Excerpts of this interview will appear in the official program guide for the ESPN RISE Games, a weeklong, multi-sport event featuring the best high school players in the country. It will be nationally televised on ESPNU in July.

Former Dukie and Chicago Bull point guard Jay Williams may be better known as a coulda-been, but his career-ending motorcycle accident didn’t leave him in the dark. When he was younger, he learned the importance of networking and building relationships, and now, in addition to his work for ESPN, he’s a motivational speaker and involved with several business ventures. He has his sights set on becoming a president for an NBA franchise. I caught up with Jay to discuss his AAU basketball experiences growing up, how he prepared himself for life after basketball and his thoughts on the evolution of high school hoops.

Q: Looking back on your experiences, what insights do you share with younger players when you meet with them?
A: For me in particular, I wasn’t always the most acclaimed high school player. I really didn’t get any national awareness really until my junior year – not even just national awareness, state awareness too. I mean, my freshman and sophomore year I didn’t even get invited to the ABCD camp. So it’s always about having the will and the passion to always fight, always work hard – even for the guys who are considered to be top of their class. It’s just knowing that people put these standards on you, but you still have to work. Nothing’s ever just given to you. There are always going to be guys out there like me or guys different than me who are working hard and want to be the best. You can’t turn that switch on, not only on the court. I think the most important thing for each kid is that they take advantage of the stuff that they’re going to be offered off the court. Kids should take advantage of the situation coaches provide for them, in going to a great school and utilizing those contacts and those alumni to network. You may make $50 or $60 million if you get lucky enough to be a pro, but how can you turn that $50 or $60 million into $140 million, where you’re able to provide a dynasty for you and your family and their family for the rest of their lives?

Q: How did you approach AAU ball differently from the regular season?
A: Well, I had a knack for info. I would always ask different coaches, “What do I need to do? How can I get better?” I would tell them, “Be blunt with me. Don’t hold anything back. I want to be the best player I can be. I want you to tell me the things I can do well and how I can be better at them. I also want you to tell me the things you don’t think I’m as good at and what kind of drills I can do to become better.” The best experience a kid can have is when a coach is candid with him and tells him what he needs to do in order to be better.

Q: At a young age, you play for several coaches a year from the regular season to AAU to camps. How did you benefit from dealing with multiple personalities?
A: I thought it was a benefit from dealing with more personalities. I played for a lot of different AAU teams. I played for the New Jersey All-Stars, I played for the Madison Square Broncos, I played for the Rising Stars a lot of the time. I even played for the New Jersey Hawks. I thought it was great because I got different experiences on different teams. With the Rising Stars and New Jersey All-Stars, I had to score the basketball because we really didn’t have guys on the team who could score the ball. Whereas playing with the Broncos, I had guys on the team who could score the ball, so I was working on different aspects of my game, like passing, being more of a team leader, understanding time and situations, being an extension of the coach on the floor and being a playmaker and creating opportunities for my teammates. When you experience different things, it broadens your worth as far as what you can bring to the table. It makes you more valuable to college coaches.

Q: High school basketball continues to break barriers. First it was Brandon Jennings skipping college and now it’s Jeremy Tyler skipping his senior year of high school. What are your thoughts on these developments?
A: I think a lot more of it’s going to happen. I’m objective because I’m in the middle as far as being an ex-player, so a part of me relates to the player’s perspective, but also being a part of the media and spending a lot of time with coaches and hearing their takes on it, I can relate to the coaching staff as well. My thing is this: From my player perspective, nobody is going to guarantee you a lifespan in this sport. I am a prime example of that. It can be two years, 15 or 20 years, you can be the first pick and get hurt the next day and become expendable and not make the team anymore. Anything can happen. So, for you to tell a 17- or 18-year-old kid who comes from a single-parent home, like a Brandon Jennings, who watches his mother work a job or two jobs, how can you tell a kid not to earn some money to give his family the lifestyle he’s always dreamed about? Plus, you don’t see this happening in baseball, you don’t see this happening in tennis, you don’t see this happening in soccer. You see this happening in a predominantly African-American sport. But then again, I can relate to the coaches because they want the player to stay and to learn. I’ve heard if a player decides to go to college, the NBA will make it a mandatory two-year stint. I don’t really know if I agree with that 100 percent. I would really love to see if the NCAA could provide an escrow account, which gives players an incentive to stay in school. They know they would receive a certain allotment of money after a certain time is fulfilled.

