By: TPG Sports Group

Sacrifice – In order to do your job the right way you must sacrifice family, friends, a significant other and fun. You will be on the road anywhere from 100 to 230 days per year. Your job is not only on the road, it is planning the trip and making appropriate calls. It entails a lot of Internet research and calls to people in the inner circle of the player (coaches, trainers, video coordinator, media, AD, etc). When you return from a trip, you are spending a lot of time writing reports, watching TV games, making phone calls, and doing research. You must have an understanding inner circle, friends & family. You are essentially “present” 50-100 days per year. You will miss many family experiences and other leisure activities due to this job. There are not many exceptions. Many entry-level and assistant positions on the basketball side do not earn much of salary. Unless you make it to the director or GM level (which is incredibly difficult), you will be earning a significantly low salary. The sacrifice is real. These are the types of things to be taken into consideration before deciding on this career path. It’s wonderful to be in the league for a few reasons – working at the highest level of your sport with the brightest minds, new opportunities, as well as many perks. However, the financial component is not very good for the sacrifices that have to be made.

Relationships – It is essential to have trusting relationships in this business. You have to be able to get good information. Without healthy relationships it will be difficult to execute at the level your GM/Team expect you to. You often see former coaches hired as scouts. Former coaches have many relationships within basketball where they can get information efficiently. Good relationships with agents, media, coaches and anybody involved with the sport of basketball can have a huge impact on your career. The more relationships you have, the deeper the information you will be able to get. The more genuine the relationship you have, the easier it becomes to get good information. If you don’t have dozens of coaches and/or agents, media in your cell phones as contacts, then you have a very slim chance of being taken seriously.

Travel – This is a very underrated part of the job and can be very taxing. Most of your travel will not be first class. Teams don’t budget for this (generally) unless you are a veteran scout or in upper management. You have to establish status on an airline in order to get occasional upgrades. If you have a ten-day scouting trip scheduled and you have a flight cancelation on day two, this could affect the rest of your trip. There are many moving parts to the travel part of the job. You will spend many days alone on the road. Occasionally, you get comfortable/become friends with other NBA scouts and can meet on the road. Be cautious of how you treat your body and take care of yourself. You will often being eating late after games and traveling early in the morning. Collect points on all travel (airlines, hotels, rental cars). This will help with bypassing long lines and making travel more efficient. Learn how to improvise when travel setbacks occur. There will be times when the travel coordinator will not be available to help. Know your way around travel shortcuts and options.

Reports – This is a very time consuming process. You will end up writing reports on players that never play in the NBA. You must “cover your ass” and write-up any talent that is in the game in case the prospect starts to develop into a potential NBA player you have previous notes on him. Writing a report can average anywhere from 10 minutes to 45 minutes for one player. Of course this depends on the amount of information you have or how much you were able to capture while scouting him. If you write up an average of 5 players per game, these reports can take hours. Add this to the travel, scheduling, phone calls, emails, research, etc., and you are looking at a lot of time on this job. Reports are different on each NBA team. I worked for three NBA teams and all three had a different system. Be careful always writing what a player can’t do and try to focus on what a player can do. Try to figure out what translates. Our league has a different set of rules/spacing therefore different things translate.

Stay in your lane – The NBA has a hierarchy that is very specific. There are unwritten rules to your role and appropriate behavior. The obvious is to greatly respect the staff members that are in a more senior position than you; however, your colleagues that you are in the trenches with must be treated with the utmost respect. The people that struggle to stay in their lane don’t last long in the NBA. An example can be when someone tries to get a meeting with the GM or even team owner without being asked. This will disrupt staff chemistry. Going above or around your direct report will reflect very poorly. If colleagues notice this, it is a good way to cause friction or lose trust. Do your job, do it well. Report to who the appropriate staff member and stay in your lane.

Be Organized – In the world of travel it is very easy to find yourself unorganized. The pace in which NBA scouts & executives travel is very fast. You are constantly multitasking with phone calls, emails, reports, travel schedules, and, of course, your personal/home life. Letting one slip affects the other in a big way. Management is always evaluating the depth and level of your reports/information. Once you slip it is easy to play catch up with bad reports. Make lists. Finish your list each day. You will have setbacks. Be prepared and expect setbacks. You will find yourself taking notes in many different areas: notebook, iPad, iPhone, scrap paper etc. Be sure to condense or try and choose one method of note taking.

Good information wins – There is information and there is good information. The ability to get “real” information is something that GM’s value greatly. It is easier to get “good” information if your relationships are healthy and genuine. You have to be able to give good information to also receive it. Be smart and never give up information about your own team or business. The NBA community is very small. This can be looked at as dishonest or sharing inside information, which is extremely frowned upon. Even if you may not think you are giving up sensitive info, it is not your place to assume. Stay loyal to your organization. Develop relationships with coaches (college, pro, INTL), agents, media, other scouts in the NBA, AAU coaches etc. These relationships will help in one of the most important areas of scouting: “Background Info”. Having the ability to get real background information and to find out how the prospect is wired or who he surrounds himself with, how he treats people, habits good/bad, etc, are extremely valuable to an organization. You can eventually learn how to share information with each other. This information becomes extremely valuable during draft week and free agency. If your GM can get great information from you that helps him make a clearer, more efficient decision, this will show well on your behalf.

Time Management – In order to operate efficiently and at the highest level possible you must master the art of time management. You will balance many things while being an NBA executive. Most will tell you that the hardest thing to do is balance work with home/personal life. Many nights you are bringing work home. Sports are 24-7. Calls, games, research, emergency situations etc. Keep a very detailed notepad or note section in a device, (iPad/iPhone/one note). Roughly 8-10 new things will come at you unexpectedly during an average day during the NBA season. Be ready to be a great crisis manager. Have an understanding spouse/family. Falling behind often puts pressure on family, bills, deadlines, projects, reports and life in general. Be prepared to be prepared.

Play the game – Understand how to navigate through the NBA and how to treat people the right way. Treating your equals in the NBA is very important. You will end up seeing many people on the road in airports, hotels, restaurants, games, media rooms etc. The secret ingredient to staying in the NBA a long time is having good relationships. The probability that you work for only one team for your entire career is very slim. It is important to develop trusting relationships. Within your own organization it is essential to treat everyone with respect, stay in your lane, do not try to climb, do not throw colleagues under the bus and above all, be early/stay late