by Mark McDermott
Kyle Lu knew about the uncertain nature of the gig when he got it. A lot of turnover occurs within the National Basketball Association. Players get traded, coaches get fired, and management changes. As an 11-year-old kid from Manhattan Beach with only a little over a year under his belt working for the Golden State Warriors, Lu wasn’t under any illusions his job was secure when his boss left the organization last May.
Onsi Saleh, the Warrior’s vice president of basketball strategy, departed to become assistant general manager for the Atlanta Hawks. It had been Saleh, at the behest of legendary former General Manager Bob Myers, who had brought Lu into the organization. It was Saleh who’d given him assignments, such as assessing and recommending NBA draft prospects, including the Warrior’s eventual 2023 second round pick, the underrated Trayce Jackson-Davis. It was Saleh who personally introduced his young intern to owner Joe Lacob, who took Lu to the VIP lounge at the Chase Center last year for an encouraging talk. At that game, Lu sat courtside, next to Saleh and Lacob.
Saleh gave his young protege a heads-up, of course, before news of his departure went public. And he offered to bring Kyle along, to file his scouting reports for the Hawks. His mother, Candice Lu, broached that idea with her son.
“Do you want to go with Mr. Onsi?” she asked.
“Absolutely not,” Kyle shot right back. “I don’t want to do this for the Hawks.”
“He was really upset about me even asking that,” Candice recalled. “Like, ‘No, why would you even ask me that?’”
Lu is a Warrior kid through and through. His parents, Candice and Culbert, are both originally from the Bay Area and are big Warriors fans. Kyle has been rooting for the team for as long as he can remember, meaning that his earliest memories coincide with the Warrior’s dynastic run beginning nearly a decade ago.
But his lifelong fandom is not what sets Kyle apart, nor why he caught the attention of the Warriors’ top brass. He has a gift for statistical-based analysis, and since the age of 8 has been determined to become economically self-sufficient. His past ventures include lemonade stands, selling Prime drinks to his then-classmates at Pacific Elementary, and using his savings to start an investment portfolio that included Apple, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Under Armour. The latter is the company whose shoes are worn by Warriors star Steph Curry, but Kyle’s investment wasn’t sentimental. He thought Curry’s signature shoe release would greatly increase Under Armour’s valuation, and he was right.
His analytical gifts extend to basketball. When he was 10, he started thinking about careers. Kyle is an avid basketball and baseball player, but statistically, he knows the chances for a pro career are small. So he began thinking about team management. He identified the teams he’d like to work for – the San Francisco 49ers (his favorite football team), UCLA (where his parents went to college, and met) Stanford, and the Golden State Warriors. His mom, a tech consultant, found e-mails for each organization, including the direct e-mail for Bob Myers. Kyle e-mailed him, and Meyers actually read the e-mail the same day it was sent. He saw something unusually perceptive in the e-mail, and asked Onsi to follow up the following day.
“Hundreds of people hit us up every year, whether through e-mails or Linkedin or whatever,” Saleh said in an interview last year. “But never anybody like this. It was just, ‘This kid is way ahead of the curve.’ This kid is really interesting, and I am going to write back to him, I don’t want to miss anything…It was intriguing because Kyle’s thoughts were more original than most of the university students who come looking for a job.”
When Saleh spoke with Kyle on the phone, he was blown away. The trade deadline was approaching, and Kyle, still slightly miffed the Warriors had traded their best defender, Gary Payton III, was unapologetically clear in what he saw as the team’s flaws.
“Our perimeter defense is bad,” Kyle told Saleh.
Though it certainly wasn’t due to the advice of a 10- year-old wiz kid, the Warriors traded to reacquire Payton. Kyle’s next assignment was to evaluate college prospects for the upcoming NBA Draft. Saleh was impressed with all three of Kyle’s recommendations.
“There’s a logic, a reason, behind how he sees the game, like valuing size and defense – really, more than some NBA coaches do,” Saleh said.
But Kyle also sees beyond the stats and into the makeup of the player — that is, who they are, as people, is revealed in how they play the game. Great teams are not just made up of great players, but those who play for each other, and not just themselves. As Kyle’s dad, Culbert, has observed as his son’s sometime basketball coach, Kyle is a point guard who does exactly this.
“Basketball does kind of reveal your character,” Culbert Lu said. “Are you there to pick up your teammates? Or are you there for yourself? Kyle has always been one to pick up his teammates.”
Trayce Jackson-Davis was a big man from Indiana who wasn’t high on most scouts’ draft boards but who possessed all the qualities Kyle looked for — size, shooting, defensive acumen, and unselfishness.
“Trayce Jackson-Davis has fallen off in a lot of people’s mock drafts but I think he is still a great player,” Kyle wrote in the report he filed with Saleh. “The 6-foot-9 forward averaged 20.9 points per game while managing to haul the 7th most rebounds in Division 1 basketball.”
