Welcome back to another exciting episode of the SBC Audio Experience! This week, Riley Sager sits down with Buddy Scott, Director of Salary Cap and Basketball Strategy for the Boston Celtics and proud VSL and SBC Alumni, to discuss his journey into the business side of basketball and the intricate world of salary cap management.
In this episode, Buddy dives into:
In this episode, Buddy dives into:
- His path from VSL and SBC to the front office of the Boston Celtics.
- The complexities of NBA salary cap management and its role in building championship-caliber teams.
- Balancing financial strategy with basketball operations to achieve organizational goals.
- Advice for aspiring sports professionals looking to break into the NBA's business side.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Sports are more than just a competition and a trophy.
Sports are a portal for everyday people to pursue their
wildest dreams on some of the world's largest stages. My
name is Riley Sager, and I'll be taking you along
with me as I hear from SBC and VSL alumni
who pursued a career in the business of sports. In
this series, I will sit down with guests to discuss
strategies for entering the sports world and what you can
(00:25):
do to differentiate yourself in the industry. From playing to
coaching to broadcasting. The common denominator for any job in
sports is the ability to push oneself to become a
master at their craft while connecting with others who share
that same passion to be great.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Let's get into it. Welcome back to another episode of
the SBC Audio Experience. I'm your host, Riley Sager, and
today we will have an incredible guest joining us, Buddy Scott,
director of Salary cap and Basketball Strategy for the Boston Celtics.
Buddy's journey is a true testament the opportunities that come
(01:01):
from hard work, dedication, and experiences like the Vegas Summer
League and Sports business classroom. As a proud SBC and
VSL alum, Buddy has risen through the ranks to play
a key role in one of the NBA's most storied franchises.
From navigating the complexities of salary cap management to shaping
roster strategies that keep the Celtics competitive, Buddy has built
(01:23):
a career on understanding the numbers behind the game we love. Today,
we'll dive into his career path, explore the ins and
outs of NBA front office work, and hear his advice
for aspiring sports professionals looking to break into the business
of basketball. Let's get into it. Here's Buddy Scott. Buddy,
Welcome to SBC Audio Experience. I can't wait to talk
(01:45):
to you about your story and your career. Thanks for
coming on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Now, you have quite the detailed resume working in the NBA.
But I want to start with how you first got
involved in sports. What did that look like, you know,
growing up? What role did sports play into your life.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah, I grew up in Hawaii, where there's you know,
no professional sports team. Sports is not as big as
as it is in other parts of the United States.
But mainly grew up playing basketball and volleyball, and in
seventh grade I actually quit basketball ironically enough to focus
on volleyball because I just thought that, you know, was
(02:24):
my way to maybe get to the Division one level
playing a sport and maybe get somewhere that I couldn't
get to otherwise. So, you know, stop playing basketball at
that point, focused on volleyball, but always like basketball was
like my one true love and was the sport that
I followed the most. So eventually was a Division one
volleyball player at Harvard, but always kind of had the
(02:47):
basketball itch. As I'm sure we'll get into.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, how did basketball stay with you? I mean, you're
playing volleyball and an amazing school like Harvard, but you know,
were you focusing on basketball? Still watching it? Covering it?
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Definitely watching it. And I think like a lot of kids,
like from a young age, I was, you know, really
wanted to work in sports and was maybe someone saying, oh,
I want to be a GM one day from like
a young age, like I didn't really know what that
all entailed. And then when I got to school, I
think I realized that, you know, there are you know,
(03:21):
jobs that are attainable, right out of school if you
work hard enough and kind of develop a skill set.
So you know, my freshman year of college, I just
became really interested in like doing everything that I could
to work in a front office, and it kind of
all went from there.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, tell us about that decision to do the Sports
Business Classroom and then BSL.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
After, Yeah, I did so. I signed up for SBC
when I was nineteen years old. So I did it
like after my freshman year of college. And I think
the program is designed for people like at like a
little bit of a further stage than that, like maybe
one year of school left or having just graduated and
trying to figure out what's next. So I I think
(04:07):
I was a little too you know, young and naive
and green to like really know like what it all
was when I did the program. But I think the
upside of that is it was really a wake up
call of you know, you're surrounded by I think my
class was like eighty other people of like you're no
longer the big fish in a small pond in terms
(04:27):
of your knowledge and your interests of working in basketball,
Like you're among many people. And I think the upside
of that is, again, it was a wake up call,
and I had three years left the school to figure out,
all right, how can I kind of maximize my you know,
probability of getting a job out of school. So it
was definitely like the first step that I took to really, yeah,
(04:49):
develop a career in basketball. But I remember seeing the
kind of posting or like the stumbling upon the SBC website.
I guess it was the spring of my freshman year,
and it was there was just some that clicked in
my head of like, this is the program that I
need to do, and I'm very glad that I did it.
And then for Summer League that was two years later,
So the summer of twenty twenty one, I was an
(05:11):
intern at Summer League. So you know, had had progressed
a little bit in terms of I guess the people
I knew in the industry and just my knowledge base
of I guess the salary cap. But yeah, that was
a great opportunity to work at Summer League and again
to be around a lot of you know, other kind
(05:31):
of eager, ambitious people trying to get into the space.
And I guess one thing I'll say about both of
those programs is like my biggest takeaway which definitely wasn't
what I was thinking about going into it, but is
something that stays with me to this day. Is just
all like the friends and the people I know that
all started, you know, working long hours in Thomas and
Mack and just being around the biguest summer league environment.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, especially being around, like you said, everyone who just
knows so much about sports. It's easy to make those connections.
It's easy to make those friends. But from your experience
as an SBC student, what was the hardest part you
talked about in just being young in that kind of thing,
But what else about the program where you like, oh, wow,
like you know, this is something that I should probably
(06:16):
work on.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah. I think it just goes back to like, you know,
I was probably the least experienced person there. I probably
was not the smartest person there either. So I think
it's just like again like a wake up call of
like being in an environment of like figuring out how
you can gain an edge or like stand out among
(06:38):
all these people. So I think, you know that that
was the hardest part is it was just like, wow,
I have so far to go in this. But I
think I think it really you know, lit a fire
under me to really dive deeper into learning the salary
cap and the CBA and a lot of stuff that
pertains to the job I have now, because I think
(07:00):
at that point I had a very service level understanding
of it all. And yeah, it just inspired inspired me
to like really dive deeper into the subject matter.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
How did those two internship opportunities and programs help you
adjust your career path? So going back to school after
you know, being at SBC, what adjustments did you make
to know, you know, this is what I want to do.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, I think I was just more purposeful in my
in my schooling, maybe at the detriment of the grades
that I was getting in these classes to try to
frame every class, every project I had, every paper I
had to write, every anything like that into how can
I make this about the NBA? And I definitely remember
(07:42):
there were you know, people like professors commenting on like,
you know, if you just wrote a normal subject matter,
you probably would have got an A. But I'm giving
you a B because I had no idea why you're
writing about the NBA, Like it it's very far fetched
to like make this jump. But you know, I just like,
for example, I took my junior year of college, I
(08:02):
took a class like the Economics of the Coronavirus, and
my classmates in the seminar were writing about like actual topics,
like like you know, the actual like effect of COVID
nineteen on the American economy and all this stuff, and
I was writing on like how the NBA bubble in
twenty twenty, like kid came together, Like stuff that was,
(08:23):
in hindsight, was pretty like stupid to write about relative
to the other stuff. But I was just like, like,
I know exactly what I want to do. I want
to work in basketball, and I want to make every
paper I write, every project I create into like some
sort of work sample. And that was just the thing
that I valued the most and that and so yeah,
it it. Uh, that's a lot of what I did
(08:44):
my next three years of school after doing SBC.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
I think that's actually a good way to look at it,
because I mean there's a lot of students in college
right now who maybe you have to take a bunch
of gen d's and you're like, how is this going
to apply? Especially if you know what you want to do,
And I think there's always way you can tie it
back to your career. So I appreciate you telling that
story because heading into this school year, I had to
take anthropology and I was like, I want to take journalism,
(09:09):
Like this is anthropology and film, and then I was like, well,
you know, relations with people telling a story through film,
I think you can connect it to anything.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Okay, So college buddy, you were an SBC visl Tell
me about actually breaking into the industry getting that first
internship with the Boston Celtics. What was that like for you?
