Took me a while to come up with that title... Yikes.
I never knew what I wanted to do for a living, growing up. Usually, I just took any job that would allow me to workout and train for basketball and play the occasional game, once a week.
List of jobs I've held:
- Voting Booth Worker (person who checks your name off when you come in to vote and points you in the right direction if you've yet to register)
- Youth Camp Counselor (Summer job)
- Youth Basketball Camp Counselor (Also, summer job)
- Doorman at multiple night clubs (Work on weekends, had a lenient boss who allowed me to take nights off for games)
- Bachelor Party Host (Sound pretty sick, and some of it is, but a large chunk is getting constant texts from guys who want you to get them girls and party favors or the weekend will be a bust)
While I have learned a lot from these jobs and made a lot of friends and connections throughout, I didn't actually WANT to do any of them. There were all a "means to an end", a way to get money while being able to still participate actively in basketball, all while in school.
(Here's where the story should have begun, but I got sidetracked and now I don't feel like going back)
Once I was done with school, I launched myself into finding a way to play basketball for a living. How to start? Who do I talk to? Where do I go? My university stats weren't good enough for everyone to come knocking at my door so I went knocking at theirs.
STEP 1: Make a hightlight tape and basketball resume
This part is lengthy, but overall, worth it.
Find as many game tapes of the last season that you played and Windows Movie Maker (or iMovie, or something for Apple users) and watch every second. Yea, I watched every single second that I played my last season and cut the actions that I thought represented me well as a player and put it all together.
Five minutes and twenty-one seconds.
My whole last year of playing into 5:21 of highlights. Well, that part is done (Took about 2 weeks, lots of games to watch)
Time for the basketball resume. Just like any job, you need a resume. For this one, you just put down all of your qualifications as a basketball player along with accolades and (hopefully, verifiable) stats.
STEP 2: Contact every agent in the world
Now, you may ask, "
YES. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.
I went onto the FIBA (International Basketball Federation) website and looked up every FIBA licenced agent and sent them an email with my highlight tape, basketball resume and some background info on myself. After sending about 100-200 emails a day for a week straight, I waited. Out of all of the messages I sent, about 6 people replied.
Six...
Whelp, all I need is one agent that will work hard for me and I'll be set. Most agents want you to pay money to come to their camp and show your skills among a sea of young hopefuls. In the end, you end up being overlooked because the scouts were looking at court 3 instead of court 2 while you were playing. Not exactly what I was aiming for. (Sorry for the tone, might still have some negative feelings towards that process). Some agents just want to find talent and don't really care where they come from.
And I found him. In Toronto (not where I live).
After getting to Toronto for a workout, conducted by him, with a group of established and aspiring ballers just like me, I knew he was the real deal.
He organizes a trip to take a team of Canadians to Italy for a tournament to increase exposure for scouts. Of course, I go. We win the tournament, I play well, but is it enough? I go back home and once again, I wait.
Nothing.
For months, I don't get a single email, call, text, second look from anyone on the basketball radar.
STEP 3: Dumb Luck (When Opportunity Presents Itself, Take It)
But how do you plan dumb luck? You don't. You just stay ready for when it finds you.
In late October (Euro basketball season started in September), I get a call from the agent saying that one of his players that plays in France has a vacancy on his team and their looking for a player. He'll put me in contact with the team directly.
One catch: there's no salary... Uhhhhh what?! How am I supposed to live from this when I can't buy food to live?
I speak to the team representative and they say that they will find me a job to work while playing basketball so that I can earn an income, but that they cannot afford to pay for a player.
After going back and forth in my head, I decide that I'm going.
Worst case: I come back and have a small dent in my bank account from flying.
Best case: I get a season in France, with a lot of exposure and a possibility to move up into a higher division and make some actual money playing basketball!
DONE!
(I'm guessing you can gather from my intro post and the tags that I chose to go to France)
I'll get to the how it went in another post. Think this one is a bit long anyways.
Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment and ask questions if anything was unclear.