A Proud Dad in the Stands, Omar Minaya Is Still a Scout at Heart

When Justin Minaya and fourth-seeded Windfall take the courtroom in Buffalo on Thursday for his or her first-round N.C.A.A. event sport towards Thirteenth-seeded South Dakota State, there might be one keenly scout within the stands.

Omar Minaya isn’t solely Justin’s father; he’s additionally a former basic supervisor of the Mets and the Montreal Expos. At the moment a scouting advisor for Main League Baseball, Minaya, 63, additionally has a watch for basketball expertise. He enjoys going to varsity basketball video games, not solely to look at his son, however to scout potential professional expertise from different groups. Typically, he even relays tricks to his associates in N.B.A. circles.

“I feel he’s truly fairly good,” Justin, a 22-year-old ahead for the Friars who additionally performed baseball rising up in North Jersey, stated in a cellphone interview. “He’s at all times preferred athletic guys, so I’m fairly positive when he sees athletic basketball gamers which have size, that may do loads of totally different athletic issues, it’s type of the identical manner as he was scouting in baseball.”

Omar Minaya had a short-lived profession within the minor leagues, in addition to stints in skilled leagues in each his native Dominican Republic and Italy. After accidents ended his enjoying profession, he joined the Texas Rangers in 1985 as a scout, serving to to signal Latino gamers similar to Sammy Sosa, Juan Gonzalez and Ivan Rodriguez.

He finally held prime entrance workplace jobs with the Expos after which the Mets, the place he signed pitcher Pedro Martinez and outfielder Carlos Beltran to free-agent contracts.

In 2005, he made one other key deal, bringing Jerry Krause to the Mets as a scout. Krause, who died in 2017, had a scouting background in each baseball and basketball, having labored for the White Sox earlier than changing into the architect of the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, who gained six N.B.A. championships within the Nineties.

Minaya at all times revered Krause’s skill to determine expertise, particularly in two sports activities.

“Jerry was all about athletes and make-up, guys who have been good teammates and had “I.Q.,” Minaya stated. “Guys that knew how one can play. Principally, issues that weren’t quantifiable. It’s important to have the quantifiable with the non-quantifiable and mix that in, and that’s management.”

Minaya now has the ear of N.B.A. higher-ups, like Knicks Common Supervisor Scott Perry and Gersson Rosas, whom the crew employed earlier this 12 months as a advisor, although Minaya has no official relationship with the Knicks.

When Minaya was with the Mets, he additionally employed T.J. Barra, at the moment the director of basketball analysis and innovation with the reigning N.B.A. champion Milwaukee Bucks, who served as a knowledge guru. Minaya was additionally shut with the longtime New York Metropolis basketball scout Tom Konchalski, who scouted Justin in highschool and died in 2021 of prostate most cancers. Minaya is now concerned with the Thomas C. Konchalski Basis, which awards highschool scholarships to younger basketball gamers.

Rosas, 43, stated Minaya “performed an enormous position” as a mentor on condition that each are from Latin America. (Rosas was born in Colombia; Minaya is from the Dominican Republic.)

“He was truly a man I appeared as much as very early on for me in my trajectory, being the primary Latino G.M. in baseball,” Rosas stated in a cellphone interview.

The 2 developed a friendship, and after Rosas grew to become the Minnesota Timberwolves’ president of basketball operations in 2019, he introduced Minaya in in the course of the pandemic for “a number of conversations” with the employees about minority management, scouting and crew constructing.

“He cherished hoops, I cherished baseball and it was a possibility to attach with a really clever and attention-grabbing man,” Rosas stated. “I’m an enormous believer you may be taught from different sports activities.”

Rosas stated Minaya steered balancing out a younger roster of stars like Karl-Anthony Cities and Anthony Edwards, each No. 1 general draft picks, with veterans — the identical manner Minaya had introduced in Martinez and Beltran with the Mets.

“In Minnesota, we have been reshaping the route, we have been doing it with younger expertise, however we additionally needed to be selective in regards to the guys that we introduced in to assist outline our character and our DNA,” stated Rosas, whom Minnesota fired final 12 months. “And we did a few of these issues right here final summer time with guys like Patrick Beverley and Taurean Prince.”

One participant Minaya watched in faculty has rapidly turn into an N.B.A. contributor: When Justin performed for South Carolina within the Southeastern Convention, Omar was an enormous fan of Herb Jones, a 6-foot-7 Alabama ahead whom New Orleans chosen thirty fifth general in final 12 months’s N.B.A. draft. He’s averaging 9.6 factors and three.9 rebounds per sport with the Pelicans and is a participant Justin patterns his sport after, Omar stated.

When Justin transferred to Windfall earlier than this season, it meant he was becoming a member of the Massive East Convention, the place his mother and father Rachel and Omar might watch nearly each sport, together with at native colleges like St. John’s and Seton Corridor.

“Me and my associates joke about it, he’ll come to observe, and he’ll be sitting within the stands not close to anyone, wanting like a scout,” Justin stated with fun.

Whereas watching Justin play within the Massive East event semifinals Friday from part 102 of Madison Sq. Backyard, Omar was impressed by Creighton’s 7-foot-1 sophomore heart Ryan Kalkbrenner, the Massive East Defensive Participant of the 12 months. He additionally likes Justin Lewis, a redshirt freshman ahead for Marquette who averaged 17.1 factors and seven.9 rebounds per sport and was among the many league’s greatest gamers this season. Marquette and Creighton are among the many six Massive East groups within the N.C.A.A. event, and each play Thursday in Fort Value.

Omar Minaya additionally shares insights on gamers and crew constructing with Windfall Coach Ed Cooley, who was named the convention’s coach of the 12 months after his crew gained its first Massive East common season title in program historical past after being picked within the preseason coaches’ ballot to complete seventh.

Requested if he thought Minaya might make the leap to N.B.A. scouting, Cooley didn’t hesitate.

“100% he might,” he stated. “No 1, he is aware of the skilled ranks. No. 2, he is aware of how one can consider. Listening to him, he’ll know what he’s in search of in a specific group so far as the character trait, the DNA trait, the ability set. The man, you’d suppose he’s a basketball G.M., not a baseball G.M.”

Omar Minaya is one among a number of well-known fathers who may very well be in Buffalo for video games this week: Connecticut Coach Dan Hurley is a son of the Naismith Corridor of Famer Bob Hurley, coach of St. Anthony Excessive in Jersey Metropolis, N.J., till its closure in 2017, whereas his assistant, Luke Murray, is a son of the actor Invoice Murray.

“It’s at all times fairly cool, too, when my dad talks about someone got here as much as him and requested, ‘Aren’t you Justin Minaya’s dad?’” Justin stated. “All my life I’ve been listening to I’m Omar Minaya’s son. For him to listen to ‘Justin Minaya’s dad,’ I do know that meant rather a lot to him.”

Nonetheless Windfall’s season ends, Justin, who’s averaging 6.4 factors, 5.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals, has to determine whether or not to return to campus subsequent season or try to start out an expert profession.

So what does his father, the basketball scout, take into consideration his possibilities?

“I feel he thinks I’ve an ideal likelihood,” Justin stated, “whether or not it’s enjoying within the league or enjoying abroad. I do know he thinks that I can do it and having that perception from him, it means rather a lot.”