September 30, 2025 • 37 mins
Greg Olsen sits down with Adrian Wojnarowski — better known as “Woj”, former ESPN insider — to talk about his surprising new role as the General Manager of St. Bonaventure basketball.They dive into what it’s like running a college program, how the transition from breaking NBA news to building a roster has challenged him, and the lessons he took from years of watching the league’s top players up close. Woj also shares stories from his insider days and how they shape the way he approaches leadership now.
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What's up? Everybody, welcome back here.
On You Think today we've got a really fun conversation.
A man who has now pulled off a significant career pivot
entering the world of college athletics.
A man that needs very little introduction.
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Adrian Wojnarowski, the man known as Woj.
Woj bombs. We all follow him.
We all love him. Woj man, I can't thank you
enough for joining us. I think your perspective on the
youth sports landscape is one that we had to have here on you
think so. I appreciate your time.
Greg, it's a it's an honor to behere with you.
And and long before I was covering the NBA and basketball,
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I was covering the Olson family in North.
Jersey, right, which is probably, that was probably the
highlight of your career, right?Covering high school football,
which almost everybody in our business sort of starts as a
high school rider and moves up. Yep.
Learning to cover a high school football game on Friday night
when it's raining. There's three different kids who
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were #32 one's on JV, 1 plays, defensive back, they use one on
offense. You got to keep your stats back
then you had to go to something called a pay phone to call in
your story. So you, you learn the craft.
But those are great memories forme and your family, you know,
has a special place. Your dad, one of the all time
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great coaches in New Jersey history and you know, you and
your brother had obviously a huge impact both locally in
Jersey, but but nationally when when you guys were running
through, you know, a big part ofwhy I came back to Bonaventure
and made, you know, I guess a fairly significant career
transition at now 56 years old was Bonaventure transformed my
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life. I was the first time my family
to go to college. My dad worked in a factory and
my brother's an automobile mechanic.
You know, there, there was nothing about my background that
suggested that I could have the path I had except, you know,
just a a love of reading and writing and and of telling
stories. And Bonaventure was a place that
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gave me a tremendous amount of confidence and belief in myself
and help me learn a craft. And you know, almost every good
thing that's come from my life, meeting my wife Amy here, her
family, many of them went to Bonaventure.
My brother-in-law played hoop here.
It's a special place. And I still think for young
people can be a transformationalplace.
And so when I'm out recruiting and we're recruiting and finding
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young people who we think would benefit from our environment,
which is small, close knit, remote, no distractions, in a
place that's going to care aboutyou, you know well beyond your
career. And so that's what's really
moved me to be back here. And so for us, that's still
college athletics. I understand it's big business
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and we've got to compete in thatrealm where we have to look at
ourselves as a business. And I've got a payroll and, you
know, we've got to financially figure out, you know, how can we
be a competitive team with some of the limitations we have.
But it doesn't change the fact that we're here to help
transform the life of young people along with being able to
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win games. So give us an idea.
Right, everyone hears. Nil, they now here with the new
House ruling about revenue sharing and you mentioned you
have a payroll like give us an idea maybe not like specifically
to Saint. Bonaventure, but just.
Across the country, at college athletics, all you know, people
that are doing the exact same thing, you are managing what
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that looks like. Give our listeners.
A little bit more insight into what exactly all of that means.
I think we all. Hear those words thrown around?
I'm not sure everyone. Really understands the
difference between. Nil revenue sharing.
You know, scholarship expansion.Like what?
Explain all that. To to us.
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You know, what revenue sharing is, is the ability of the
school, you know, to take their TV revenue, ticket revenue, all
the ways high major schools especially bring in money and
disperse that to their athletes in any number of sports,
football, basketball and beyond.But there's also NIL, which is
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name, image and likeness where you can outside of that do
marketing deals, do endorsement deals.
You know, one of our players, Joe Grijovic, has an NIL deal
with WWE, with Fanatics, you know, that's outside of revenue
sharing. And so there's been essentially
a salary cap put into place of around $21 million that schools
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are able to exceed by finding, again, NIL deals.
Outside of that, among the high major football schools, the
power for, you know, add in the Big East for basketball.
You know, those payrolls are in basketball north of 10 million N
of 15,000,000 football. I mean, you know, Greg, there's
payrolls. Thirty $35 million that you can
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go beyond the cap. There was an ability to before
this house settlement and the rule changed to pay money ahead
on on this year in future classes.
But I do think they'll be some coming back down to earth on
some of that money. But for a school like
Bonaventure, you know, our revenue streams are limited.
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And so we've got to really raisethe money that.
And so I spend a lot of my time as GM at Saint Bonaventure in
fundraising, finding a business partnerships that can help us
build kind of sustainable money donors and then marketing deals
that I can do around, you know, me that allow that that I share
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and and give the money to our program.
But there's no question it's been professionalized.
And, you know, for a very long time, college athletes did not
share in unbelievable revenues from schools.
At least they weren't sharing ina legal way.
We know that there were players who were paid, but but it also
put players and families in situations where, you know, they
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got it caught up in controversies that were the
doing of the schools because therules just didn't allow.
You know, you Greg, you, you played in you played in sold out
NFL stadiums where everybody's making a lot of money.
We know what the NFL player salary is, but you've also
played in massive college stadiums on network TV at a time
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when you were getting room, bookand tuition, yet your coach on
the sideline was making millions.
The administrators are making millions.
The school was building buildings on campus from that
revenue off of, you know, let's say high major football players
who are risking injury, who didn't have great insurance
protection and who many times were cast aside without
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meaningful degrees. And I do think it is a good
change, long overdue change. And I think the hope now is that
we can create an environment where lots of schools can
compete and this isn't headed for just 40 or 50 or 60 schools
that can compete and everybody else is left by the wayside.
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I think that's the challenge forthe NCA now.
Yeah, it seems like the guardrails now are the next
step, right? Because in.
Theory Should the players participate?
In the upside, I think everyone could make a meaningful
argument. I don't know how many people
would debate that they should get nothing.
I think now, like anything, it'sbeen such an overcorrection for
so long. The NCAA fought it and fought
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it, and instead of making meaningful change and a little
bit more incremental change thatI think would have satisfied
people, they've lost complete control.
Now the pendulum has swung so far.
You do think at? But sometimes there is a little
bit of a regression back to a middle.
Ground because it just seems theway it's going, it seems like
this. Is a rocket.
Ship that how do? We ever pull it back.
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I think it's going to look more like, let let's say you know,
I'm not as clear on the NFL salary structure.
I know there's a lot of non guaranteed money, but in the NBA
you look at, and I do this with our payroll and I actually
superimpose based on what our number is.
Obviously, you know, Saint Bonaventure's payroll is much
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lower than say the Denver Nuggets.
But what I do is I take their best players.
Everybody's a percentage of yoursalary cap.
And So what I try to do is look at our rosters, a percentage of
a salary cap. What I think you're going to see
probably change a little bit in college, at least in college
basketball, college football, they might view it differently.
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The star players are still goingto get paid really, really well,
just like they do in the NBAI think you might see a tapering
back of the role players. I think you've seen tremendous
salaries for players who weren'tnecessarily impact players.
You've seen that in the NBA and and the pros.
And, you know, even in the NFL, the guaranteed money goes to the
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quarterbacks to, you know, the star of stars, right?
The people who who are seen as the biggest difference makers, I
think that's what is what you'regoing to see Greg, is they'll
continue to pay the star players, but we may see a
progression of maybe the role players pay coming down.
This episode of You Think. Is brought to you by Players
(09:32):
Health, a company. That believes youth athletes.