Q: These kids don’t have a lot of time outside of basketball to establish another career interest. They’re going from one event to the next all year round. Do you think more “second career management” should be instituted?
A: Yeah, definitely. I think one thing that should be done is help them understand their value. When these kids first come into the NBA, you make a lot of money and they’re trying to keep up with the Joneses. They think, If he has a Bentley, I need to have a Bentley. Or if this Bentley was a 2008, well guess what, it’s 2009 and I need to upgrade. Also, the $100 bill becomes a $1 bill, and they lose track of what’s real and what’s not. In the NBA, it’s kind of a fantasy world. I was very lucky to have a great father and mother. My father worked for American Express and AT&T for over 25 years. Before my sophomore year, when I decided to stay in school at Duke, I did an internship with a private investment firm in New York to start understanding about money, investing, stocks, bonds and things of that sort. And my mother was a school principal for 15 years and worked in guidance. So I always kind of had an educational background. I learned a valuable lesson in my freshman year when I was at Duke during an alumni event. The team was sticking together and the alumni were talking. My dad called me over and he said, “What are you doing?” I said, “What do you mean what am I doing? I’m just hanging out with the team.” He’s like, “Look at all these powerful people around here. Do you think basketball is going to be the thing that’s going to take you to the elite level?” And I said, “Well, basketball can make me $50, $60, $70 million.” He’s like, “Well, you’re thinking really small, son. Think bigger.” And that’s when it really clicked for me that I really wanted to be a part of something bigger. I started thinking about life, not just after basketball but how I could capitalize on life during basketball with relationships. I think that’s what a lot of kids miss out on when they don’t take the chance to go to school because they don’t build on those networking opportunities.

Q: It’s important that young players don’t take failure too hard during their adolescence because it may cause great suffering during their development. I was wondering after you knew the extent of your motorcycle injury, what drove you to keep fighting to recover?
A: It was a learning experience for me. It was not only about the people around me in my camp, but more importantly I learned more about myself as a man more at that time than any other time in my life. Growing up, what I had been known for was a basketball player. It kind of reminds me of the great quote that Bill Russell said, “Basketball is what I do, it’s not who I am.” I think it’s so commonly confused with kids who are younger because they associate themselves with just being a basketball player. I was a lot more than a basketball player, but basketball is what I knew, it’s what I did and it’s who I was as a person. Especially your first couple of years in the league, you get put up on this pedestal where things aren’t necessarily real. You’re just living this lifestyle with the rich and famous and all of a sudden, all the little parties you used to go to aren’t the little parties anymore. They’re Hollywood parties. Things kind of get blown out of proportion. The biggest part for me was going back through the process. It was very humbling because one day you go from dunking on Yao Ming to the next day being told you might not be able to walk again. So it was about fighting back and understanding who I was as a person. I wasn’t a quitter. I wasn’t somebody who was going to lay down and roll over. I was going to be a fighter and I was going to work hard at it everyday and start taking advantage of the business opportunities I had in front of me and networking, and all the things that you say you’re going to do while you’re playing but you get so consumed with playing that you really never get a chance to really do it. It was a character building experience, and that’s the one challenge I have for a lot of these kids when they’re in high school or they’re in college or they’re in the league. Some of these opportunities are at their front door and it really takes some time to first and most importantly understand who you are as an individual. If you get lost in that professional world, the opportunities can be lost forever. And if you don’t understand who you are and you don’t have values and morals, you wont have anything to take away from the game when you leave it.

