Omar Minaya has been on the other side of these transactions countless times. He has pulled the strings to decide when prospects debut, when trades are made, when free agents are signed.

The former GM of the Mets and current senior adviser with the Yankees found himself on the opposite side of the metaphorical table Tuesday.

He and his wife, Rachel, sat down to lunch at a literal table in Memphis, where they awaited word from their son.

Justin, the former University of South Carolina, Providence and Northern Valley (at Old Tappan, N.J.) basketball standout, was in talks with several NBA teams, but the Portland Trail Blazers appeared on the verge of signing the 24-year-old. The Minayas left for Tennessee this week in case the Blazers brought in Minaya on Tuesday for a road game against the Grizzlies.

Omar received a text from Justin, who had just finished talking with his agent.

“I’m signing an NBA contract,” Justin told his parents. “I’ll be playing tonight.”

The executive took a back seat, and the father came out.

Omar remembered the work his son had put into a dream that often seemed impossible.

He remembered family members, including some no longer alive, who helped that dream become a remote possibility.

He remembered the amount of work, from so many parties, that went into a goal that finally was being achieved.

“We were reflective,” Minaya said over the phone Wednesday, a day after his son made his NBA debut. “How many times did we rebound for him in the driveway? In the cold weather, the hot weather? In the gyms? All the trips … all over the country.”

Entering play Wednesday, 533 people had played in an NBA game this season. Justin Minaya, New Jersey native and the son of a baseball lifer, is part of the exclusive group.

Justin, as a kid, knew he could do what so few can. He would tell his dad that he would make the NBA one day, and Omar would tell him that he believed in him.

“But as a talent evaluator,” Omar said, beginning to laugh, “internally, I’m saying to myself, the chances of that are not good.”

The chances improved when Justin was in middle school and grew “3 or 4 inches one summer,” Omar said of the now 6-foot-6 forward. Basketball became more of his focus in part because of his mother’s brother, James Albright, who showed Justin the game and was a huge basketball fan.

Albright died of cancer in 2014, which coincided with Justin going all-in on the sport.

Justin dropped baseball — he had been a pitcher and center fielder — after his freshman season so he could play AAU basketball in the summer. He went from Northern Valley to South Carolina to Providence, where he filled up the stat sheets, played excellent defense, grabbed rebounds and reached the NCAA Tournament.

He went undrafted and landed in the G League with the Mexico City Capitanes. After 27 games, Justin received interest from several teams — Omar mentioned the Warriors and Cavaliers, too — but he signed a 10-day contract with the Blazers, who are out of playoff position and can afford to take a flier on an unproven player to see what Justin can do.

All of this was going through Omar’s mind as he sat for lunch.

“We were reflecting,” Omar said. “There wasn’t crying. It was more the reflection and the internal feeling of being blessed.”

Tuesday night, the Minayas watched Justin tap in his first NBA points and score eight, on 3-of-6 shooting, to go with four rebounds and two assists in a loss to the Grizzlies.

There were no nerves on Omar’s side, he said, because Justin is such a smart player by now and knows what he is doing.

Some fathers speak about their sons as if they are deities. An exceedingly select group of fathers bring their scouting backgrounds into the conversation.

“He’s a 3-and-D guy, with the intangibles,” Minaya said. “That’s what he is. He’s a glue guy, always been that glue guy.”

Minaya spoke from the Memphis airport, where he was en route to San Antonio for the Blazers’ game on Thursday. Justin will have three more chances to show he belongs before Portland’s season finishes.

After the Spurs game, Omar will make his way back to the Yankees, with whom he is in his first season as a lieutenant to Brian Cashman, who has been “very accommodating,” Minaya said.

The Yankees GM has known Justin since he was a kid, back when Omar worked for the Mets.

Cashman understands what the past few days have meant to the Minayas.

Justin has made it.

“No matter what happens from here on in,’” Omar told Justin, “you are an NBA player today. You will be an ex-NBA player when you’re not playing. That’s it.”

Read more:

???? VACCARO: Knicks are in an almost surreal place heading into playoffs

⚾ SHERMAN: Gleyber Torres continues to be Yankees’ best first-week gift: ‘Doing it all’

⚾ HEYMAN: Mets need to leave ugly opening week on road behind them

⛳ O’CONNOR: This sad version of Phil Mickelson looks completely out of place at Masters

The Post is on the grounds this week at Augusta National for the Masters, golf’s preeminent event. Here, columnist Ian O’Connor shares one of his favorite Masters rituals:

This is my 23rd Masters, and one of my favorite personal traditions is an early-evening stroll around the course on Tuesday and Wednesday, after the players have finished practicing and most of the gallery has gone home.

With the sun fading and the birds chirping, it’s a hell of a peaceful feeling to be out there almost alone in an arena that will come to life like few others on Thursday morn. I always make a stop under a tree near the 16th green, where I gathered with my brother Dan during the final round in 2019 to watch Tiger Woods make the birdie that effectively won him an epic Masters.

Tournament security guards here are notoriously unforgiving, and I still can’t believe one of them that Sunday allowed us to arrive late to that tree and take a knee for a point-blank look. The moment was so big that I think the guard was just like the rest of us: overwhelmed.

My brother died unexpectedly the following spring, so that was our last big trip together. Dan had never been to a major of any kind, and he got to see perhaps the greatest Masters of them all. Thank God for that.

So I do get a bit emotional on these solitary walks, understanding that nothing is a given, not even another trip to Augusta National for my favorite sporting event of all. Eventually the security guards approach and announce that the course is closed and that it’s time to head to the exits.

I wish they gave me an extra half-hour out there in the sunset, at Amen Corner or near the 16th green, with virtually nobody else in sight.