On draft day, a celebratory scream was emitted at the Lu house in Manhattan Beach. “I remember the moment he found out, because I hear running up and down the hallway, and screaming,” Candice said. “Like, what is happening? Is something on fire?”
“They picked my pick. They picked my pick!” Kyle screamed.
Jackson-Davis’s fit with the Warriors turned out to be near-perfect. He became a rotational player his rookie year and even started at times. Kyle watched last season with a special satisfaction, although disappointed by the overall performance of the team. But at the end of the season, Saleh left, and Kyle turned down the opportunity to continue working with him for the Hawks. Saleh, ever gracious, connected Kyle with Ryan Atkinson, the Director of Team Development for the Warriors. The draft was fast approaching, so Kyle emailed his report, once again recommending three prospects. First on his list was UCLA big man Adem Bona.“ He is a very athletic player who can use his athleticism to block shots that other people wouldn’t be able to,” Kyle wrote. “He also is a lob threat out of the pick and roll just like Trayce Jackson-Davis.” Next was another under-the-radar prospect, Quenten Post. “He is a 7-footer out of Boston College who can be a pick-and-pop 3-point shooter,” Kyle wrote. “I think he would be a good fit since we need height, and Coach [Steve] Kerr likes big men who can space the floor. He is also a great interior defender and can block shots.” Finally, Kyle suggested Weber State’s Dillon Jones: “He is a tank who is only 6-foot-5, but averaged 10 rebounds last year. He is a great passer with insane reflexes to make unorthodox passes.”
Kyle sent the email June 21, five days before the draft, which took place June 26 and June 27. He didn’t hear back, which was particularly concerning, given the fact that Saleh was gone. Maybe, the Lu family thought, Atkinson wouldn’t be quite as open to working with someone so young. Then again, draft week is the busiest time of the year for NBA front offices. The Lu family, which also includes Kyle’s big sister, Kelsey, a Mira Costa sophomore, flew to Europe that week. Kyle kept checking his email, finding no response. Finally, Culbert realized the error — the email address was slightly off. Kyle emailed again on the 25th. The first day of the draft came and went, and two of the players Kyle had recommended, went to other teams in the first round. Then, during the drafting of the second round the following night, Atkinson wrote Kyle. He loved his picks, and hinted that the only one remaining on the draft board, Post, was of interest to the Warriors.
“You have a good eye,” Atkinson wrote. “Dillon Jones went to OKC in the first round yesterday. I agree with you on Post…he fits our style of play plus we need a big. Let’s follow up after the draft. Keep the ideas coming man!”
Due to the time difference in Amsterdam, Kyle couldn’t stay up late enough to see the Warrior’s pick, which was 52nd. But he woke up the next morning to discover the team had drafted Post.
“I was really excited, like running up and down the little, small hotel alley,” Kyle recalled.
“He woke up finding the news and was, again, running around so happy, just waking me up and screaming,” Candice said. “And then I saw Quenten Post, and looked him up, and I’m like, ‘That is not who I thought you would pick.’ It’s not what I imagined, not a guy like Trayce. He just looked like this kind of big ‘Opie’ kind of guy, right?”
By this time, the family was exchanging texts with Atkinson. Candice conveyed her son’s excitement.
“Let’s go!” Atkinson replied. “We did it.”
Post, coincidently, is from Amsterdam. The Lu’s just happened to be in the hometown of the player Kyle had recommended and the Warriors drafted right as it happened.
The next month, the basketball club team Kyle plays on traveled to Las Vegas for a tournament that coincides with the NBA Summer League, which is where rookies get their first taste of professional action, and other young players work to refine their games. Kyle and his dad were able to meet Atkinson, who was affable and encouraged him to keep up the good work. As luck would have it — or perhaps basketball mysticism, which can be summed up in the oracle-like adage, “Ball don’t lie,” — Post made his NBA debut that night. And of course, he killed it, coming off the bench to hit two three point shots in a Warrior victory over OKC.
“Kyle was pretty excited about it,” Culbert said.
Kyle, who is 12 now, and in 6th Grade at Chadwick School, continues to work for the Warriors. Though it’s unlikely any other sixth graders are filing reports for NBA teams, this relationship is in keeping with the Warriors way of doing things. They are a team, and an organization, built by underdogs. Their franchise cornerstone, Steph Curry, was a skinny kid from a small college who had bad ankles and willed himself to becoming arguably the best shooter and among the best players in NBA history. Myers was a walk-on basketball player at UCLA (who Culbert Lu actually slightly knew, as friends of his roommate) who ended up on the cover of Sports Illustrated when the Bruins won a national title (lifting the championship trophy with star guard Tyus Edney) and teammates dubbed “Forrest Gump” for his uncanny habit of being in the right place at exactly the right time. Atkinson was driving trucks on the overnight shift for Target when he obtained his entry into professional basketball, as an unpaid intern for the Sacramento Kings G-League team in Reno. Saleh likewise had an atypical background for the NBA, hailing from Edmonton, Canada, before studying law at Tulane and — while attending NBA Summer League, for fun — introducing himself to legendary San Antonio Spurs General Manager R.J. Buford. He was shocked when Buford took him on as an intern.