Q: You specialize in analyzing young basketball talent for ESPN. I was wondering when you attend elite events featuring the best amateur players, what makes a kid really stand out in your mind?
A: The first thing that I look at is the kid’s competitive edge. I spent some time with Tim Grover and we were just talking while I was working out about Kobe Bryant. Tim works hand-in-hand with Kobe. I saw the way they worked at the Olympics and seeing him get up two and a half hours before practice and work out until practice, and then when he gets to practice still have that same killer mentality every possession. These days, basketball has kind of translated into this fun thing. And granted, basketball is fun. But the first thing I look for in a kid is just how he approaches the game. Is he serious? Is he laughing in the corner before the game? What kind of mentality is he bringing to the game? Is he going to try to dominate you every possession or is he going to dominate you when he wants to and then take three or four possessions off? And dominating doesn’t have to mean scoring the basketball. I’m talking about effort. If he scores on you, are you going to lock him down on the next possession? Is he listening to his coach and being a sponge to learn more? Michael Jordan was cut from his high school team, but he was a sponge for knowledge. You can’t expect things to be given to you.

Photo credit: Grant Halverson

The following interview relates to a section in the latest issue of ESPN The Magazine, featuring unusual jobs in the sports industry (on newsstands now).

There are many possibilities with an engineering degree. The usuals: Automotive engineering, chemical engineering, computer engineering, nuclear engineering, mechanical engineering and so on. But one individual, Ron Yu (pictured left), utilized his engineering expertise from Georgia Tech to become one of the most sought after personal tennis racket technicians. Uh, yes, customizing tennis rackets deals with moments of inertia.

Hear Ron’s fascinating take on the racket customization business (including Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi’s unique influence) and his work with Priority One, which serves A-list tennis stars Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.

Q: What did you aspire to be when you were younger?
A: I didn’t even play tennis when I was young. I went to school at Georgia Tech for engineering. My friends my freshman year of college said, “Let’s go hit tennis balls.” And I was like, “I don’t play tennis.” I played racquetball when I was a kid. But I ended up falling in love with it – just absolutely fell in love with playing tennis, and my school work suffered because I was playing three, four hours a day, seven days a week. And then I was hanging out in a local tennis shop all the time, and the owner of the shop finally says to me, “Ron, you’re here all the time anyway, you might as well just come work and make money if you’re going to hang around.” So I started working at the tennis shop and I dropped out of school. In this industry and in a lot of industries it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Luckily, the owner of the company knew people who worked at Babolat, and I started traveling to tournaments for Babolat back in 1989. And then I got to know different people and moved up to make it more of a career. I moved beyond just stringing. In the beginning at tournaments, I was really there as a racket stringer. And then I moved into the customizing side, which is really the main crux of our jobs. The stringing side is a great perk for our clients, but the part that most of our clients find really important is the customizing side.

Q: How did you progress beyond the tennis shop?
A: I stayed at the tennis shop for quite a while. I would go with Babolat to a couple of tournaments a year. Then in 1998, I got hired by Jay’s Custom Stringing. They were basically the top traveling stringing customizing company back then. I worked for them from ’98 to 2000. I traveled with Andre Agassi for a while as a stringer. I also learned a lot more about customizing there. And then in 2001, Nate Ferguson hired me.

Q: Did you ever consider moving out of the stringing profession and into a different realm of tennis?
A: Racket stringing is the part of the industry I enjoy the least. I love customizing. Stringing is fine, but it doesn’t excite me because I’m very good at it. You have to be meticulous to do it, but once you’re a good stringer, it doesn’t engage your mind as much as customizing. There can be new problems that arise in customizing where you really have to sit back and try to figure them out, but in stringing it’s pretty rare when those occurrences happen.

Q: Who were some of the first athletes you worked with?
A: At the time when I was working at the shop in Atlanta, there were some local pros. The guys I started stringing for first were guys like Stefan Edberg. There used to be an exhibition tournament in Atlanta every year. Guys like Edberg, John McEnroe and Pete Sampras would come and I’d string for those guys.

Q: You mentioned you majored in engineering. Was there sort of a link between your major and the engineering of rackets that got you hooked?
A: Absolutely. It’s all about engineering. We’re working with weight balances, moments of inertia. And I think that’s what interested me. When I got into school for engineering, it wasn’t very hands on. But immediately when you get into customizing, you’re doing it – it’s right in front of you. So customizing is all engineering.

