Business of Basketball Immersive Q&A | Bobby Marks & Eric Pincus | SBC Webinar Insights (EP.120) - Sports Business Classroom Audio Experience

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to another episode of the Sports Business Classroom Audio Experience.
This episode is from a previously recorded webinar hosted by
Bobby Marx and Eric Pinkis answering questions from the audience
about the Sports Business Classroom Business of Basketball Immersive Experience,
taking place July thirteenth through nineteenth in Las Vegas alongside

(00:23):
NBA Summer League. Here from Bobby, Eric and alumni, why
the Business of Basketball Immersive Experience is a must attend
if you are looking to break into the basketball industry.
To learn more, visit Sports Business Classroom dot com.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I think we started. Hey Bobby, Wait day Boddy, how
are we doing doing all right? I should have worn
a tie. I'm just I'm in your neck of woods.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
I'm in the I thought I was going to see
you at Lakers Pelicans last night.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Oh yeah, you know what. I'm going tonight to Clippers, tomorrow,
Lakers the xpay I'll see you later, Okay. Were there
were four games in a row and I had to
cut one, and I'm like, I think I'll let's get
the Pelicans. I don't mind going back to back. Back
to back to back is a lot, but back to
back to back to back is it just wasn't gonna happen,
so with this this webinar and all the other stuff.

(01:15):
So yeah, I'm going tonight to clippers. And it was
a little rainy outside. Put on my hoodie. Sorry, I
guess you know the weather. We can't really accommodate you.
Like there's it rains a lot in Florida, right so
in March. Okay, yes, weird. So my name is Eric Pinkus.
The man in the tie is Bobby Marx. We are

(01:38):
with Sports Business Classroom. We're going to sort of ramble
for a couple of minutes and then we'll dig in.
So we'll just let people get here. I'll just shout
out that if you have questions to put them in
the Q and A. We will keep an eye a
little bit on the chat, but mostly we're going to
ignore it, just you know, based on logistics. So if
you have, like an actual question, please put it into
the Q and A. So before we dig in, Bobby,

(02:02):
what what do you think of this host trade deadline
period where teams are gearing up for the playoffs, gearing
up for the lottery. Anything jumping out at you.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Well, I would say that the two teams that made
the biggest moves, certainly the Lakers and the Warriors have
has paid off so far as far as you know,
the Lakers jumping to two and Golden State at six
right now, that potentially could get the five of Houston
keeps on sliding here, which could set up to be

(02:34):
a pretty intriguing playoffs. I would say, I I would
certainly think you don't want from our network standpoint, Golden
State l a first round here. But the Western you know,
the Western Conference.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Is a is a beast.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
It's going to be a beast, you know, and you
got to you got to be healthy. Got to be
healthy when you get to mid April.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, that's that's the devastating part about the Mavericks end
of this trade, which you can love it. Hated for
the Mavericks. I know most people don't get it. But
if Anthony Davis were healthy, and if we didn't lose
Kyrie in such a brutal way, maybe it'd be a
different thing. Because Ad looked really, really good for that
brief period. So I feel for Mavericks fans. I feel

(03:19):
for the Mavericks organization. You know, the decisions were made.
I don't know if I would ever do that trade.
But how about in the East? Anything jump out in
the East?

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, I mean, listen, I think for right now it's
probably a two team race with Cleveland and certainly Boston.
Milwaukee's played pretty well, but I think they're kind of
in that four to five reign with Vienna. It's you know,
the probably the most interesting thing outside of the top
teams is if phil were Philadelphia falls, whether pick could go.

(03:53):
I mean, that's pretty and who wants number ten in
the East?

Speaker 4 (03:56):
Right?

Speaker 3 (03:56):
Who wants the last plane between I feel like every
night day it was teams Louse, Chicago, Philly, Brooklyn, here
maybe here comes Toronto, right, Like I don't it's I mean.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
You would think Chicago would want that. They traded to
protect their pick, right, they got their hick back, So
I don't know, we'll we'll see. I think there's got
to be some Knicks fans listening going, what what is
a two team race?

Speaker 5 (04:19):
What about?

Speaker 2 (04:20):
What about the Knicks fans? So and they're very sensitive.
I'm you know, I have a New York background originally,
so we have a lot of I have a lot
of former students who are diehard Knicks fans and a
lot of family out there, so I do think the
Knicks have a punter shot. I don't think anyone would
have said the Mavericks would have done to the finals
last year, so I'll at least say that the Knicks
are in the mix a little bit. But uh, I

(04:40):
think we can kind of jump on in. We may
not be able to chat too much hoops right now,
but maybe we'll get to it a little bit later.
What we really want to focus on today, and this
is more informational for those of you who have joined
in and are interested in the sport. It's business, classroom,

(05:00):
business of basketball, immersive experience, and it's really our flagship
event of the year. And I just want to start
with Bobby and ask you about your experience, because I've
been doing this since twenty sixteen, I'm a veteran, but
this was last year, was your rookie year, and I
know that you maybe you had a two way contract
before that, like you used to help us, you do
some stuff for the program, but this was like your

(05:23):
first time full bore. So just share a little bit
about your experience, what you learned, and what you gained
from it.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
Well, I'll rewind too well I remember leaving Las Vegas
and being on a plane and coming home. This was
after SBC was had concluded, and I and texting Albert
and Albert Hall won the Gary and basically telling them
that this past week was you know, I've done a lot.

(05:50):
I'm certainly ESPN and the Nets and Ghana Finals, and
done a lot of different things in my career, but
the week at SBC last year was probably one of
the war rewarding experiences that I've had, probably top five
in general. I would say I had no idea what
to go, what my expectation was, and what how this

(06:11):
program would go. Uh, it's super exceeded my what I
thought it was for me, you know, having having working
working for ESPN full time. I think the biggest thing
that I can put fear aside is that I'm not
a guy who's just going to drop in and say
hi for an hour and then basically I'll see tomorrow.

(06:31):
Like I'm fully entrenched in this program from seven am,
we do office hours with me to the end of
the day when we get through programming here. I'm so
excited that you know, I've started we started building out
the schedule for July already I'm excited that we'll be

(06:53):
able to introduce some new programming here. But I think
for me at this point in my career, I'm my
big thing is about giving back, giving back because who
comes to SBC and the folks who were there last year,
like you guys are the next wave and generation of
front office or media or broadcast and scouting, video analytics

(07:16):
all working in working in in sports. Certainly, there'll be
questions as far as how much experience do I need
to have all that stuff, like picture yourself in a
it's basically going to college for a week where we're
going to put curriculum during the week and then we'll
do deep dives at night and everything.

Speaker 5 (07:36):
But I fully enjoyed it.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
It was a great experience for me because I was
a rookie going through this and I basically had it
just kind of follow Eric with everything. But after we
got through, I was like, Yeah, this is what I
this I'm looking I was already looking forward to to
next July.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah. I will say that we've known each other I
don't know how long, but you know, a good at
least a decade, and we'd never actually worked together. We
sort of collaborated a little bit and had moments, but
we never actually worked together. And I know how much
work it takes to produce this event and how time
intensive it is, and I just didn't know. I mean,

(08:14):
you might come in with you know, an attitude or
like not ready to work, but that wasn't the case
at all. So I really enjoyed getting to know and
work with you. It was. It was a blast, and
I think he really understood what the assignment was of
what we're trying to do because we who everyone who's
been a part of this, you know, going to Warren

(08:35):
Legarry and Albert Hall who created Summer League in Las
Vegas and created this program. That spirit of giving back,
it's it's an integral part of what we do. And
it sounds it can be cliche, but it's it's really
and we've been lucky and blessed to do what we

(08:55):
love to do, all of us involved, all of our teachers,
all of our staff, all the way up to you know,
the creators of the program. And it does it's wonderful
to help people, but it comes back to us also
because we put out great people and get them opportunities,
it comes back back to us. It makes our program better.