How did you handle it?
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yeah, it was going into my last semester of school,
so the spring of twenty twenty two. You know, I
think after I did SBC in twenty nineteen, everything was
about getting a job, like right out of undergrad so
I think in my head I was thinking I'd graduate
and then I'd start this job. But the way it
came about was, as I mentioned earlier, I was going
to Harvard, which is ten minutes from the Celtics practice facility,
(10:01):
and I got a call from a guy who's now
my boss, who was basically like, we're in the middle
of the season. We don't have the capacity to hire
a full time person, but I've heard good things about
you and would you be interested in starting as an intern?
And this was a this is a weird moment, and
that you know, it was my final semester of school.
(10:22):
I was the captain of the volleyball team and we
were about to start our season, so it was you know,
I had all kind of my commitments lined up already,
but I just came to the conclusion that like this
is this instantly became like the number one thing on
my priority list or like what I should commit my
time to. So I obviously said yes, And it was
(10:45):
it was a grueling couple of months being in season
and traveling while also like trying to be the intern
that was there a lot and like showing that I'm
a hard worker and all of that. But that's how
I got my start, and you know, did that for
five months, let's say, and then before time role kind
of came out of that.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
That just goes back to what you were saying earlier
about relationships. You know that you're now boss. He's like, oh,
I heard good things about you.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
A you know question to this day like where that
came from. I think that's a byproduct of you know,
purposeful networking on my end, and building like real connections
and that I think I think that's how he heard
good things about me. But that's kind of the industry
in a nutshell, like so much of it is kind
of your your reputation. And yeah, that that that worked
(11:32):
out very well in that regard.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Do you have any advice for someone who has an
opportunity like SBC or VSL on building those authentic relationships?
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Networking is a very I believe that you kind of
have to fail before you realize like what works. Like
at first, I was not. I was not good at it.
I was I was the person that was sending like
five paragraph emails to GMS when I was nineteen that like, obviously,
now that I'm on the other side out of it
and work for a team, I'm like, why would the
(12:01):
GM ever respond to some college kid telling them their
life story? So but I learned from that, and I think,
I think start with the people that are like low
hanging fruit. That's always my advice. So, like I went
through like the Harvard Alumni network. You know, there was
a group of five to ten people who were Harvard
undergrads and not too long ago that now work in
(12:23):
the league. So I started with them because I think
they were more likely to respond to me and you know,
give me the time of day and develop relationships with them.
And they eventually introduced me to their friends, who you know, uh,
probably trusted the connection a little bit more because the
kind of third party was saying good, good things and right,
(12:43):
that's how it all kind of grew. So I would say, yeah,
I think networking could be a very daunting thing and
that like you don't really know where to start, but yeah,
connect with people that are most likely to respond to you,
that it actually seems like they you know, want to
help you. And then in my experience, like everything kind
of from there.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Can you explain the transition from intern to full time
employee because obviously when you were an intern you had
a lot going on, But then what was it like,
you know, being on the staff.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
In some ways the role had the responsibilities of someone
who was full time, it just didn't have kind of
the title or I guess the job stability attached to it.
So I there actually wasn't some seismic change when like
the intern tag got taken off of me. It's more
just that the Celtics are you know, very They're relatively
(13:38):
small front office and a group that has been working
together for the most part for ten plus years, so
I was kind of a new person to that. So
I think part of the intern tag was they it
was like a feeling out process of like they've been
the same group for a really long time, like do
we trust this individual enough to like or do we
like him enough to add him to our group? So
(14:01):
nothing really changed, It was more it yeah, it was.
It was more just they decided, yeah, we want to
keep this guy on. But it in some ways the
intern process was like a five month long extended interview.
But yeah, I think it just the role kind of
like naturally grows as people get to know you more
(14:24):
and you just become more comfortable in it. But they're yeah,
they're actually and the surprises people like, wasn't that much
of a change in the actual role from intern to
when I first started out as an analyst?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
What did you do in those five months that really
set yourself apart?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
That's a great question. I think, you know, this was
not on my mind when I started the internship. I
was thinking about, you know, how can I put forth
the best work product? How can I you know that
That's how I'm going to be impressive. That's how people
are gonna like me. If when I'm assigned something, I
do it, you know, quickly, but also you know, to
(15:01):
the best of my ability, and you know that part
is obviously important. I don't want to take away from
that part of it at all. But like, what I
didn't realize that I now know is so much of
it is just do people want to be around you?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Do?
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Do people trust you? Do people want to spend you know,
forty fifty hours a week with you? And I think
kind of the yeah, relationships part of it, and just
kind of the I don't know, emotional intelligence for lack
of a better phrase, That part of it was really
kind of the thing that mattered the most at the
(15:36):
end of the day, which again was not what I
thought I should have been prioritizing or think of thinking
about the most when I first started as an intern.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
With an organization like the Celtics. You talked about the
front office. How you know, it's been a small group
of people for a long time, just the brand as
a whole. How do you balance tradition versus innovating new ideas.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
That's a great question because I think tradition is in
some ways like synonymous with the Celtics, Like we've just
been such a winning organization throughout you know, the whole history,
like eighteen championships, we've missed the playoffs once in the
last since two thousand and seven. Like it's just been
an organization, you know, long before I got there. Obviously
(16:18):
that that's been against synonymous with winning. But I think
the the nature of the NBA is that it's quite cyclical,
Like it's it's meant for teams to be really good
and then to kind of taper off, and then I think,
you know, the that's a byproduct of like the the
(16:38):
teams that are that that have poor records have higher
percent chances of landing these draft picks, and hopefully those
draft picks do well and then you know, they get
better than a team like the Celtics. So I think
the the way that we've kind of achieved long term
success and haven't really had a down period is yeah,
just just this culture or this like a session with
(17:01):
winning and like everything is about winning, everything is about
something greater than yourself. And there's also been just insane
stability at the top of the organization that it's been
great to be around, like a at the executive level,
I think, you know that in combination with getting really
great players is just like a recipe for success. But
(17:23):
I think, yeah, to the question you pose, like the
innovation part of it, you always have to be getting better.
You can't kind of rest on this like, oh, we're
the Celtics, of course we'll figure it out. Like that's
that's not the case. These teams are getting younger and
better and bigger. And but I think in my experience,
like my opinion as to why we, you know, experience
(17:44):
so much winning is yeah, just the the winning culture,
Like it's it's in our DNA, and like basically everything
we do is to try to you know, prolong that
that state of success and hopefully we can continue doing that.
But it's been it's been great, right so far.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, a lot of players say it's hard to get
to the top, but it's even harder.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
To stay there mm hm for sure. And yeah, I've
I've heard a lot of our players saying that this
year of like we've finally won and now you know
it in some ways becomes harder because the pressure is
even more and like we know that we do it.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
So, in your current role, director of Salary, Cap and
Basketball Strategy, how do you view that role in terms
of handling the pressure and staying at the top. Like
you said, coming off the past year's finals, what.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Was that like for you? It was awesome to experience.
I think from a from a front office perspective, it's
it's a little bit strange when you win and that, like,
you know, right after we won, like obviously there's a
day or two of celebration, but like the draft is
a week later, Like we gotta make a draft pick.
We can't just be uh celebrating and partying. So, uh,
(18:56):
you know, it was a lot of that, and you know,
signing My job has a lot to do with player
contracts and roster transaction and that sort of stuff. So
you know, immediately kind of my focus, which had already
been this way, but especially after we won, is like
how can we keep this group together so that that's
(19:17):
kind of what we work towards. And again it was
just like proof of concept that we could do it.
