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TO: Of all the players you profiled, who would you anoint as the master sommelier on the active NBA roster?

BH: I say this with full respect of the incredible, almost-impossible difficulty to be a master somm. But the guy who’s probably furthest along is Carmelo Anthony [small forward for the Oklahoma City Thunder]. A lot of players told me he started earlier, about 2007. And then when he was traded to the New York Knicks, he became close to some people in the wine community there. There’s this anecdote in the story about him attending a gathering at the home of one of the biggest wine collectors on the East Coast, and the mandate was to bring your most excellent bottle to this gentleman’s house. [Anthony] was telling me how much he was sweating over that decision because he knew everyone was going to bring something incredible. He’s also obsessed about watching a lot of wine documentaries, and pick up on tasting notes during blind tastings. So he’s probably a guy I’d put as a front runner. LeBron James [of the Cleveland. Cavaliers] isn’t far behind. LeBron’s a bit more guarded about revealing publicly, although on Instagram he posts a ton of information about which bottles he’s enjoying. You can go on his Instagram account and pretty much get a sense of his palate and what he enjoys.