(09:16):
It's a really wonderful cycle of life. And some of
our former students are going to come on and talk
about their experience, and then we'll talk about some students
who have grown and moved on to other wonderful things.
And so let Jackson, let's go on to the next slide,
and let's uh, let's keep going. Let's see here Business

(09:39):
of Basketball, our flagship program. What we're talking about is
a seven day immersive experience in Vegas. It's actually at
Summer League. You are in the building, you're at Thomas
and mac Arena, you're in the in the corridors, in
the rooms below, and you're you're there where everyone is,
and you're getting a really a backstage look at it

(10:01):
what we study and what we teach, and it's improved
and growing every year. But I think the main stays,
of course, our league salary cap, which is why you
have Bobby Marx, while you have myself and some other
great teachers as well, scouting, video and analytics. Both of
these are really within the envelope of basketball operations. Salary

(10:24):
cap is more than mechanics. Scouting video analytics is about
like how you pick players and how you coach players.
And then we have media and broadcast, which is about
presentation to the world and in a lot of ways
the easiest way to break into the industry because you
can self publish. We're also expanding to cover more nil

(10:45):
modern day athlete representation are on the agent side, we
had a really large group about twenty five agents took
the program last year and we integrated them, integrated them
in a really wonderful way. So we're going to expand
upon that program. And then we have Professor Jeff Eellonser
who is at USC and he literally sits with any

(11:07):
student and every student who comes to him and goes
through the resume and talks about their opportunities and jobs
and helps them understand the pathway and really takes the time.
So that's generally speaking the curriculum. Bobby, what what can
you talk a little bit about the newer aspects in
some of the areas of growth.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
Yeah, So basically how the program works is that you'll
come in and you'll pick a major and we're going
to kind of show you the demo the schedule that
we had last year, and it kind of explains everybody
is kind of grouped in together during the day and
then at night or later in the day, we kind
of break off based on if your salary cap and
your scouting, video analytics and media broadcasts. It's it's we do.

(11:53):
We do a lot of deep dives and everything like that.
So it is together and then kind of broken off.
But we are going to introduce, whether it be anil,
whether it be more of a track for agents WNBA,
I think is important. I think g League is important
like a lot of different aspects where it's not just

(12:14):
learning about numbers or how to break down video and
everything like that, because everyone who is coming to join
us for a week is looking to try to break
into the NBA and breaking into the NBA is not
just working, you know in a front office and as
the assistant general manager, there is a process to that
and I think our goal is to try to introduce

(12:35):
you to that process.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, it's it's really a labor of love, and we're
always adjusting it to the changing times. It's just what
when we created this program, when Warren and al did
in twenty sixteen, and as I've been a part of
it and as I've seen it grown, it can't be
the same thing every year. Because the NBA or the

(12:59):
basketball industry isn't the same thing every year. WNBA is growing,
you know, so quickly, and there's so many opportunities in
the NCAA side with the changes and rules. They're hiring
general managers for colleges now, and there's just different opportunities,
and so we have to help educate and help people,

(13:23):
I guess, expose them to what those opportunities are. Let's
let's if we can. I would love to bring in Doc.
Let's bring in Doc Williams, who is a former student
who's actually working with us. There's Doc. He works with
us at Hall Pass Slash vsl Slash Sports with this classroom.
He worked on the Jalen Brunson Charity Golf Classic, He's

(13:45):
worked at Summer League and he's a great guy as well.
So Doc, can you share a little bit about your
story as far as where you came in, when you
came in, and where that took you.

Speaker 5 (13:56):
Yeah, So thanks so much for having me. It's great
being here.

Speaker 6 (13:59):
So I was part of the twenty twenty SBC class
So I was the COVID year. I was remote and
that was a great experience because even though it was
online you still got to meet so many people and
from that class, then I was able to work on
a lot of great projects on no Trade Clause and
a bunch of other projects. And then the opportunity came

(14:22):
up talking with the team to see how I could
help with Summer League and going from there, so I
can kind of talk about other projects.

Speaker 5 (14:29):
But it was a great foundation for whatever I'm doing now.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
Well, you've been able to witness some of how the
program has grown and what's different in person. What have
you seen now that you've been on the other side
of it, and how much it's changed and grown since
the COVID year.

Speaker 6 (14:47):
I mean, first of all, like I can't believe the
classes just keep getting bigger and bigger every year. I
keep hearing like, no, this is going to be it,
and then there's more people that join.

Speaker 5 (14:57):
So it's great.

Speaker 6 (14:59):
I think not only does the curriculum change and so
many more facets that you're learning. I think one of
the great opportunities being in Vegas being with everyone getting
real connections, getting real reps on what you're trying to do,
if you're trying to go to the media, around if
wherever you want to go. But I think having the

(15:21):
different instructors and their experience and taking the time to
teach you. It's invaluable. It really does. There's nothing else
like it. And really having connection. It's not fake if
you see it. Everyone on LinkedIn or on whatever social media.
Everyone just stays in contact. And especially when you're working

(15:41):
on the same team during the trade deadline, all of
those different things, those friendships really translate. And then when
other people at different jobs or at different positions, then
they already know all the alumni of SBC and then
it just goes from there.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, you know, one of the things you touched on
as the space and I could go back and say, like,
when we came out of the pandemic, we only could
do so many, like sixty I think I think we
were limited to hover many, you know, by the new
rules of the world. And then gradually they relaxed and
we were like, I think we can get up to eighty.
And then the next year we're like, I think we
can get up to one hundred, and then we were like, okay,

(16:20):
one hundred and twenty, and so last year it was
one hundred and twenty, and then we said, okay, one
hundred and twenty five, and then at the very end
we had a really nice little rush and we had
a waitlist and we were able to get most of
the people in off the wait list, and I had
to get floor plans and like actually make sure that
we all fit. But the resumes were so good. And
this is not like we're not put in this through

(16:43):
like an AI generated like read the resumes for us.
We're actually reading the resumes. We're looking them over, and
they were so good that I didn't It just didn't
make sense. We didn't want to turn away people who
really cared and were willing to do this program, and
we're qualified, so but it's it is a battle of
making sure we don't over crowd and like that we

(17:06):
lose that interpersonal relationship because sometimes you have educational programs
where you're in an audience of a thousand and like
you're just getting a certificate for sitting there and listening.
So what else do you have upcome and give us
a little bit more on what your goals are and
also remind me what was your major in the virtual year?

Speaker 6 (17:27):
Yeah, so mine was media and broadcast and I was
trying to figure out what I wanted to do. Was
I I want to go into more operations. Where did
I want to fit in? And there was just so
many different subjects that I didn't think I would be
interested in, but they also became really interesting to me

(17:47):
as well. So I originally went in, I was thinking
that I was going to go for either a writing
job or I wanted to do something in local sports
around the DMV SO of the DC area, and then
leaving then I was thinking about I can go into
operations and all of these different things. So first of all,
it just gave me so many different things to think about,

(18:10):
different ways that I could present myself.

Speaker 5 (18:12):
And you were talking about Jeff earlier.

Speaker 6 (18:14):
I really didn't have a resume that allowed me to
stand out. So Jeff took the time and Jeff like
is so gracious with his time to really help you
with making sure that you lean on your skills and
your unfair advantages and your experience.

Speaker 5 (18:31):
So that was the game changer.

Speaker 6 (18:33):
And then afterwards I was looking at different opportunities, and
then it came up where I got to work with
Hall Pass about I don't know six or nine months
later after that on some projects. So yeah, that happened,
and then it just keeps changing over and over again
with Hall Pass and different opportunities like that. But it

(18:53):
really did open my eyes of what I wanted to do. Originally,
I just thought I wanted to be a beat writer.
I didn't want to go anywhere else, and then I
really found out that I love operations and in going
that way.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
All right, well, Dot, thank you for sharing your experience.
It's always good to hear from you, and I look
forward to working with you again as always in July.
Thank you for coming on.

Speaker 5 (19:19):
Likewise, thank you so much. Can't wait to see you
guys soon.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
All right, Uh, let's go on Jackson to the next
light as well. Bobby, you can you think of a
few success stories that jump out from former students.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
Well, I mean, I don't know about former students. Certainly
there's a lot with former students. But Shane Kupperman, who
was one of our instructors last week, basically parlayed SBC
to go work for the Pistons, which is which was
certainly a nice story. Here there are Preston Klaus who
works for the for the pacers, who's who has has

(19:55):
come through SBC. Here there are you know, certainly if
Jeff c who it was former alum of SBC now
that works for Clutches is their salary cap.

