3 Important Things in Building Your Hoops Tribe

Getting a job in the NBA

The day I got fired from the Portland Trail Blazers, the first two people who called me were Kaleb Canales and Mike Tatlock.

Kaleb, had been the one who had hired me as a Video Intern with the Trail Blazers 14 seasons prior and Mike was the Trail Blazers Team Chaplain.

Soon after, Bobby Medina, former Trail Blazers Strength & Condition Coach called and was the first one to tell me, “I’m glad you got fired! You don’t want to work with those people any longer. You’ll be much happier elsewhere.”

As I was building GET IN THE GAME 101, I relied a lot on Matt McKay (Pro Insight) and Ben Falk (Cleaning the Glass). We had once all worked together as young fellas with the Blazers and were all carving out our own paths, them, a little further down the road than myself.

And as I started building GITG101, the first two guys to team up with me were Bjorn Zetterberg and Mike Visenberg. Bjorn, who I had worked with as well with the Blazers and Mike, who I had met at the Nike Hoop Summit practices at the Blazers practice facility.

I could go on and on… with those helping teach and support our classes from Kendra Chaney, Jamal Gross, Sunny Ahluwalia, and more.

When my time with the Trail Blazers ended, for the first time in my life, I was burned out on basketball. I didn’t watch a game for the next couple of years. But what I did have was a hoops tribe that helped carry me through that season and into the next.

1. Put Yourself in Position to Build Relationships

The first part of building your hoops community is surrounding yourself with people involved in hoops, simple enough. You can’t build a tribe if you’re not in the mix. And building a tribe isn’t attending some games here and there, it’s showing up at practices, it’s contributing, it’s a give and take.

My first real opportunity to get involved in basketball post-college was with Liberty University. Coach Ritchie McKay, knowing I wanted to be an NBA scout, told me I could come to practices, stand in the corner, and e-mail him scouting reports. It took me showing up day after day before he trusted me enough to start e-mailing me back and then, inviting me into his office to go over the reports with me. Without that opportunity, I would have never got the next one with the Trail Blazers.

2. Be Genuine

As I’ve shared a million times, I find it more valuable to build actual relationships than to network. When someone messages me and says they’d like to ‘network,’ I rarely, if ever, respond. When someone messages me and shares a common interest, a similar connection, I am likely to follow up.

In all the names I mentioned above, I never set out to have any of them join GITG101. We all became friends and buddies while we worked together. And as our lives took us to different teams and opportunities, we stayed connected. And when I started classes with GITG101, all of my first calls were to those who I’d worked with. It was because we had all developed genuine friendships and relationships outside of basketball that kept us connected.

3. Stay Connected

Speaking on connection, stay connected! It’s honestly one of the hardest parts of a hoops tribe because no one ever stays in the same place longer than a few years. It’s unrealistic to stay connected to everyone you’ve met in hoops but it is also easy to let all of your connects slip away.

For those in your inner circle, it’s basic, but, keep in touch. Send a text, make a phone call. Cheer them on. Check on their family. Give them an update. Your hoops tribe is likely to be national, if not global. So when you travel, meet up with people.

Many of our students have ended up coming through Portland, OR and meeting up with our crew there. And as I’ve lived in Nashville recently, I was able to connect with one of our students just this past week.

In a hoops community and tribe, you’ll always have a connection, always have something to talk about. The key is carving out that time to continue developing those connections.

Our next hoops tribe building course will be our NBA Trade Deadline Course on Jan 29, Feb 5, Feb 6.

Myself, Bjorn, Mike, Sunny, Kendra, and others will be there! At the ASU Trade Deadline Course, I had the opportunity to meet NBA salary expert, Yossi Gozlan, and we are excited to add him to our crew as well… the tribe is growing!

Use Promo Code: NBATRADE for $30 off. Once you sign up, you’ll get an e-mail from me to have you select which NBA Team you would like to be the GM of for the Course.

E-mail us with any ?’s at info@getinthegame101.com (First come, first serve on the team you are the GM of!)