Deserve the safest. And the most accessible
environments. Possible to play the sports they
love? To break this down, I spoke with
Tyree Burks. Players Health's founder and CEO
to hear the mission and principles of Players Health.
First hand we have a really. Special guest The founder of.
Players health Terry Burks Terry, thanks for joining us
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here on you think I'd love to just hear a little bit about
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just why you saw a hole. In the youth sports kind of
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Filled by your work with your team at players health.
Where I grew up, the environmentthat I grew up in played a huge
(10:15):
part of me creating players. So I grew up in the South Side
of Chicago. Sports truly saved my life.
And when I say that like I had an opportunity to choose to pass
either, it was the streets of sports.
And fortunately enough, I chose sports.
I was invited to come out to a youth football practice.
I showed up early and I stayed late and it kept me out of the
streets. And so there's been two things
(10:36):
that I've been obsessed with, you know, the past, call it 15
years of my call it professionalcareer as I've been, I've been
focused on safety and I've been focused on sports.
Like I've just been obsessed with those things.
I know what it feels like to grow up in an environment with
safety as a luxury. And sports was a safe place for
me through that experience. I had all these injuries growing
(10:57):
up. I had, I got 3 bulging discs in
my neck. I end up tearing my hamstrings,
broken fingers, ligaments, you know, just playing sports and,
and playing football. We didn't have athletic trainers
growing up with the school I went to.
And then until I went to the college level, I really didn't
understand solid season protocols around how these
things were managed. And so when I look back over my
(11:17):
career, I end up playing in the Canadian Football League for a
couple years and I decided to hang it up.
I started to reflect on my career and go, hey, how these
injuries would have been made. There's a lot better when I was
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And so I started to look at the impact that I wanted to make in
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And sports was such a huge played a huge role in my life.
So I wanted to give back to it and player something was my way
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Now back to the episode. OK, so let's take it the next,
next step, right? We're talking about the
structure. Now let's dive into the young
athletes that you guys are. Actively.
Courting, recruiting. Let's put nil.
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Aside for a second. As a way to get these players to
come on to campus. Right, I want to.
Talk a little bit about what you, you and your staff are
seeing when you're laying out these.
Targets. Right, These recruiting groups
you're hosting, you know recruiting weekends and you're
and you're putting up this wide net.
To find the right type. Of person to come to Saint
Bonaventure to be a student athlete like.
(12:42):
What are you guys? Seeing boots on the ground from
when you. First started covering high
school. Athletics a million years ago
when I was growing up to now arethe athletes.
Different are they the same? Are their priorities are like?
Give me a. Compare and contrast over the
years in your experience and. Especially now that you're like
living in the weeds of it. How are these high school kids?
(13:04):
Being prepared to play competitive athletics at the
college level. It's a great question, Greg.
And I think it's, you know, it'syoung people, it's certainly not
just athletes, it's young people.
And I think you know, your ability at this level to story
tell and differentiate your program.
We're not for everybody at SaintBonaventure.
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We, you know, I tell guys all the time, if you know, this is a
place where you care about your education and going to class and
you care about being in the gym and getting better.
We don't really have the third thing.
We don't have the beach. We don't have 12 months of sun.
We don't have a big city around us.
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And that's not for everybody. There's kids who want that.
But our goal is to find, you know, 10 or 12 guys somewhere on
this planet. We've been recruiting the world
and, and we know they're there and we helped.
We found them this year certainly and we have in the
past who value our environment. And so and you're also Greg
looking for good partners with whether it's a parent, whether
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it's agents, virtually all you know, many of our players
already have representation. Our international players, you
know, who've been playing in a club system have agents, the
American players, some are nil agents.
What what we want, what I what Ithink is important for us is to
find people who want to be in the lives and represent these
players for the next 1213 fourteen years because they care
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about the growth and development.
When I get on a phone with a player or a parent or an agent
and the first thing they say to me is what can you pay an nil?
It's probably going to be a quick conversation because to
me, the way I try to approach itis let's let's figure out the
fit first. Do do we fit you?
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Do you fit us? Let's get to know each other and
talk about what's important for you.
And then when we feel like there's a fit, then let's figure
out the money. And where I think the problems
are is when you start with the money and then figure out the
fit, right? I, I haven't even talked to a
young person yet. They haven't heard from us.
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And an agent would ask me, well,what are you willing to pay him?
I'm like, I haven't even gotten on the phone with him yet.
I have no idea. And so that's how we have to
approach it. At a high major where the
revenue is different, you might approach it in a different way.
But I think young people still, they want an environment where
they're going to be challenged, where they're going to be cared
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for but not coddled, and where that all the mechanisms are
there for them to put in the work, get better at the game,
move toward a degree. This is a fun place to play
college basketball. The whole university environment
at Saint Bonaventure is built around basketball.
Is it? This is a basketball town, a
(15:54):
basketball conference in the Atlantic 10.
And so you can, I think pretty quickly figure out and, and
you've got to be prepared. You've got to do your homework
on players. And the one thing that's helped
me as a, my reporting backgroundhas helped me in this job is
just like I would do a story on a young, a situation, a person,
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you don't just talk to one person, you're talking to a lot
of people to get the whole picture and to understand, look,
not just the what, but the why and, and how they were raised
and the challenges they may havefaced and to really understand
the people. And for me to be able to get
Intel from NBA teams and my relationships there, especially
with the international players, you know, NBA teams, they do
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tremendous job of gathering Intel and I can compliment mine
with their. And so you're trying to, to the
best of your ability, get a sense of how that person, how
that young person's going to fitin your environment.
And there's times where we really like a player in the last
year, but we had questions whether they fit and, and they
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would thrive with us. And conversely, maybe somebody
with a little less talent that we thought had tremendous work
ethic, tremendous character and,and staying power.
So much of it, Greg now is are you willing to fight through
adversity? And it's easy now to jump when
things aren't easy. It's easy to say there's
somewhere else I can transfer toand and players have free, free
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reign to do it. Do you have people when maybe
they're not getting the minutes they want right away and are
they going to fight through thatand get in the gym and work
harder? Or are they going to call their
agent and say, let's start working on a new school for next
year? Those are all things you have to
take into consideration when you're recruiting and and
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building building your your, your team.
Well, along those lines and and I'm fascinated because different
in basketball than. Football, you guys are.
Recruiting the Globe. You do have perspectives.
Of how these institutions and practices.
Prepare kids for College in. America and then.
They do it very different overseas, they do it very
different in other countries. Do you think we're doing a good
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job domestically? Let's just start with.
America for a minute like. Do you think we're doing a good
job? As these kids come up through.
Middle school, high school, and then on.
The verge of being recruited by.The likes of yourselves and and
million other schools, do you think our institution.
Of the youth sports. Landscape is doing a good.
Job preparing these. Kids, not just as the skill I
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think we've got. Down kids are more skilled at a
younger age than at any other. Time, But do you think kids are
coming into college? As prepared.
Coming up through the systems that we've.
Created as well as they were years ago.
There are a lot of places where there's tremendous coaching
preparation. And so the answer to that is
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yes, there's still a lot of instances where, and I'll give
you an example where we're talking to young people and
describing to them, telling themthey're a brand, toothpaste is a
brand, detergent is a brand. You are a person and you have a
reputation. And your reputation is what like
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how you treat people, what kind of teammate you are, how you
work. And I think that if we just, I,
I wish, I, I still think we could simplify it a little bit
and not worry. Listen, the money will come and
the rewards will come financially in other ways.
