There have been stranger NBA stories. Doug Moe hired a sneaker salesman as an assistant. Pat Riley added a practicing attorney to the scouting staff. Numerous other franchises have provided jobs for the sons and daughters – oh, wait, not the daughters – of their owners, head coaches or front-office executives.

So the notion of hiring a sports writer as a regional scout isn't completely nutty. Occasionally it even evolves into a thriving, enduring, three-for-all marriage.

Keith Drum. Geoff Petrie. The Kings.

Fourteen years after he accepted the job, Drum, a recovered sportswriter turned regional scout, remains one of Petrie's most trusted staffers. He might be more influential than that.

Inquire about Drum over at Arco Arena, and many suggest that, of all the scouts, the man known as "Drummer," the cerebral looking fellow with the wire-rimmed glasses and close-cropped hair, is the one who has Petrie's ear. Both of them.

But a sportswriter?

Can a blogger be far behind?

Drum, a native of Chapel Hill, N.C., is the product of both the times and his former profession. This is a man who wrote deadline stories on typewriters, who filed away anecdotes while swigging late-night beers with the nation's premier college coaches, who would go to jail before revealing his sources, and became one of the guys without becoming the story.

In that respect, he is a good match for introverted Petrie. Occasionally you see him, but mostly you don't. He is like the fixture so efficient that it becomes invisible. During training camp and early-season practices, Drum sits near Petrie, Wayne Cooper, Jerry Reynolds, Scotty Stirling and other front-office types, then escapes into the training room.

It's not that he's hiding exactly. He simply prefers not to be noticed.

The Drum who operates behind closed doors and during the pre-draft debates is described quite differently, as someone who influences with a combination of dry wit, common sense and occasionally booming, impassioned opinions.

He lobbied aggressively for a little-known playmaker out of Charleston, S.C., named Anthony Johnson. He engaged and often directed heated discussions before the selections of first-round picks Gerald Wallace, Peja Stojakovic, Hedo Turkoglu, Francisco García, Spencer Hawes and Jason Thompson. And admittedly, he was particularly animated when pressing for two skinny southern guards named Jason Williams (Florida, 1998) and Kevin Martin (Western Carolina, 2004).

"Sometimes I just sit back and play mediator because of all their (his scouts') disagreements," Petrie cracked. "They get into it. Everyone has something different to offer, and we've been together so long now, you kind of know what to expect."

Maybe, but Drum, who received a journalism degree from North Carolina, never expected this. He never expected the NBA. While working for a small daily newspaper in Durham in the 1970s and '80s, he drove a matter of miles and spent time with Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith and the late Jim Valvano. He also became friendly with an area high school coach named Dave Odom, who tutored the sportswriter in the basketball X's and O's long before he recruited Tim Duncan to Wake Forest.

"Drummer was always coming into our office after he filed his stories," related Tom Abatemarco, who was Valvano's lead assistant during N.C. State's championship season. "He'd sit with us for hours, just talking hoops, listening to stories. And everybody thought very highly of him because he knew his stuff. I don't think it's any different in the NBA. He knows his stuff."

After he had taken a job as the national basketball writer for United Press International, Drum was approached by former Portland Trail Blazers general manager Brad Greenberg.

"He asked me if I wanted to scout for them part-time," said Drum. "It was kind of like, 'write what you see.' Having a writing background probably gave me an advantage because I could express myself, and it really wasn't that complicated.

Call The Bee's Ailene Voisin, (916) 321-1208.