But like it's always about especially in my role, it's
it's like a future facing role and one that that
you're always thinking about, how can we be a sustainable team.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
What was the day to day routine like for you
over the summer?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Oh, long hours, I would say, you know, June and
July for someone in my role is probably the time
that I'm in the office the most. And it's just
a lot of scenario planning and it's a lot of
you know, meeting with our group internally, and uh yeah,
(20:00):
it was just long hours in the office, a lot
of tracking things with our team, things with the other
twenty nine teams in terms of decisions that they are facing,
constraints that they're operating under. And it's my kind of
primary job responsibility to be the one like on top
of all that stuff and just understanding like the ramifications
(20:24):
of any transaction that we you know, may consider doing.
There's there's opportunity costs, there's downstream effects of all those things.
So the role of like someone working in the salary
cap in roster strategy space is to a understand the rules.
That's the salary cap part of it, and the strategy
part is like, all right, given the constraints and given
(20:46):
the rules as we know them, like, what is our
prescription for like what should be the best path forward?
So that's the strategy element of it.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
When you come home from work, what about it makes
you say, Okay, that was a successful day, like I
did my job.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
It's a great question and something that I reflect on
a lot, because I think the role is inherently one
where there's there's some days there's not a lot of
like tangible progress. There's there's not like it's you know,
it's it's not like you've you've finished a project or
you've I scouted a game and written a report. There
a lot of times it's just like taking in a
(21:23):
bunch of information and just thinking about it and brainstorming
and talking with other people in our group. But you know,
I think I think you just have to take like
a a like a longer term view of it all
and just think of, like, you know, maybe one day
(21:43):
I haven't made a lot of tangible progress, but over
the course of a week or a month, like there's
just a feeling that like we're getting closer to like
making decisions about a roster, getting more educated about everything
that that comes with it. But it is something that
I think someone a lot of people in this type
of role kind of struggle with, and that there's there's
(22:03):
not a lot of like things that you're really like
checking off or stuff that like, all right, I finished this,
now I can move on to the next thing. It's
like a three hundred and sixty five day project of yeah,
you know, trying to strategize about the roster. I guess, yeah,
So what are your strategies for handling that? For Obviously,
(22:23):
you want to have the big picture in mind, but
you don't want to miss out on the details. You know,
that's what fulfills the picture. So how do you balance that?
In some ways that's the hardest part of the job,
and and something that you know, I'm very fortunate to
work with other people, people on our front office that
also have experience in this domain, that have been doing
it for a lot longer than them, So in a
(22:45):
lot of ways I lean on their expertise of just
like I think there's a there's a struggle especially for
you know, kind of younger, newer people in a front
office to like even understand like what the bigger picture is.
And just because a lot of strategy is just like
a way of thinking about you know, short term and
(23:09):
long term kind of goals and and and how to
define success so yeah, it's it's a it's a difficult thing,
and it's just I think every team is optimizing for
something different. There there are some teams that are optimizing for,
you know, having the highest championship probability three to five
(23:31):
years from now, and there's other teams that are just
trying to, you know, do everything that it takes to
win this year. So I think it's just understanding and
and being honest with yourself about like where where your
team is and like the time cycle of of contention.
And I think that's something that we debate both about
ourselves and about other teams all the time.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
You've been working in salary, tap and strategy for a
few years now, what do you think is the biggest
different from when you first got started in the industry
to now? And where do you think, let's say, five
years from now, what it's going to look like.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I think the biggest difference is that there's been a
new CBA that's been agreed to and ratified like this.
When I got hired, we were still operating under the
constraints and the rules of the twenty seventeen CBA, and
now we're on the next one. So I think you know,
in the summer of twenty twenty three, we all had
(24:29):
to learn these this new set of rules, and the
rules have been phased in over a multi year period
and some of which we're you know, are getting in
phase in this year, in the last of which the
rules are getting phased in next year. So I think
the biggest thing is both learning the new rules, but
also like trying to develop some sort of understanding of like,
(24:52):
given these new constraints, how should we proceed, how do
we project other teams to proceed? So it you know,
I think kind of the framework and like the knowledge
base that I had when I, you know, first got
hired for this job is very helpful in you know,
learning about the new CBA. But it's still like a
new kind of challenge that all of the cabin strategy
(25:13):
people around the league are having to you know, kind
of go through together. But we also are like competitors
among the thirty NBA teams, so you can only collaborate
so much in terms of your knowledge base, so that
that that's been the hardest part, I would say, from
when I started until now. And like I said, these
(25:33):
rules we're still trying to figure out, you know, what
the best path forward is based on them.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Yeah, with so many adjustments, you don't really have room
for trial and error. You know, you're trying to figure
out what's going on. But in your role, you can't
just be like, oh, if this this isn't doesn't work out,
like we'll try it. No, it doesn't really work like that,
you know, So what's the process like for you and
your team in the decision making and like, Okay, yes
(25:59):
this is for us, but this is the best we have.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
I think it goes back to this concept of like,
you know, we can define my title or my job
responsibility however you want, but like the number one thing
is like advising Brad are like head head decision maker
on the best path forward. I think that's a lot
of our you know, the various people I work with,
(26:22):
it's it's all of our like primary job function, and
we do that in different ways. We have people work
in analytics, they're building models. We have you know, scouts
that are going to see games. My my role is
more about the contracts the players have and about you know,
trades and how that all works. So that's kind of
the number one thing that you know is in our minds.
(26:44):
How how can we positively impact the decision making of
our kind of person in charge? And and that's kind
of what we come to work every day trying to do.
And that's certainly what I'm trying to do. Well.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Who surprised you most about being with the Celtics? I mean,
growing up watching basketball, I'm sure you had expectations of
certain teams, but being with this organization one a surprise you, Moss.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
I think, especially when you're trying to work in a
front office, you get really, you know, fixated on just
the people that work in the front office. And like
when I was getting hired by the Celtics, like the
only people I could think of were, you know, Brad
Stevens and Mike Sarah and my boss, Like those are
the people that I have looked up to for a
(27:35):
really long time. And you kind of at least I
lost sight or I didn't I underrated how awesome. Like
all the other people in our building are that that
I don't you know, that aren't necessarily in the front office.
But like our coaching staff are medical staff, our strength
coaches are the people that work in the kitchen, the
(27:55):
people that work in security, the people who work in equipment. Like,
there's all these things that you know, I maybe overlooked
just because it wasn't what I was pursuing or what
I wanted to do, but it they are such an
integral kind of component of winning or at least of
like the culture of the Boston Celtics. And that's been
(28:15):
maybe my biggest takeaway, and that like everyone that I
work with, I mean that I work with both directly
but also just like that worse in the building is
like such a star in their role. And that's been
like really awesome to see and to learn from. In
these last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
You've moved from intern to analysts manager director. You said,
the title isn't really that's not the important thing. It's
your role and what you're actually doing with your team.
What would you say to young people out there who
are either in sports or trying to break into it about,
you know, starting where you need to, but then eventually
(28:52):
getting into the role that you dreamed of.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Yeah, I was. I was very fortunate that I, you know,
the kind of my dream job or like the role
that I was going for was more or less the
role that I was able to get straight out of undergrad.
But I think the way to maybe increase your chances
of getting to maybe where you currently are to what
(29:17):
you aspire to go to is just to specialize as
much as possible. Like that, it's kind of a hot
button issue like how much to be a generalist versus
how much to be a specialist at least when my
experience has taught me is like the specialists are the
ones that get the jobs in that in that special role.
And once you kind of prove that you are a specialist,
(29:38):
or I guess another way to say this is like
you know, really good at one specific niche area, then
I think you can maybe become a little bit more
of a generalist once you showed kind of mastery you're
pretty close to it of some sort of subject matter.
So yeah, I would say to try to special lives
(30:00):
as much as you possibly can and in what you
actually want to be doing. And then you know, something
that I, you know, tried to do throughout college that
in my opinion, is very helpful is to kind of
do the job before you have the job, which in
some in some cases is like easier than in others.
