Jeff Teague will not have waited long to find his conversion. The veteran point guard had already had a fine nose when he joined Milwaukee during last season in order to win, even in a minor role, his first NBA champion ring, at 33 years old.
After savoring this accomplishment, the question of the sequel quickly arose and Jeff Teague, clearly losing momentum, concluded that his career as an NBA player had come to an end.
“I was wondering if I was going to continue playing or not. I had an injury for which I didn’t really know if I should have surgery. I didn’t want to have the operation, so I thought, ‘I don’t think I’m going to try to play this year’. And I started looking at different options”, he explained.
The promise kept by Travis Schlenk
It was therefore natural that he turned to the Hawks, his favorite franchise, in which he is still the 5th best passer in history (2,771) and the 7th best interceptor (632) and where he has was hired as a regional scout. Already when he returned to the Hawks in 2020, he had this conversion in the back of his mind and had informed the president of basketball operations of the franchise, Travis Schlenk.
“When I came back for my second stint with the Hawks, I told Travis Schlenk that I wanted to find out about working in the front office. I asked if, once I was done playing, he would be willing to try to help me. And he told me, when I arrived the first day, that once I finished playing, if he was still there, he would take care of me. So I held out my hand to him and he kept his word.added the 2015 All-Star.
The leader will initially be required to follow the NCAA from Indianapolis, his hometown. He will therefore have the opportunity to scrutinize the Big East and the Big Ten, even if he refuses nothing for the time being.
“I’ve traveled all over the world to watch basketball so I think I have an eye for who can play at a certain level. The Hawks gave me the opportunity to try my hand in this area at the regional level. I’ll go everywhere, Kentucky, Louisville, all over the Midwest, really. Being based in Indianapolis, there are plenty of colleges around within a two hour slot where you can go to see a lot of college games from different conferences. It is a good place for scouting”.
A good place to start, anyway.
