One morning in Seattle, then-Washington men’s basketball coach Lorenzo Romar was touring a group of recruits around campus. He brought them to Markelle Fultz’s apartment and heard the smooth sound of Sam Cooke’s voice, singing a song released 34 years before Fultz was even born.
I was born by the river in a little tent …
He stopped and turned to the 18-year-old.
“I’m like, ‘What do you know about that, partner?’” Romar said.
But when he thought about it, the fact that Fultz loved oldies made perfect sense.