In July, nine Deakin representatives, both current students and alumni, found themselves part of the NBA Summer League thrills in Las Vegas, thanks to an immersive learning experience like no other.

For the second year running, Professor of Practice Pete Williams took a Deakin contingent to the Sports Business Classroom – Business of Basketball (SBC) event, making it the only Australian university to participate in such a co-ordinated manner.

A unique experience

This deep-dive initiative is no regular study tour, Williams explains. ‘The students are literally getting inside the NBA Summer League as an actual program itself,’ he says. ‘They’re getting taught about the business of basketball from actual NBA front office staff, NBA insiders, people from ESPN. It’s great to see the stuff in action that they’ve learnt in theory.’

As part of the six-day program, participants attend lectures and seminars, choosing one of three streams to focus on from Salary Cap and the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement; Scouting, Video and Analytics; and Media and Broadcast.

These sessions are led by top-level professionals from the world of basketball and sports management. ‘I would never have thought in a million years I would meet the people I did,’ says Nathan Freeman, a Deakin University sports management alumnus who now works in youth community sports.

‘[For example] I met Tom Crean, who was one of my favourite coaches growing up because he coached one of my favourite players, Dwyane Wade, and I was able to tell him how much he’s impacted my life. [Later] I was able to have another 30-minute conversation with him about the importance of youth basketball and setting kids on the right path.’

Fellow attendee Lawrence Grande, a Deakin sports management graduate now working for Football Victoria, had the same experience. ‘You are just bumping into plenty of people that have incredible jobs,’ he says. ‘There was Bobby Marks, from the Brooklyn Nets and now ESPN NBA front office; and Jim Boylen, assistant coach for Indiana. I spoke to Matt Tellem, assistant general manager of the Phoenix Suns who just came from the Nets. So there are really big-name people talking to us about their experience in the NBA.’

Next-level challenges and opportunities

The learning goes beyond talks and seminars, explains Williams. ‘If you’ve chosen Media and Broadcast, you actually get to go down underneath the stadium and live that experience of interviewing players. If you’ve chosen Scouting and Analytics, you spend time reviewing game tape and reviewing players, getting feedback from real NBA scouts.’

Another important component of the SBC is the Term Project. For this, all participants are divided into teams and each is given one NBA franchise for which they must come up with a comprehensive strategy to move the team forward, based on real-time statistics, contracts and data.

After presenting their strategy to an exacting panel for feedback (‘They were brutal,’ explains Freeman) teams head into a mock trade session that operates under the same conditions as the real NBA, and must try to enact the player movements they’ve planned. ‘It was just a mess for four hours, yelling and screaming,’ says Freeman with a laugh. ‘Everyone was everywhere.’ Grande concedes that adrenalin was at fever pitch. ‘It was chaotic.’

In a great result for Deakin, the university had a representative in each of the top three teams announced. ‘It was pretty impressive, a real stand-out,’ says Williams. Freeman found himself in the top place-getting group and says the reaction was incredible. ‘There are 120 other participants in the room, plus the best of the best in the NBA business. It was amazing.’

A boost for the CV

They’ve both brought back skills and insights that will help in their current roles and moving forward. For example, Grande says the mock trade exercise delivered great learnings around negotiating. ‘It’s definitely helped in my job with being able to speak to clubs and know where they’re coming from and try to get what’s best for us as a governing body and our clubs.’

They can’t recommend enough taking part in this once-in-a-lifetime experience, and have some well-earned words of advice. ‘Prepare early, enjoy every moment of it, but don’t sell yourself short,’ says Freeman. ‘If you’re there to make a difference in the world, they will have the highest respect for you.’

‘Soak everything up, speak to lots of people, don’t be afraid to ask questions, and just take everything on board,’ adds Grande. ‘It’s full on and you’ll be thrown a lot of things but you’ll have plenty of time to digest it all when you come home.’

All agree that taking part can play a huge role in whatever comes next for those following the path of sports management. ‘You going there is only step one of your journey,’ says Freeman. ‘It’s an investment and commitment to yourself.’

Deakin’s Master of Business (Sport Management) is ranked #1 in Australia and #17 in the world in the prestigious SportBusiness Postgraduate Rankings.