“R.J. Buford is one of my best friends in the world, and Bob Meyers is one of my best friends in the world,” Saleh said. “And specifically, those two guys, they just essentially push forward this culture of curiosity and character and unselfishness.”
In his first meeting as a Spurs employee, Buford said something that stuck with Saleh. “Listen, here in San Antonio, we don’t care where the answer comes from. We just want the right answer,” he recalled Buford telling the staff. “So literally, if you are an intern, or you are a GM, you have a voice. It’s about the process of finding the right answer, leaving no stone unturned.”
Can the answer come from a 12-year-old? The Warriors didn’t make the selections they did based solely on Kyle’s input. But his input was heard.
Prior to the February 6 NBA trade deadline, Atkinson asked Kyle to send along his thoughts on the team’s needs. Kyle’s priority was to add shooting.
“We really needed a second scorer, because Steph is doing all the work,” Kyle said.
He sent a report suggesting a few possible trades, including for the Nets’ Cam Johnson, an underrated but very polished scorer, and two possible big and bold moves — for Zion Williamson, the prodigious but oft-injured New Orleans Pelicans big man, and two “all-in” trade ideas for Kevin Durant or Lebron James.
“He actually had the words, ‘Notice that I didn’t say Jimmy Butler, but that’s because I don’t think he’s good for the clubhouse culture,’ but then he erased it, and just angled for Durant back,” his mother said.
The Warriors traded for Butler, and are 5-1 since his acquisition. Kyle, as befits an open-minded scout, will be happy if his initial hunch is proven wrong. And he believes Butler has made the team a contender again.
“We are really good now,” he said. “And Jimmy Butler is really good both on offense and defense.”
The Lu family had planned a four day trip to San Francisco, and it just so happened this year’s NBA All-Star Game, on February 16, was at the Warriors arena. Kyle and his dad went, and also attended some of the festivities, including a meet-and-greet with Trayce Jackson-Davis. Culbert was able to briefly tell Jackson-Davis a little bit about his son’s story, and his recommendation that the Warriors draft him. The big man was delighted by the story; perhaps he would have been slightly less so if he knew that Kyle had also recommended Post, who has outperformed all expectations and taken minutes from Jackson-Davis. But the player was genuinely happy to meet this budding young talent evaluator. They had a photo taken together.
“He was really tall,” Kyle said. “But he was really nice.”
Whatever the team’s fortunes this season or in the future, Kyle’s parents are grateful for the opportunity the Warriors have given their son. The organization has mentioned the possibility of a more formal, paid internship when he is of age. But his parents say Kyle has already won, regardless of where it goes from here.
“With the world the way that it is right now, with so many uncertainties, to have your child walking around going, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s my path. Why wouldn’t I do this? I’m already doing it.’ That’s pretty special, and that feels pretty good as a parent,” she said. “And even if for some reason he doesn’t go this route, he just has confidence now. And I think that’s what you always want for your kids, that they feel good about themselves. So if nothing else, that is what this experience has given Kyle, which is something fundamental for any kid to walk through life with, that sense of, ‘I did something, I did something well, and someone is proud of me.’ And to do it in the world of sports that he’s so passionate about, with a team that he would run to the moon and back for — it’s pretty special.”
Culbert said that sports, at their best, offer lessons that transcend the games themselves. Culbert was the son of immigrant parents and recalled feeling somewhat ostracized in the community he grew up in. Nor did his family have much time for or familiarity with American sports while in pursuit of their own American Dream. But Culbert found community in sports, and as he watches his son’s ongoing adventure, he continues to learn, right alongside Kyle.
“It’s incredible, right?” he said. “Because, for myself and Candace, we want him to be the best version of himself, to be a good person and a good human above everything else. But just watching him grow and develop and mature is one of the greatest joys of my life.”
Another joy is watching his daughter Kelsey, who is a budding star in her own right as a dancer and choreographer.
“I want Kyle and Kelsey both to have every opportunity to do whatever it is that their passion lies in and expose them to as much as possible. Whatever they take to, that is what we try to encourage and develop. Kyle, from a really early age, just really loved sports, just like his dad….I feel extremely fortunate that his interests are so similar to mine. It’s like having a 12 year old best friend. It’s been that way for many years already, and it may not always be that way. But I’ll enjoy the ride for as long as I can.” ER
Another fine article by Mark McDermott!