Like it, I think it was easy in my case
(30:20):
in that like, you know, a lot of this information
is public as like who's on which team, how much
money did that make? Trade signings are announced publicly or
at least like tweeted out. So throughout college, like I,
you know, just had this huge spreadsheet with thirty tabs
for each team and I was tracking every transaction that
they made and was kind of spending hours a day
(30:42):
understanding all of the ramifications of all these different moves.
And funnily enough, like that's the job I have to
this day and that now I just get paid to
do it. But I think one of the ways one
of the reasons that I was hired is I had
shown that, like with thatout me anyone telling me to
do this, without anyone paying me to do this, Like
(31:04):
I was doing basically the job of a person who
works in salary cabin strategy while I was in school,
just to like prepare myself for the role. So yeah,
doing the job before you have the job, Creating relevant
work samples, and specializing are all ways that I think
increase your probability of landing one of these jobs. And
(31:26):
that probability is never going to be one hundred percent,
but I think each thing you do like what I
just described to marginally increase that probability and with a
little luck, like that's all it takes.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah, initiative is certainly an important factor, not just seen
getting any job, but staying in your role continuing to
be valued. You also mentioned preparation for almost anything in
sports and really any job, but like broadcasting, analytics, you know, coaching,
being a player, but you have to prepare in something
(32:02):
like sports where there's so much information constantly. How do
you navigate, let's say, your own preparation for your role
right now? How do you go about getting as much
information as you possibly can, but only focusing on what's important,
you know, in whatever time you have.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
I think it's helpful to start in a place where
you acknowledge that you're probably not the most knowledgeable person
in the room or not the foremost expert in something,
and not being afraid to like lean on other people,
like for example, in my role, Like I firmly believe
(32:41):
that like the only way to get really you know,
good at a role like the one I have is
to experience many trade deadlines, drafts, uh, free agency periods,
all that type of stuff. And it's not something that
can be like sped up. Like I think it takes
a lot more of each of those things than I
have experience to to really become kind of good at
(33:04):
this stuff. So I think it the preparation question you
asked comes back to, like you just have to acknowledge that,
like you're not going to know everything and that's okay,
And yeah, just leaning on others and coming from a
place of like it's okay, like you can it takes
(33:27):
a while to learn the subject matter and that could
pertain to any sort of job like the ones you described,
and yeah, just like taking a breath and saying it's
all gonna be okay, has has really you know, helped
me in that, Like I think there is a there
is a tendency for me to to to need to
feel like I'm, you know, contributing the very most that
(33:51):
I can and and all this stuff, but like some
of it just can't be rushed, like some of it
has to be like I need to be okay leaning
on the much more experienced people and kind of it
all goes from there.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
What are your personal goals for continuing to succeed in
your role? Just looking at the rest of the season,
what are you focusing.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
On Yeah, kind of like I said in the last answer,
just like knowing that you can't rush this developmental process
that I'm definitely still probably at the beginning of. And
you know this can sound cheesy, but like trying to
get better each day, and like we talked about earlier,
(34:32):
Like especially in a role like the one I have,
there's there's not a lot like tangible ways that that
you can measure that, but there is some version of
like if you're honest with yourself, like you can you
can know you know whether you got quote unquote better
each day, so that you know, that's kind of the
you know, all the cliche terms the growth mindset, the
(34:52):
one percent better each day like that I think are
generally good principles to live by and that I think it,
you know, hopefully leads to you know, long run kind
of sustainability within the you know, sports industry, which is
an industry that I want to continue working in and
(35:13):
because it's just it's it's awesome to be part of
something bigger than myself, and especially with Celtics, is.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
That your favorite part of your role? Just knowing I
mean you talked about earlier the winning culture you get
to be a part of that, you get to contribute.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Yeah, I think it's it's it's a great feeling to
know that I've hopefully played some small role in you know,
the success of the team. And I think in some
ways it's kind of it's a role where you just
(35:48):
have to you know, trust your kind of process and
be process oriented because I think the reality of the
industry it's a very well, I won't say industry that
the team side of sports is that it's a very
results oriented league and it and it would be so
hard to it's it's so easy to kind of completely
(36:09):
judge yourself based on the kind of result of all
of it. But I think the process is just as important.
And yeah, that's that's kind of what I try to
keep is like my north star and like all of
our people in our Pern office, like what we kind
of we think about, you know, good process. We just
(36:30):
want to be confident that it leads to good results.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
You may have already mentioned it specifically to this question,
with you know, talking about leaning on others, trusting and
developmental process. But is there another lesson that you think
is underrated or not seen as much in the sports
industry that in your past roles you're like, oh, wow,
this has actually been really important.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Yeah, I mentioned it earlier, but I think there are
you know, the reality is that the demand for these
jobs so far exceeds supply. In a lot of these
jobs made my role, any sort of role. There are
so many people that want these jobs because I think,
for being honest, like sports is really cool and I think,
(37:16):
you know, being on the other side a couple of
years ago of like trying to get one of these
jobs and now you know, being on the side of
you know, maybe evaluating and true level candidates or at
least like just being aware of like how people on
the team side view these roles. Like so often the
deciding factor is just the personality of the individual and
(37:40):
like the kind of characteristics that they seem to you know,
value the most or that they hold most true. And
so I think it's it's just so important for people
to not lose sight of like how your own kind
of personality and your character is, Like as you look
(38:01):
for a role in sports, I think, you know, I
can totally attest like it. It's it's so easy to
make like learning the subject matter of you know, being
a better expert in the salary cap and all that stuff,
like making ad the number one thing. And again that's
that's important, and you do need to clear a threshold
of that sort of stuff. But the deciding factor often is,
(38:23):
you know, what is your kind of level of emotional intelligence?
Was your character? Like how do you treat other people? Like?
I just always tell people like you can't lose sight
of that sort of stuff, and it oftentimes is the
deciding factor in terms of like who gets these roles
at the end of the day.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
That's great advice because I think a lot of times
it's easy to focus on those concrete goals just reaching
the next position, finishing this project. Yeah, but ultimately that
means nothing if you're not there for the connections, the
relationships and then developing your own character for sure.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Yeah. I again, it's it's it's hard to kind of
keep sight of that in the moment, especially when you're
you're looking for one of these jobs. But trust me,
it's it's it's a very valuable thing to be constantly
like evaluating yourself.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
On what would you fifteen year old self say about
you now?
Speaker 3 (39:22):
Man, even like my twenty one year old self, very
like I just the the people that I've met along
the way have been Like, if you told me, you know,
three years ago today that I would be, I don't
know that I'd be working for the Celtics and have
a championship ring and and you working with people like
Brad Stevens and Mike 'sarin and Austin Ange, I would
(39:44):
not have believed you. It's been great, just just like
work with so many talented people. And I think the
coolest part about working what I would call like my
dream job is that it doesn't feel like a job,
Like it doesn't feel like, oh my gosh, I got
to wake up and go to work today, Like this
(40:05):
is how I want to be spending my days, which
is just such a great feeling. And yeah, just trying
to get better at the role every single day. But
fifteen year old self would be I would think that
having a championship ring and knowing and that Brad Stevens
knows my name would would would be the coolest thing for.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Yeah, it's pretty cool. Not many people can say that, Well,
congratulations on everything you've accomplished, continue to accomplish and everything
in the future. You know, from SBC to VSL and
all your positions with the Celtics. You're really making a
name for yourself. So congratulations and all that. And thank
you for sharing your story, your intro into sports and
(40:49):
all the wonderful advice you gave for our listeners.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
Thanks for having me. Yeah, this has been This has
been great. Thank you so much. Thanks Buddy.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Thank you for tuning into our BSL Talent Alumni series
featuring BSL and SBC alum Buddy Scott. We hope you
enjoyed learning about his journey into the sports industry and
gained valuable insights into basketball strategy and salary cap like
subscribe and leave a review on social media and tag
us on your Instagram story at Sports Business Classroom. This
(41:22):
episode is also brought to you by hall Pass Media,
a full service marketing agency that specializes in brank consulting,
event management, digital marketing, and creative design. For more information
on hall Pass Media, go to hallpassnetwork dot com. See
you next time.
