The Athletic: This started as a story about a pickup basketball loss. It turned into something bigger

Sam Presti still remembers a 1990s pick-up game that began with a simple ask at the Lexington Club in suburban Boston. The 17-year-old Emerson College prospect got matched with Jim McCaffrey, a former Holy Cross star guard drafted by the Phoenix Suns about a decade earlier, and lost badly in an empty gym. After the game, McCaffrey stayed to coach Presti, offering defensive positioning tips and encouragement. Decades later, in 2023, Presti read Bill Bradley’s Values of the Game and felt compelled to reconnect. McCaffrey didn’t recall the Lexington Club, but shared his own story, sparking a mentorship chain reaching back 80 years.