When you put in the work, when you are reliable, when teams can
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count on you, when coaches know,when you say you're going to be
in the gym at 7:00 AM to to do the work, you're there.
When you when, when study halls at 3:00 in the afternoon, you're
in there doing the work. All those things versus spending
a lot of time talking about yourearning power before you have
one go to move that Week 1, before you have a move that our
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coach can call for you in a game, we're talking to you about
how you're going to brand yourself.
I think that's dangerous. I think we're getting, we're
moving too fast with young people in those regards.
We we need financial literacy. We need to help players
understand that the money they might be earning in NIL is not
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anywhere near reflective of what's going to be out there for
them as professionals. This for most young people, this
is the most money they're ever going to make and so yes, we
need to be prepared for that, but it's harder on high school
players now, Greg, because we'refocused on in many cases older
players. We want the portal we want the
2120 two 23 year old in the Atlantic 10.
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There's very few 1819 year olds who are going to come in day one
and play a lot. You you certainly see it at the
high majors, but older is betterin college sports now.
And I do also see if I'm a youngplayer now.
Go somewhere you can play. It may not be the name school
that five years ago the top 100 or top 150 or top 350 kid would
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get a scholarship to, but the way to build a career in college
athletics, I think this is true in any sport is go somewhere you
can be productive. You can show them you can
impact, impact winning. And if you are productive, even
at the low major level, very quickly you're going to move up
and be compensated needed for it.
Don't be too caught up with I want the big name school because
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going somewhere and sitting on the bench and then having to
move down a level makes it harder.
But I do think overseas there ismany cases more of a focus on
the fundamentals. You know, I think so much would
travel basketball, our guys are spending so much time in root
places and they're they're flying all over the country.
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They're riding around in vans ina town, they're hanging around
in hotel lobbies at very young ages to go compete when you
know, they can get that work in elsewhere and and have time to
be a kid, go swimming, have a part time job.
I think we burned so much time around youth sports when I do
(22:04):
think we could still localize it, you know, go have two hard
hours of training, practice, maybe come back and if you're a
basketball player, come back in the evening and do some
shooting. But I, I look at some of these
guys who are moving around the country, 12 hour van rides,
planes connecting and all that lost time that to me they should
(22:25):
be kids with. And I, I worry about that for
young people and, and it impacts, I think some of the
burnout and some of the lack of love of it because I think it
sucks some of the joy out of it.I think there could be a better
balance. I'm just regionalizing things a
little better for guys. What's up guys?
Do you want custom fan wear likethis?
Cricket shirt for Charlotte Christian School We've got
(22:47):
premium apparel from your favorite brands.
The best part about it? Is I don't have to.
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(23:07):
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it's Youth dot, Inc. Now back to our episode.
So much of what you just said isso spot on and we work closely.
At our kids school here in town and.
Obviously we're more involved. With the football program, but
we go support. My kids play baseball, they play
basketball. My daughter runs.
Track and field and plays girls basketball.
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So we're we're involved in all. The different programs not.
Just football, but I spend more time intimately with the
football kids as one of the coaches of the team and what
not. And what you just said about the
challenges of high school athletes is so important for
families to understand and. I think the first around here
the first. Time that you don't get the
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offers you want, you don't thinkthat it's the coach isn't doing
a good job, the school is not doing a good job and I need to
go to a different. School I got to go to.
The kids at. That school get better offers
than this school and I try to. Convince these parents like you
just don't understand the landscape here like.
Here are the challenges your sonor daughter are.
Facing of Why? Notre Dame or no whoever.
(24:11):
Is not coming to recruit you, it's not the school and what you
just. Said is so true.
It's the same in football. Old wins.
The third the third year player that was a backup.
At Mississippi State, he can go to Auburn now.
And be a starting defensive. Tackle and play because.
He's for three years been in a program like like that versus
your 18 year old. Son, who is?
(24:32):
Probably 2 years away from. Playing in the SEC.
At the very. Fastest.
So like that was not the case when I came out.
When I came out, you went to thebest schools, that upper echelon
of schools that offered you, youpicked amongst them.
You went there and said if it takes me 1/2.
Or three years to play? No problem.
I'm in for the long haul like. There are no.
Pay the patience now doesn't exist in 12 year old baseball
(24:55):
though. Wosch if your kids not batting?
3rd Playing shortstop on your 12.
Year old baseball team halfway through the season you're
playing in a different uniform. We we can't even.
Forget high school. We can't get it done in middle
school. So how do we ever expect?
Them to do it when they get to you in college.
It it's it's so true. And I think for a lot of
(25:15):
families and, and the other thing too, and I'm sure you're
seeing this, Greg, is specialization.
I think young people are specializing too soon.
There's so much to be learned from playing multiple sports and
in terms of leadership, in termsof honing different skill sets,
you know, I think that's important to that, that that you
(25:37):
don't have to become a 12 month a year athlete at 10 or 11 or 12
years old. You know, maybe once you get to
high school, you might start looking at that, but and and you
may not find what you're really good at and what you love
without experimenting and, and finding, finding that.
And so I think that's certainly part of it.
And you know, burnout I think issuch a part of, you know, guys
(26:04):
have played in many cases so much travel basketball so much
you want to keep it fresh and for them to love it.
What I'm really interested to see what happens, Greg, is
especially players who are making a tremendous amount of
money even at the mid major level, you know, role players
who are making six figures. That is not their pro market.
When they go to Europe and finish college, they might get
(26:28):
an offer for sixteen $17,000 a year in a country they've never
heard of. And they're going to be the days
of you know, private charter flights, 4 five star hotels,
packed arenas, television. Now they're going to be in small
gyms and the outskirts of of a medium sized European towns,
long bus rides, very little money.
(26:50):
Then you're going to find out who really loves to play because
the let down of that is going tobe significant.
And, and the other thing too, Greg, that I think, and, and I'm
really working on that at Saint Bonaventure is the mental
health. Listen, young people, it has
never been scary to be a young person in this world for a lot
of reasons. Take take sports away from it
(27:13):
and mental health and, and, and providing resources to young
people. I think it's never been more
important, but adding money intothe equation and I, you can see
it already, whether it's how do I handle the pressure of maybe
being given a lot of money to play you.
You've been around both. Listen, you've lived it in the,
in the pro level. I've been around it covering it.
(27:35):
Money impacts much older people when they get a big contract and
the public scrutiny that comes with that and the pressure,
that's human nature. Now we're giving it to 18/19/21
year olds. How do they handle a big
paycheck? How do they handle seeing
somebody else is making more andyou think you deserve it or the
people around you are telling you you should be getting what
(27:56):
he or she's getting that createsstress?
Or I'm not playing well? Are they going to cut my money
for next year? Am I?
Am I having to share a lot of mymoney with others around me?
So I'm not putting this money away and it's not going to be
for me. That creates the level of stress
in so many ways. We have to really understand
(28:20):
that the nil Rev share landscapeis impacting people in ways that
we don't maybe even fully understand yet and make sure
that we've got the resources to help kids managed all that
because it's a lot and their families.
Yeah, it's the cost of unintended consequences, right?
We all think showering people with money is the answer to a
(28:41):
lot of problems. And it certainly can change
people's lives and it certainly can get people from, you know,
disadvantaged backgrounds, opportunities they otherwise
wouldn't have. So it's it's not.
That it's not the root of the evil.
But in so many cases we had a hard time getting, you know, I
just think back to when I came into the league.
After college, I was. 22 when I got.