Sports are more than just a competition and a trophy.
Sports are a portal for everyday people to pursue their
wildest dreams on some of the world's largest stages. My
name is Riley Sager, and I'll be taking you along
with me as I hear from SBC and VSL alumni
who pursued a career in the business of sports. In
this series, I will sit down with guests to discuss
strategies for entering the sports world and what you can
(00:25):
do to differentiate yourself in the industry. From playing to
coaching to broadcasting. The common denominator for any job in
sports is the ability to push oneself to become a
master at their craft while connecting with others who share
that same passion to be great.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Let's get into it. Welcome back to another episode of
the SBC Audio Experience. I'm your host, Riley Sager, and
today we will have an incredible guest joining us, Buddy Scott,
director of Salary cap and Basketball Strategy for the Boston Celtics.
Buddy's journey is a true testament the opportunities that come
(01:01):
from hard work, dedication, and experiences like the Vegas Summer
League and Sports business classroom. As a proud SBC and
VSL alum, Buddy has risen through the ranks to play
a key role in one of the NBA's most storied franchises.
From navigating the complexities of salary cap management to shaping
roster strategies that keep the Celtics competitive, Buddy has built
(01:23):
a career on understanding the numbers behind the game we love. Today,
we'll dive into his career path, explore the ins and
outs of NBA front office work, and hear his advice
for aspiring sports professionals looking to break into the business
of basketball. Let's get into it. Here's Buddy Scott. Buddy,
Welcome to SBC Audio Experience. I can't wait to talk
(01:45):
to you about your story and your career. Thanks for
coming on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Now, you have quite the detailed resume working in the NBA.
But I want to start with how you first got
involved in sports. What did that look like, you know,
growing up? What role did sports play into your life.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah, I grew up in Hawaii, where there's you know,
no professional sports team. Sports is not as big as
as it is in other parts of the United States.
But mainly grew up playing basketball and volleyball, and in
seventh grade I actually quit basketball ironically enough to focus
on volleyball because I just thought that, you know, was
(02:24):
my way to maybe get to the Division one level
playing a sport and maybe get somewhere that I couldn't
get to otherwise. So, you know, stop playing basketball at
that point, focused on volleyball, but always like basketball was
like my one true love and was the sport that
I followed the most. So eventually was a Division one
volleyball player at Harvard, but always kind of had the
(02:47):
basketball itch. As I'm sure we'll get into.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, how did basketball stay with you? I mean, you're
playing volleyball and an amazing school like Harvard, but you know,
were you focusing on basketball? Still watching it? Covering it?
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Definitely watching it. And I think like a lot of kids,
like from a young age, I was, you know, really
wanted to work in sports and was maybe someone saying, oh,
I want to be a GM one day from like
a young age, like I didn't really know what that
all entailed. And then when I got to school, I
think I realized that, you know, there are you know,
(03:21):
jobs that are attainable, right out of school if you
work hard enough and kind of develop a skill set.
So you know, my freshman year of college, I just
became really interested in like doing everything that I could
to work in a front office, and it kind of
all went from there.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, tell us about that decision to do the Sports
Business Classroom and then BSL.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
After, Yeah, I did so. I signed up for SBC
when I was nineteen years old. So I did it
like after my freshman year of college. And I think
the program is designed for people like at like a
little bit of a further stage than that, like maybe
one year of school left or having just graduated and
trying to figure out what's next. So I I think
(04:07):
I was a little too you know, young and naive
and green to like really know like what it all
was when I did the program. But I think the
upside of that is it was really a wake up
call of you know, you're surrounded by I think my
class was like eighty other people of like you're no
longer the big fish in a small pond in terms
(04:27):
of your knowledge and your interests of working in basketball,
Like you're among many people. And I think the upside
of that is, again, it was a wake up call,
and I had three years left the school to figure out,
all right, how can I kind of maximize my you know,
probability of getting a job out of school. So it
was definitely like the first step that I took to really, yeah,
(04:49):
develop a career in basketball. But I remember seeing the
kind of posting or like the stumbling upon the SBC website.
I guess it was the spring of my freshman year,
and it was there was just some that clicked in
my head of like, this is the program that I
need to do, and I'm very glad that I did it.
And then for Summer League that was two years later,
So the summer of twenty twenty one, I was an
(05:11):
intern at Summer League. So you know, had had progressed
a little bit in terms of I guess the people
I knew in the industry and just my knowledge base
of I guess the salary cap. But yeah, that was
a great opportunity to work at Summer League and again
to be around a lot of you know, other kind
(05:31):
of eager, ambitious people trying to get into the space.
And I guess one thing I'll say about both of
those programs is like my biggest takeaway which definitely wasn't
what I was thinking about going into it, but is
something that stays with me to this day. Is just
all like the friends and the people I know that
all started, you know, working long hours in Thomas and
Mack and just being around the biguest summer league environment.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, especially being around, like you said, everyone who just
knows so much about sports. It's easy to make those connections.
It's easy to make those friends. But from your experience
as an SBC student, what was the hardest part you
talked about in just being young in that kind of thing,
But what else about the program where you like, oh, wow,
like you know, this is something that I should probably
(06:16):
work on.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah. I think it just goes back to like, you know,
I was probably the least experienced person there. I probably
was not the smartest person there either. So I think
it's just like again like a wake up call of
like being in an environment of like figuring out how
you can gain an edge or like stand out among
(06:38):
all these people. So I think, you know that that
was the hardest part is it was just like, wow,
I have so far to go in this. But I
think I think it really you know, lit a fire
under me to really dive deeper into learning the salary
cap and the CBA and a lot of stuff that
pertains to the job I have now, because I think
(07:00):
at that point I had a very service level understanding
of it all. And yeah, it just inspired inspired me
to like really dive deeper into the subject matter.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
How did those two internship opportunities and programs help you
adjust your career path? So going back to school after
you know, being at SBC, what adjustments did you make
to know, you know, this is what I want to do.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, I think I was just more purposeful in my
in my schooling, maybe at the detriment of the grades
that I was getting in these classes to try to
frame every class, every project I had, every paper I
had to write, every anything like that into how can
I make this about the NBA? And I definitely remember
(07:42):
there were you know, people like professors commenting on like,
you know, if you just wrote a normal subject matter,
you probably would have got an A. But I'm giving
you a B because I had no idea why you're
writing about the NBA, Like it it's very far fetched
to like make this jump. But you know, I just like,
for example, I took my junior year of college, I
(08:02):
took a class like the Economics of the Coronavirus, and
my classmates in the seminar were writing about like actual topics,
like like you know, the actual like effect of COVID
nineteen on the American economy and all this stuff, and
I was writing on like how the NBA bubble in
twenty twenty, like kid came together, Like stuff that was,
(08:23):
in hindsight, was pretty like stupid to write about relative
to the other stuff. But I was just like, like,
I know exactly what I want to do. I want
to work in basketball, and I want to make every
paper I write, every project I create into like some
sort of work sample. And that was just the thing
that I valued the most and that and so yeah,
it it. Uh, that's a lot of what I did
(08:44):
my next three years of school after doing SBC.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
I think that's actually a good way to look at it,
because I mean there's a lot of students in college
right now who maybe you have to take a bunch
of gen d's and you're like, how is this going
to apply? Especially if you know what you want to do,
And I think there's always way you can tie it
back to your career. So I appreciate you telling that
story because heading into this school year, I had to
take anthropology and I was like, I want to take journalism,
(09:09):
Like this is anthropology and film, and then I was like, well,
you know, relations with people telling a story through film,
I think you can connect it to anything.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Okay, So college buddy, you were an SBC visl Tell
me about actually breaking into the industry getting that first
internship with the Boston Celtics. What was that like for you?
