While the big story of this year’s Sloan conference was the appearance of former President Barack Obama, there were as usual a few nuggets of information and anecdotes from the past that will appeal to Houston Rockets die-hards.
In the “Inventing Modern Basketball” panel (watch), Rockets general manager Daryl Morey recounted the words of former Assistant Sam Hinkie, who compared the passing of the ball to Yao Ming in the low post to “getting 100 in skee-ball.” Shane Battier’s post-entry passing ability was one of the primary reasons that the Rockets traded for him in 2006 and he quickly became the Rockets’ most effective weapon in delivering the ball to Yao.