Drafted and you get your. First check I was 22 and had no
(29:03):
idea what I was doing and the the decisions I made at 22 and
20. Three are vastly different.
Than now I make at 40. But I had to learn that through
the hard way. Could you imagine if you
expedited that now for A? Lot of these kids it's.
Happening a full. Four year cycle earlier.
I'm a high school senior having a having a coach sit in my
office and sit in my family roomand tell me they're going to pay
(29:24):
Me 2 million. Dollars as a high school senior,
he's just getting ready to go tohis prom like.
I can't even put myself in position to understand what that
looks like. If you would have given me 50
grand in college, my head would have popped off.
So I I. Do think there are the?
Unintended consequences that have.
Started to play out here that we've got to we've got to figure
(29:45):
out I. Want to shift a little bit woes
to a really unique perspective that I think you have, maybe
more so than most people. You intimately followed some of
the greatest athletes in NBA history.
I mean, name them. You covered them.
You knew them personally. You saw their habits, you saw
behind the scenes. You knew what was going on.
We all watched what we saw on TV.
(30:06):
We saw the finished product. Can you identify a?
Couple traits and I'm sure you bring a lot.
Of these insights to now your time at Saint Bonaventure, but
like tell me about some of the. Traits that you thought were.
Common across multiple personalities, different types
of guys, but they. All shared what?
That made them special. You know, work ethic is easy.
(30:27):
I mean, that's an easy one to identify, right?
The ability to keep working whenyou've had success, when you've
gotten a big contract, I would say reliability.
Are you reliable? Can the coach count on you?
Can your teammates count on you?Can your community count on you?
That that's to do what you say you're going to do and to honor
(30:51):
what you're asked and required to do.
The definition of professionalism right is doing
what you're supposed to do when you don't feel like it.
And that's so much of it. There's a story that I share
with our players often. My first beat, I'm out of
College in Waterbury, CT, was covering UConn basketball.
And Ray Allen was an 18 year oldfreshman at UConn, Pretty
(31:14):
prominent recruit, terrific shooter from day one.
And here's what I remember aboutRay.
I would finish my, they would have practice.
There was a, a, a, a pressure room there.
You'd write your story after practice and you'd go home.
And very often when I'd be packing up my bag to leave, I'd
have to cut back to the gym. And I would see that young
freshman guard back in the gym at night working on his form
(31:38):
shooting, which is you stand right, you know, halfway between
the free throw line and, and thebasket and you're just working
on your form shooting. It's the simplest thing any
shooter does, but for someone like Ray Allen, it was his
routine day after day. So this is 18 year old Ray
Allen. Fast forward 20 years.
Ray Allen has had a Hall of Famecareer.
(31:59):
He's won. He'd won a championship in
Boston All Star. He's 38 years old.
He's back in Boston Garden with the Miami Heat and I get to a a
Celtic Heat playoff game at 4:00in the afternoon for probably a
738 o'clock start. There's one guy on the court in
the arena, it's Ray Allen 20 years later now the all time 3
(32:23):
point shooting king in NBA history broke Reggie Miller's
mark and there he is formed shooting in the gym the same way
I had last seen him doing it 20 years earlier as an 18 year old
and I just think that speaks to it.
You go to the Golden State Warriors facility on an off day
to go in and and there's Steph Curry alone doing tennis ball,
(32:48):
ball handling drills at the height of his MVP championship
level. It's an off day.
Everybody else was out and you see Steph back in.
And so you know, Greg, that the level of and that's the dude at
the highest level. Steph and Ray are two the
greatest ever, but what separates the rest?
(33:09):
There's so many talented guys who have skill, who, you know,
you could put in a hat and say which are the and, and they're
going to be 90% of the guys are role players, right?
And it gets back to again, professionalism, reliability,
being a great teammate. And I think pro teams more than
(33:29):
ever, and I know we are putting a tremendous premium on it.
I want guys who bring energy andbring culture from other good
organizations and other good teams.
I want them to bring that culture to our team because
every year culture is not a thing.
You just put up on signs in yourbuilding and you say we have
(33:50):
great culture. Culture is a thing you fight for
every day when you're around it.Any organization, whether it's
sports or non sports, culture isbehavior habits and you're only
as good as the habits that you have in the building in that
given day. And I, I think about being
around the Spurs through that very long stretch with Tim
(34:10):
Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, the culture was in the
work and habits of those great players.
They dictated it. And coaches are never mind the
general manager of a college team, the players are going to
dictate the environment and the leadership within there.
And so I would tell young people, what's going to separate
(34:33):
you is as simple as, do people want you around?
Like when you come around the corner and they see you, is
there a smile on your face? Is there enthusiasm to greet
your coach? Not just your coach, but the
trainer, the student managers, the folks who are sweeping your
gym. Because when you're a player,
(34:55):
you want to be a pro or you wantto be a college player,
understand, we're going to go ask questions of not just the
people who are impactful in yourlife.
Anybody can be polite to their coach or to the important
people. How do you treat the people who
can't help you? The, the, the people who take
your swipe your meal card in thedining hall, How do you greet
(35:18):
them? You know the the equipment
manager who who stays up late atnight to to wash your sweaty
clothes in your jersey and has it folded nicely on your on your
seat. How you treat all those people
in your life, never mind your teachers and your classmates.
It plays a tremendous role in how desirable you are to to a
(35:43):
team at the college level and certainly at the pro level.
Before we get back into the episode, a quick reminder to
follow us across all socials. We're posting daily content
centered around youth sports. All right, let's hop back into
it. That's so well said, and well.
As I thought your perspective. Not only what you're doing now,
but just your time covering the.Sport from the high.
(36:04):
School level to the highest level in all of competitive
athletics and now obviously boots on the ground, the work
you're doing it Saint Bonaventure.
I've watched many Saint Bonaventure games.
We grew up going to games, you know, at Seton Hall and kind of
up in that area and we've seen many Bonnie's game.
So what you're doing, I commend.I love it.
I'm jealous. Like the idea of.
Being in a program like. That and the boots on the ground
(36:26):
is so intriguing to me. So man, I can't thank you enough
for joining us here on Youthink.Wish you guys nothing but
success and it's so. Good to see you after all these
years and. See that you're doing well.
Greg, it's an honor to be with you.
It's been awesome to see what from from being a player to
being now one of the elite broadcasters and now in your
role here, giving back to young people, to parents and giving
(36:51):
them a lot of tools that they can use to navigate what's a
complicated and, and, and difficult world.
So so thanks for letting me be apart of the podcast.
Appreciate you man. Best of luck to you guys and
hopefully see you again soon. OK, Greg, take care.
What's up guys? Do you want custom fan wear like
this? Cricket shirt for Charlotte
Christian School We've got premium apparel from your
(37:13):
favorite brands. The best part about it?
Is I don't have to. Just wear it to Charlotte
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can wear it to lunch. It's turned into my uniform.
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What's up? Everybody, welcome back here.
On You Think today we've got a really fun conversation.
A man who has now pulled off a significant career pivot
entering the world of college athletics.
A man that needs very little introduction.
(00:21):
Adrian Wojnarowski, the man known as Woj.
Woj bombs. We all follow him.
We all love him. Woj man, I can't thank you
enough for joining us. I think your perspective on the
youth sports landscape is one that we had to have here on you
think so. I appreciate your time.
Greg, it's a it's an honor to behere with you.
And and long before I was covering the NBA and basketball,
(00:42):
I was covering the Olson family in North.
Jersey, right, which is probably, that was probably the
highlight of your career, right?Covering high school football,
which almost everybody in our business sort of starts as a
high school rider and moves up. Yep.