How did you handle it?
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yeah, it was going into my last semester of school,
so the spring of twenty twenty two. You know, I
think after I did SBC in twenty nineteen, everything was
about getting a job, like right out of undergrad so
I think in my head I was thinking I'd graduate
and then I'd start this job. But the way it
came about was, as I mentioned earlier, I was going
to Harvard, which is ten minutes from the Celtics practice facility,
(10:01):
and I got a call from a guy who's now
my boss, who was basically like, we're in the middle
of the season. We don't have the capacity to hire
a full time person, but I've heard good things about
you and would you be interested in starting as an intern?
And this was a this is a weird moment, and
that you know, it was my final semester of school.
(10:22):
I was the captain of the volleyball team and we
were about to start our season, so it was you know,
I had all kind of my commitments lined up already,
but I just came to the conclusion that like this
is this instantly became like the number one thing on
my priority list or like what I should commit my
time to. So I obviously said yes, And it was
(10:45):
it was a grueling couple of months being in season
and traveling while also like trying to be the intern
that was there a lot and like showing that I'm
a hard worker and all of that. But that's how
I got my start, and you know, did that for
five months, let's say, and then before time role kind
of came out of that.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
That just goes back to what you were saying earlier
about relationships. You know that you're now boss. He's like, oh,
I heard good things about you.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
A you know question to this day like where that
came from. I think that's a byproduct of you know,
purposeful networking on my end, and building like real connections
and that I think I think that's how he heard
good things about me. But that's kind of the industry
in a nutshell, like so much of it is kind
of your your reputation. And yeah, that that that worked
(11:32):
out very well in that regard.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Do you have any advice for someone who has an
opportunity like SBC or VSL on building those authentic relationships?
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Networking is a very I believe that you kind of
have to fail before you realize like what works. Like
at first, I was not. I was not good at it.
I was I was the person that was sending like
five paragraph emails to GMS when I was nineteen that like, obviously,
now that I'm on the other side out of it
and work for a team, I'm like, why would the
(12:01):
GM ever respond to some college kid telling them their
life story? So but I learned from that, and I think,
I think start with the people that are like low
hanging fruit. That's always my advice. So, like I went
through like the Harvard Alumni network. You know, there was
a group of five to ten people who were Harvard
undergrads and not too long ago that now work in
(12:23):
the league. So I started with them because I think
they were more likely to respond to me and you know,
give me the time of day and develop relationships with them.
And they eventually introduced me to their friends, who you know, uh,
probably trusted the connection a little bit more because the
kind of third party was saying good, good things and right,
(12:43):
that's how it all kind of grew. So I would say, yeah,
I think networking could be a very daunting thing and
that like you don't really know where to start, but yeah,
connect with people that are most likely to respond to you,
that it actually seems like they you know, want to
help you. And then in my experience, like everything kind
of from there.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Can you explain the transition from intern to full time
employee because obviously when you were an intern you had
a lot going on, But then what was it like,
you know, being on the staff.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
In some ways the role had the responsibilities of someone
who was full time, it just didn't have kind of
the title or I guess the job stability attached to it.
So I there actually wasn't some seismic change when like
the intern tag got taken off of me. It's more
just that the Celtics are you know, very They're relatively
(13:38):
small front office and a group that has been working
together for the most part for ten plus years, so
I was kind of a new person to that. So
I think part of the intern tag was they it
was like a feeling out process of like they've been
the same group for a really long time, like do
we trust this individual enough to like or do we
like him enough to add him to our group? So
(14:01):
nothing really changed, It was more it yeah, it was.
It was more just they decided, yeah, we want to
keep this guy on. But it in some ways the
intern process was like a five month long extended interview.
But yeah, I think it just the role kind of
like naturally grows as people get to know you more
(14:24):
and you just become more comfortable in it. But they're yeah,
they're actually and the surprises people like, wasn't that much
of a change in the actual role from intern to
when I first started out as an analyst?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
What did you do in those five months that really
set yourself apart?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
That's a great question. I think, you know, this was
not on my mind when I started the internship. I
was thinking about, you know, how can I put forth
the best work product? How can I you know that
That's how I'm going to be impressive. That's how people
are gonna like me. If when I'm assigned something, I
do it, you know, quickly, but also you know, to
(15:01):
the best of my ability, and you know that part
is obviously important. I don't want to take away from
that part of it at all. But like, what I
didn't realize that I now know is so much of
it is just do people want to be around you?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Do?
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Do people trust you? Do people want to spend you know,
forty fifty hours a week with you? And I think
kind of the yeah, relationships part of it, and just
kind of the I don't know, emotional intelligence for lack
of a better phrase, That part of it was really
kind of the thing that mattered the most at the
(15:36):
end of the day, which again was not what I
thought I should have been prioritizing or think of thinking
about the most when I first started as an intern.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
With an organization like the Celtics. You talked about the
front office. How you know, it's been a small group
of people for a long time, just the brand as
a whole. How do you balance tradition versus innovating new ideas.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
That's a great question because I think tradition is in
some ways like synonymous with the Celtics, Like we've just
been such a winning organization throughout you know, the whole history,
like eighteen championships, we've missed the playoffs once in the
last since two thousand and seven. Like it's just been
an organization, you know, long before I got there. Obviously
(16:18):
that that's been against synonymous with winning. But I think
the the nature of the NBA is that it's quite cyclical,
Like it's it's meant for teams to be really good
and then to kind of taper off, and then I think,
you know, the that's a byproduct of like the the
(16:38):
teams that are that that have poor records have higher
percent chances of landing these draft picks, and hopefully those
draft picks do well and then you know, they get
better than a team like the Celtics. So I think
the the way that we've kind of achieved long term
success and haven't really had a down period is yeah,
just just this culture or this like a session with
(17:01):
winning and like everything is about winning, everything is about
something greater than yourself. And there's also been just insane
stability at the top of the organization that it's been
great to be around, like a at the executive level,
I think, you know that in combination with getting really
great players is just like a recipe for success. But
(17:23):
I think, yeah, to the question you pose, like the
innovation part of it, you always have to be getting better.
You can't kind of rest on this like, oh, we're
the Celtics, of course we'll figure it out. Like that's
that's not the case. These teams are getting younger and
better and bigger. And but I think in my experience,
like my opinion as to why we, you know, experience
(17:44):
so much winning is yeah, just the the winning culture,
Like it's it's in our DNA, and like basically everything
we do is to try to you know, prolong that
that state of success and hopefully we can continue doing that.
But it's been it's been great, right so far.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, a lot of players say it's hard to get
to the top, but it's even harder.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
To stay there mm hm for sure. And yeah, I've
I've heard a lot of our players saying that this
year of like we've finally won and now you know
it in some ways becomes harder because the pressure is
even more and like we know that we do it.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
So, in your current role, director of Salary, Cap and
Basketball Strategy, how do you view that role in terms
of handling the pressure and staying at the top. Like
you said, coming off the past year's finals, what.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Was that like for you? It was awesome to experience.
I think from a from a front office perspective, it's
it's a little bit strange when you win and that, like,
you know, right after we won, like obviously there's a
day or two of celebration, but like the draft is
a week later, Like we gotta make a draft pick.
We can't just be uh celebrating and partying. So, uh,
(18:56):
you know, it was a lot of that, and you know,
signing My job has a lot to do with player
contracts and roster transaction and that sort of stuff. So
you know, immediately kind of my focus, which had already
been this way, but especially after we won, is like
how can we keep this group together so that that's
(19:17):
kind of what we work towards. And again it was
just like proof of concept that we could do it.
