I applied to be the G League's head of content

Last Friday, my friend Tom Reed—a great and hilarious writer as well as a patron to NYC’s community of stray cats— sent me a job listing for a “head of content” position for the NBA’s G League. In a sense, it’s not surprising that he thought of me, given my “sports” and “content” background, but it was flattering all the same; I almost threw out my L4 smashing the “Apply” button.

The fact that I’m sitting here writing this instead of cranking out sweet, sweet basketball content poolside at the Polynesian should probably tell you all that you need to know about my application. It went about as expected. In the past, I’ve applied to really entry-level positions at the NBA’s league office—which is much, much more corporate than its unionized NBPA counterpart—and despite the fact that I was applying to be the assistant to the assistant editor, or whatever, the HR person would reliably be like, “Is this resume current? I don’t see your HBS credentials on here….”

I write less to critique the NBA or myself, because they’re a corporation who can easily convince an overqualified person to work for them. It’s the NBA, it’s amazing. But, as someone who has always stood up for the G League—I even spent a week in Delaware to write a story about the Sixers’ G League affiliate, the Delaware 87ers—I feel compelled to get a few of my content, gameplay and experiential thoughts down on paper, since I won’t be getting that interview.

The day I applied, I probably completed the application around 2P EST. By 4, I had their answer:

I take pride in the fact that I must have cleared the qualifications algorithm, at least to the degree where they felt that my application merited acknowledgment. Someone’s eyes looked at my thing… probably.

It made me think: what would have I done had I gotten an interview, or a chance to present to the top decision makers in the NBA content game?

Before I get into a bulleted-out list of pitches, let me start with some baseline ideology—the G League could very well be the second-best basketball league in the world. You wouldn’t know it by how it’s covered, how current NBA players look down on it, and its budget salary structure. But, the minor league has incredible players, many of whom have gone on to be stars (Khris Middleton!), starters and important role players in the best basketball league in the world. There’s a lot of energy there, and prowess, to boot.

In a landscape where The Basketball Tournament captured plenty of hoops fans’ imaginations, there’s fewer and fewer excuses for why the G League isn’t more prominent. I understand that lots of casual NBA fans can barely make it through mid-season, weeknight games featuring their favorite team or favorite player, but G League action isn’t for the House of Highlights crowd. It’s for hardcore fans who want to track prospects, oddities and the league’s experimentations. While the G League doesn’t feature the top-to-bottom data collection of its senior league, there’s so much of it available. There’s some fun to be had there.

Elam Ending

We’ve already got the Elam Ending on the table, and now is the time to really hammer it home, full-time. Whether it’s used in the fourth quarter for regular season games—I’m all for it! Who would be mad?—a prolonged “we’re looking into it” period by the NBA is a big L for the sport. I know the NBA reads the comments, because of the discussions that took place earlier this year, and the subsequent squashing of those proposals. The Elam ending rules, and everyone knows it. Let’s use it ASAP.

If I had the pitch dek jumping off, my first slide would be “Elam Ending or Bust,” and if they hit me with anything besides enthusiastic affirmation, I’m packing up, full stop.

Increased engagement via available and user-friendly platforms

Reader, I hate every word in the above heading. But it is the language of my industry, and I’m going with it—any other way of describing my next point sounds like I’m intentionally dancing around corporate-speak.

The G League is already very accessible. You can watch most of its games on Twitch, which also offers a very cool co-stream feature so you could theoretically supply your own broadcast and stream it to others. It’s called “second screening,” and if you do a little research about it online, you’ll quickly figure out that it’s a practice being hailed as the Future of Media, or whatever.

As someone who has put the word “Twitch” or a jpeg Twitch logo into proposals and deks aimed at advertisers hundred of times, there’s a big difference between “this exists!” and actually showing users what value the service has outside of an audience number. While I like the idea of Chrome extensions that give you “points” and rewards, you can’t really exchange them for anything (someone please correct me if I’m wrong about that, because maybe you can buy Bitcoin bobbleheads or whatever-the-hell).

While I acknowledge that the NBA is going through a revenue crisis because a billion dollars vanished cuz of COVID, I’d love for the G League to break from the party line and actually give fans incentive to use Twitch. Maybe the biggest/best stream gets a cash prize, or something else that would enhance engagement? They could utilize some of the fanpower that TBT recently harnessed—what if you could vote for broadcasters you want to cover the games, and the NBA would furnish a broadcasting kit? Making these streams cool/good isn’t as easy as Twitch wants to make it look. This is where the G League could swoop in.

Barnstorming

In a technology-obsessed culture that seems to be increasingly returning to its 1.0 roots—Zoom and Slack have revealed themselves to be productivity black holes and the en vogue thing for independent journalist is e-mail newsletters—I, too, turn to history for solutions.

I was reading a recent article about Phil Jackson (yes, that one) doubling off of a 60-year-old Satchel Paige in an exhibition, and it made me reflect on the tradition of barnstorming, where All-Star baseball teams roved the country and played exhibitions to make some dough and put on a show. The Harlem Globetrotters have been barnstorming for about a hundred years, in different formats. Could this concept actually be a perfect fit for the social media era?

Slide.

Example of a slide I might have done, had I been given the opportunity

Most of sports talk radio/television is hot air based on a whole lot of conjecture, but annually the subject of “could this elite college team beat the worst pro team?” comes up. The answer is always no, but it’s something that hosts seem to get some mileage out of regularly.

Could an organized team—like one that played in TBT—challenge a G League team, have that team travel to them, and play for a pre-determined prize? There’s tons of folks on social media clamoring that they’re better than, like, Draymond Green. Couldn’t a G League team going somewhere and dusting randos make for a good show? I’d watch that!

Of course, the challengers wouldn’t have to just be some loudmouths on Instagram. The G League team could have windows of availability throughout the season where traveling would be feasible, and in those windows they could schedule exhibitions with semi-pro teams, national teams or their youth academy counterparts, basically anyone who would be eligible to sign a waiver and play.

This shape would also allow for cool new formats. 3v3? Superstar team ups with the WNBA for some co-ed hooping? You already know how I’d feel about a Frank Mason III/Ionescu back court.

Two Balls

So far, I’ve resisted Veeckian concepts. But it behooved me to propose something that is outside-of-the-box, since this is a hypothetical job interview after all. I’ll read the room, see what lands, and quickly co-opt it.

Next slide, please.

Something that I personally don’t think gets enough attention in American pro basketball is movement off the ball. It’s so nuanced, fast, and cool—it’s like a magic trick. Something I don’t think TV or highlights packages convey well is just how fast everything is happening. Zach Lowe’s “10 Things” column bottles some of this action, but going further risks getting into the weeds a little too much for casual fans. But this is the G League, and we love weeds. We need to find ways to demonstrate the value of the G League’s incredible pool of talent, and create as many opportunities as possible to do so.

What if, for a portion of the game, there were two balls?

[More emphatically] SLIDE!

To be honest, I haven’t thought about the rule architecture when it comes to “two basketballs”—this is a vibe check, if there ever was one. But imagine if, on both wings, perimeter players would be unleashing chains of precise basketball actions. Imagine stringing together two separate pick-and-roll actions at once; while visually busy, there’s no way you’re missing out by turning away for a moment. Though you’re not at an NBA game, you’re getting double the action. Two! Balls!

In Conclusion

While it clearly was not my time to move into Official League Content, I hope that this package finds its way to a decision maker working somewhere in the basketball landscape. While I might not be as overqualified for the role as you might like, I hope that the spirit of today’s discussion has moved you.

I love the G League and I’ll order as much Gatorade as you want. Thanks for reading, everyone.