Learning to cover a high school football game on Friday night
when it's raining. There's three different kids who
(01:05):
were #32 one's on JV, 1 plays, defensive back, they use one on
offense. You got to keep your stats back
then you had to go to something called a pay phone to call in
your story. So you, you learn the craft.
But those are great memories forme and your family, you know,
has a special place. Your dad, one of the all time
(01:26):
great coaches in New Jersey history and you know, you and
your brother had obviously a huge impact both locally in
Jersey, but but nationally when when you guys were running
through, you know, a big part ofwhy I came back to Bonaventure
and made, you know, I guess a fairly significant career
transition at now 56 years old was Bonaventure transformed my
(01:50):
life. I was the first time my family
to go to college. My dad worked in a factory and
my brother's an automobile mechanic.
You know, there, there was nothing about my background that
suggested that I could have the path I had except, you know,
just a a love of reading and writing and and of telling
stories. And Bonaventure was a place that
(02:10):
gave me a tremendous amount of confidence and belief in myself
and help me learn a craft. And you know, almost every good
thing that's come from my life, meeting my wife Amy here, her
family, many of them went to Bonaventure.
My brother-in-law played hoop here.
It's a special place. And I still think for young
people can be a transformationalplace.
And so when I'm out recruiting and we're recruiting and finding
(02:34):
young people who we think would benefit from our environment,
which is small, close knit, remote, no distractions, in a
place that's going to care aboutyou, you know well beyond your
career. And so that's what's really
moved me to be back here. And so for us, that's still
college athletics. I understand it's big business
(02:56):
and we've got to compete in thatrealm where we have to look at
ourselves as a business. And I've got a payroll and, you
know, we've got to financially figure out, you know, how can we
be a competitive team with some of the limitations we have.
But it doesn't change the fact that we're here to help
transform the life of young people along with being able to
(03:19):
win games. So give us an idea.
Right, everyone hears. Nil, they now here with the new
House ruling about revenue sharing and you mentioned you
have a payroll like give us an idea maybe not like specifically
to Saint. Bonaventure, but just.
Across the country, at college athletics, all you know, people
that are doing the exact same thing, you are managing what
(03:40):
that looks like. Give our listeners.
A little bit more insight into what exactly all of that means.
I think we all. Hear those words thrown around?
I'm not sure everyone. Really understands the
difference between. Nil revenue sharing.
You know, scholarship expansion.Like what?
Explain all that. To to us.
(04:00):
You know, what revenue sharing is, is the ability of the
school, you know, to take their TV revenue, ticket revenue, all
the ways high major schools especially bring in money and
disperse that to their athletes in any number of sports,
football, basketball and beyond.But there's also NIL, which is
(04:21):
name, image and likeness where you can outside of that do
marketing deals, do endorsement deals.
You know, one of our players, Joe Grijovic, has an NIL deal
with WWE, with Fanatics, you know, that's outside of revenue
sharing. And so there's been essentially
a salary cap put into place of around $21 million that schools
(04:46):
are able to exceed by finding, again, NIL deals.
Outside of that, among the high major football schools, the
power for, you know, add in the Big East for basketball.
You know, those payrolls are in basketball north of 10 million N
of 15,000,000 football. I mean, you know, Greg, there's
payrolls. Thirty $35 million that you can
(05:10):
go beyond the cap. There was an ability to before
this house settlement and the rule changed to pay money ahead
on on this year in future classes.
But I do think they'll be some coming back down to earth on
some of that money. But for a school like
Bonaventure, you know, our revenue streams are limited.
(05:30):
And so we've got to really raisethe money that.
And so I spend a lot of my time as GM at Saint Bonaventure in
fundraising, finding a business partnerships that can help us
build kind of sustainable money donors and then marketing deals
that I can do around, you know, me that allow that that I share
(05:53):
and and give the money to our program.
But there's no question it's been professionalized.
And, you know, for a very long time, college athletes did not
share in unbelievable revenues from schools.
At least they weren't sharing ina legal way.
We know that there were players who were paid, but but it also
put players and families in situations where, you know, they
(06:17):
got it caught up in controversies that were the
doing of the schools because therules just didn't allow.
You know, you Greg, you, you played in you played in sold out
NFL stadiums where everybody's making a lot of money.
We know what the NFL player salary is, but you've also
played in massive college stadiums on network TV at a time
(06:39):
when you were getting room, bookand tuition, yet your coach on
the sideline was making millions.
The administrators are making millions.
The school was building buildings on campus from that
revenue off of, you know, let's say high major football players
who are risking injury, who didn't have great insurance
protection and who many times were cast aside without
(07:01):
meaningful degrees. And I do think it is a good
change, long overdue change. And I think the hope now is that
we can create an environment where lots of schools can
compete and this isn't headed for just 40 or 50 or 60 schools
that can compete and everybody else is left by the wayside.
(07:22):
I think that's the challenge forthe NCA now.
Yeah, it seems like the guardrails now are the next
step, right? Because in.
Theory Should the players participate?
In the upside, I think everyone could make a meaningful
argument. I don't know how many people
would debate that they should get nothing.
I think now, like anything, it'sbeen such an overcorrection for
so long. The NCAA fought it and fought
(07:43):
it, and instead of making meaningful change and a little
bit more incremental change thatI think would have satisfied
people, they've lost complete control.
Now the pendulum has swung so far.
You do think at? But sometimes there is a little
bit of a regression back to a middle.
Ground because it just seems theway it's going, it seems like
this. Is a rocket.
Ship that how do? We ever pull it back.
(08:05):
I think it's going to look more like, let let's say you know,
I'm not as clear on the NFL salary structure.
I know there's a lot of non guaranteed money, but in the NBA
you look at, and I do this with our payroll and I actually
superimpose based on what our number is.
Obviously, you know, Saint Bonaventure's payroll is much
(08:28):
lower than say the Denver Nuggets.
But what I do is I take their best players.
Everybody's a percentage of yoursalary cap.
And So what I try to do is look at our rosters, a percentage of
a salary cap. What I think you're going to see
probably change a little bit in college, at least in college
basketball, college football, they might view it differently.
(08:50):
The star players are still goingto get paid really, really well,
just like they do in the NBAI think you might see a tapering
back of the role players. I think you've seen tremendous
salaries for players who weren'tnecessarily impact players.
You've seen that in the NBA and and the pros.
And, you know, even in the NFL, the guaranteed money goes to the
(09:10):
quarterbacks to, you know, the star of stars, right?
The people who who are seen as the biggest difference makers, I
think that's what is what you'regoing to see Greg, is they'll
continue to pay the star players, but we may see a
progression of maybe the role players pay coming down.
This episode of You Think. Is brought to you by Players
(09:32):
Health, a company. That believes youth athletes.
Deserve the safest. And the most accessible
environments. Possible to play the sports they
love? To break this down, I spoke with
Tyree Burks. Players Health's founder and CEO
to hear the mission and principles of Players Health.
First hand we have a really. Special guest The founder of.
Players health Terry Burks Terry, thanks for joining us
(09:55):
here on you think I'd love to just hear a little bit about
your. Background A little bit about
starting and founding. Of players health and really
just why you saw a hole. In the youth sports kind of
world that you thought needed tobe filled and and it is being.
Filled by your work with your team at players health.
Where I grew up, the environmentthat I grew up in played a huge
(10:15):
part of me creating players. So I grew up in the South Side
of Chicago. Sports truly saved my life.
And when I say that like I had an opportunity to choose to pass
either, it was the streets of sports.
And fortunately enough, I chose sports.
I was invited to come out to a youth football practice.
