the letter in his end-of-season press conference. With a hint of embarrassment, he linked his piece of work to social media usage.
“I think it’s very evident that I was acting like a Twitter user in 1993. I was frequently wrong but never in doubt,” Presti joked. “I had 100% confidence in my opinion with 10% of the information. I was an expert with no expertise.”
Presti revealed he wrote the letter as a high school sophomore and was surprised it was published by the Boston Globe. He said he talked to Kidd — who’s now Dallas’ head coach — about it before OKC’s second-round series against the Mavericks.
“It’s super humbling and to talk to Jason Kidd, he brought it up to me before the series started because someone had asked him about it,” Presti said. “It was great because I remember he opened my eyes while I was watching college basketball and some of the stuff he was doing.”
Presti might’ve been humbled about the experience, but his younger self was right about Kidd. He had a Hall of Fame career while Montross washed out as a backup big.