Speaker 5 (20:09):
Guru there.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
Certainly you know Lindsay Harding who I saw last night,
who's an assistant coach with the with the Lakers, has
come through Macarr one of the bright up and coming
cap guys out there who works for the Nets. Here's
a you know, Amber Nichols in with the Wizards here,
who's the director of amateur evaluation. So there are certainly

(20:35):
a lot of a lot of people who have parlayed
the experience. I think the biggest thing, you know, besides
the curriculum that we we teach, is that we kind
of you know, bring in people networking meeting people, building
a relationship. Building a relationship is half the battle in
trying to break into sports. Networking also here, of course

(20:58):
you have to have a yeah, always say portfolio to
sell people as far as why you should be hired here.

Speaker 5 (21:05):
But this is a group.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
That you see right now, is that some lums that
has come through. And what we do also it certainly
is that we bring in NBA people, We bring in
je Le people to speak to do one on ones,
to work with the curriculum outside of just the instructors
that are involved.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah, the list goes on. I mean there was a
long list of teams and different organizations. We have a
long list of people, and to someone who's just looking
at this, it's just a list of names, and you
might recognize some of the names. Mali Grows, former player
with the Spurs and the Knicks. But these are people
that we've taken the time to get to know and support,

(21:47):
and we support really and get to know everyone. That's like,
our job is to identify who is work ready and
for those who maybe need more time, help them get
to the point. The range of people who take the
program could be right out. We've had someone right out
of high school, but normally it's more third fourth year

(22:08):
of college. And then there's folks who are in graduate
school all the way up to the thirties, forties, fifties
and even a little bit older who are looking for
second careers. What we try not to do is to
be like some sort of basketball fantasy camp where the
people who are coming we're filtering through the resumes to
make sure we're getting people who are actually actively looking

(22:30):
for work. And I just want to point out, yes,
there's like Amber with the Wizards, Buddy with the Celtics,
Macar with the Nets, and you just see a lot
of teams on there, but it's not just NBA teams.
And our job is to sort of also expand your
mind on what other opportunities. Like Danish came to us,

(22:51):
took the program, he's now the GM of Cerebro Sports.
There are other opportunities. Some of them are startups, some
of them are the companies or long established companies the NBA.
I shouldn't mention this, but NBA Twitter got hacked recently,
but we have people who are like NBA dot like

(23:14):
when you see it on Twitter, ax, I guess you
see at NBA that's actually former SBC students who are tweeting,
just not when they got hacked the other day, which
was kind of crazy. All right, So what I want
to do is, let's bring in I think I see
Alexis Williams. I think let's go with Alexis and bring

(23:38):
her in Jackson. If we did, there she is, Hey, there,
she is, Hey, what's up? Alexis?

Speaker 4 (23:44):
Hi?

Speaker 7 (23:44):
How are you guys?

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Just did I want to first just mention who Alexis is.
In addition to being named one of our top students
in twenty twenty four. She's a certified agent not just
with the MVPA which is the official one with the
NBA the partner, but also FIBA and now an FL PA,
so she's an NFL agent as well. The founder and

(24:07):
CEO of Phoenix Sports Entertainment and was named, of course,
one of our top students last year, and was awesome,
Like from the moment that we met, I'm like, Okay,
this person's very very cool. So what's up, alexis what's
going on?

Speaker 8 (24:20):
Okay, Well, I guess I will talk a little bit
about my experience with the Immersive program last year. First
and foremost, that was phenomenal. I am very grateful that
I came in the year that I did because you
all expanded into agency work, which was important for me
and I think the other students that I met in

(24:40):
the program that were either certified agents or that are
looking to get certified.

Speaker 7 (24:47):
Myself.

Speaker 8 (24:47):
I was newly certified in February of twenty twenty four,
thanks a lot to Bobby Marx in his course.

Speaker 7 (24:56):
That's a huge part of why.

Speaker 8 (24:58):
I'm a certified agent now and just learn and how
to study. Even also with the NFL because of the
methods and the teachings that you guys gave.

Speaker 7 (25:07):
So it was a great week.

Speaker 8 (25:09):
I met so many people, I made some lifelong friends.
My agency along with some other students, actually won the
agency competition last year as well, which I thought was
cool because it gave us some like real life applicable
experiences and like settings to learn from. And I'm someone

(25:30):
who learns by doing so I would recommend the program.
I was, uh or I am on the letter side
of what you described in students, having had a career
as an attorney over a couple of different states, former
in house counsel for Fortune two hundred companies, so switching

(25:51):
from that to the league and looking for how to
leverage that background, but then also bringing in some some
new things as far as some things that I realized
that I was interested in going through the program last year.
It's been a great experience, and you guys stay connected, Bobby.

(26:13):
I've been able to call when jobs come up or
different opportunities come up to say, hey, do you know
somebody here? Even other people that worked the program last
year as well that were former students. So it was
a phenomenal experience for me.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
Yeah, well you also made it phenomenal also by bringing
that energy as well. So I got to say, but,
like I said, I feel like our job is to
get to know if we're going to get behind you, Alexis,
we need to know who you are. So it doesn't
make sense for us to just shake your hand one
time and ignore you and just say like, hey, great
to meet you and take a photo. And that's that.
I mean, we really make the effort, I know Bobby does,

(26:51):
goes above and beyond really and I think that's that's
why Bobby has been such a great addition to the program.
And then the agent side of what we did last
year was sort of not planned. When we were mapping out.
We had never had an agent track, but we had
so many students that we reached out. We have a discord,
which is where before we ever got to Vegas, we

(27:12):
started to build relationships and I put it to the students,
I'm like, hey, do you mind if we break you
out and do this differently? And we sort of made
it up as we went along, and you guys killed it.
So why do you what was it that put your
team over the top just to we do a mock
trade deadline, So it was the agent's negotiating against student

(27:35):
run teams. So student run agencies versus student run teams.
What put your team over the top?

Speaker 8 (27:42):
I think we just had a great teamwork, like everyone
was on the same page with that, and everyone was
just willing to say, Okay, what are your strengths and
then let's have each person play into that. And so
the guys may have had a little bit more understanding
of particular team teams are particular positions. But me, having

(28:04):
an attorney background, I was a great negotiator, So it
was great to play like the good cop bad cop
kind of deal with some of the teams in different
things that really do actually happen in practice, in understanding people.
I'm a former prosecutor, so reading people is a huge
part of what I did for a very long time.
And so I think that our just cohesiveness and teamwork
and just strategy of playing to people's strengths helped us

(28:27):
so much to perform.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
Well, yeah, that was it was. It was impressive. And
the students get in front of the whole class and present,
so you were the presenter as well. Was that ever
a question are you experience.

Speaker 8 (28:44):
To present?

Speaker 2 (28:45):
I was I.

Speaker 8 (28:47):
I purposefully was like, no, I want someone else take
that opportunity. And literally the last minute, the individual who
was supposed to do it was like, I do not
feel well, do you I'm stepping in.

Speaker 7 (29:00):
I was like, you know what, let's go for it.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
That's how it works out. So yeah, all right, well
you prosecuted your case well clearly. So I'm I'm always
happy to see you. I like I said, just when
I met you, I'm like, all right, I immediately it
was like, Alexis is awesome. So but you know, and
then you didn't let me down too, because first impressions,

(29:24):
that's I you have a lot of first impressions, and
not everyone lives up to that, so I could say
that you definitely lived up to it. So thank you
for coming on, Alexis, and it's great to see you
and I look forward to working with you again soon.

Speaker 8 (29:34):
Yes, thank you.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
All right, Jackson, let's go on to the next slide.
All right, so this is the schedule, Bobby, and we're
not asking you to read all of.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
This lash yep, we there. Yeah, so well, as you
can see, we get we start bright and early. There's
an office hours that I have every morning, which I
believe started at like seven am, and basically it's like
coffee club. Right, We'll come, you get to sit with me,

(30:06):
and we'll just kind of talk about you know, breaking
into sports. A lot of people want to kind of
know about my journey, how I got here. We could
talk about what's going on in the NBA, we could
talk about anything, right, So we do coffee basically the
office hours, which is like a coffee club. That is
I want to say seven to eight before everything starts here,

(30:29):
but you could see I think some man the people
had questions like, well, if I'm a if I am
a salary CAB major, do I sit in with the analytics?
The sessions which are in blue, those are for everyone.
So those are for for if you're scouting, video analytics,
salary cap agent, media relation, media broadcasting.

