R
Reddfoxx1
Guest
This is about as “insider” I can get. And it’s not that juicy. But Long.
I worked for the Charlotte Hornets in the mid 90’s. Pre Internet! Pre cell phone! Crazy times.
An internship turned into a full time job during the 1995 season. 90% of the job was as unglamorous as it gets. They had me doing pretty much everything from setting up the Hornets local “stay in school” program, running the two big charity fundraisers, gathering everything for in game promotion, setting up local gigs for Hugo the Hornet (our mascot), and running around for department heads. Menial stuff mostly. I did get to see the 4th quarter of most every home game from behind the bench. Close enough to hear the trash talk. But I was usually so ready to go home by that point I didn’t fully appreciate the gig.
Coolest perk. Got to play HORSE with a 9 year old Steph Curry a few times before shootaround. His dad, Dell is a great guy. (And a great shooter)
So. I was growing weary of the same routine and not seeing a big chance to move up. (The Hornets were not the model for the perfectly run NBA franchise)
I befriended the Video operations director and begged him for a chance to help him. I was trying to get out of the office. He gave me chance to edit video of certain players/teams the Hornets were about to play. I would call “scouting” but it was more like “Find every moment that Ric Smits touches the ball in the post and put it on a reel. For the last 4 games.” Even more menial, but it got me to the video center at the teams practice facility in Fort Mill. In 1995, it was considered state of the art. Ha.
So I started working at the practice facility several days a week. The Hornets had several interesting players on that team. Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning were the stars, but they had Current UVA coach Tony Bennet, crazyman Tom Tolbert, and Celtics legend Robert Parish, and Larry Johnson’s best friend, David Wingate. It was in Larry’s contract that Wingate must be on the team.
The only player I really got to know was Scott Burrell. Really smart guy. Very nice. He was rehabbing an injury and didn’t travel with the team on long road trips. So he was at the facility with the trainers and us video nerds. He would get bored between treatments, come in the video room, and we ultimately became chatty. His agent was always around, too. It was a family freind. Burrell went to UConn, when UConn was good. He played on the team that knocked the Really good Clemson team in 91. He made the full court pass to Tate George that knocked out Clem. Epic tourney moment.
Burrell was a really good Baseball player and often said he chose the wrong sport. He was committed to Miami for baseball until UConn “turned” him. The recruiting stories were interesting. He told me that every player on the Hornets team (except maybe Mugsy) got paid in college. The UNLV stories were crazy. Depending the level of the recruit, often the player chooses the best offer. The random 3 star recruit isn’t being courted. It’s mostly the NBA prospects.
What changed the game was Sneakers. Air Jordan’s really created this culture we are in. The biggest recruits were being recruited by sneaker companies as much as the colleges. The big rumor at the time was Kevin Garnett took so much money from Nike, why would he go to college. The sneaker money created the high school superstar. Nike struck gold with Garnett and many others. Read about the sneaker wars. SO MUCH MONEY. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...war-for-americas-feet/?utm_term=.6d28b8c5a45a
So how does it work?
Potential Pro Players get Identified early. Agents swarm around the age of 15. Look at Zion. Agents “loan” to these families trying to build a relationship. It might be $1,000 or maybe it’s $5,000. Agents build relationships with AAU coaches who have relationships with sneaker reps. The best players (DeAndre Ayton) can really set their price. The money isn’t coming from Arizona booster (like in football), but it’s coming from Adidas or Nike. Because the potential windfall is great. And when you break it down, 100K for one year for the best high school player is a bargain. Just look at what coaches get paid from Shoe companies. Why do you think they get so much $$$? It’s not to wear the Nike Pegasus.....
Players like Burrell (and maybe PJ Dozier) are solid NBA prospects, but unlikely superstars. I would guess the schools involved don’t always know about the agents but the agents know the coaches who they can and can’t work with.
Agents are cutthroat he told me. It often comes down to who the family trusts most in the end. But $1,000 is just the bait. If they come back for another “loan”, that’s when you hook em. It’s pennies for Adidas or Under Armour to fish for the next Steph Curry.
Read how Under Armor got him. It’s amazing. And it arguably made their company.