I showed up early and I stayed late and it kept me out of the
streets. And so there's been two things
(10:36):
that I've been obsessed with, you know, the past, call it 15
years of my call it professionalcareer as I've been, I've been
focused on safety and I've been focused on sports.
Like I've just been obsessed with those things.
I know what it feels like to grow up in an environment with
safety as a luxury. And sports was a safe place for
me through that experience. I had all these injuries growing
(10:57):
up. I had, I got 3 bulging discs in
my neck. I end up tearing my hamstrings,
broken fingers, ligaments, you know, just playing sports and,
and playing football. We didn't have athletic trainers
growing up with the school I went to.
And then until I went to the college level, I really didn't
understand solid season protocols around how these
things were managed. And so when I look back over my
(11:17):
career, I end up playing in the Canadian Football League for a
couple years and I decided to hang it up.
I started to reflect on my career and go, hey, how these
injuries would have been made. There's a lot better when I was
younger. Like, who knows what would have
happened, but maybe I would haveplayed a lot longer.
And so I started to look at the impact that I wanted to make in
in my life and, and, and also inthe world.
(11:38):
And sports was such a huge played a huge role in my life.
So I wanted to give back to it and player something was my way
of going about doing that. And so our mission, it's been
the same mission since day one, which is how do we create the
safest environment for an athlete to play the sport that
they love. I think this is something that
the world needs for our youth. And so we've been focused on
leaning into creating those safespaces.
(11:59):
Here you think we want to bring value.
To you, the parents, coaches, the athletes, listening in
everything that we do. Check out players health today.
And let them know Youth Inc sentyou.
Now back to the episode. OK, so let's take it the next,
next step, right? We're talking about the
structure. Now let's dive into the young
athletes that you guys are. Actively.
Courting, recruiting. Let's put nil.
(12:21):
Aside for a second. As a way to get these players to
come on to campus. Right, I want to.
Talk a little bit about what you, you and your staff are
seeing when you're laying out these.
Targets. Right, These recruiting groups
you're hosting, you know recruiting weekends and you're
and you're putting up this wide net.
To find the right type. Of person to come to Saint
Bonaventure to be a student athlete like.
(12:42):
What are you guys? Seeing boots on the ground from
when you. First started covering high
school. Athletics a million years ago
when I was growing up to now arethe athletes.
Different are they the same? Are their priorities are like?
Give me a. Compare and contrast over the
years in your experience and. Especially now that you're like
living in the weeds of it. How are these high school kids?
(13:04):
Being prepared to play competitive athletics at the
college level. It's a great question, Greg.
And I think it's, you know, it'syoung people, it's certainly not
just athletes, it's young people.
And I think you know, your ability at this level to story
tell and differentiate your program.
We're not for everybody at SaintBonaventure.
(13:24):
We, you know, I tell guys all the time, if you know, this is a
place where you care about your education and going to class and
you care about being in the gym and getting better.
We don't really have the third thing.
We don't have the beach. We don't have 12 months of sun.
We don't have a big city around us.
(13:45):
And that's not for everybody. There's kids who want that.
But our goal is to find, you know, 10 or 12 guys somewhere on
this planet. We've been recruiting the world
and, and we know they're there and we helped.
We found them this year certainly and we have in the
past who value our environment. And so and you're also Greg
looking for good partners with whether it's a parent, whether
(14:07):
it's agents, virtually all you know, many of our players
already have representation. Our international players, you
know, who've been playing in a club system have agents, the
American players, some are nil agents.
What what we want, what I what Ithink is important for us is to
find people who want to be in the lives and represent these
players for the next 1213 fourteen years because they care
(14:29):
about the growth and development.
When I get on a phone with a player or a parent or an agent
and the first thing they say to me is what can you pay an nil?
It's probably going to be a quick conversation because to
me, the way I try to approach itis let's let's figure out the
fit first. Do do we fit you?
(14:51):
Do you fit us? Let's get to know each other and
talk about what's important for you.
And then when we feel like there's a fit, then let's figure
out the money. And where I think the problems
are is when you start with the money and then figure out the
fit, right? I, I haven't even talked to a
young person yet. They haven't heard from us.
(15:12):
And an agent would ask me, well,what are you willing to pay him?
I'm like, I haven't even gotten on the phone with him yet.
I have no idea. And so that's how we have to
approach it. At a high major where the
revenue is different, you might approach it in a different way.
But I think young people still, they want an environment where
they're going to be challenged, where they're going to be cared
(15:34):
for but not coddled, and where that all the mechanisms are
there for them to put in the work, get better at the game,
move toward a degree. This is a fun place to play
college basketball. The whole university environment
at Saint Bonaventure is built around basketball.
Is it? This is a basketball town, a
(15:54):
basketball conference in the Atlantic 10.
And so you can, I think pretty quickly figure out and, and
you've got to be prepared. You've got to do your homework
on players. And the one thing that's helped
me as a, my reporting backgroundhas helped me in this job is
just like I would do a story on a young, a situation, a person,
(16:17):
you don't just talk to one person, you're talking to a lot
of people to get the whole picture and to understand, look,
not just the what, but the why and, and how they were raised
and the challenges they may havefaced and to really understand
the people. And for me to be able to get
Intel from NBA teams and my relationships there, especially
with the international players, you know, NBA teams, they do
(16:40):
tremendous job of gathering Intel and I can compliment mine
with their. And so you're trying to, to the
best of your ability, get a sense of how that person, how
that young person's going to fitin your environment.
And there's times where we really like a player in the last
year, but we had questions whether they fit and, and they
(17:01):
would thrive with us. And conversely, maybe somebody
with a little less talent that we thought had tremendous work
ethic, tremendous character and,and staying power.
So much of it, Greg now is are you willing to fight through
adversity? And it's easy now to jump when
things aren't easy. It's easy to say there's
somewhere else I can transfer toand and players have free, free
(17:24):
reign to do it. Do you have people when maybe
they're not getting the minutes they want right away and are
they going to fight through thatand get in the gym and work
harder? Or are they going to call their
agent and say, let's start working on a new school for next
year? Those are all things you have to
take into consideration when you're recruiting and and
(17:45):
building building your your, your team.
Well, along those lines and and I'm fascinated because different
in basketball than. Football, you guys are.
Recruiting the Globe. You do have perspectives.
Of how these institutions and practices.
Prepare kids for College in. America and then.
They do it very different overseas, they do it very
different in other countries. Do you think we're doing a good
(18:05):
job domestically? Let's just start with.
America for a minute like. Do you think we're doing a good
job? As these kids come up through.
Middle school, high school, and then on.
The verge of being recruited by.The likes of yourselves and and
million other schools, do you think our institution.
Of the youth sports. Landscape is doing a good.
Job preparing these. Kids, not just as the skill I
(18:28):
think we've got. Down kids are more skilled at a
younger age than at any other. Time, But do you think kids are
coming into college? As prepared.
Coming up through the systems that we've.
Created as well as they were years ago.
There are a lot of places where there's tremendous coaching
preparation. And so the answer to that is
(18:50):
yes, there's still a lot of instances where, and I'll give
you an example where we're talking to young people and
describing to them, telling themthey're a brand, toothpaste is a
brand, detergent is a brand. You are a person and you have a
reputation. And your reputation is what like
(19:10):
how you treat people, what kind of teammate you are, how you
work. And I think that if we just, I,
I wish, I, I still think we could simplify it a little bit
and not worry. Listen, the money will come and
the rewards will come financially in other ways.
