William Wesley: The Most Powerful Man in Sports?

I’m not a big sports person but I found this GQ article about William Wesley, entitled Is This the Most Powerful Man in Sports? pretty fascinating to read.

Wesley seems like the ultimate person who knows everybody, able to ring up Michael Jordan or Jay-Z on a whim. He seems to be ever present, in the most unlikely of places. The article opens with the famous Pacers/Pistons brawl, where a scuffle on the floor led to fans throwing garbage at the Pacers… and Ron Artest crossing the line, going into the stands after Detroit fans.

William Wesley, a middle-aged mortgage broker, runs onto the court to shield Ron Artest from a uniformed police officer wielding a can of pepper spray. Artest’s teammates are trading haymakers with fans; coaches and referees are struggling to restore order. The mortgage broker lunges forward and throws his hands in the cop’s face, and in the next instant, Pacers teammates Austin Croshere and Reggie Miller rush to restrain Artest….

Two years later, when I ask Reggie Miller about Wesley’s presence on the court, he’ll say: “What the hell is he doing out there in the middle of all that? I mean, what is he doing? He has no business out there! He injects himself into the middle of everything!”


In this video of the incident, I think that’s Wesley around 2:41, in the gray suit with the green shirt.

Despite not really following much basketball, this was an article that really kept my attention – a profile of a man that seems to know everyone… but nobody seems to really know.

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