How Good Are You at Photoshop?

Getting a job in the NBA

My friend Andrew was interviewing for a job with an NCAA team that would work with the coaching staff and one of the first questions they asked him was… “How good are you at photoshop?”

It wasn’t about his coaching ability.  His experience with NBA teams.  His on-court work with NBA players.  It was photoshop.

One of the misconceptions of getting a job in basketball is that you have to be the most knowledgeable at… basketball.  In fact, it’s often the things surrounding basketball that they are looking for.

For example, a lot of people send me scouting reports because they want to be scouts.  NBA teams don’t care so much about your scouting ability as they do your ability to format a document.  It’s not so much about the content but about how readable it is. 

Matt McKay, former Basketball Operations and Scouting for the Trail Blazers and Hornets always says, “I should have spent more time paying attention in arts and crafts.”  “I spent so much time cutting and pasting (my Intern years) and everyone wanted it different.  I spent most of time going to the grocery store and cutting and pasting.” 

Some people see jobs like that beneath them, other people, like Matt, exceled at them and parlayed them into full-time positions. 

In my Intern years, I became the expert on the office printer, the local fedex store, pet care, house sitting, airport pickups, and all the little things that needed to be done that no one really wanted to do. 

We can all learn basketball as we go.  But first, the basketball people want to know if they can trust you with the small things.  And if they can, they’re happy to teach you everything else about hoops you need to know. 

GITG 101’s next course, NBA Training Camp will be on Zoom Wednesday’s on October 4, 11, 18, 25 at 5p PT / 8p ET. For a short time only, use Promo Code: EARLYBIRD for $75 off. We hope to see & meet you there!