SAN ANTONIO — Mo wept.
The stoic exterior Maurice Cheeks displayed for 11 years as the Sixers’ point guard melted away as he left the practice floor Wednesday. Mo wears an Apple Watch to Oklahoma City Thunder practices, so he recognized the number from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame when his watch buzzed. He doesn’t know anyone else from the Springfield, Mass., area code, but he grew to recognize it. He’d been a finalist seven other times.
Cheeks, a Thunder assistant coach, ignored the call. The 2018 class was stacked with point guard finalists such as Jason Kidd and Steve Nash, so Cheeks figured the call wasn’t urgent.