Basketball in the Philippines & Working Internationally
Getting a Job in the NBA
I grew up in the cornfields of Indiana. Think Hoosiers, as in the movie. We actually played against the real school (Milan) when I was in High School.
There were basketball hoops on nearly every driveway and garage in town where I grew up. I spent countless hours everyday outside shooting hoops at the garage across my street that had a paved area out to the 3-point line / road that I could use.
High school games were packed, games typically having as many fans in attendance as there were members in the community. The only thing I could compare it to was high school football in Texas.
But then I came to the Philippines. After a few days here, I was like, This is almost as crazy as Indiana. After a couple of weeks, I conceded, the Philippines is the most basketball crazy place I’ve ever been in my life.
There aren’t just hoops at every garage… there are full courts every several blocks of a community. Even if there is a run-down part of town, you can count on them to have a paved full-court, painted lines, backboard, rims, nets… the whole deal. And if you’ve ever traveled (even in the States), you know how hard it is to keep a net up. Go to the ocean… there are full courts. Into the city, full courts.
I was speaking with a family friend from Kalibo who plays pickup ball and he told me they have games at 6am and in the evening after work as well. Sign-ups for the 6am court start at 4am. So people start arriving at 1am and sleep on the ground to make sure they get on the list for some court time. And this isn’t for high school or college players… this is just people in town with jobs who want to get some court time in each day.
I brought some old Trail Blazers gear to give out to some people and I wore one of the shirts one day and was mobbed with questions. I was at a street market looking at NBA jerseys in a little shop. I couldn’t communicate well with the owner but he had a way of communicating in basketball terms as in… he pointed at the Ja Morant jersey, gang gang! I’d say there was about a 40% rate on the streets of NBA and Filipino jerseys being worn each day. I mean, the climate is definitely conducive to it. Even the little kids had NBA jerseys on, although one young boy seemed confused when I kept calling him Air Jordan.
At the hotel we stayed at on an island within the islands… there were always two TV’s on and every day but once, they had NBATV Philippines on. The one time they didn’t, they had CNN on. But… it was CNN covering the Anthony Edwards poster on John Collins.
I get a lot of questions internationally of people who want to work in the NBA. I do my best to help but there are always some extra layers added in. Here are some tips:
*Make sure whatever paperwork you need to have is ready and completed on your end
*Check with NBA teams (HR / Basketball Operations) individually as to what they will need from you and if they are willing to hire internationally (if they delay you or give you a non-answer, they probably don’t want to say No or legally can’t say No… but feel free to move on to teams that show interest)
*Every NBA team has International Scouts – find out who they are and ask them what their journey and path was
Oftentimes, you’ll find that the path is similar. They took a job in basketball that they loved and they got really good at it. They were coaching or scouting or working for a team and they built relationships in basketball. Some NBA people came over to scout and met them and an opportunity came up for them. In simple terms, get started where you are at. And start building your relationships and network both locally and globally. And if you are interested in a GITG101 Course, we love having International students! If the time zones don’t work out, you can e-mail your questions in ahead of time and regardless, we will make sure to have a session in your time zone so we can meet ‘face-to-face.’
