Off the Court: Desmond Mason

June 13, 2007

Favorite type of music and groups: “R&B and hip-hop. One of my favorite groups is Boys II Men.”

Favorite TV show: “I mostly watch movies nowadays instead of TV, but I’ve been watching a lot of Saturday Night Live lately.”

Reality TV thoughts: “I think it’s good. I don’t watch all of those kinds of shows, but I watch some of them. (Reality TV) is definitely starting to get a little too dramatic at times. I watch Deal or No Deal the majority of the time. I also watch Survivor.

Favorite movie of all time: “The Usual Suspects, with Kevin Spacey.”

Time spent online per day: “Maybe 10 minutes, if that much. I use e-mail about once a week. I don’t really surf the Web or anything like that.”

Favorite non-basketball Web site: “CNN.com is my homepage.”

Football or baseball? “Football. It was my first love in sports and I played it when I was a kid.”

What he’d be doing if he weren’t an NBA player: “I’d be a professional artist, which I am already. I’d have my own gallery and studio.”

Favorite athlete as a kid: “Shawn Kemp was my favorite basketball player when I was young. I just liked his game. He was really exciting to watch and athletic – kind of like the way I play.”

Best friends on other NBA teams: Denver forward Joe Smith, Milwaukee guard Michael Redd, Seattle forward Rashard Lewis. (Smith and Redd were among Mason’s teammates with the Bucks; Lewis and Mason played together with the SuperSonics).

Best friends in other pro sports: NFL players Montae Reagor, an Indianapolis Colts defensive end, and Brian Waters, a Kansas City Chiefs guard. “We all went to school together.” (Like Mason, Reagor and Waters are natives of Waxahachie, Texas, a town of about 20,000 people, roughly 30 miles south of Dallas).

First job: “Working at Kentucky Fried Chicken. I liked the ‘chicken’ part of it – I ate a lot of it – I just didn’t like the ‘job’ part of it. And I never could figure out the Colonel’s secret!” [laughs]