But like it's always about especially in my role, it's
it's like a future facing role and one that that
you're always thinking about, how can we be a sustainable team.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
What was the day to day routine like for you
over the summer?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Oh, long hours, I would say, you know, June and
July for someone in my role is probably the time
that I'm in the office the most. And it's just
a lot of scenario planning and it's a lot of
you know, meeting with our group internally, and uh yeah,
(20:00):
it was just long hours in the office, a lot
of tracking things with our team, things with the other
twenty nine teams in terms of decisions that they are facing,
constraints that they're operating under. And it's my kind of
primary job responsibility to be the one like on top
of all that stuff and just understanding like the ramifications
(20:24):
of any transaction that we you know, may consider doing.
There's there's opportunity costs, there's downstream effects of all those things.
So the role of like someone working in the salary
cap in roster strategy space is to a understand the rules.
That's the salary cap part of it, and the strategy
part is like, all right, given the constraints and given
(20:46):
the rules as we know them, like, what is our
prescription for like what should be the best path forward?
So that's the strategy element of it.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
When you come home from work, what about it makes
you say, Okay, that was a successful day, like I
did my job.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
It's a great question and something that I reflect on
a lot, because I think the role is inherently one
where there's there's some days there's not a lot of
like tangible progress. There's there's not like it's you know,
it's it's not like you've you've finished a project or
you've I scouted a game and written a report. There
a lot of times it's just like taking in a
(21:23):
bunch of information and just thinking about it and brainstorming
and talking with other people in our group. But you know,
I think I think you just have to take like
a a like a longer term view of it all
and just think of, like, you know, maybe one day
(21:43):
I haven't made a lot of tangible progress, but over
the course of a week or a month, like there's
just a feeling that like we're getting closer to like
making decisions about a roster, getting more educated about everything
that that comes with it. But it is something that
I think someone a lot of people in this type
of role kind of struggle with, and that there's there's
(22:03):
not a lot of like things that you're really like
checking off or stuff that like, all right, I finished this,
now I can move on to the next thing. It's
like a three hundred and sixty five day project of yeah,
you know, trying to strategize about the roster. I guess, yeah,
So what are your strategies for handling that? For Obviously,
(22:23):
you want to have the big picture in mind, but
you don't want to miss out on the details. You know,
that's what fulfills the picture. So how do you balance that?
In some ways that's the hardest part of the job,
and and something that you know, I'm very fortunate to
work with other people, people on our front office that
also have experience in this domain, that have been doing
it for a lot longer than them, So in a
(22:45):
lot of ways I lean on their expertise of just
like I think there's a there's a struggle especially for
you know, kind of younger, newer people in a front
office to like even understand like what the bigger picture is.
And just because a lot of strategy is just like
a way of thinking about you know, short term and
(23:09):
long term kind of goals and and and how to
define success so yeah, it's it's a it's a difficult thing,
and it's just I think every team is optimizing for
something different. There there are some teams that are optimizing for,
you know, having the highest championship probability three to five
(23:31):
years from now, and there's other teams that are just
trying to, you know, do everything that it takes to
win this year. So I think it's just understanding and
and being honest with yourself about like where where your
team is and like the time cycle of of contention.
And I think that's something that we debate both about
ourselves and about other teams all the time.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
You've been working in salary, tap and strategy for a
few years now, what do you think is the biggest
different from when you first got started in the industry
to now? And where do you think, let's say, five
years from now, what it's going to look like.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
I think the biggest difference is that there's been a
new CBA that's been agreed to and ratified like this.
When I got hired, we were still operating under the
constraints and the rules of the twenty seventeen CBA, and
now we're on the next one. So I think you know,
in the summer of twenty twenty three, we all had
(24:29):
to learn these this new set of rules, and the
rules have been phased in over a multi year period
and some of which we're you know, are getting in
phase in this year, in the last of which the
rules are getting phased in next year. So I think
the biggest thing is both learning the new rules, but
also like trying to develop some sort of understanding of like,
(24:52):
given these new constraints, how should we proceed, how do
we project other teams to proceed? So it you know,
I think kind of the framework and like the knowledge
base that I had when I, you know, first got
hired for this job is very helpful in you know,
learning about the new CBA. But it's still like a
new kind of challenge that all of the cabin strategy
(25:13):
people around the league are having to you know, kind
of go through together. But we also are like competitors
among the thirty NBA teams, so you can only collaborate
so much in terms of your knowledge base, so that
that that's been the hardest part, I would say, from
when I started until now. And like I said, these
(25:33):
rules we're still trying to figure out, you know, what
the best path forward is based on them.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Yeah, with so many adjustments, you don't really have room
for trial and error. You know, you're trying to figure
out what's going on. But in your role, you can't
just be like, oh, if this this isn't doesn't work out,
like we'll try it. No, it doesn't really work like that,
you know, So what's the process like for you and
your team in the decision making and like, Okay, yes
(25:59):
this is for us, but this is the best we have.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
I think it goes back to this concept of like,
you know, we can define my title or my job
responsibility however you want, but like the number one thing
is like advising Brad are like head head decision maker
on the best path forward. I think that's a lot
of our you know, the various people I work with,
(26:22):
it's it's all of our like primary job function, and
we do that in different ways. We have people work
in analytics, they're building models. We have you know, scouts
that are going to see games. My my role is
more about the contracts the players have and about you know,
trades and how that all works. So that's kind of
the number one thing that you know is in our minds.
(26:44):
How how can we positively impact the decision making of
our kind of person in charge? And and that's kind
of what we come to work every day trying to do.
And that's certainly what I'm trying to do. Well.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Who surprised you most about being with the Celtics? I mean,
growing up watching basketball, I'm sure you had expectations of
certain teams, but being with this organization one a surprise you, Moss.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
I think, especially when you're trying to work in a
front office, you get really, you know, fixated on just
the people that work in the front office. And like
when I was getting hired by the Celtics, like the
only people I could think of were, you know, Brad
Stevens and Mike Sarah and my boss, Like those are
the people that I have looked up to for a
(27:35):
really long time. And you kind of at least I
lost sight or I didn't I underrated how awesome. Like
all the other people in our building are that that
I don't you know, that aren't necessarily in the front office.
But like our coaching staff are medical staff, our strength
coaches are the people that work in the kitchen, the
(27:55):
people that work in security, the people who work in equipment. Like,
there's all these things that you know, I maybe overlooked
just because it wasn't what I was pursuing or what
I wanted to do, but it they are such an
integral kind of component of winning or at least of
like the culture of the Boston Celtics. And that's been
(28:15):
maybe my biggest takeaway, and that like everyone that I
work with, I mean that I work with both directly
but also just like that worse in the building is
like such a star in their role. And that's been
like really awesome to see and to learn from. In
these last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
You've moved from intern to analysts manager director. You said,
the title isn't really that's not the important thing. It's
your role and what you're actually doing with your team.
What would you say to young people out there who
are either in sports or trying to break into it about,
you know, starting where you need to, but then eventually
(28:52):
getting into the role that you dreamed of.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Yeah, I was. I was very fortunate that I, you know,
the kind of my dream job or like the role
that I was going for was more or less the
role that I was able to get straight out of undergrad.
But I think the way to maybe increase your chances
of getting to maybe where you currently are to what
(29:17):
you aspire to go to is just to specialize as
much as possible. Like that, it's kind of a hot
button issue like how much to be a generalist versus
how much to be a specialist at least when my
experience has taught me is like the specialists are the
ones that get the jobs in that in that special role.
And once you kind of prove that you are a specialist,
(29:38):
or I guess another way to say this is like
you know, really good at one specific niche area, then
I think you can maybe become a little bit more
of a generalist once you showed kind of mastery you're
pretty close to it of some sort of subject matter.
So yeah, I would say to try to special lives
(30:00):
as much as you possibly can and in what you
actually want to be doing. And then you know, something
that I, you know, tried to do throughout college that
in my opinion, is very helpful is to kind of
do the job before you have the job, which in
some in some cases is like easier than in others.
Like it, I think it was easy in my case
(30:20):
in that like, you know, a lot of this information
is public as like who's on which team, how much
money did that make? Trade signings are announced publicly or
at least like tweeted out. So throughout college, like I,
you know, just had this huge spreadsheet with thirty tabs
for each team and I was tracking every transaction that
they made and was kind of spending hours a day
(30:42):
understanding all of the ramifications of all these different moves.
