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American sports are behind Europe in a number of key ways. Porzingis went to rehab with Real Madrid because he& #39;d experienced it. The world class NBA organization would imitate & innovate on the model. Some things NBA teams should do....
There& #39;s a cap on player salaries, but there& #39;s no cap on building sports science, development, and scouting profiles. Build the finest sports training facilities in the world. Facilit-IES. Build the G League up to be better than most current NBA operations.
Invest in overseas scouting and development profiles to this end. Go buy gyms and training centers in key parts of the world. Scout young players. Partner with European, Asian, and African pro clubs to lend your services & knowledge.
Invest the same way in the United States, although the amateur, college system really limits what you can do here.
Fund a sports science academy & graduate programs to develop your sports science staff & raise the bar on the entire industry. If you help people become educated & then hire them, everyone wins. Commit to supporting people of color in these opportunities.
Build family-oriented structures throughout the operation. Invest in things that help families get educational opportunities & invest in their various good works. Offer first class amenities so athletes can be close to their families as they work hard & travel constantly.
The laundry matters. Make sure you have a range of the coolest uniforms and swag you can. Classic, fashionable, and uniform in quality across the whole operation. The Turkish youth project you start should have the same quality uniforms & swag as the NBA team.
Make tickets affordable to everyday people. Find your profits elsewhere. Make it easy to go to the arena. Regular folks are the most loyal and passionate and make your arena rock. It& #39;s part of the commitment you have to the idea of community.
Deal with the media in a transparent and fair way. Keep the boundaries you want, but build good relationships with the people who cover the team. This includes the many high quality voices online. Treat them well. Demand mutual respect. Be adults.
Share all of these ideas with other teams and leagues. Raise the bar on athletics everywhere. Keep some proprietary secrets, sure, but the general principles make the world of sports better.
Make sure you employ players that respect & uphold the values you invest in the system. Make sure they always have (paid) opportunities to contribute to the continued success of the operation in places that maximize their talents. Create a legacy of care.
Having made this a priority, hire from within whenever possible. Trust the system you& #39;ve built to provide you with people who do things the world class [insert team name here (Knicks)] way. From top to bottom.
One important note to tack onto the end of this: the Euro sports operations that do all of these things also exploit the shit out of young brown people around the world. The Dominican baseball academies are also guilty of this. Don& #39;t do that. Period. Uplift. Support.
Every person in the system should leave better than before they entered, even if they only spend 10 minutes at the lowest level of the organization.
And now I will ruin this thread by suggesting the Knicks pipeline Chris Paul from the court to the executive suite in growing & developing this project, and when he& #39;s ready, give him the whole thing to oversee. From Thibs& #39; leader/teacher on the court to Rose& #39;s right hand to prez.
Thanks. I& #39;ll hang up and (not) listen. LOL.