Q: Are there conferences where those in the industry exchange new ideas, methods and technologies about customizing rackets?
A: There is an annual meeting called the Grand Slam Stringers Symposium and racket stringers come from around the world for three, four days. They talk about stringing and the new technology of rackets. We don’t go to that mainly because we’re on the road. But it’s geared in a lot of ways to a retail shop because they talk a lot about the new different types of strings that come on the market or the different types of rackets. While, for us, strings and rackets don’t change yearly like they do in retail. Players kind of stay with what they’re used to. They stay with the same type of racket. They might change technologies, but for the most part they’re not changing as radically as the manufacturer changing technology for retail.

Q: How do you look to expand your portfolio of athletes?
A: A lot of it is word of mouth in the locker room. Nate worked with Sampras for years and that brings a lot of clout. I traveled with Agassi for a couple of years, and people got to see and know me at tournaments. They figured if Andre and Pete are willing to let these guys work on their rackets and feel comfortable, they’ve got to know something. And so you sit in the players’ lounge and you might be just sitting there reading a book, waiting for a match to go on or something, and a player will come up to you and start asking questions. Quite a bit of our work is generated through word of mouth and just reputation.

Q: Are your clients generally more broad or specific about how they want their racket customized? Do they seem to be knowledgeable about it or do you help them pinpoint what they need?
A: In many cases, they know exactly what they want to feel. But they don’t necessarily know the terminology. So we kind of have to listen to them as to what they’re feeling and decipher that into technical engineering terms. And that’s a lot of times the hardest part of the job. They say things like, “This doesn’t feel quick enough or this doesn’t work.” And we have to figure out, well, why doesn’t it feel quick enough? Is it a swing weight issue? Is it a link of the racket? That sort of thing. But they know what they want to feel.

Q: How did you first get involved with Priority One?
A: I first met Nate in 1998, when he was traveling with Pete. And I was at a tournament traveling with Andre. We just ended up talking about things. At the time, I think we might have been the only traveling personal stringers on tour. Both being Americans, we just gravitated to each other and started talking about things. We ultimately became friends and then I quit the other company, Jay’s Custom Stringing. And afterwards, Nate asked if I wanted to work for him.

Q: What is your role with Priority One?
A: We travel to the Slams and Masters Series events. When we go to a tournament, we do all of our work out of the hotel room. We set up our stringing machines. We’re always stringing in the morning and getting rackets to the players for their practices or their matches. And then we collect the rackets again afterwards, usually in the late afternoon or early evening. And then we cut the strings out and string at night and string in the morning. That’s our day on the road. In the office, we run normal office hours. That’s where we do the customizing.

Q: What does the customization entail specifically?
A: We can’t get too specific on our customizing techniques, since it is not something we like to divulge. All of our clients have sponsorship deals with a particular manufacturer. We are sent the rackets from the manufacturer without any handles molded on them or any additional weight added. We have specific handle molds for each player, so we then mold a custom-shaped-and-sized handle onto each racket. After the handles have been molded, we’ll add weight to particular areas of the racket to achieve the correct specifications each player wants. One of the most important parts of the process is wrapping the grip. Players are very sensitive to the feel of the grip, and each grip must be wrapped identically.

Q: What other factors are you weighing besides basic customization needs?
A: Weather conditions can vary the tensions by maybe plus or minus two or three pounds. So let’s say a range of five to six pounds. If it’s cold or the balls are heavy, they need lower tension so they can hit with more power. But if conditions are quick, like if it’s really warm and dry, or if it’s high altitude, they’ll go a little tighter to get a little more control.

Q: I understand that many female players don’t worry so much about customization. They’re not as aware of it as the men. Why is that?
A: We work with very few females. Male players tend to want heavier rackets and the rackets that come from the manufacturers are, in most cases, too light. So they get into customizing earlier. While for female players, when they’re young they’re not quite as strong as young men. So they don’t necessarily want a heavier racket. Also, the female players usually string less rackets per match and they don’t have access to us. We travel mainly on the men’s tour. We see the women at the Slams when there’s a combo event. But we don’t get access to the women from a week-to-week basis as we do with the men’s side.

Q: From your perspective, do you think it would be valuable for females to know more about your customization work?
A: Absolutely. I think it’s beneficial. More information is never a bad thing. Access to options is always good.

Q: Has there ever been a female player who has approached you and wanted to know more about your work?
A: We do some work with Shahar Peer and Sabine Lisicki. We do a little bit of work with them, and hopefully more in the future. Again, a lot of the business we get is word of mouth. If we can get our foot in the door with a few of the women on the tour, maybe they’ll talk about us.