And funnily enough, like that's the job I have to
this day and that now I just get paid to
do it. But I think one of the ways one
of the reasons that I was hired is I had
shown that, like with thatout me anyone telling me to
do this, without anyone paying me to do this, Like
(31:04):
I was doing basically the job of a person who
works in salary cabin strategy while I was in school,
just to like prepare myself for the role. So yeah,
doing the job before you have the job, Creating relevant
work samples, and specializing are all ways that I think
increase your probability of landing one of these jobs. And
(31:26):
that probability is never going to be one hundred percent,
but I think each thing you do like what I
just described to marginally increase that probability and with a
little luck, like that's all it takes.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah, initiative is certainly an important factor, not just seen
getting any job, but staying in your role continuing to
be valued. You also mentioned preparation for almost anything in
sports and really any job, but like broadcasting, analytics, you know, coaching,
being a player, but you have to prepare in something
(32:02):
like sports where there's so much information constantly. How do
you navigate, let's say, your own preparation for your role
right now? How do you go about getting as much
information as you possibly can, but only focusing on what's important,
you know, in whatever time you have.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
I think it's helpful to start in a place where
you acknowledge that you're probably not the most knowledgeable person
in the room or not the foremost expert in something,
and not being afraid to like lean on other people,
like for example, in my role, Like I firmly believe
(32:41):
that like the only way to get really you know,
good at a role like the one I have is
to experience many trade deadlines, drafts, uh, free agency periods,
all that type of stuff. And it's not something that
can be like sped up. Like I think it takes
a lot more of each of those things than I
have experience to to really become kind of good at
(33:04):
this stuff. So I think it the preparation question you
asked comes back to, like you just have to acknowledge that,
like you're not going to know everything and that's okay,
And yeah, just leaning on others and coming from a
place of like it's okay, like you can it takes
(33:27):
a while to learn the subject matter and that could
pertain to any sort of job like the ones you described,
and yeah, just like taking a breath and saying it's
all gonna be okay, has has really you know, helped
me in that, Like I think there is a there
is a tendency for me to to to need to
feel like I'm, you know, contributing the very most that
(33:51):
I can and and all this stuff, but like some
of it just can't be rushed, like some of it
has to be like I need to be okay leaning
on the much more experienced people and kind of it
all goes from there.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
What are your personal goals for continuing to succeed in
your role? Just looking at the rest of the season,
what are you focusing.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
On Yeah, kind of like I said in the last answer,
just like knowing that you can't rush this developmental process
that I'm definitely still probably at the beginning of. And
you know this can sound cheesy, but like trying to
get better each day, and like we talked about earlier,
(34:32):
Like especially in a role like the one I have,
there's there's not a lot like tangible ways that that
you can measure that, but there is some version of
like if you're honest with yourself, like you can you
can know you know whether you got quote unquote better
each day, so that you know, that's kind of the
you know, all the cliche terms the growth mindset, the
(34:52):
one percent better each day like that I think are
generally good principles to live by and that I think it,
you know, hopefully leads to you know, long run kind
of sustainability within the you know, sports industry, which is
an industry that I want to continue working in and
(35:13):
because it's just it's it's awesome to be part of
something bigger than myself, and especially with Celtics, is.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
That your favorite part of your role? Just knowing I
mean you talked about earlier the winning culture you get
to be a part of that, you get to contribute.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Yeah, I think it's it's it's a great feeling to
know that I've hopefully played some small role in you know,
the success of the team. And I think in some
ways it's kind of it's a role where you just
(35:48):
have to you know, trust your kind of process and
be process oriented because I think the reality of the
industry it's a very well, I won't say industry that
the team side of sports is that it's a very
results oriented league and it and it would be so
hard to it's it's so easy to kind of completely
(36:09):
judge yourself based on the kind of result of all
of it. But I think the process is just as important.
And yeah, that's that's kind of what I try to
keep is like my north star and like all of
our people in our Pern office, like what we kind
of we think about, you know, good process. We just
(36:30):
want to be confident that it leads to good results.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
You may have already mentioned it specifically to this question,
with you know, talking about leaning on others, trusting and
developmental process. But is there another lesson that you think
is underrated or not seen as much in the sports
industry that in your past roles you're like, oh, wow,
this has actually been really important.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
Yeah, I mentioned it earlier, but I think there are
you know, the reality is that the demand for these
jobs so far exceeds supply. In a lot of these
jobs made my role, any sort of role. There are
so many people that want these jobs because I think,
for being honest, like sports is really cool and I think,
(37:16):
you know, being on the other side a couple of
years ago of like trying to get one of these
jobs and now you know, being on the side of
you know, maybe evaluating and true level candidates or at
least like just being aware of like how people on
the team side view these roles. Like so often the
deciding factor is just the personality of the individual and
(37:40):
like the kind of characteristics that they seem to you know,
value the most or that they hold most true. And
so I think it's it's just so important for people
to not lose sight of like how your own kind
of personality and your character is, Like as you look
(38:01):
for a role in sports, I think, you know, I
can totally attest like it. It's it's so easy to
make like learning the subject matter of you know, being
a better expert in the salary cap and all that stuff,
like making ad the number one thing. And again that's
that's important, and you do need to clear a threshold
of that sort of stuff. But the deciding factor often is,
(38:23):
you know, what is your kind of level of emotional intelligence?
Was your character? Like how do you treat other people? Like?
I just always tell people like you can't lose sight
of that sort of stuff, and it oftentimes is the
deciding factor in terms of like who gets these roles
at the end of the day.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
That's great advice because I think a lot of times
it's easy to focus on those concrete goals just reaching
the next position, finishing this project. Yeah, but ultimately that
means nothing if you're not there for the connections, the
relationships and then developing your own character for sure.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Yeah. I again, it's it's it's hard to kind of
keep sight of that in the moment, especially when you're
you're looking for one of these jobs. But trust me,
it's it's it's a very valuable thing to be constantly
like evaluating yourself.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
On what would you fifteen year old self say about
you now?
Speaker 3 (39:22):
Man, even like my twenty one year old self, very
like I just the the people that I've met along
the way have been Like, if you told me, you know,
three years ago today that I would be, I don't
know that I'd be working for the Celtics and have
a championship ring and and you working with people like
Brad Stevens and Mike 'sarin and Austin Ange, I would
(39:44):
not have believed you. It's been great, just just like
work with so many talented people. And I think the
coolest part about working what I would call like my
dream job is that it doesn't feel like a job,
Like it doesn't feel like, oh my gosh, I got
to wake up and go to work today, Like this
(40:05):
is how I want to be spending my days, which
is just such a great feeling. And yeah, just trying
to get better at the role every single day. But
fifteen year old self would be I would think that
having a championship ring and knowing and that Brad Stevens
knows my name would would would be the coolest thing for.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Yeah, it's pretty cool. Not many people can say that, Well,
congratulations on everything you've accomplished, continue to accomplish and everything
in the future. You know, from SBC to VSL and
all your positions with the Celtics. You're really making a
name for yourself. So congratulations and all that. And thank
you for sharing your story, your intro into sports and
(40:49):
all the wonderful advice you gave for our listeners.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
Thanks for having me. Yeah, this has been This has
been great. Thank you so much. Thanks Buddy.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Thank you for tuning into our BSL Talent Alumni series
featuring BSL and SBC alum Buddy Scott. We hope you
enjoyed learning about his journey into the sports industry and
gained valuable insights into basketball strategy and salary cap like
subscribe and leave a review on social media and tag
us on your Instagram story at Sports Business Classroom. This
(41:22):
episode is also brought to you by hall Pass Media,
a full service marketing agency that specializes in brank consulting,
event management, digital marketing, and creative design. For more information
on hall Pass Media, go to hallpassnetwork dot com. See
you next time.
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