When you put in the work, when you are reliable, when teams can
(19:32):
count on you, when coaches know,when you say you're going to be
in the gym at 7:00 AM to to do the work, you're there.
When you when, when study halls at 3:00 in the afternoon, you're
in there doing the work. All those things versus spending
a lot of time talking about yourearning power before you have
one go to move that Week 1, before you have a move that our
(19:53):
coach can call for you in a game, we're talking to you about
how you're going to brand yourself.
I think that's dangerous. I think we're getting, we're
moving too fast with young people in those regards.
We we need financial literacy. We need to help players
understand that the money they might be earning in NIL is not
(20:14):
anywhere near reflective of what's going to be out there for
them as professionals. This for most young people, this
is the most money they're ever going to make and so yes, we
need to be prepared for that, but it's harder on high school
players now, Greg, because we'refocused on in many cases older
players. We want the portal we want the
2120 two 23 year old in the Atlantic 10.
(20:36):
There's very few 1819 year olds who are going to come in day one
and play a lot. You you certainly see it at the
high majors, but older is betterin college sports now.
And I do also see if I'm a youngplayer now.
Go somewhere you can play. It may not be the name school
that five years ago the top 100 or top 150 or top 350 kid would
(21:00):
get a scholarship to, but the way to build a career in college
athletics, I think this is true in any sport is go somewhere you
can be productive. You can show them you can
impact, impact winning. And if you are productive, even
at the low major level, very quickly you're going to move up
and be compensated needed for it.
Don't be too caught up with I want the big name school because
(21:20):
going somewhere and sitting on the bench and then having to
move down a level makes it harder.
But I do think overseas there ismany cases more of a focus on
the fundamentals. You know, I think so much would
travel basketball, our guys are spending so much time in root
places and they're they're flying all over the country.
(21:41):
They're riding around in vans ina town, they're hanging around
in hotel lobbies at very young ages to go compete when you
know, they can get that work in elsewhere and and have time to
be a kid, go swimming, have a part time job.
I think we burned so much time around youth sports when I do
(22:04):
think we could still localize it, you know, go have two hard
hours of training, practice, maybe come back and if you're a
basketball player, come back in the evening and do some
shooting. But I, I look at some of these
guys who are moving around the country, 12 hour van rides,
planes connecting and all that lost time that to me they should
(22:25):
be kids with. And I, I worry about that for
young people and, and it impacts, I think some of the
burnout and some of the lack of love of it because I think it
sucks some of the joy out of it.I think there could be a better
balance. I'm just regionalizing things a
little better for guys. What's up guys?
Do you want custom fan wear likethis?
Cricket shirt for Charlotte Christian School We've got
(22:47):
premium apparel from your favorite brands.
The best part about it? Is I don't have to.
Just wear it to Charlotte Christians.
Events. I can wear it to golf, I can
wear it to lunch. It's turned into my uniform.
Go right now. Over to Youth dot Inc Sign up
for our newsletter. It talks about our podcast for
that week, our interview guests,all the breaking news across the
landscape of youth. Sports and you can win one piece
(23:07):
of. Merch for your school?
By going going to sign up. Today And remember itsnot.com,
it's Youth dot, Inc. Now back to our episode.
So much of what you just said isso spot on and we work closely.
At our kids school here in town and.
Obviously we're more involved. With the football program, but
we go support. My kids play baseball, they play
basketball. My daughter runs.
Track and field and plays girls basketball.
(23:29):
So we're we're involved in all. The different programs not.
Just football, but I spend more time intimately with the
football kids as one of the coaches of the team and what
not. And what you just said about the
challenges of high school athletes is so important for
families to understand and. I think the first around here
the first. Time that you don't get the
(23:50):
offers you want, you don't thinkthat it's the coach isn't doing
a good job, the school is not doing a good job and I need to
go to a different. School I got to go to.
The kids at. That school get better offers
than this school and I try to. Convince these parents like you
just don't understand the landscape here like.
Here are the challenges your sonor daughter are.
Facing of Why? Notre Dame or no whoever.
(24:11):
Is not coming to recruit you, it's not the school and what you
just. Said is so true.
It's the same in football. Old wins.
The third the third year player that was a backup.
At Mississippi State, he can go to Auburn now.
And be a starting defensive. Tackle and play because.
He's for three years been in a program like like that versus
your 18 year old. Son, who is?
(24:32):
Probably 2 years away from. Playing in the SEC.
At the very. Fastest.
So like that was not the case when I came out.
When I came out, you went to thebest schools, that upper echelon
of schools that offered you, youpicked amongst them.
You went there and said if it takes me 1/2.
Or three years to play? No problem.
I'm in for the long haul like. There are no.
Pay the patience now doesn't exist in 12 year old baseball
(24:55):
though. Wosch if your kids not batting?
3rd Playing shortstop on your 12.
Year old baseball team halfway through the season you're
playing in a different uniform. We we can't even.
Forget high school. We can't get it done in middle
school. So how do we ever expect?
Them to do it when they get to you in college.
It it's it's so true. And I think for a lot of
(25:15):
families and, and the other thing too, and I'm sure you're
seeing this, Greg, is specialization.
I think young people are specializing too soon.
There's so much to be learned from playing multiple sports and
in terms of leadership, in termsof honing different skill sets,
you know, I think that's important to that, that that you
(25:37):
don't have to become a 12 month a year athlete at 10 or 11 or 12
years old. You know, maybe once you get to
high school, you might start looking at that, but and and you
may not find what you're really good at and what you love
without experimenting and, and finding, finding that.
And so I think that's certainly part of it.
And you know, burnout I think issuch a part of, you know, guys
(26:04):
have played in many cases so much travel basketball so much
you want to keep it fresh and for them to love it.
What I'm really interested to see what happens, Greg, is
especially players who are making a tremendous amount of
money even at the mid major level, you know, role players
who are making six figures. That is not their pro market.
When they go to Europe and finish college, they might get
(26:28):
an offer for sixteen $17,000 a year in a country they've never
heard of. And they're going to be the days
of you know, private charter flights, 4 five star hotels,
packed arenas, television. Now they're going to be in small
gyms and the outskirts of of a medium sized European towns,
long bus rides, very little money.
(26:50):
Then you're going to find out who really loves to play because
the let down of that is going tobe significant.
And, and the other thing too, Greg, that I think, and, and I'm
really working on that at Saint Bonaventure is the mental
health. Listen, young people, it has
never been scary to be a young person in this world for a lot
of reasons. Take take sports away from it
(27:13):
and mental health and, and, and providing resources to young
people. I think it's never been more
important, but adding money intothe equation and I, you can see
it already, whether it's how do I handle the pressure of maybe
being given a lot of money to play you.
You've been around both. Listen, you've lived it in the,
in the pro level. I've been around it covering it.
(27:35):
Money impacts much older people when they get a big contract and
the public scrutiny that comes with that and the pressure,
that's human nature. Now we're giving it to 18/19/21
year olds. How do they handle a big
paycheck? How do they handle seeing
somebody else is making more andyou think you deserve it or the
people around you are telling you you should be getting what
(27:56):
he or she's getting that createsstress?
Or I'm not playing well? Are they going to cut my money
for next year? Am I?
Am I having to share a lot of mymoney with others around me?
So I'm not putting this money away and it's not going to be
for me. That creates the level of stress
in so many ways. We have to really understand
(28:20):
that the nil Rev share landscapeis impacting people in ways that
we don't maybe even fully understand yet and make sure
that we've got the resources to help kids managed all that
because it's a lot and their families.
Yeah, it's the cost of unintended consequences, right?