Q: What are some of the challenges you face on the job, and are there things you’re looking to improve about your business?
A: Our job is always just to maintain that high level, which I think is the best in the business, as we work with more and more players. That’s always a difficulty of any company. When you do very good work at a small level, when you build your business you want to maintain that level. From a personal standpoint, I hate traveling with my machine, but it’s the necessity of the job. Each of us carries about 200 pounds of gear to each tournament.

Q: How do you get through airport security?
A: [laughs] Exactly. Excess baggage charges and going through customs is difficult. But it’s a great job and I love this job, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Q: Obviously you meet a lot of the players, but are there any unique perks that come with the territory?
A: When you’re dealing with top professional athletes, you get to sometimes tag along a little bit. Private jet rides here and there. Meeting Tiger Woods was a great thing for me in Shanghai a couple of years ago, because Roger and Tiger are pretty close friends. Tiger happened to be there playing in the HSBC Champions event at the same time Roger was there for an end-of-the-year championship. I was able to go with Roger to watch Tiger play a round. That was a great perk.

Q: Do you have a memorable experience on the working side of the job?
A: I would say stringing for Andre when he won the 1999 French Open. That was really special. It was a career Grand Slam for him. That was a big deal.

Q: How would you say the industry has changed over time? Were there any big developments that revolutionized the way customization is done?
A: I think equipment and technology have, in certain ways, made our jobs easier and quicker, but they also have made it so everyone thinks they can customize well. Now the average tennis shop can say, “Oh, we customize rackets.” And I think in a lot of ways, it’s important to educate people that there’s a difference between what a normal racket shop can do and what we can do. Because our shop has some equipment that your average tennis shop wouldn’t have, which helps us customize rackets. The good thing, though, is that the same technology and the average racket shop gets people involved with customizing more and gets more players thinking about customizing, which is ultimately good for the industry.

Q: What kind of unique equipment do you have?
A: In our office we have a couple of different types of sanding machines, a miter saw, a chop saw, a lathe, a drill press/milling machine, a jigsaw and a few tennis specific diagnostic tools.

Q: What new methods or technologies do you foresee impacting your line of work in the next five, 10 years?
A: I don’t know. Every year, somebody comes up with the next big technological advancement in rackets. There’s been some great advancements in rackets over the past 10 years: Babolat with their pure dry, which has done very well for them; Prince with their O Series rackets. These are pretty radical changes in rackets that have caught on.

Q: I know there are very specific customization things that you do, but are there any interesting details that players want on their rackets, like initial labels or certain colors for strings?
A: Some players don’t like certain racket colors. Some players don’t want stickers on their rackets. For most players, we’ll put a tension label on each racket. But somebody like Mardy Fish doesn’t want any stickers on his rackets. I don’t know if it would be considered a superstition, but it’s certainly something they want.

Q: Was there one player who was much more technical than the others?
A: Pete Sampras was the most particular about his customization, and that’s why he hired Nate. Pete went to multiple people to try to see if they could make rackets for him, and Nate was the only one who could do it. Nate used to work for Warren Bosworth who was customizing for Pete, but Pete also wanted somebody to travel with him, which Bosworth didn’t supply. That wasn’t part of Bosworth’s company plan. Pete went to another competitor, Jay’s Custom Stringing, who I worked for and Jay did do that. He had traveling stringers, so Pete went there for six months or so. But Jay couldn’t make his rackets properly. Pete could feel the racket grip changing. Leather compresses after a while if you keep playing with it. And they just couldn’t get it right. So Pete went back to Nate and said, “Look, you’re the only one who can make my rackets, but I want somebody who travels with me. Will you become my personal technician?” So Nate ended up going with Pete.

Q: Did Pete and Andre having personal racket stringers change the groove of the industry? Do you think other players were influenced by the fact that Pete and Andre were the best players in the world with personal racket technicians?
A: Absolutely. I think with Pete and Andre at the time, both having a personal stringer on the road, certainly got into guys’ heads that it might be worth an investment.

