NBA exec is the large Lilliputian each arts org wants | John Moore | Arts & Leisure

Daryl Morey isn’t like every other NBA Staff President.

Simply hours earlier than the Philadelphia 76ers have been to tip off their new season on Tuesday, Morey really took a cellphone name from a rando arts columnist in Denver. To speak about theater. Over the subsequent half hour, he twice apologized for having to interrupt away from the decision to take care of pressing hoops enterprise, just like the negotiation of a doable free-agent signing that was taking part in out in real-time as we have been speaking. However, get this: He referred to as again each instances.

NBA crew presidents don’t take calls from rando arts columnists in Denver — a lot much less name them again. Twice.

Then once more, NBA crew presidents don’t typically help the making of reside theater, a lot much less hilariously bizarre reside theater like “Small Ball,” a brand new indie musical that an adventurous little native theater firm referred to as The Catamounts is opening subsequent Sunday (Oct. 30) at Denver’s Buntport Theater.

Morey is the “commissioning producer” of “Small Ball,” which he truthfully believes has Broadway aspirations. Then once more, he can afford to assume large. He runs a crew that entered the 2022-23 season with a participant payroll of $149 million. (Not so small ball in any respect.)

“I’m extremely proud to be part of this musical, and I simply need the most individuals to come back see it as doable,” he stated.

In different phrases, Morey is strictly the sort of unicorn the humanities world wants extra of.

“Daryl is that this enormous determine in skilled basketball, and but, what he actually needs to do is assist this small theater firm in Colorado produce this wild and eccentric musical,” stated The Catamounts Inventive Director Amanda Berg Wilson. “No matter early love he had for music and theater has caught with him — and he’s actually making issues occur within the arts.”

Morey, a lifetime musician and proud theater nerd, grew up in Medina County, Ohio, about 30 miles south of Cleveland, the place he attended a cliche-ridden highschool straight out of “The Breakfast Membership.” He was an anomaly, starring on the basketball crew whereas additionally jamming in Honors Orchestra, taking part in the trumpet, keyboards and euphonium. A spotlight of his high-school life was taking part in within the pit for the varsity’s large manufacturing of “Les Misérables.”

“I’ve all the time beloved theater, however there have been very excessive divisions in my college,” Morey stated. “You didn’t actually cross over out of your group a lot. I used to be really extra welcomed by the theater group than the sports activities people. You needed to hew by means of the norms much more than folks do now.”

Morey has been equated to the Billy Beane (“Moneyball”) of hoops, utilizing deep knowledge dives to revolutionize the fashionable NBA. However as Morey was build up an expert report that now stands because the fourth-best in NBA historical past amongst executives with at the least 1,000 video games of expertise, he by no means deserted his love of the humanities. Throughout his earlier stint as the final supervisor of the Houston Rockets, he was additionally a board member for an organization there referred to as The Catastrophic Theatre, whose mantra seems like a sports activities crew’s: “We Will Destroy You.”

That’s the place, in 2017, Morey put his inventive sensibilities — and his cash — into the idea of “Small Ball,” written by playwright Mickle Maher (“There’s a Happiness That Morning Is”) with music by Anthony Barilla and Merel van Dijk, whose tastes align with former collaborators just like the schizophrenic genius Daniel Johnston and Pixies frontman Frank Black.

“Small Ball” started when the top of that Houston theater firm requested Morey, “What a couple of basketball musical?” and it wasn’t arduous to get him excited. Maher, himself an avid basketball fan, leapt on the probability to jot down the script.

“I really feel lucky to have met Mickle Maher, who was clearly developing with one thing so wonderful and inventive that I felt honored simply to be concerned,” stated Morey, who didn’t simply write a verify and take his seat on the sidelines. He rolled up his sleeves and applied the subsequent section of the creation course of in precisely the identical manner he prepares the 76ers for the annual NBA draft of the yr’s prime faculty gamers.

