A year ago today, I made the official jump. I moved away from the media side of the basketball landscape to the business and operations end of the spectrum.
It has not been easy, but it has certainly been rewarding.
The thought of turning back and giving in entered my mind often, especially in those moments where you are at the mercy of the unknown and uncontrollable. Let me tell you something, those moments are frequent in the basketball business.
However, the relationships I have been fortunate enough to develop, the business associates I have been able to work with, and the mentors I have had the chance to lean on, have all made the transition well worth it. Not to mention the players. Interacting with players as a career planner, as an educator, and as a partner has also been a perk that I had not planned on experiencing. It has motivated me each and every day to become better, and to never stop chasing the dream. Their dream. All of our dreams.
Since my jump from being essentially a basketball reporter and blogger, I have been able to grow and learn in the business landscape through my allegiance with Scorers 1st Sportmanagement, an international basketball agency, as well as other projects that I took upon including my most recent involvement with the Northwest’s premiere high school recruiting and scouting website Transition Hoops.
As a member of the media, my interest often gravitated me toward the stories of struggle and relentlessness in which players trying to make it in their careers endured. As someone who focused on the NBA Development League for a good amount of time, I came across those stories often. However, I was never able to experience those stories from a different perspective. I would transcribe a player’s recollection, write a story and move on. That was it. I never knew about the details involved in making a decision to play overseas rather than stay domestically, or how a player deals with the waiting game as they hinge upon every email or phone call in hopes of a job somewhere, an opportunity to further their passion and craft. Or, the direction and influence a player receives as they look to make a move from high school to the collegiate level. These have all been storylines I had yet to explore prior to my jump.
However, now I get it. Now I understand what it takes and the people involved in navigating the different levels of progression in basketball successfully.
I believe you cannot fully understand that until you are actually in it.
One of the highlights for me personally came with my involvement in running a summer showcase for players looking to get noticed for overseas jobs and beyond during the middle of July. It takes place every year and is put on by Scorers 1st. There has been great success with the showcase, and I quickly learned what it takes to pull off such an event. It is a year long process, much like the recruiting process whether that be from an agency perspective or as a college program. If you truly want to make something special, and develop a lasting relationship, you must invest in the time. At the Scorers 1st Showcase I was able to connect the dots from phone calls and texts that I had with players looking to extend their careers from different points in the season. Some did just that, others did not, but that is the business I have come to learn, there are only so many jobs out there, so many opportunities.
That is also the harsh reality of the business.
When you want something so bad for a player, you would go to any length, any amount of hours to which you carefully craft emails, phone calls, and text messages. All in hope of landing them that opportunity. That golden ticket as they say, and it does not happen. Worse than that you start to doubt that it will ever happen? You question yourself, am I working hard enough? Should I have created this relationship with this player in the first place?
Yet, that is what makes the basketball business so humbling, and refreshing at the same time. No player just goes and plays overseas, or in the D-League, or in the NBA for that matter. There is a process behind it all. There are numerous tryouts, camps, showcases, and training sessions. There are the diet regimens, social life sacrifices, multiple part-time jobs that players take on all in an effort to extend their careers. These are the sort of things that fail to show in box scores. They failed to show in my recaps of games, or analysis of players and teams when I was in the media. But, this is the bare bones of it all. The foundation that needs to be set in order for any player at any level to succeed. It all starts with a plan followed by execution. This is something I’m constantly reminded of each and every day in the basketball business.
Through it all, it comes down to the relationships.
I can’t stress this enough as I have slowly carved my way in this truly amazing basketball global landscape. Whether it be the friendships and relationships I had prior to moving to the business side, or the new ventures and partnerships explored and agreed upon after, it all boils down to putting out what you want to receive. I’m a firm believer in projecting what you wish to receive, none can be truer than in the basketball business. It explains the incredible local and regional relationships I have been able to cultivate, while just the same regarding to the international ones. Work ethic translates no matter what the language is, or level of basketball, it brings everyone to the same table. This will be something that will stick with me forever, and has been the thesis for my first year in the basketball business.
As I continue to trot along in this business, reflecting on the past year has been a thrill. Not because of anything related to monetary reasons or financial gain, or an official label that I can now pin to myself, but because of the growth found in those around me professionally and in myself. Assisting someone in achieving their dream whether it be to become a professional player, or a collegiate level player simply has no instrument of measurement. It is a sense of gratitude that motivates you to do more. To keep going, and to keep making more jumps.
This is what I plan to continue in the years that shall come.
For the past five years, Gino Pilato has worked inside and around the NBA Development League and minor league basketball and currently serves as Recruiting Coordinator for Scorers 1st Sportmanagement and Contributor to Transition Hoops