Q: What are some of your personal goals looking ahead?
A: As a professional, I just hope to provide the best service possible for the players to help them achieve their goals. That’s our job. We can’t go out there and win them tournaments, but we can help them hopefully play better and have more confidence. That’s the goal.

Photo credit: P1Tennis.com

Below are excerpts from an interview that will appear on ESPNRise.com near the end of the month, as part of the website’s ongoing “Great State Debate” special feature analyzing the best states in the country for high school basketball.

Walking into the teacher’s lounge at Archbishop Molloy High School (Queens, N.Y.) on a recent Thursday afternoon, only one table commands attention. Four faculty members are seated, listening to a living legend speak softly and meticulously. Soon you are introduced to 78-year-old Jack Curran (pictured) and you instantly become his student, magnetized to his basketball storytelling as if in a state of hypnosis.

Curran is quite simply the country’s most accomplished high school basketball coach. In his 51 years – yes, 51 years – at the school, he has won more than 900 games (a New York state record), captured five Catholic League city titles, been inducted into nine Hall of Fames and, best yet, has helped 475 young men receive athletic scholarships – including eight All-Americans such as Kenny Smith, Kenny Anderson and Kevin Joyce. During his run, Scholastic Coach Magazine named Curran Coach of the Year 22 times and Coach of the Century. Not to mention, he also owns a treasure chest of accolades as the school’s longtime baseball coach, amassing more than 1,600 wins and 17 city championships.

I spoke with Curran, who’s leading the Stanners to a 12-4 record this season, to take me back in time and describe his ascent into the basketball coaching heavens.

Q: You’ve spent a long time coaching. What do you credit your success and longevity to, being in the game for 51 years? When you look back on it, what has helped you get to the next step every year and keep going?
A: Doing what you enjoy doing. I’ve always enjoyed working with young people, teaching them basketball or baseball – two sports that I love. We had good stability in our program here. I just think our success has been based mostly on the type of players we’ve had over the years. We had a run of 30 years or so where we had outstanding players. They were very willing to work hard and do what they had to do to become successful. It makes the job a lot easier. It’s not really a tough job – it’s fun.

Q: What was the attraction you had to Molloy?
A: Before I was here, I was selling building materials in western Massachusetts. And I would be racing home on weekends to coach the local baseball and CYO basketball teams in [the New York City area]. I was a salesman and I really enjoyed it. One day I saw an article in the paper that Lou Carnesecca had left Molloy [at the time, it was called St. Ann’s School] and had gone to St. John’s University. So I called [former Long Island University coach] Clair Bee who was a close friend of mine. I used to go up to his clinics and his camp all the time and talk to him about basketball, and bring teams up to play against his teams in the summers. He had All-Americans from all over the country at his camp. So I called him up and I said, “Coach, Lou left and went to St. John’s.” He said, “Yeah, why don’t you go down and get that job.” I said, “You think so?” He said, “Yeah, go down and get that job.” So I drove down [from the Bronx], sought out the principal at St. Ann’s and they hired me.

Q: When you were transitioning to coaching from being a salesman, who were some of your influences in the coaching world?
A: Well, at that time, I had to take a big cut in pay, but it didn’t matter because this is what I wanted to do. I felt I would be happier doing this. The guys that I used to go and watch included Frank McGuire. He was my coach at St. John’s. I always admired him and my high school coach, Dick King. I kind of respected a lot of the high school coaches who were in the business for a long time. The college coaches at the time who I admired were guys like Adolph Rupp, Kenny Loeffler, Joe Lapchick. I mean, those guys were icons.

Q: Obviously kids now are much more technologically-driven. They are so adept at getting information at their fingertips and the athletes, especially during the recruiting process, are able to interact more with other players, coaches, etc. electronically. How do you, as an older coach, stay close to your kids, keep them grounded and maintain a relationship with them?
A: Well, it’s tougher. At one time, you were the main guy. At that time, I was here from 7 in the morning until 7 at night teaching classes all day, so you had them in class and they related to you a little better than they do now. Now, I’m just in coaching and they’re on two or three teams in the summer, travel teams with different coaches and they get influenced by a lot of different people. So the kids are listening to a lot of voices. A lot of times even their parents are more involved. Naturally parents are going to be more involved with their own children and concerned about them, whereas we try to blend their child in with 11 or 12 other guys on the team. It makes it more difficult. I think the kids are a little more self-concerned than they used to be. At one time, it was more of a team concept. You still get it, but it’s not as natural or as easy.

