LEGENDARY basketball scout Tom Konchalski died from prostate cancer on February 8 at the age of 74. His passing prompted heartfelt obituaries while social media overflowed with tributes from many of the literally thousands of players, coaches, fans and media members whose lives were touched by this great man. I was honored to be assigned a piece on the devoutly Catholic Mr. Konchalski in this, the “Future Issue” of the basketball bible.
A native of Queens, NY, Konchalski followed in his brother Steve’s footsteps as a strong student at local Archbishop Molloy High School. While Steve was a standout basketball player who played college ball in Canada before becoming a Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame coach at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, the 6-6 Tom focused more on watching the game. He wrote for the Molloy student newspaper and then attended Fordham University in the Bronx, graduating magna cum laude with degrees in political science and philosophy.
Canadian hoops insider and former NBA scout Greg Dole says of the brothers, “A parallel I draw between the two men is that they did not take. They were very generous with their time, had a real love of the game and shared it with young people. They earned a living, but it was a humble living. They were old-guard custodians of the game who never looked to bleed it.”
After college, Tom taught math and science for 10 years at Catholic elementary schools and considered getting a PhD but never lost his passion for scouting. He started working for Five-Star founder Howard Garfinkel’s service, High School Basketball Illustrated (motto: “Others
