Max DiLeo can hear it already... man, a second foul in the first quarter. The coach's voice is supportive but also includes a hint of "you should have known better".
Parents gave Hamburg's DiLeo his love for the game
Interviews
4 Mins read
But it's not the voice of his Hamburg Towers head coach, Pedro Calles, that DiLeo is hearing. Rather, it's the voice of his father, who the 29-year-old knows will call post-game with some advice.
The Hamburg guard is the son of Tony DiLeo, the former Philadelphia 76ers scout, executive and head coach who does not miss a Hamburg game and regularly talks with Max afterward.
"I know that when I mess up or get a couple of early fouls, I am going to hear about it on the phone: It's the little things," Max says without complaint. "I really look forward to the phone calls after games. I get a text message from my mom after each game with a couple of things that I did here or there and a couple of words of encouragement. It's always nice to just see them support me."
"I have a lot of memories from those days but one of my favorites is when I was the ball boy for Michael Jordan's last game."
DiLeo's mother is Anna DiLeo, formerly Anna Aszalos of Romania, who played many years of professional basketball in Germany. His father Tony coached in Germany in the 1980s and 1990s, and they now live in New Jersey, not far from Philadelphia, which is where Max was born and raised as his father made a name in the NBA.
Over a span of nearly 30 years, Tony DiLeo held various posts with the 76ers, including at the height of the Allen Iverson era, which of course Max soaked up as an eight-year-old when the Sixers reached the NBA finals in 2001.
"The Sixers were a huge part of my life growing up," he recalls. "When I was young in the summer I would go to work with my dad, watch practices. Being around that level of basketball and those guys, that passionate side of basketball, really grew on me and made me want to be the best and try to get to that level."
His favorite player was Lou Williams, who had come to the 76ers right out of high school at a time when DiLeo was in middle school. "I thought that was the coolest thing in the world," Max says.
"Defense is something that I really take pride in. I know that when I'm on the court, that's my main job, so I try to do that as best as I can."
DiLeo also had a connection with Michael Jordan.
"I have a lot of memories from those days but one of my favorites is when I was the ball boy for Michael Jordan's last game, because it was in Philadelphia. It was so cool just to pass him the ball as he was warming up, even though he was on the other team," he remembered.
His father being so involved in the game helped him immensely in growing his understanding of basketball.
"When he was coaching with the Sixers, my passion for the game just grew like crazy," he said.
His parents' love for basketball was also passed along to Max's older brother, T.J. DiLeo, who is nearly three years older and played professionally in Europe for eight years -- all in Germany, for Giessen and Bonn -- before retiring from the game last summer at age 31 to become a player development coach for the 76ers.
After playing collegiately at Monmouth University, Max started his professional career in Germany's second division with Rockets Gotha in 2015. He also played at Rhein Stars Cologne before making the jump to the German first division in 2018-19 for Rasta Vechta. DiLeo followed Calles, his Vechta head coach, to Hamburg ahead of the 2020-21 season. By then, he had built his reputation mainly as a defensive menace who provides great energy to his team.
That defensive stopper mentality came from his offensive game not being very strong when he started in college, DiLeo said, so he decided to look for other ways to help a team win:
"I started talking and being loud and just trying to win sprints -- do anything I can to set an example for myself. I realized that is what I could do to help a team, and that carried with me into the pros.
"Defense is something that I really take pride in. I know that when I'm on the court, that's my main job, so I try to do that as best as I can."
DiLeo knows also that if he doesn't do his best he will hear about it in his post-game phone call with dad.