Tom Konchalski Wiki – Tom Konchalski Biography
Tom Konchalski was one of the country’s most respected high school basketball scouts and a legendary figure in the Northeast. The HSBI Report was written on Konchalski’s typewriter and was mailed out 16 times a year the more than 200 college coaches who subscribed to it. It served as a scouting report, evaluation and rankings list hundreds of prospects.
“Tom just tried to help everybody,” Iona College coach Rick Pitino told the New York Post. “He was just a very humble, kind, special man. … If you asked him about a player, he would give you the mother, father, nephew, nieces, he would know every single person in the family, and he would know the connections, what you would have to do to get the kid.”
He was known to many as “The Glider” because of his ability to slip into a gym unnoticed and assess players on his trademark yellow notepad. Konchalski was also known for his incredible memory and the fact he never had a cellphone, VCR or answering machine. His detail in describing players in his HSBI was the stuff of legend as well.
Of former NBA star Jamal Mashburn, Konchalski wrote in the HBCI that Mashburn had “the body of a blacksmith and the touch of a surgeon.” Future All-NBA guard Penny Hardaway, he said “deals like Trump, dishes like Julia Child and delivers like Domino’s.” He also once said of Kenny Anderson’s college prospects: “Only the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are ahead of him.”
There was no web version of HSBI, no Twitter account giving real-time updates. Konchalski didn’t own a cell phone or a computer or even an answering machine. The one time I spoke with him, some ten years ago, about the basketball program at Fordham (his and my alma mater), I was told by a colleague to try his number at a certain time in the morning, so as to not miss him while he attended daily Mass.
In a crowded scouting marketplace, Konchalski carved out a niche for himself, telling New York in 2010 that “I don’t have any grand plans to conquer the world. I go to the games I want to go to and if that can support me, fine.”
He also stood out by being, by absolutely all accounts, a good and decent guy — a rare thing in the often-sleazy world of recruiting. Konchalski’s friend Seth Davis, a reporter for the Athletic, used to call him “the only honest man in the gym,” and in the hours following Konchalski’s death, the biggest names in the sport praised not just his contributions to basketball, but his character. Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski called him “a saint.” Villanova’s Wright called him a “good soul.” Kentucky’s John Calipari called him “one of the best human beings I have ever come across in my lifetime.”
In his remembrance, Krzyzewski also said that Konchalski deserves a spot in the Basketball Hall of Fame. He’s eligible for the first time this year.
Tom Konchalski Age
Tom Konchalski was 74 years old.
Tom Konchalski Cause of Death
Tom Konchalski died on Monday, Feb 8th, 2021 at the age of 74. He spent 43 years evaluating college basketball prospects. The last several days, there was an outpouring of support on social media from current and former players, coaches, reporters, and scouts — basically anyone who had crossed paths with him.
“Tom Konchalski was a local scout, but he was a national treasure,” Barry “Slice” Rohrssen, the former Manhattan head coach and Pittsburgh, Kentucky and St. John’s assistant and a close friend of Konchalski, told The Post in a phone interview. “He was as genuine a human being as anyone is going to meet and find in their life.”
“There was never anyone coaches trusted more than Tom,” Villanova head coach Jay Wright, a two-time NCAA champion, told the Washington Post last year upon Konchalski’s retirement. “He never had an agenda, except to give every kid he possibly could a chance to be seen and scouted. When he talked — or wrote — you paid attention.”
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