Sometimes I can’t wait for the first round of the Masters to start. And sometimes I wished these pre-tournament moments in the sunset could go on forever.

Through seven games, the Mets’ rotation is sporting a 5.71 ERA. Through the first week of the season, the Mets’ rotation — expected to be among the game’s best and the most expensive — instead is leading MLB in walks issued, tied with the Marlins with 19.

David Peterson was the latest starter to be knocked around in Wednesday’s 7-6 loss in Milwaukee, which finished off a three-game sweep.

Peterson has followed an excellent spring training, in which he won a rotation job, with two starts in which his control has abandoned him, walking six in nine total innings.

Max Scherzer has a 6.35 ERA, and his co-ace, Justin Verlander, has begun the season with Jose Quintana on the IL. Carlos Carrasco allowed five runs in four innings, while showing diminished stuff, in a dud on Monday. Only Kodai Senga (eight strikeouts in 5 ⅓, one-run innings) has gotten off to a solid start.

Want to catch a game? The Mets schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.

In a 162-game season, one week of poor pitching barely registers. But the Mets, who will begin their first homestand of the season Friday (with Thursday’s scheduled opener getting pushed back), must be thrilled to begin pitching at home again.

While the Mets likely are happy to be home, the Yankees’ Aaron Hicks must be thrilled to begin playing on the road again.

The veteran outfielder endured a week from hell in The Bronx, where he was benched for the season’s first three games and acknowledged it was “definitely frustrating.”

Hicks then started two games in the outfield and went 0-for-7 with a walk and three strikeouts, the boos getting louder after each out.

The situation turned so ugly on Tuesday that Aaron Judge felt the need to offer some encouraging words for his fellow outfielder after yet another strikeout.

Hicks was nowhere to be found in Wednesday’s 4-2 win over the Phillies, back on the bench as Judge played center and Oswaldo Cabrera played left.

Hicks has not hit and has barely played during a time when the Yankees are without their top center fielder. If Hicks is stapled to the bench now, what happens when Harrison Bader returns in a few weeks?

Joey Gallo is gone. Across town, Darin Ruf is gone. The city seems to have turned all of its venom on the longest-tenured Yankee, who has not hit since 2020.

With each day and each out, it is difficult to envision this ending peacefully. But if Hicks is going to bounce back, it would be easier to do so away from The Bronx, with the Yankees opening a series in Baltimore on Friday.

College hockey’s championship weekend faces off on Thursday at Amalie Arena in Tampa, with a forecast local high temperature of 92 degrees sure to clash with the name of the tournament.

There’s no Cinderella: The field is tightly bunched with Minnesota the favorite to win the title at +150 at BetMGM, Michigan at +230 and both Quinnipiac and Boston University at +375. The semifinals are on ESPN2 with Minnesota-Boston University at 5 p.m. and Michigan-Quinnipiac at 8:30.

Here are some things to know about the four teams:

1. Boston University head coach Jay Pandolfo is in his fifth Frozen Four. His Terriers teams made it all four years he played (1993-96), winning the title in 1995. When Lou Lamoriello selected Pandolfo with the 32nd pick of the 1993 NHL Draft, the then-Devils general manager knew what kind of player he was getting.

“He’s a winner. And it’s obvious,” the Islanders’ current president of hockey operations told The Post’s Ethan Sears this week. Asked when that became obvious, Lamoriello said, “First day I met him.”

Though Pandolfo was a goal-scorer at BU, hitting the net 38 times as a senior in 1995-96, he became an exquisite role player in his 15-year NHL career. Thirteen of those were spent in New Jersey, where he helped the Devils capture two Stanley Cups and joined John Madden to form one of the league’s best penalty-killing tandems.

“I’m a big fan of Jay,” Lamoriello said. “Being with him in New Jersey for so many years, sharing a couple of Cups with him. Actually had him do some coaching [in Albany] when he decided to retire. And now to see him go to the Bruins [as an assistant] and then on to Boston University is really no surprise. He’s, first of all, a quality human being. Student of the game. A respected player. And he has a tremendous amount of experience.”

2. The Hobey Baker Award is the Hockey Heisman, and all three of the finalists are playing in this tournament.

Michigan freshman center Adam Fantilli is the nation’s leading scorer with 64 points. The other two can be found on Minnesota’s first line in freshman center Logan Cooley (57 points) and sophomore left wing Matthew Knies (41 points).

“Cooley has been a sensational offensive force,” Bernie Corbett, host of SiriusXM’s Hockey on Campus program, told The Post. “You give him an inch, he’s going to take a mile and he’ll kill ya. He’s fast, he’s creative, he’s skilled. He’s a little bit of a hothead, which may play the other way a little … he’s a little short-fused.

“Knies is 6-3, 210, a big body out there, played in the Olympics. I don’t know if anybody in the country can compete with [Minnesota’s] top line when they’ve got it going.”

3. The state of Connecticut is two wins from another national title as the Quinnipiac Bobcats are looking to match the feat of the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team.

A Division I hockey program only since 1998, Quinnipiac previously made the Frozen Four in 2013 and 2016, each time winning a game before falling in the finals.

The Bobcats sport one very familiar name in senior center Skyler Brind’Amour. The son of Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour has 14 goals and will try to help Quinnipiac become a household name in hockey this weekend.

4. We started with the Devils and we’ll end with them.

One of the keys to Michigan’s championship bid will be sophomore defenseman Luke Hughes. New Jersey’s No. 4 overall pick in the 2021 draft and brother of the team’s star center, Jack Hughes, was second to Fantilli on the Wolverines in scoring with 47 points on 10 goals and 37 assists.

— Dave Blezow