At an outdoor table sat the brass of the three-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors: owner Joe Lacob, GM Bob Myers, coach Steve Kerr and head trainer Rick Celebrini. They peppered Wiseman with questions and Wiseman, as unintimidated by the company as he was by the expensive steak on the plate in front of him, calmly answered.
Do you like to go to parties, one of them asked.
“I don’t go to parties,” he replied.
He told them about growing up with a single mom who worked multiple jobs in the projects of Nashville, where he’d sometimes have to finish his homework under the lights of the school bus she drove. At one point, Wiseman turned the interview around on the men, all of them more than twice his age. He asked them how he would fit with the team’s culture and what role he would play on the court.
“Clearly impressive,” said Myers, recalling that dinner three months later. “I wonder how I would perform as a 19-year-old with a bunch of 40-, 50-, 60-year-olds at dinner.”