Speaker 2 (30:49):
Everybody sits in there.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
The sessions that we had last year, and we're going
to tweak some of these as you could see, like
why do we have a CBA? And it's basically kind
of an introductory to to the CBA, certainly media ethics laws.
I'm not going to go through everyone. The big theme,
and the theme is going to continue this year is
kind of building your brand, like how do you build
your brand? We have some great instructors who are basically

(31:14):
self starters who maybe started their own you know, salary
caps software that is available to everyone, or podcast or
sub stack. That's important as far as how to build
your brand. But as you could see in the blue,
those are the sessions that are everyone is involved. Each day,

(31:34):
we have somebody that comes in at lunch that speaks
you know, anywhere from Kirkberger from the Player Association. The
goal this year is going to be each day kind
of themed, so we'll do you know, GM roundtable, Media
round table that is during the lunchtime period. The purples
are the deep dives. The deep dives are basically we

(31:56):
we split you up into your majors and that's kind
of where we get into the nitty gritty, whether it
be if we're teaching teaching about the apron or analytics.
That is basically central focused here and that is something
we added. Last year there was deep Dives, but we
added it basically every day where we basically kind of

(32:17):
jumped into different segments here and then as you can
see when we get closer to the end of the week,
certainly deep dives and then we do our Mock Trade
Deadline and Eric can probably jump into that real real
quick on that. That's kind of our finale. The Mock
Trade Deadline is our finale, and then that leads into
the Saturday where we're basically the students have to come
up and present, so you get a little bit of everything.

(32:38):
You get, like even if you're a salary cap major,
you still have to have that public speaking skills there.
I would say this, the media broadcast field is certainly
something that we're going to grow out. I had no
idea that last year kind of what I thought it was.

(33:00):
You know, hey, they're gonna be writing, they're gonna be
learning from Howard Beck and Jayadandie and Katie Hinel. No,
you're actually going to get on like like like TV
type of experience to put you in front of a
camera and have you interview the other students when we're
getting we're doing the Mock Trade Deadline.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
We're going to get you.

Speaker 3 (33:17):
More involved with the Summer League this year as far
as you know, bringing you in the truck to see
how the production of ESPN goes here. And that is
certainly a field that we are looking to grow the
deep dive, as I said, like we were doing you know,
I remember last year we were doing a session and
we pulled Jeff Peterson and from the Hornets, who's your
jam And he came in and talked for five minutes here,

(33:39):
And that's that's the goal, is that some of this
is not scripted.

Speaker 5 (33:42):
We're basically pulling people.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
In and they're going to tell you kind of about
their experiences and everything.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
So that's kind of a what the schedule was last year.

Speaker 3 (33:51):
I know, I've got like a wish list of like
six things that I want to maybe tweak and pull
out and add something. Certainly g w NBA, certainly nil
athlete representation. We'll see meet up broadcast kind of getting
in front of the camera here. But that's kind of
like a template of what we did last year.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah, the red as well as like lunch speakers. So
we had David Foulk last year, which was kind of cool.
Legendary agent we have. It's always sort of you know,
and I'll just say, you know, rest in peace, Terry West.
He was someone who did the last couple of years
and so we'll miss him again, but we're always but

(34:34):
we'll have incredible people that we won't announce until closer,
until we get there. But we've had Mark Cuban come
in through the years past. We've had Gerald Moray a
bunch of times. I mean, Adam Silver spoken at our program.
It's pretty MESSI it's pretty amazing. So we don't know today.

(34:56):
We're not promising anyone individually, but we have like credible
speakers come in. As far as the mock Trade deadline,
that's a project that runs all the way through the
week and we break all of our scouting, video analytics
and our salary cap students into groups together representing different teams.
They probably represent about twenty NBA teams. I'll bring in

(35:18):
some former students to represent the other ten. But throughout
the week, you're navigating, getting to know who your team is,
identifying what your team is about. There's the midterm where
you need to present what you're thinking, what have you
done so far. We'll tell you not to tamper, but
you better be tampering because that's just reality. That's how
the NBA works. So we don't want to see that
you're tampering, but we want to know that you're tampering.

(35:39):
And so by the time we get to the midterm,
you should have an idea of what the trade deadline
might look like. And then on the Friday, we have
early morning, a chaotic, brilliant, fun period of transactions, everything
from signing two ways to extensions, negotiating with agents, making trades,
and then after that it's really about preparing that and

(36:02):
then presenting it on the final day. And the media
broadcast their role in that is essentially your former colleague
Adrian Moosherowski. They're kind of the woes element to that.
I guess the shams now of trying to break news
and there's I guess our version of x slash Twitter

(36:26):
social media in the discord where rumors are breaking, and
so some of that got a little wild last year
our media department, some of them went absolutely bonkers. And
then you're interviewing our during the trade deadline. You're bringing
up some made a trade, You're bringing up the GM
on a sideline and interviewing them, or later in that day,

(36:47):
you're bringing them to the set that we have a
sports business classroom set on the arena level, and you're
bringing up our students there and interviewing them there. And
on set it's really just a wonderful thing. And then
everybody presents and of course we had an agent team
on that as well. So it's pure chaos in a
very organized fashion, and it's usually one of the more

(37:10):
exciting parts of that. What I'd like to do now
is bring on Connor. Connor, can I get you to
jump on in and maybe you talk a little bit
about your experience, especially with some of the trade deadline stuff.
You're a little blurry. There is there is. I'll just
introduce that. Connor again, also one of our top students
last year and he's a graduate assistant at the University

(37:31):
of Denver on the men's basketball team. So welcome Connor
and share your experience, I guess starting with the mock
trade deadline last year. Thank you guys for having me.

Speaker 4 (37:43):
Good to see you guys again. So last year for
the deadline, it was awesome. It was a lot of fun.
It's different experiences, you know, based on kind of what
team you're on, what.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
Situation you're in.

Speaker 4 (37:55):
We got the Pistons and by the time that spc
rolled around, the Pistons already made a lot of their moves,
and so we decided that instead of making all these
crazy trades or anything. We were going to stay pat
and kind of building around what we had and just
trying to add pieces to that, which I will say
we kind of saw the vision. We we went for
that pace in space, we went try to went more

(38:17):
pace and space move that day through it to the bench.
So it's a lot of fun just kind of find
your role as a team defining role has been moving
from there, you know. But it was definitely the highlight
of the week, and the presentations were awesome. Seamer everybody
else did, and I think the media element was one
of my favorite parts as well, just your phone blowing up,

(38:38):
all these different things happening, and the sidebars that happened
once you make a deal. We're a lot of fun too,
and negotiating with agents was interesting for sure, but it
was a lot of fun to do that and put
your put your negotiating skills to the test.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
So yeah, So what was your major in the program?

Speaker 4 (38:56):
I was scouting video and analytics, and I think that's
no offense to you guys, salary cap guys. I think
that was the best major. Learning from guys like Steve
Jones and Seths part Now some guys that I you know,
before I even came, I was learning from Seth book
and Steve on Twitter and him and the Kaises podcast.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
So being able to.

Speaker 4 (39:17):
Learn from them was really awesome. And you just kind
of go through film with with these guys and break
it down like so it was.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
It was a lot of fun. So I how much
of those skills are you? Were playing you in your.

Speaker 4 (39:31):
Role man a Ton, So there was no you know,
I'm a big analytics guy. I was That's where I'm
going to graduate school for. And I was thankful enough
to work with a coaching staff that a didn't really
have a way of finding these numbers or using numbers
and be having a head coach that love these numbers.

(39:52):
So it was a perfect blend for me to kind
of find my way in. And you know, I've had
a lot of fun being the analytics Scott.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
I here bringing stuff up to the coaches, helping them
with scouts. I'm doing that a lot.