Q: How have you seen the game itself change through the years?
A: It’s less team-oriented and more athleticism, more individual skill. It’s a little more difficult to get them to pass the ball. Passing is kind of a lost art. When you see somebody who can pass, you get pretty excited because they’re all looking to be this high scorer and things like that. Not all, but a lot of them. The game has changed. Mainly you see it more on the Varsity levels when they get a lot of good physical athletes. They’re amazingly talented. It’s hard to say they shouldn’t look to score because they’re so athletic. But there has to be a team concept where they trust each other, have faith in each other and play with one goal in mind, which is to try and play better than the other team. We keep working on it and trying to drill it into them.

Q: What were some of the reasons you continued coaching on the high school level for so long, rather than jumping to college or the pros?
A: Oh, I watch these great college coaches now, like Norm Roberts, Mike Krzyzewski, Jay Wright and Bobby Knight when he was coaching. You wonder how they do it. I don’t know how they do it. It’s a difficult job. I don’t think people realize how tough it is. The coaching itself is enough. But the recruiting has got to be unbelievable. The travel they have to do, the things they have to do. And then they have to promote the game in their communities. I mean, it’s a very difficult job these guys have and I don’t think I’d want any part of it.

Q: The New York Catholic High School Athletic Association is considered the top league nationally in high school basketball. Why do you think that is?
A: Early on, when I first came here, I think the public school league had the better athletes overall. They had some tremendous athletes. I would say it just kept gradually growing where a lot of those youngsters who normally would have played in the public school league started coming to the Catholic schools, because their opportunities seemed better out of these schools. Educationally their opportunities were better because there was no danger of them being harassed in any way. The environment was a lot better for them, so the people involved with them wanted them to come to these types of private schools where they could be playing their game and getting a good formal education at the same time, with people being totally interested in them. The benefit of one of these schools is you can totally get involved with the youngster overall. I think gradually a lot of those youngsters have drifted into our programs where now it’s kind of balanced out, even though the public schools are still very good. I think it’s a much more difficult job coaching in the public schools than it is in our schools because there are too many distractions. In these schools, there are no distractions, there are no disciplinary problems. Here, if a guy’s tie isn’t straight, that’s a problem, or if his shirttail is hanging out, whereas at the other schools sometimes it’s a safety factor. We used to scrimmage at all those schools years ago. Now we don’t bring them there. If they want to scrimmage against us, they come here because we don’t want to gamble on something happening in that neighborhood or at that school where we’d be responsible.

Q: Give me the best player you coached and why.
A: The most dominant player we ever had was Kevin Joyce. He was fabulous. He was great in practice every day. Probably the most exciting was Kenny Anderson. He could do anything with a basketball. Probably the most skilled was Billy Lawrence. He played in 1961. He’s retired and lives in Florida now. I think if you picked one game, the guy who could control the game more was Kevin. We’ve had a lot of great players. It’s hard to pick one.

Stay tuned for the full interview.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Jared Zwerling

Patrice Altine. Jared Zwerling. The black John Stockon. The white Michael Redd. Longtime friends and basketball teammates, dropping sports knowledge and schooling each other since ‘96. Different backgrounds, different perspectives — but both rise and rest to SportsCenter. PA sweating in Miami, JZ freezing in Manhattan – but both itching to talk sports. Now, they are bringing their unique collaboration to a bigger stage. This is M2M (Miami 2 Manhattan) Sports and everyone’s encouraged to jump in and sound off. The conversation ends with you.

In this week’s installment, PA and JZ reflect on the Australian Open with their top three observations.

JZ: Rafael Nadal won his sixth Grand Slam – his first on hard court – and not only is he on pace to break Pete Sampras’s all-time record, but he’s now won Grand Slams on all three court surfaces, which Federer hasn’t done yet. So, let’s talk about the top three things that caught our attention from the Australian Open. Pat, crack it open.

