Rockets GM Daryl Morey Tweets Photos Of Past, Present NBA Stars Playing Chess
Tuesday, September 16, 2014 1:37 pm
Written by: Jonathan Crowl
Chess doesn’t have a long tradition in NBA circles, but you can’t blame Daryl Morey. The Houston Rockets GM, already known for his cerebral approach to basketball, tweeted out some photos Monday of NBA stars playing chess against grandmasters and child prodigies alike.
Morey was tweeting to promote an event he sponsored at a Houston-area magnet school, where Morey and other professionals from across the Houston sports community came together to play chess with sixth and seventh-grade students.
Rockets players Trevor Ariza and Troy Daniels attended the event, as well as Susan Polgar, the world’s first female chess grandmaster. Ariza teamed up with one of the middle-schoolers to take on Polgar, and the two sides traded pieces deep into the match:
Ariza’s photo doesn’t hold a candle to the black-and-white picture Morey had posted earlier, which shows a slender boy taking on three NBA stars at the same time. A little Internet research reveals that the photo is of 11-year-old Bob Seltzer taking on then-Celtics Bill Walton, Danny Ainge and Kevin McHale — the latter of whom is the Rocket’s current head coach — in three separate matches at once.
Full article here.
Great players.