Speaker 4 (40:04):
So as a GA, I have a little bit more
responsibility and I love it and I own a blast.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
So I have a question, the analytic question that I
think we may need to discuss this into the summer.
I don't know if his answer right now, I'm hearing that,
like the Lakers are benefiting from luck in a way
that is abnormal. If in the Knicks did last year,
is that is the measurement, right, or maybe we're not
measuring that properly. That's not something I've looked at. I could,

(40:33):
I could do a little research for you.

Speaker 4 (40:34):
But usually when people say luck, it's teams are shooting
worse on open three pointers, or they're shooting worse of
the free throw line, or things that the team doesn't
really control. But I mean, yeah, i'd have to look
at that. Help we answer that one. But I mean
they're just they're just pointing really well. So I don't
know how much luck is going into Luca Daunts and
Lebron James you cour at the same time, Well.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
I mean it made a little luck. But what I
what I love about working with our students is that
like I don't pretend to have all the answers. I
don't think Bobby pretends to have all the answers, And
I think we learn just as much by the interactions.
And I rely on our students for scouting.

Speaker 5 (41:12):
I rely.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
We just released a mock draft just yesterday, which is
like I don't. Honestly, I love and I love basketball,
I just don't have time to watch NCAA, and so
I rely heavily on people like yourself, former students who
want to stay involved and and share their stuff. But
I know that you stood out, Connor. We didn't get

(41:34):
to work together as much because of you know, you're
I'm not saying you're in the wrong major. You're in
a great major, but you run in my major. So
I didn't get spent as much time with you. But
when we were all getting together at the very end
and people were saying who were the best students, et cetera,
your name was just there was so much support for
you as one of our greates at one of our

(41:55):
top students. Covarigulations on that. And I appreciate you sharing
your slay with us. Thank you, Conor.

Speaker 4 (42:01):
Yeah, of course, appreciate you guys having me.

Speaker 5 (42:03):
Thanks Bloke, good seeing you.

Speaker 4 (42:05):
Yeah you Toobe.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
Thank you Bobby. So, Bobby, we have different tiers. But
what I like to say to people is just like
start by just getting there. Just if budget is a problem,
like just be there. What is what are your thoughts on?
Just like getting getting yourself there at at least the
base level. Yeah, I mean this is kind of the

(42:28):
base level package.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
I mean, as you could see, like it's although the
thirty nine hundred certainly stands out, you're certainly a payment
plan that you can that we would work with you there.
Here's that everything that's kind of involved and everything that
we're showing you is on on the website here certainly
whether from lodging, whether from meals, whether it be part
of part of the program getting to and from u

(42:54):
n LV and and back to the hotel. Certainly the
last part is important, as far as placement on the
Exclusive Vegas Summarly count profile website, which is important when
it comes to jobs, and certainly from a from a
networking standpoint here, but here is certainly the base package
that that is offered.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
I think just getting in the doors is really where
I'm getting at. Is like if money is you know,
tightan is you only have so much that you can invest,
just getting in the door and being there for this
period of time is still there's nothing. You're still getting
an absolutely wonderful program. You're still getting everything. You're not
getting some of the extras. We'll talk about the extras

(43:35):
in the minute, but just being there I think is
the most important spot. So starting at the immersive tier,
let's go on Jackson to the next one. We have
our All Star experience that gives you a little bit
extra time, so you're getting there earlier, and then you're
getting access to some parties we had. We had a
meet and greet, we had an event off site that

(43:56):
we all got together and got to know each other.
So there's a there's extra and obviously this is going
to depend on your budget and you're but the hotel
has covered so if you're staying there longer, it's definitely
worth your while. And then you also get upgraded dining
so you get a chance to eat in the same
room as the NBA executives and the lead executives, which

(44:18):
I think is pretty cool. You network a little bit.
I think networking is one of the most important aspects
of our program. Let's go on to the next tier, VIP.
This is very similar to All Star, but what you're
getting is in addition to a little bit more time,
is the Bobby Marx Course CBA Mastery Version two point zero,

(44:41):
which is really it's paying for itself. So if you're
gonna take the course and you're thinking about doing All Star,
then you're pretty much just do VIP because it's basically
the same price. Can you share a little bit about
the work you put in and how wonderful the program
is the CBA master Eat V two.

Speaker 3 (44:58):
Yeah, I mean, besides the the document that we've that
you can find on Sports Business Classroom and you can
download that. You can download that, and certainly the transactions
transaction guide that is available. We spent where I spent
time out in California back and I think it was October,
and we did we filmed three or four days of

(45:19):
footage where we basically took the CBA and we broke
it up into different segments. I think there's twenty different
titles ranging from the apron ranging from exceptions extensions here,
and it kind of gives you a more in depth
look as far as how the CBA works, and that
is certainly available. That's Mastery version two. There's a lot

(45:40):
of other things that come, certainly term sheet Q and
A questions slides, everything that kind of comes with that.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
There. It's an incredible program. If you're interested in learning
the CBA, like this is probably your best resource. And
so if you're coming to be a CBA major and
you're going to take this course, I would recommend just
do the VIP because you're getting the course that you
probably should take anyway, and you're getting it essentially the

(46:09):
same price. So and then let's go on to the
next tier, Jackson. This is the Hall of Fame Experience tier.
And what this adds is you get a little bit
of extra benefits. We'll announce a few more later, but
a couple hours of CBA tutoring and that's one on
one tutoring, and then you get some access to some

(46:29):
shoot a rounds and some perks behind the scenes, which
I think is also pretty cool. So but I just
want to emphasize, like, if you're looking at these and
your budget free, it just doesn't make sense. You're going
to be great. At the immersive tier, you get more
from all Star get, you get the CBA Mastery if
you jump up to VIP, and then if you need

(46:51):
if this is within your budget, I absolutely recommend it.
And remember that these prices do go up after the month,
So this is the early bird pricing. Prices go up
as of April. So let's go on to the next sie.
Jackson I think we're that's right. That's so I just
mentioned I go to Sports Business Classroom dot com and

(47:12):
register today. Let's go on to the next one. I
think that was it, and I do want to bring
in Well, we're not done, so let's go back. Let's
go back, go back one side, because we're not finished yet.
Let's bring in Jasmine, one of our students as well.
Saving the best for last.

Speaker 7 (47:29):
How are you guys doing today.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
Jazz that you just completed your your Masters at Northwestern
in journalism.

Speaker 7 (47:36):
I did that in August, not too far, not too
long after Sports Business Classroom.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
And of course you were also named one of our
top students. Was that Was that surprised to you? Did
you expect that or were you shocked?

Speaker 5 (47:52):
No?

Speaker 2 (47:52):
I did not expect that at all.

Speaker 7 (47:54):
Honestly, I think that during my time as Sports Business
Classroom I tried to just get every single last thing,
every last bit of information out of it, and I
was really immersed in all of the aspects. So I
think that that maybe had something to do with it.
But I still wonder a little bit, like, hmm, it's

(48:15):
still surprising to me to this day.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Well, I just think you know, you stood out and
I met you. I think I met you with the combine, right,
So we met at the combine just randomly and then
like just some of you like applied or whatever whatever happened.
It just sort of timing was like fortuitous. And so
when you came in, I was like, Hey, it's chasmine,
and like again like first impressions or second impression is great,

(48:41):
you actually have to deliver. And you were a medium
broadcast major, so we didn't get to spend as much
time working together. And so it's always a joy for
me to see someone like yourself, who I think is terrific,
come in and completely independent. There was no there's no
bias from me. I had no say. They they came
and said, Jasmine is one of our best dents, so

(49:01):
she needs to be recognized as such. So share a
little bit about that program, the Medium Broadcast program. What
was your experience and what would you do day to day?

Speaker 7 (49:12):
Absolutely, honestly, the program changed my perspective of working in
the sports industry tremendously from angles that I wasn't even
expecting to learn from. Like when you read about the program,
it'll tell you that they'll teach you about the foundation
of media and the sports industry, which is exactly what
they did during the week. We dived into journalism from

(49:34):
the print media, broadcast media, and social media perspectives, and
they gave us just an amazing foundation on how to
be successful in the industry, whether.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
You want to work for.

