One of the Best Pieces of Advice I can Give you for NBA Summer League

Getting a job in the NBA

One of the best pieces of advice I can give for everyone at NBA Summer League is to be yourself.

Let me start with a story and circle back…

There was a qualified applicant for one of our Basketball Operations Internships with the Portland Trail Blazers. Our staff liked him, he made it into our top 5 but we went in another direction.

After we let him know we were moving on, he mailed me a thank you card. (This is big time… some people get frustrated, want answers, and are kind of salty.) There are many qualified candidates and only one can be hired. And often, those you’re interviewing with can get you into the top 2, 3, 5 but after that, the GM typically makes the final call.

I appreciated the Thank You card and we kept him in the mix for the next season. And then I received a ‘Good luck this season’ card, a Thanksgiving card, a Christmas card… and I told our staff to take him off our list. It was just too much.

So what happened?

Another team in the NBA hired him. I checked in with them over the next couple of years and they really liked him and he had done a great job for them.

It was a lesson to me… be yourself.

No, I was not going to hire him and was not interested in a card at every holiday. But someone else might appreciate that. Which goes back to the key… be yourself.

Only one person has to like you to hire you. If you’re trying to be what you think every team is looking for, you’re likely to end up being what everyone else is. If you are being the most ‘you’ you can be, well, then, there’s only one you.