Right here’s the way it went down: Morey and Maher invited 5 groups of composers to use for the job of writing the music.

“We employed every group to compose one scene every,” Morey stated. “And we paid all of them for his or her work, as a result of I absolutely consider in paying artists.”

Then Morey, Maher and some different members of the core inventive crew independently ranked every contestant — similar to making a listing of your 5 prime draft picks.

“You’d be shocked how completely different our lists have been,” Morey stated, “however the entire course of ended up being overkill as a result of (Barilla and van Dijk) stood out.”

The musical premiered to a kind of confused enthusiasm in Houston, however one factor was clear: Nobody had ever seen what Morey calls “a non-musical musical” like this one earlier than. That’s, except of one other musical that riffs on each Scottie Pippen and “Gulliver’s Travels” and options basketball gamers who’re 6 inches tall. 

So what’s ‘Small Ball?’

The surreal and proudly absurd story revolves round Michael Jordan. (No, not that Michael Jordan.) This M.J. is a melancholy journeyman who’s discovered himself bouncing round varied obscure worldwide hoops leagues. He’s just lately grow to be the star of the Lilliput Existers, who aren’t doing so properly, which isn’t stunning contemplating a standard-sized basketball is greater than its gamers. Like his namesake, this Jordan is a complete ball hog, however reduce him some slack: “The rationale M.J. received’t go the ball is as a result of he doesn’t wish to crush his teammates,” stated Morey. “It’s a nod to Michael Jordan being criticized early in his profession for by no means passing, but it surely’s actually a metaphor for a man who isn’t participating with the world.” And it exhibits on the scoreboard.

You assume Nathaniel Hackett has it robust? Think about what these post-loss press conferences should be like. The playwright does, to nice comedian impact, having every kind of enjoyable with that important and common but uniquely unusual sports activities ritual.

“Think about you might be giving a gross sales presentation to an organization — and instantly after you fail at that gross sales pitch, you might be escorted into one other room the place you might be requested to elucidate to a room full of individuals precisely why you simply tousled,” Morey stated. “That’s a fairly uncommon factor in life. We had many NBA gamers come to see the play in Houston, and people press-conference scenes simply broke them up laughing.”

However you didn’t must be a basketball insider to get the humor of “Small Ball,” Morey stated, as a result of ultimately the play is basically about greater than basketball. Extra just like the love of basketball. 

“I believe it’s wonderful to have the ability to have fun the game with out it having to be ‘Hoosiers,’ ” Berg Wilson added. 

Comply with the bouncing ball

Morey will likely be in Chicago together with his crew on Saturday night time, however he plans to reach in Denver in time for the play’s opening efficiency at 4 p.m. Sunday on the Buntport Theater. He believes within the play that a lot. And he believes in The Catamounts, which he stated was additionally a fastidiously curated selection for the second firm to stage the story, directed right here by former Creede Repertory Theatre Inventive Director Jessica Jackson.

Morey’s crew is this Denver run as the subsequent step in a inventive course of that may take a few years to finish. However he’s not timid about proclaiming his final aspirations.

“I’m very biased, however ‘Small Ball’ is healthier than a number of the issues I’ve seen on Broadway, so I will likely be daring and say yeah … perhaps Broadway sometime,” he stated. “We’ll see.”

So why Denver subsequent? And why The Catamounts?

“I simply need passionate theater folks concerned on this challenge,” Morey stated. “We spoke to a number of theater teams, and The Catamounts actually stood out as individuals who know tips on how to inform a narrative.”

As Berg Wilson remembers: “Daryl stated to me: ‘I’ve achieved nearly all the things with my life that I’ve wished besides win an NBA championship. I simply wish to make cool issues occur with cool folks and make the world a greater place – and that’s the reason I’m working within the theater.’ ”

Overlook that unicorn. Morey is about as uncommon as a real-life Lilliputian. If solely each arts group may by some means discover one.