Speaker 7 (49:45):
Media outlet or even create your own platform. They had
someone there who could speak from each subset of media
from experience, and that was really important to me, like
there was someone to guide you in the right direction
and give you that wise counsel that you need to
have success. And even like on top of that, the
program emphasized to me how important it is in sports

(50:07):
media to know about all aspects of basketball, not only
just on the court, but also the business side of
things such as the scouting and video analytics and especially
salary cap So in those times where our whole cohort
was together learning about those aspects of the game that
aren't necessarily media centralized, I realized that, like, this is

(50:27):
the time not to just chill out and not pay attention,
Like that's your time to really tap in and understand
the ins and outs of the business, because as a
media professional, it's your job to be well informed on
these topics to be able to accurately report it to
the public. And with all of that said, I learned
so much from the program from an educational standpoint, but
I would be remiss not to mention the power of

(50:49):
connections at Sports Business Classroom. Like during the program, you're
in front of people who are in the positions that
we're fighting for, and you have the opportunity to meet
the people who have been in in like your shoes,
our shoes, and give you that raw, real advice that
got them to where they are now. And also your
peers are on their way to being successful sports professionals too,

(51:12):
So it's an amazing time to just meet as many
people as you can and start building the network and
the career of your dreams. So all in all, SPC
was an experience of a lifetime for me that gave
me tools and connections that I need to make it
to the next level. So if I can rewind time,
I would not have done it any other way.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
Oh I love it. That's thank you for that. That's
I think And I don't know if I speak for Bobby,
but I think we both have a sort of creative
that you know, it's not like a zero sum game
where everybody's competing against everyone tooth and claw, but that
we can rise the tide together, and there are multiple
opportunities to be successful. And I'd rather collaborate with people

(51:53):
in a positive way than try to break people down.
And so I think, you know, at least working with Bobby.
I hope I didn't misspeak by attributing that to you, Bobby,
But that's what I felt like we we brought to
the program together, no.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
I mean, and that's kind of the theme when we
we open up that Sunday night. Is that kind of
like you know, listen, it's everyone in this room is
to kind of together, right Like, yes, we're all kind
of this is kind of squasi competition somehow, but we're
you know, I know I'm not, and I know Eric's
We're not going to tolerate basically people like disrespecting each

(52:26):
other to try to get up. This is kind of
the real life business world here. And that was kind
of the beauty of the program, right Like as far
as kind of like how we started that Sunday night
and how we ended that Saturday, that you could see
the jumps in development that that they come along. I
think you know, the one thing that we didn't talk about,

(52:48):
and I know you Sason went through this is like
you know, we bring in people and we do one
on once, right, so like you can we bring in
whether it be from the media side, or from the
team side, or from the agent side, and you'll get
to spend time with them and you could sit there
and you could pick their brain, and you can you
can network, and you can use that as a resource.
Because I've always said, like our goal that week and

(53:09):
then after that, like once we once we're done, it's
not like all of a sudden mean Eric fault face
of the earth and like we change our phone number.
Rightly you have access to us. Is that to give
you the resources and the platform and the tools to
have you succeed right as far as how to kind
of when you're interviewing, when you're meeting people. That what
we've gone through is that you have those resources here

(53:31):
and that's that's the that's the end goal right there.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
Well, I saw Jasmine as someone who's ready to work,
and so I'm excited to see what you do next, Jasmine.
I I want to hopefully we'll get to work together
this summer we'll bring you back hopefully and help you
help us on the production side. We're working on it.
But it is a pleasure to see you again. I'm
glad that we had a chance to meet just randomly

(53:57):
and then who knew that like we ended work together
in this capacity and that you'd be so uh I was.
I'm not shocked that you were so awesome at it,
but it is nice to see that you were so
Thank you Jazmine for coming on and we'll talk soon.

Speaker 7 (54:10):
Thank you so much for having me. It's good to
see you guys.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
Of course.

Speaker 5 (54:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
She she brought up the networking aspect and I I think,
you know, we can't undersell it, Bobby, what is what
is the networking aspect mean to you? And why is
it home?

Speaker 3 (54:25):
I mean that's how as I said, that's kind of
like fifty percent of it is. Networking is meeting people,
is getting your face and you know as far as
putting a you know, a name to the to the face,
you know, that's that's how I got in. I mean,
that's how Eric is, you know, in as far as

(54:45):
you know, basically leaning on on the you know people
that whether it be peers, that you've that have come
before us here. But that's that is the most important part.
And the beauty of it is that you know Jeff
Felons or who who's involved with the program is based
whether it be your resume, or whether it be networking,
or whether it be kind of teaching you the tools.

(55:06):
As I said, as far as you know that will
help you with this.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
Yeah, the networking aspect. Someone asked me yesterday, I did
an interview and they asked me, like, what would you
wish someone would have told you when you first start out?
And to be honest, like, I don't really live in
any sort of regret on Like the lessons I had
to learn, I learned by just learning, and I wouldn't
want it to be different. But I don't think I
understood when I first started, like how important it is

(55:33):
to socialize and to communicate and get to know people.
And I started, I would say, younger in high school
or earlier. I was introverted and gradually learned how to
be semi extroverted. So not everyone who's watching right now
is a big personality who wants to fill up a
room and get up in front of the stage and

(55:57):
talk to everyone. But there is an aspect. Even if
you are introverted of communication that you need to find
a way to communicate, bond with others, get to know people.
You can have a brilliant mind, but if you can't
share that information with another human being, then it's it's
hard to get hard to get work. So we work

(56:17):
with people on that and we take the time to,
as I said, to get to know everyone. I want
to do, Bobby, I want to go to some Q
and A. It looks like you've been answering them.

Speaker 5 (56:27):
I have answered a bunch.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
Yeah, so there's a few life in the Q and
A section. So what I want to do is, well,
first of all, just Hamada is just I can't say
the last name is just saying hello to you from Sydney, Australia,
mister Mark, So hello you all right, So let's see here.

(56:50):
I think this is a good one to start with Sonya.
Sonya is asking qualifications reviewing resumes to get accepted into
the classroom. Can we elaborate on what we're looking for?
I can, and and I will with Bobby, do you
have any thoughts on on what you would want to
see in who's applying?

Speaker 3 (57:08):
Well, I mean like certainly I think that the biggest thing,
you know, whether if you're in if you're in college,
or if you've graduated, Like for me, like what type
of person you are? Like that that's the most important,
Like how do you how do you fit into the group?
That's the program runs because we have cooperation from one
hundred and forty people students and then certainly instructors. So

(57:33):
for me, it's it's kind of like, you know, how
do you fit in? You know what in what type
of person you are?

Speaker 2 (57:40):
Yeah, and it's not just a resume, but it's also
a cover letter, so like the resume is not as personal.
I mean, it's personalized, but it's not as you're not
communicating what your goals are. I would like to see
in the letter a communication of like number one, does
the letter look professional? There's some that I'll I'll look more.
Some of them don't, and I'll look more deeply at it,

(58:02):
and I'll i'll our staff will go through and we'll
talk about it and such. Every so often I'll kick
back to someone and say, hey, we had one student
last year who was on a ski trip and didn't
want to miss the early bird, so he like in
the back of a bus wrote like a honestly a
terrible cover letter. It was like a chicken scratch on

(58:23):
a back of an envelope. And so I sent him,
you know, hey, don't worry your your your application is in.
You're still in the early bird window, but can you
revise this? And he sent like a much more polished
letter and ended up being really wonderful students. So I
would say the qualifications in general were not necessarily like

(58:44):
if you're a high school or rather let's say you're
a second year college student or third year college student,
you may not have a tremendous length of work experience yet.
And that's fine. We're not going to rule people out
because they haven't worked for an organization like oh, you
haven't worked for the NBA, or you haven't worked for
the NCAAA, Well you don't belong here. That's crazy. So

(59:08):
we're looking to see are you professional? Are you passionate
about the right things. I'll have some cover letters that
we'll get some cover letters that are like, you know,
I'm a huge fan, that maybe less of a fanned
side of it, and that you're just trying to get
like a fantasy camp PEP experience. But that you're actually

(59:31):
looking to put this time that you get with Sports
Business classroom to good use. Let's see here, let's see
Rob McIntyre is asking, he graduated from Virginia Tech with
the Masters in Science in it. Are there any particular
technical skills you find there's a need for on the

(59:51):
sports media side. That's an interesting one.