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/03/the-story-of-how-nike-lost-stephen-curry-is-unbelievable
I worked for the Charlotte Hornets in the mid 90’s. Pre Internet! Pre cell phone! Crazy times.
An internship turned into a full time job during the 1995 season. 90% of the job was as unglamorous as it gets. They had me doing pretty much everything from setting up the Hornets local “stay in school” program, running the two big charity fundraisers, gathering everything for in game promotion, setting up local gigs for Hugo the Hornet (our mascot), and running around for department heads. Menial stuff mostly. I did get to see the 4th quarter of most every home game from behind the bench. Close enough to hear the trash talk. But I was usually so ready to go home by that point I didn’t fully appreciate the gig.
Coolest perk. Got to play HORSE with a 9 year old Steph Curry a few times before shootaround. His dad, Dell is a great guy. (And a great shooter)
So. I was growing weary of the same routine and not seeing a big chance to move up. (The Hornets were not the model for the perfectly run NBA franchise)
I befriended the Video operations director and begged him for a chance to help him. I was trying to get out of the office. He gave me chance to edit video of certain players/teams the Hornets were about to play. I would call “scouting” but it was more like “Find every moment that Ric Smits touches the ball in the post and put it on a reel. For the last 4 games.” Even more menial, but it got me to the video center at the teams practice facility in Fort Mill. In 1995, it was considered state of the art. Ha.
So I started working at the practice facility several days a week. The Hornets had several interesting players on that team. Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning were the stars, but they had Current UVA coach Tony Bennet, crazyman Tom Tolbert, and Celtics legend Robert Parish, and Larry Johnson’s best friend, David Wingate. It was in Larry’s contract that Wingate must be on the team.
The only player I really got to know was Scott Burrell. Really smart guy. Very nice. He was rehabbing an injury and didn’t travel with the team on long road trips. So he was at the facility with the trainers and us video nerds. He would get bored between treatments, come in the video room, and we ultimately became chatty. His agent was always around, too. It was a family freind. Burrell went to UConn, when UConn was good. He played on the team that knocked the Really good Clemson team in 91. He made the full court pass to Tate George that knocked out Clem. Epic tourney moment.
Burrell was a really good Baseball player and often said he chose the wrong sport. He was committed to Miami for baseball until UConn “turned” him. The recruiting stories were interesting. He told me that every player on the Hornets team (except maybe Mugsy) got paid in college. The UNLV stories were crazy. Depending the level of the recruit, often the player chooses the best offer. The random 3 star recruit isn’t being courted. It’s mostly the NBA prospects.
What changed the game was Sneakers. Air Jordan’s really created this culture we are in. The biggest recruits were being recruited by sneaker companies as much as the colleges. The big rumor at the time was Kevin Garnett took so much money from Nike, why would he go to college. The sneaker money created the high school superstar. Nike struck gold with Garnett and many others. Read about the sneaker wars. SO MUCH MONEY. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...war-for-americas-feet/?utm_term=.6d28b8c5a45a
So how does it work?
Potential Pro Players get Identified early. Agents swarm around the age of 15. Look at Zion. Agents “loan” to these families trying to build a relationship. It might be $1,000 or maybe it’s $5,000. Agents build relationships with AAU coaches who have relationships with sneaker reps. The best players (DeAndre Ayton) can really set their price. The money isn’t coming from Arizona booster (like in football), but it’s coming from Adidas or Nike. Because the potential windfall is great. And when you break it down, 100K for one year for the best high school player is a bargain. Just look at what coaches get paid from Shoe companies. Why do you think they get so much $$$? It’s not to wear the Nike Pegasus.....
Players like Burrell (and maybe PJ Dozier) are solid NBA prospects, but unlikely superstars. I would guess the schools involved don’t always know about the agents but the agents know the coaches who they can and can’t work with.
Agents are cutthroat he told me. It often comes down to who the family trusts most in the end. But $1,000 is just the bait. If they come back for another “loan”, that’s when you hook em. It’s pennies for Adidas or Under Armour to fish for the next Steph Curry.
Read how Under Armor got him. It’s amazing. And it arguably made their company.
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/03/the-story-of-how-nike-lost-stephen-curry-is-unbelievable
Last edited by a moderator:
