“The deejay’s freakin’ seven feet tall!” somebody shouts at a nightclub in New York City last month. He is, to be precise, 6 ’11”. He is also Rony Seikaly, who played center for four NBA teams over 11 seasons. In SI’s Where Are They Now? issue, staff writer Ben Reiter catches up with the former NBA center, whose new career as a deejay has him playing thumping beats in front of throngs of sweaty bodies in clubs in New York, Ibiza and his adopted home of Miami. .
Seikaly, the musician, describes himself as “a progressive type of guy,” and his basketball resume corroborates the claim. Born in Lebanon, he moved to Greece at nine, played four years at Syracuse and, in 1988, was the first player drafted by the expansion Heat. When he joined Miami as the ninth pick, there were only about 20 foreign-born players in the NBA.
Reiter finds that Seikaly’s musical tastes were similarly ahead of their time. As a 14-year-old in Athens, he was unable to get into the clubs that played the dance music that he craved—he was deeply influenced early on by disco acts such as Barry White and Chic—so he installed himself as a deejay in his parents’ garage. Rony started hosting shows in his garage and charging $5 for admittance. With the revenue he gained from these mini concerts, Seiklay was able to continually upgrade his sound and light system for his venue which he came to call ‘Disco 17’.
By the time Seikaly reached the NBA, he had moved on to house music. He recalls teammates tilting their heads at the thumps emanating from his car. ‘Oh Seik, you’re still listening to this bull—-?’ Now, two decades later, house music has firmly entered the American mainstream, with acts such as Daft Punk and David Guetta having released wildly successful albums. Seiklay, who began producing his own tracks professionally about three years ago, has seen demand for his services grow in tandem.
These days, Seikaly is mostly concerned with realities of the present. “In basketball I was always looking ahead, and when it was all over with I was like, Wait a minute, that was fast,” he says. “With deejaying, I’m taking it in every day, every song, just enjoying the moment. It’s all about the music. I don’t care about people who aren’t in the club to listen—they’re there to pick up chicks, do other things. I love playing for people who love to listen, and that’s really it. I don’t know how long I am going to do this for. I’m going to do it until I don’t enjoy it anymore.” (PAGE 113)