Speaker 3 (59:55):
What do you think, Bobby, Well, I mean, I guess
it depends on what you know. I mean, sports media
is certainly why it's a wide range, right is or
whether it be from journalism, whether it be from from
on camera, whether it be from operations, certainly from a
production from a production standpoint here, and I think that
kind of answered that would answer that question there.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
I think, well, I think if you think of almost
any job, like there's that job within the sports side,
whether it's media or not. Like at ESPN, you have
how many like like they have electricians, right, you have
people do lighting, you have people do makeup and hair,
and obviously you have the nice suit and tie, so
someone had to make sure you're dressed up nice and

(01:00:40):
wardrobe and you know there's directing and all the technical
stuff and then there's just the it support for everything
that goes with it. Right, That seems like really it's
it's specific in this case, Rob, Rob McIntyre, if I'm
saying that, right, it's really you are who you are,
you do what you do. It's a or of you

(01:01:00):
finding a way to use those skills that you have
and finding those opportunities with those skills, because the answer
is yes, like for almost any of your skills there's
going to be an opportunity here, Bobby, I think this
is a good one for you to answer. How this
is from Jermaine Uh, How does CBA slash salary cap
differ from basketball operations? Well, I mean, let's there's a there's.

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
When you look at basketball, when you look at the
department itself, right, Basically basketball operations is the tree, and
then there's basically branches off the tree where you basically
have whether it be salary cap, whether it be the
operations in itself, which is you know, certainly pertains to
you know, certainly scouting, coaching, front office. You know, like

(01:01:46):
if you're working in a front office, it's not just
salary cap, right, There's a lot of different elements there.
So basically what we do is will combine the basketball
basketball ops salary component together.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
Yeah, I would say that we don't have a specific
major basketball operations. It's really the divisions that Bobby just
mentioned between salary cap which is more of the strategic
side of how and then the SBA scouting video analytics
is more of the why of your doing it. I
think that's probably the best way to put it. And

(01:02:19):
then there's just like there are jobs that are neither
and there just might be the person who's coordinating between
all of those people to make sure that everyone's functioning.
And so there are jobs that are just making sure
that the organization functions and those there are jobs that
do that. And Bobby, this is a new one for

(01:02:39):
you as well. This is anonymous. If we are going
into the CBA and salary Cap Major, how much should
we know about each of them? Really, they're the same
thing going into the program.

Speaker 5 (01:02:50):
I think you have to have.

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
A base understanding. You don't have to come in as
an expert. There's not going to be a quiz on
the first day here. But I do think I do
think you have to an understanding, and that's why we
created the CBA. The Google doc that's available kind of
like where we take transactions and apply it to how
the CBA works. Here, can that can kind of give

(01:03:11):
you that base knowledge of how everything is.

Speaker 2 (01:03:14):
John's question here, he's asking do we have alumni employment
statistics available? Bobby and I don't. But Jackson who is
part of our staff making this event happen and working
behind the scenes also running the zoom, so thank you
for all that he is somebody there you are Jackson
at Sports Business Classroom dot com. He can help you

(01:03:36):
with your questions regarding everything from I guess employment statistics
to logistical questions about what the program is. And he'll
if he can't answer the questions, he can get to people,
whether it's Bobby, myself or others in the organization who
can guide you with that. So that's really the best
answer I have. Sorry, I can't answer directly. I honestly,

(01:03:59):
you don't know that. I do know that we have
a ton of people who work in the NBA, and
it's really one of the great joys in my life
is to see that kind of success. Really, it's wonderful.
Anonymous is asking how many applications were denied last year.
I don't have the number on that. We don't let

(01:04:20):
everybody through. We have to draw the line at certain
levels because of space. I think that's really the hardest part.
Last year we said we were stopping at one twenty
and then we agreed to go to one twenty five.
And then, as I said, the wait list was just
too good. So we figured out how to get it
up to about one thirty five. But not everyone got through,

(01:04:41):
and there were some that were very hey, I don't
want to work in basketball, but I just want to
go and attend, and we're like, well, that's not really
what we're here for. There were some folks who weren't
as ready for the program who we hope will apply
this year. So generally speaking, we want to let people

(01:05:01):
in and we just have to work within the numbers
of our capacity and also make sure that we're getting
people who are actually serious about this and are professional
and ready to go. Again, that does it. We're not
saying like, if you're a second, third year whatever college student,
that we're looking for you to show like, oh, what
you've done. We're not qualifying you on what you've already done,

(01:05:25):
but we are looking at what you're looking to do.
And then I'll just jump in real quick. Can you
explain the talent profile website. It's our VSL talent website.
It's a kind of like a social media network, kind
of similar LinkedIn kind of thing. I think you probably
want to ask Jackson a little bit more about that.

(01:05:47):
So that has been answered to questions on that, let's see.
But okay, so Bobby, I'm going to read this one
live here. Obviously, participate in this from anonymous. Obviously, participating
in this program would be out of a love of
basketball or for basketball. But for those trying to start

(01:06:09):
a second career, is there any salary information for potential
jobs after the program just from a career playing finding standpoint,
That's a tough question. There any thoughts? Yeah, I mean I.

Speaker 3 (01:06:21):
Would say there for you attending here, right, Like it's
similar to going to college, right, coming to SBC is
coming to college. When you go to college, there's not
you know, a two hundred thousand dollars job because.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
You were a business major.

Speaker 5 (01:06:46):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:06:47):
But as I have said before, like, what we are providing.

Speaker 5 (01:06:54):
Is not a guarantee that you have a job.

Speaker 3 (01:06:55):
On the other end, right, what we are providing is
that we are going to give you the resources to
put you in a position to get that job when
it is available. That that is kind of what we're
what we are providing here, right.

Speaker 4 (01:07:11):
And.

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
It is what you make of it. Some of it obviously,
like is luck, there's not like you know, I've used
the analogy of being a law lawyer, where you go
to law school. First, you go to undergraduate, then you
go to law school, then you get an internship, then
you pass the bar, then you become associate, then you
become partner. Like it's not a cookie cutter industry. And
it also depends like are you getting into the salary

(01:07:35):
cap are you getting into scouting video analytics? Are you
creating your own company? Are you going into you know,
there's so many different paths, but it's it's just as
Bobby said, it's like going to college, and at least
here this is more of it's almost more of a
trade school where you're learning something very specific and you're

(01:07:57):
building out a network. So good question. I don't know
if there's a specific answer, but that's the best we
could do, and you can certainly reach out to Jackson
if you need a little bit more insight on that.
Harvey is asking about the scouting major, do you want
to talk about that a little bit or you have
some thoughts on the scouting major.

Speaker 3 (01:08:17):
Yeah, I'm just hype and so yeah, this is the
scouting major. I mean we can kind of go through
a little bit like so we have anywhere from you know,
scouting video analytics is kind of one major there. As
far as there we have certainly Stephen Jones and Seth
Partner and whether it be actually scouting in person. As

(01:08:42):
far as last year, we had Greg Plinsky come in
and he's an assistant at Tennessee and he came and
he did a presentation on Patta Villa draft board right
how to identify talent. We're probably going to tweak that
presentation this year and do something a little bit different.
But you know, as far as how do you break
down video right, like, that's important that that we're going

(01:09:05):
to show you. You know, whether it be Steven Elvis
or Stephen Jones, And the key is duncan you know,
you know, not everyone goes to be a scout. Most
scouts start in the video department here, so there is
a wide range as far as it's not just going
to a summer league game and say, oh, what do
you think of that guy? Right, Like we're basically going
to give you kind of like the tools how to

(01:09:27):
identify prospects, How do as certainly as I said.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
How do you break down video?

Speaker 3 (01:09:33):
How do you look at players scout wise, analytically? All
those are going to be there for you.

