Tim MacMahon Oct 22, 2026, 07:00 AM ET

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Joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009

Covers the Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Mavericks

Appears regularly on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM

ONE DAY IN the early stages of their relationship, Thunder general manager Sam Presti asked Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to stop by his office to pick up a book.

"I was expecting some long book, like full of pages and stories and a bunch of chapters and wisdom and stuff like that," Gilgeous-Alexander told ESPN on the eve of his season-opening win over the San Antonio Spurs .

"Have you ever read 'The Tortoise and the Hare'?" Presti asked Gilgeous-Alexander, who was a bit confused by the question.

Surely, Presti couldn't have been referring to the classic childhood fable originally composed by the ancient Greek storyteller Aesop. Gilgeous-Alexander figured there must have been "a real book for, like, grown-ups" with the same title.

No, Gilgeous-Alexander told Presti, he hadn't read that book.…