We all think showering people with money is the answer to a
(28:41):
lot of problems. And it certainly can change
people's lives and it certainly can get people from, you know,
disadvantaged backgrounds, opportunities they otherwise
wouldn't have. So it's it's not.
That it's not the root of the evil.
But in so many cases we had a hard time getting, you know, I
just think back to when I came into the league.
After college, I was. 22 when I got.
Drafted and you get your. First check I was 22 and had no
(29:03):
idea what I was doing and the the decisions I made at 22 and
20. Three are vastly different.
Than now I make at 40. But I had to learn that through
the hard way. Could you imagine if you
expedited that now for A? Lot of these kids it's.
Happening a full. Four year cycle earlier.
I'm a high school senior having a having a coach sit in my
office and sit in my family roomand tell me they're going to pay
(29:24):
Me 2 million. Dollars as a high school senior,
he's just getting ready to go tohis prom like.
I can't even put myself in position to understand what that
looks like. If you would have given me 50
grand in college, my head would have popped off.
So I I. Do think there are the?
Unintended consequences that have.
Started to play out here that we've got to we've got to figure
(29:45):
out I. Want to shift a little bit woes
to a really unique perspective that I think you have, maybe
more so than most people. You intimately followed some of
the greatest athletes in NBA history.
I mean, name them. You covered them.
You knew them personally. You saw their habits, you saw
behind the scenes. You knew what was going on.
We all watched what we saw on TV.
(30:06):
We saw the finished product. Can you identify a?
Couple traits and I'm sure you bring a lot.
Of these insights to now your time at Saint Bonaventure, but
like tell me about some of the. Traits that you thought were.
Common across multiple personalities, different types
of guys, but they. All shared what?
That made them special. You know, work ethic is easy.
(30:27):
I mean, that's an easy one to identify, right?
The ability to keep working whenyou've had success, when you've
gotten a big contract, I would say reliability.
Are you reliable? Can the coach count on you?
Can your teammates count on you?Can your community count on you?
That that's to do what you say you're going to do and to honor
(30:51):
what you're asked and required to do.
The definition of professionalism right is doing
what you're supposed to do when you don't feel like it.
And that's so much of it. There's a story that I share
with our players often. My first beat, I'm out of
College in Waterbury, CT, was covering UConn basketball.
And Ray Allen was an 18 year oldfreshman at UConn, Pretty
(31:14):
prominent recruit, terrific shooter from day one.
And here's what I remember aboutRay.
I would finish my, they would have practice.
There was a, a, a, a pressure room there.
You'd write your story after practice and you'd go home.
And very often when I'd be packing up my bag to leave, I'd
have to cut back to the gym. And I would see that young
freshman guard back in the gym at night working on his form
(31:38):
shooting, which is you stand right, you know, halfway between
the free throw line and, and thebasket and you're just working
on your form shooting. It's the simplest thing any
shooter does, but for someone like Ray Allen, it was his
routine day after day. So this is 18 year old Ray
Allen. Fast forward 20 years.
Ray Allen has had a Hall of Famecareer.
(31:59):
He's won. He'd won a championship in
Boston All Star. He's 38 years old.
He's back in Boston Garden with the Miami Heat and I get to a a
Celtic Heat playoff game at 4:00in the afternoon for probably a
738 o'clock start. There's one guy on the court in
the arena, it's Ray Allen 20 years later now the all time 3
(32:23):
point shooting king in NBA history broke Reggie Miller's
mark and there he is formed shooting in the gym the same way
I had last seen him doing it 20 years earlier as an 18 year old
and I just think that speaks to it.
You go to the Golden State Warriors facility on an off day
to go in and and there's Steph Curry alone doing tennis ball,
(32:48):
ball handling drills at the height of his MVP championship
level. It's an off day.
Everybody else was out and you see Steph back in.
And so you know, Greg, that the level of and that's the dude at
the highest level. Steph and Ray are two the
greatest ever, but what separates the rest?
(33:09):
There's so many talented guys who have skill, who, you know,
you could put in a hat and say which are the and, and they're
going to be 90% of the guys are role players, right?
And it gets back to again, professionalism, reliability,
being a great teammate. And I think pro teams more than
(33:29):
ever, and I know we are putting a tremendous premium on it.
I want guys who bring energy andbring culture from other good
organizations and other good teams.
I want them to bring that culture to our team because
every year culture is not a thing.
You just put up on signs in yourbuilding and you say we have
(33:50):
great culture. Culture is a thing you fight for
every day when you're around it.Any organization, whether it's
sports or non sports, culture isbehavior habits and you're only
as good as the habits that you have in the building in that
given day. And I, I think about being
around the Spurs through that very long stretch with Tim
(34:10):
Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, the culture was in the
work and habits of those great players.
They dictated it. And coaches are never mind the
general manager of a college team, the players are going to
dictate the environment and the leadership within there.
And so I would tell young people, what's going to separate
(34:33):
you is as simple as, do people want you around?
Like when you come around the corner and they see you, is
there a smile on your face? Is there enthusiasm to greet
your coach? Not just your coach, but the
trainer, the student managers, the folks who are sweeping your
gym. Because when you're a player,
(34:55):
you want to be a pro or you wantto be a college player,
understand, we're going to go ask questions of not just the
people who are impactful in yourlife.
Anybody can be polite to their coach or to the important
people. How do you treat the people who
can't help you? The, the, the people who take
your swipe your meal card in thedining hall, How do you greet
(35:18):
them? You know the the equipment
manager who who stays up late atnight to to wash your sweaty
clothes in your jersey and has it folded nicely on your on your
seat. How you treat all those people
in your life, never mind your teachers and your classmates.
It plays a tremendous role in how desirable you are to to a
(35:43):
team at the college level and certainly at the pro level.
Before we get back into the episode, a quick reminder to
follow us across all socials. We're posting daily content
centered around youth sports. All right, let's hop back into
it. That's so well said, and well.
As I thought your perspective. Not only what you're doing now,
but just your time covering the.Sport from the high.
(36:04):
School level to the highest level in all of competitive
athletics and now obviously boots on the ground, the work
you're doing it Saint Bonaventure.
I've watched many Saint Bonaventure games.
We grew up going to games, you know, at Seton Hall and kind of
up in that area and we've seen many Bonnie's game.
So what you're doing, I commend.I love it.
I'm jealous. Like the idea of.
Being in a program like. That and the boots on the ground
(36:26):
is so intriguing to me. So man, I can't thank you enough
for joining us here on Youthink.Wish you guys nothing but
success and it's so. Good to see you after all these
years and. See that you're doing well.
Greg, it's an honor to be with you.
It's been awesome to see what from from being a player to
being now one of the elite broadcasters and now in your
role here, giving back to young people, to parents and giving
(36:51):
them a lot of tools that they can use to navigate what's a
complicated and, and, and difficult world.
So so thanks for letting me be apart of the podcast.
Appreciate you man. Best of luck to you guys and
hopefully see you again soon. OK, Greg, take care.
What's up guys? Do you want custom fan wear like
this? Cricket shirt for Charlotte
Christian School We've got premium apparel from your
(37:13):
favorite brands. The best part about it?
Is I don't have to. Just wear it to Charlotte
Christians. Events, I can wear it to golf, I
can wear it to lunch. It's turned into my uniform.
Go right now over to Youth dot, Inc Sign up for our newsletter.
It talks about our podcast for that week, our interview guests,
all the breaking news across thelandscape of youth.
Sports and you can win 1. Piece of merch for your school.
(37:33):
By going to sign up. Today.
And remember, it's not dot com, it's youth dot Inc.
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