Editor’s note: Mike Conley is one of the best sources of information in the NBA.
Entering his 17th NBA season, the 36-year-old Timberwolves point guard has seen it all and has the knowledge and willingness to explain what’s taken place and what’s to come with the media and, thus, the fans. That breadth of insight and analysis extends from the on-court Xs and Os to team dynamics and development.
Conley is just as good at explaining why two teammates came to blows in the middle of a timeout as he is on what the team needs to do to decode a switch-heavy defense.
So who better to sit down with twice a month to tackle different topics ranging from the Timberwolves to the NBA at large to, well, Mike Conley, than Conley himself.
This is the seventh installment of Conley’s Corner.
After Minnesota suffered a fourth-quarter collapse Friday night in a loss to Orlando, in a game when Mike Conley was 1 for 9 shooting from the field, the Timberwolves point guard stood by his locker and fielded questions for nine minutes about what went wrong and how the Wolves can fix it.
And he answered every query — including ones that were quite redundant — in his usual thoughtful, insightful manner.
It was a media session that was nothing less than what the local press core, and, frankly, NBA reporters around the country, have come to expect from Conley.
If you have a question, you can ask it to Mike Conley. And he will answer it to the best of his abilities, no matter the day or situation. That’s true of so few professional athletes, who either don’t want to or don’t care enough to stand in front of the cameras and recorders when the chips are down. It’s easy, and sometimes even fun, to stand in front of the cameras and recorders after a win.
Doing so after a tough loss or a strange event — like Game 82 last season when Rudy Gobert swung at Kyle Anderson and Jaden McDaniels swung at a concrete wall — is something entirely different. Yet it was Conley who talked through those situations with class and clarity. Just like he did in Utah, when the topic of a potentially strained relationship between Gobert and Donovan Mitchell was the hot topic for weeks on end.
Somewhere along the way, Conley became the unofficial spokesman for any team on which he plays.
“I don’t know when it happened. But it happened with the culmination of teammates I’ve had in my career. You’ll get teammates who don’t want to talk at all, and it’s something that people are afraid of. And I’ve had those teammates, and (the media are) all like, they’ll go to him first, this guy, then they’ll look at me and I’ll just be sitting there, halfway trying to see who they want,” Conley said. “And they’re like, ‘Let’s talk to Mike. He won’t like swing at us or get angry with us in this time.’ Because my temperament — win, lose or draw — has always been kind of even keel. I guess it’s a little bit less off-putting for people to come approach you, so it helps the media come to me.”
So they do, time and time again. Conley works hard to develop relationships with media members, as well as everyone else he comes across, to ensure all interactions are respectful and productive.
Conley has a deep understanding of the role of media and the importance of the media-player relationship. He said it’s an “all-encompassing” part of the sport at large. The media, particularly in sports, are often viewed as the megaphone that amplifies the team’s messages to the fan base.
So when Conley takes the time to inform the public of the team’s issues or approach, he’s educating the masses.
“I haven’t been up to date as much on the social circle and what people are saying on the outside. But I would hope us being able to give a little more insight on what we’re thinking or what we’re trying to accomplish on a certain play or what our mindset was going into a timeout or down one (point), down two (is beneficial). Just kind of giving those insights can skew people’s opinions another way,” Conley said. “Because there’s times I watch something and I have no idea what a team is thinking — why they did that or this — and then you hear about it, it’s like, ‘Oh, OK, it makes sense that he thought this was going to happen, and something else happened.’ So I think it does help.”
Conley’s superpower is the ability to inform without assigning blame. He can diagnose and highlight the team’s shortcomings without it ever feeling as though he’s throwing a teammate under the proverbial bus.
“The way I lead a little bit is, in everything I do, I’m probably going to talk about myself more than somebody else. Like if there’s something we’re struggling with, I’m going to say that I didn’t do A, B or C, and as a team we can be better at this, instead of pointing out that there might be, specifically, one or two guys that did something in particular for that game, I don’t need to call them out by name,” Conley said. “I can just reference something I did, and then go from the team’s broader perspective and keep it at that. Because that’s basically what it needs to be. I don’t need to attack anybody. I’m just answering the question without having to give somebody a name.”
His savvy and demeanor does lead to Conley being the go-to guy for a postgame quote. But his media responsibilities extend far beyond that. Just this week, Conley did a post-practice scrum interview with local media for a few minutes. Upon the completion of that, a visiting national reporter asked if he had a few extra minutes to chat. Of course he did, he always does. The two spoke for at least 10 minutes.
Conley does fairly extensive 1-on-1 interviews every couple of weeks for this series. He also does a biweekly interview with KFXN-100.3’s Dan Barreiro for his wildly popular afternoon drivetime show.
The voice of the Timberwolves is just as much Mike Conley as it is radio play-by-play man Alan Horton, the television duo of Jim Petersen and Michael Grady or even coach Chris Finch. Which is surprising for a player who said he was “a little closed off” growing up. And Conley still describes himself as a “private” person. He doesn’t share much of his personal life on social media.
“But, as I’ve gotten older, I’m like, ‘Man, who’s it going to hurt for me to give my knowledge or give my insight or this story or that story to people?’ Because, most of the time, I feel like it’s a positive light that I’m trying to give out,” Conley said. “I don’t do stuff just to do it. I don’t video myself getting out of a cold tub. But I will, if somebody asks questions about it, I’ll say, ‘Yeah, I get in a cold tub for three hours a day’ or just start going off on it. I think it’s been a good line to walk.”
The amount of media Conley successfully executes is a coup for a Timberwolves team just now starting to carve out its fair share of the media market, both locally and nationally. But is there such a thing as too much? Conley has a number of personal and professional responsibilities. The media obligations are just piled onto the plate. Yeah, Conley noted, at times it can feel like a lot.
“Because you kind of feel like you have to be on a lot for that,” he said. “But when it starts to become more of your makeup and who you are and part of your character, then at times when you feel overwhelmed, it’s like, ‘Ah, it’s just me. I can easily do this. Go talk to them, sit down, have a conversation, have lunch, whatever it is.’ And you know you’ll be fine and nothing will happen from it. So just telling yourself that this is who you are.”
He is the guy who will speak when it’s not easy to do so. He will stand up and take questions so unwilling teammates do not have to.
“There’s legitimately been times (in my career) where my teammates — the best guys on the team — will be like, ‘Man, I’m not talking to them. You do it.’ They’ll go to the PR people and be like, ‘I’m not doing it. Have Mike do it,’ ” Conley said. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spoken at half court pregame to go vote or Black History Month or for anything that pertains to the public and trying to raise awareness. It’ll go down the line to like four other guys first, who will all decline, and they’ll be like … ‘Mike, do you want to do it?’ And I’ll be like, ‘Alright, I’ll do it again, for like the 17th time this year.’
“I’ve kind of been stuck being that guy. Luckily, this year, I’ve got KAT stepping in there a few times, so I’m thankful for that.”
And everyone else is thankful for Mike Conley.
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