One NBA team desperately needs to know how Frank Mason III wants to die

Kansas Jayhawks point guard Frank Mason III told ESPN of an oddly morbid question he received during a NBA Draft Combine interview session.

During draft combines and interviews the draft prospects can usually expect to field some pretty strange questions. Executives across sports like to throw out oddball questions at prospects to see how they respond and test how they think about things.

The answer to questions like: “How many jelly beans do you think could fill this room?” or “Who would you want marooned on an island with you?” are less about the answers to the questions but the thought process and reasons behind the answers.

These kind of random questions are something no agent can prepare their client for so they are meant to take the prospect off guard and make them think on their feet. That can be as informative as anything.

Still, the question Kansas guard Frank Mason III said he got during one of his interviews at the NBA Draft Combine this week was a bit . . . odd. It was morbid at least.

Mason III said a team asked him how he would like to die. That is not typically at the forefront of an 18-year-old’s mind. Let alone someone who went through four years of school either.

Mason III told ESPN during its telecast of the Draft Combine he would like to go out in his sleep. Surely the executive who asked this gained a lot from this answer. Or made some wild conclusions about his toughness and willing to go through pain or something silly like that coming from a question like this.

That is probably not the answer teams were expected. Because if they watched Mason III play in his four years at Kansas they would see a tough-minded point guard who led his young team to a strong season this past year.

Mason III stepped up in a big way as a senior, averaging 20.9 points per game and 5.2 assists per game while shooting 49.0 percent from the field. He was a consensus All-American, the Big 12 Player of the Year and the Wooden Award winner.

His play should speak for itself.

DraftExpress currently projects Mason III to go late in the second round. College seniors just do not have the same pull they used to in the NBA Draft.

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Hopefully, the team that asked Mason this morbid question heard the answer they were looking for to move him up their draft board.