Your Network’s Network

Getting a job in basketball

We talk about building your hoops community and network frequently on here because… there’s really nothing more important.

Because your hoops community goes beyond basketball. They’ll become family. Teams and organizations like to throw out the word ‘family.’ But it’s not. They’ll cut you, trade you, and fire you without a second thought. But the people you work with, your tribe, those people will become family.

Building your hoops tribe likely starts when you’re a kid. From your family to your friends and youth coaches. All of those people are important in shaping who you are and are the first pieces of your network.

When I applied for my Internship with the Trail Blazers, one of the people the team reached out to learn about me was my High School basketball coach.

I always like to remind my students and readers that I had 0 connections in the NBA when I started pursuing opportunities. But the people I interviewed with (yes, interviewed with! not even necessarily hired… just interviews) before getting to the NBA have been people who have become part of my tribe and family along the way.

And now as someone who is once again in position to be able to hire and give people opportunities, some of the first people you reach out to are your network. And the next people often are your network’s network.

A lot of the entry level positions come from people’s networks of networks. You want someone you can trust. Typically, your peers (when you are in a hiring position) aren’t looking for entry level positions, but they know people who are. Recommendations mean everything.

As we build a staff in Brampton for the Honey Badgers of the CEBL, we have received a massive amount of resumes, e-mails, messages, and more. It’s a lot for a small staff to keep up with. And everyone is qualified, even over-qualified for the positions. And so you rely heavily on recommendations. And the most trusted recommendations come through your network. If I’m looking at 100 resumes and 10 of them have a reference of someone I know, those are likely the first 10 I am going to call. And apologies to the other 90, but if we end up hiring from that first pool, unfortunately, we may not get through everyone or at least, there may be less opportunities on the staff.

So what does this mean? Simply, meet people. Show up at gyms. Build your networks, your relationships, your tribe.

Even if they don’t have a job for you, they likely know someone who knows someone.

And even if they don’t know someone who knows someone, the most important thing you can have in your life is good people so by surrounding yourself with them, you’ve already won.