Adam Zagoria: Tom Konchalski Should Be In The Naismith Hall Of Fame

The old joke is what you don’t know could fill a book. Around here it’s more like Wikipedia. There’s not enough time to know what you don’t know much less to commit it to memory.

For instance, since Tom Konchalski died, while we knew he was much loved and admired, the testimonials we’ve seen have been truly wonderful and have taught us a great deal about the man and his character.

For one thing, while we’ve read Adam Zagoria’s work a lot, including his personal site Zagsblog.com, we didn’t know he was so close to Konchalski.

They spent a great deal of time together going to events and so forth. We’ve never met Zagoria, but he seems brasher and cockier than Konchalski, although obviously that impression could be wrong. Well, it’s probably right because Konchalski was famously humble so most people would be brasher and cockier. Zagoria just seems to have those traits.

Whatever the truth, whatever the balance, it seems on some level like a bit of an unlikely but wonderful friendship.

Zagoria wrote a lovely eulogy for his friend on his own site when Konchalski died and now he has a piece up over at Forbes calling for calling for Konchalski to be inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame as a contributor (he missed this year). There are also extensive comments from Coach K as well.

When you look at the lives he affected and the universally glowing things people say about him, how can you possibly argue?

What’s also clear from Zagoria’s columns on his dear friend is how much he grieves his passing. When someone is gone, you still expect them to be there. It takes a long time to adjust to loss.

It’s clear that many people loved and deeply respected Konchalski but Zagoria clearly loved him deeply. We’re sorry such a good man has died, but we can tell there is a void in Zagoria’s heart. It’s impossible not to feel his sense of loss. We hope it eases soon.