Speaker 2 (01:09:40):
Thank you. Yeah, it's a it's a it's a wonderful major.
If I were to take a class, I would take
that one. I've never been able to take it because
I've always been teaching on the salary cap side. But
I would love to learn more about how to watch basketball,
not like a fan. I think that's a focus that
I heard them express multiple times, like what are you

(01:10:01):
looking at when you're watching a game? And a fan
will generally watch the ball and who's scoring, But there's
so much else going on. You have ten players on
the court at a time, right, so the ball is
in one player's hands. If that's only what you're watching,
you're missing out on a lot of activities. And then finally,
at least it looks like the last question Luca is

(01:10:22):
asking are there any software tech or data Linux schools
we should become acquainted with before attending the immersive experience?
So I would reach out to us. I would put
you in contact with Let's say you're an analytics person
and you want to know because scouting video analytics. Some
people come in where they're less scouting, less video, more analytics,

(01:10:45):
and these are all connected. But we do have some
who really want to die hard focus on analytics, and
you can't just learn everything you need to know about
analytics in one week's time. However, learning from Steth Partner
and all this stuff after we provide really is, you know, incredible.
But what's great is that our teachers are going to

(01:11:06):
communicate with you. And so what I would do is
I would put you in touch with them and they
would tell you like, okay, you need to know like
you know this, you know Python and R and you
know like the sports Code if that's if you're doing
more of like video and things like that. So these
are all tools I don't really use, but I think

(01:11:27):
that's best answer I can give you there, So thank you, Luca.
So Bobby, I think we got through them, would question, Yeah,
we don't. Usually Usually by now we're like, all right,
we got to cut it off. But that's usually because
we're doing NBA talk and people are asking us what
trades are going to happen and and that sort of thing.
So in any last thoughts here bought me before we

(01:11:49):
tune out, we sign out.

Speaker 5 (01:11:50):
We got a lot. One last question.

Speaker 3 (01:11:54):
Is it if I can't decide between the Scouting and
Video major and the CBA salary CAT Major.

Speaker 5 (01:11:59):
Would be good like the VIP package.

Speaker 2 (01:12:02):
Well, those are two different questions. I feel like, so
like the VIP package is going to get you CBA
tutoring and it's gonna get you some perks. Well, so
let's see, that's Hall of Fame. So you're getting the
VIP is really the benefit of that, Jackson? Can you
pull out that slide, the VIP slide so that I

(01:12:23):
make sure I say it right. I don't want to
lead us down. Oh and while we get that going,
are the Knicks going to win the East? Anonymous? A
different anonymous is asking Bobby, are the Knicks gonna win
the East? I would say unlikely. Oh, you never know. Well,
well no, we'll know, we'll know in a matter of
a couple of months. Okay, VIP. So what you're getting

(01:12:45):
is you're getting a little bit more time. So I
guess between the Scouting and Video Major and CBA we
could talk about that in the second Bobby, But in
terms of the VIP package, you're getting a little bit
more time, you're getting the extra day, and then you're
also getting an exclusive dinner, which is pretty cool. That

(01:13:06):
was a blast last year. And then you're also getting
Bobby's video course. So I guess what the core question
is is trying to decide between scouting, Scouting Video and
analytics and the CBA. So, Bobby, what's your thoughts on
on like, how do you pick that that major?

Speaker 3 (01:13:25):
I mean, I think listen, if you do, what you
decide now is not concrete. I think there's also there's
kind of like that three month window or four month
window before the program starts that you can, you know,
you can whether if you're reading up on the salary
cap or you're looking at from the Scouting video analytics
standpoint and you decide to change.

Speaker 5 (01:13:43):
That's fine.

Speaker 3 (01:13:44):
We're not holding you to your word as far as
right right now, and as I as I said that
the programming is for everyone, right the programming, the curriculum,
program is each day, Like you might get there on
Monday and be like, oh my god, I want I
want to do salary cap and you know, we don't
you know, do it often? But certainly there are certainly

(01:14:04):
certain certain exceptions that we would we would make here.

Speaker 2 (01:14:08):
Yeah, maybe on the first day we might switch, but
probably I have to agree at some point it becomes untenable.
But I guess the some of it is like a career,
like what do you want to do post this program?
So I think you should and this is to in general,

(01:14:30):
go into the field that you think is going to
be what you're going to be practicing. So if you
can see a way to go into strategy, whether it's
with an agent, whether it's with a team, whether it's
with going to a college. And maybe you're not even
using the NBA CBA, but you've learned how these things work,

(01:14:51):
which is important because you need to know the mechanics
of how the NBA works, even when you're on the
NCAA level or whatever, or you maybe want to go scouting.
Video analytics is always valuable to know how things fit together.
Some scouts like, hey, we should go get this player,
and if the GM's like there's no way, Like you
can't trade like a two million dollar player for a

(01:15:12):
fifty million dollar player, that doesn't make sense. So understanding
the basics is really valuable. So I think ultimately it's
like the CBA or salary cap. We kind of use
those interchangeable as words. That's the how, as I said before,
how do you make things happen?

Speaker 5 (01:15:29):
How?

Speaker 2 (01:15:30):
How does it work? And then scouting video analytics Video
analytics is more about why why are you putting these
players together? Who would compliment this player? Why would this
work from a basketball or why is it not working
from a basketball point of view? So find that passion
in yourself again, you can talk to Jackson and then
you can also, you know, if needed, Jackson can put

(01:15:53):
you in touch with either myself, Bobby or one of
our instructors. If it's you know, such a if it's
set the point where the decision is crippling and you
really can't answer it. So Bobby, which one do you
think helps get someone to the general manager seat more
quickly or the same or is it you need to
know both?

Speaker 3 (01:16:14):
I would say I would say scout salary cap. I
would say scouting video analytics can almost trend towards the
coaching avenue a little bit too.

Speaker 5 (01:16:28):
But there's I always say, if you're.

Speaker 3 (01:16:30):
Going to work in a front office, I think it's
important to learn how everything works, you know. I mean,
I think that's that's an important part.

Speaker 2 (01:16:36):
I mean, I think you need to know there's some
teams that are great of the mechanics and they're terrible
at building basketball teams too, right, So like yeah, I
mean we're biased. We're always going to say, like you know,
the CBA stuff is the basket, that's our area study.
But I think in general, you can't you can't do wrong.
And I don't want to leave Medium Broadcast out of
this because we have just like this incredible program with

(01:16:58):
Hall of Fame instruction and put you on a set,
get you in front of one of our students or
one of our former students, got in front of Brownie
James and got a really nice clip from Bronnie James
at Summer League. So it's just a wonderful time and
I can't recommend enough. And the addition of Bobby Marx
this last year was really really wonderful experience. So thank

(01:17:22):
you Bobby for everything you brought last year. And I'm
excited to see what we can put together in this
coming year. Is there any any any last thoughts, any
last words? Bobby?

Speaker 3 (01:17:32):
No, I mean I would say that just to kind
of go back to how we started it is that
for me, it was probably one of the most rewarding
experiences here. Like what we what we talked about in
the last hour and twenty minutes here doesn't justify what
the actual program is. And it's it's a you know,

(01:17:55):
it's a it's a grind, right, Like as Eric said,
this isn't like summer vacation. Right, You're not gonna own
a camp like we're there to work and everything like.

Speaker 5 (01:18:03):
That, But it is.

Speaker 3 (01:18:06):
It is a it's a valuable experience. It's a valuable
resource that everyone I think needs moving forward.

Speaker 2 (01:18:18):
Well, thank you, Bobby. I appreciate that you brought that
kind of attitude to the program and we're better for it.
So I'm excited to see what we can do this
year and how to improve it. It grew last year in
the agent side in such a unique way that we
just we pivoted in audibles and I brought in agents,

(01:18:38):
like practicing agents to come in and talk to our
agents and we had a had them in a competition
in a whole new way and it was so much fun.
So if you have questions again, you can reach out
to Jackson. You should have his contact information in all
of the documentation, but www. Sports Business Classroom dot com.

(01:18:59):
Remember that the early discount ends at the end of
this month in March, so please get that in early.
And it's been a pleasure. Thank you for attending and
I look forward to seeing you in July in Las Vegas.

Speaker 1 (01:19:13):
Thanks Eric, thanks for listening to this episode of the
Sports Business Classroom Audio Experience. We hope this gives you
the information you need to register Today, visit Sports Business
Classroom dot com to register for the Business of Basketball
Immersive Experience. We look forward to seeing you in Vegas.

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Business of Basketball Immersive Q&A | Bobby Marks & Eric Pincus | SBC Webinar Insights (EP.120)

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