So You Want to Work in the NBA?

So you want to work in the NBA? Former Phoenix Suns Digital Manager Greg Esposito gives the outsiders a peek behind the curtain, into how working for an NBA team is akin to a marriage.

Relationships are hard.

I should know. I just got out of a five-year marriage to my first love and childhood sweetheart. Someone I had known as well as anybody since the early 1990s. It was one of the most difficult things I ever had to do, but we had just grown apart, were in different places in our lives and wanted different things. It’s not to say we didn’t love each other or that we didn’t have fun. We did, a lot in fact.

Part of that fun included something every couple has done since watching Friends, a list of five we could cheat on the other with. My list was a little bizarre by some standards because it included ESPN, Grantland/The Ringer, FOX Sports, AzCentral and Arizona Sports. Unfortunately, the one I fell for wasn’t one of those. In fact, it wasn’t even in sports. It was in the world of marketing kids birthday parties. It was enough to end the relationship.

As you’ve probably been able to gather, I’m not talking about a real marriage. I’m talking about the decision to leave a job with my favorite childhood team (the Phoenix Suns) after five years.

But you’re not here to listen to me blab on about my life. You’re here for advice about getting into your own relationship with an NBA team. While I’m no Dr. Drew or even the human embodiment of Tinder for sports fans, I’ll do my best to be honest and help you decide if a relationship with one of these teams is right for you.

I’ll only date 9s and 10s

If you’re anything like Barney Stinson of How I Met Your Mother fame, and if you’re on the internet you probably like to think you are, you have high standards. Well, that means getting involved with an NBA team is right for you.

Let’s be honest; NBA teams are sexy. It’s a chance to hang around high powered athletes, get inside access to things you only dreamed of and hobnob with celebrities. That is as long as you’re not in cities like Indianapolis or Milwaukee or saddled with a perennial lottery team. You get to travel to great cities and stay in the nicest hotels. Heck, if you play your cards right, you’ll even get to spend two weeks in Las Vegas over the Summer, which is about 12 days too long to spend in a city that is more fake than Donald Trump’s hair. Luckily for your career and sanity, as they say, what happens in Vegas Summer League stays in Vegas Summer League. Except for that young talent. It comes back with you.

Relationships are hard work

It’s an old cliche, but relationships are hard work. Especially a relationship with an NBA team. If you decide to get serious, don’t think it’ll be as easy as it is for an opponent facing the Philadelphia 76ers. The thing about being with a 9 or a 10 is that there is always someone else out there wanting to get with them too, and they know it. Some will out work you for their affection, and others will be willing to do what you do for much less than you are. That means you have to be truly dedicated and willing to put in the time and effort to nurture the relationship. You’ll have to start early in the morning and work till late at night, be on call 24-7 and not be afraid to admit you’re whipped because when they need something, you will have to be willing to provide it.

Days will start at 9 AM, and you’ll do your normal office work until 5 PM, when your second job begins, game night. You’ll work doing the various tasks your department requires during a game and wrap up sometimes hours after the final buzzer. (Especially if you’re on the digital or media relations side where your third job starts when the game ends.) Oh, and the next day, it’ll start bright and early as well so double check those alarms.

It can be a truly trying process if your heart isn’t 100 percent into it.

It’s not all fun and games

Sure, there are the great nights. Some of them will be wild. Some will be ones you tell stories about for the rest of your life, especially to your close guy friends. But it’s not just about all that. There are a lot of things that people don’t think about when they first consider entering into a bond with an NBA team.

The biggest things you’ll fight about are money and responsibility (similar to marriage). For an NBA team, the secret of it all is that it’s a business at the end of the day. As fans, we’d like to think everyone sits around and talks about how we, the diehards, can be best served, and that’s part of it. It’s not the only part of the equation, though. It’s also about how to make revenue, make sponsors happy and drive ratings. Every decision you’ll make will be tied into all of those things whether you think you’re involved in it or not. Those things touch every aspect of an organization and rightfully so.

The best organizations find a balance of all that on the business side the way the basketball operations staff finds a balance between analytics and conventional scouting. Some don’t.

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Like every relationship, there are responsibilities that come along with it too. There are things each side expects the other to take care of. Make sure you’re prepared to put the team’s best interest first. It’s no longer just about you; it’s about an entire organization that you represent now and that’s in every walk of life.

Maybe we’re just better as friends

When you decide to date a friend sometimes it can be complicated. Sure, you both know each other well and get to avoid the awkward “getting to know you” phase you have with a relative stranger, but it also has its pitfalls.

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No longer is the NBA where you go to unwind after a long day. It is part of that long day. It’s a cause of some of those stresses you used to vent about to them when they were just a friend. And by vent, I mean the stresses you channeled into yelling at the refs and your TV.

Sometimes being around them all the time is the best decision you could make, and it doesn’t change anything, in fact it strengthens the bond. Other times, getting into a serious relationship completely changes the dynamic and seeing all the intimate details of the other person can somewhat ruin what you’ve already built.

Oh, and don’t forget, you aren’t single anymore, so you’re not just speaking for yourself. Those opinions you used to have when the team was just your friend, better check that they align with your new significant other before voicing them on social media or in public forums. You’d be surprised but voicing displeasure with the refs, arguing with fans of your team or others, sharing info you know before it’s officially announced in a press release and a myriad of other things could land you in the doghouse or sleeping on the metaphorical couch faster than the Seven Seconds or Less Suns got up and down the court.

That’s why figuring out if it’s better to be more than friends with the NBA is not a decision to be taken lightly.

Was working in the NBA a dream? Yes. Did I get to meet people and do things that I otherwise never would have gotten to? Of course. Was it the last professional relationship I’d ever have? Obviously not.

If you want to work in the NBA, be prepared for every aspect of it and make sure that it’s the right relationship for you. You wouldn’t want to wind up losing a longtime friend because you decided to try for something more and, before you know it, you’re changing your Facebook status to “it’s complicated” down the road.

I got lucky. Our breakup was a cordial one with no hard feelings on either side, mutual respect and love. (Yep, it’s not a myth it can actually happen.) Not everyone’s that fortunate, though.