PA: My first and most important observation is that Rafa Nadal is a beast! He is a force in tennis that maybe never has been seen before. Fast, strong, great shot-making ability, he’s humble, has a thirst for the big moments, works hard, respects the game, he’s good looking, etc. etc. He is a truly amazing athlete and player, and he’s only 22! He’s like a Spanish LeBron [laughs]!

JZ: [laughs]. A Spanish LeBron? I like that. So you must miss his sexy cutoff shirt? What do you think about how they’re marketing him now? Nike reps said they’re trying to make him look “more mature.” I think the cutoff gave him a unique look and Nike rushed his transformation. I mean, he’s still only 22. Maybe at 27 we’ll see the change.

PA: I’m not into people being changed for other audiences. His original differences are what drew people to him – his big muscles, clothes, nationality, headband, exuberance and his all-around game. I also don’t believe that the kind of shirt you wear in sports says anything about your maturity.

JZ: Well, part of his difference was his attire. Tennis has never seen a beast like him, as you said, and his cutoff complemented his physical look.

PA: What is your number one?

JZ: My number one would be Federer’s emotional breakdown and what that moment meant for the future of tennis.

PA: That kind of is my number two.

JZ: When Nadal won, he captured Grand Slams on all three court surfaces, and I think people are now talking about Nadal breaking Sampras’s record, not Federer breaking Sampras’s record.

PA: Many people feel bad for Federer because right now he’s already one of the best ever, but Nadal keeps denying him his immortality.

JZ: People love Federer because he’s classy in everything he does. He is humble and gracious. Opposing players want to hate him, but they respect him a lot.

PA: I never liked Federer. He was always way too smug and cocky when he won. I never felt like he was humble or gracious. He expected to win and said it to everyone. All great champions are confident, but I found myself rooting against him in every tournament.

JZ: Federer is cocky between the lines [laughs]. I think Federer will still break Sampras’s record, but I now think Federer is like Agassi and Nadal is like Sampras, where Federer is in Nadal’s shadow with his back against the wall in their matchups.

PA: You can’t compare the situations. Agassi is an all-time great and Sampras is, too, but they were peers. Remember, tennis players have relatively short careers. Federer, amazing as it is to say after all he’s dominated, is on the way out. The only way Federer will ever win that elusive Grand Slam is if Nadal slips up.

JZ: Or if Nadal has future knee problems. His tendinitis has been an issue early in his career. Federer has remained virtually healthy every year, except for getting mono last year.

PA: Federer looks washed up against Nadal. He is simply faster, stronger and younger. Federer is already passed his prime at 27. If he can’t get the record in the next year, I bet he quits. If Rafa gets enough rest between tournaments, he’ll be the man to beat for the next five years, at least.

JZ: I don’t think Federer is past his prime. He’s still making the finals in basically every tournament and he would be the champion in every one, but Nadal is just too strong. I don’t think you can say Federer’s game is deteriorating. He still can pick apart nearly every player in a unique way. He still has an incredible way of finding angles and hitting corners on the court. He senses everything. It’s just that Nadal is, as you said, that Spanish LeBron – a freak. Federer played amazing in the Australian before playing Nadal. He even took Nadal to five sets.

PA: That leads to my third point: Nadal and Federer are so great that there is a huge talent gap after them and from the next best guys, like James Blake and Andy Roddick. Federer wiped the floor with Roddick, and he’s a top player. But he’s no Nadal.

JZ: I’m interested to see Nadal and Fernando Verdasco play out this year. That could be a great rivalry brewing.

PA: That dude got lucky. He played the match of his life. Don’t get it confused, Nadal is the best player on Earth.

JZ: Yes, I agree about Nadal, but Verdasco cares now. He was having fun before, not taking tennis seriously, but his mentality is different now. As far as Roddick, it looked like his offseason training paid off, but there’s something about his game I don’t think will ever take him to the top. I always think he looks very panicky when he plays, keeping his head down and thinking too much. He just looks rushed out there. Outside him, the American field is so weak [laughs].

PA: I just used Roddick as an example. I think if Rafa and Fed weren’t there, Roddick would have five or six Grand Slams. Lleyton Hewitt was good, but his game went to the toilet like four years ago.

JZ: [laughs]. Yeah.

PA: What’s your third observation?

JZ: Just how hard the players hit now. The net game is becoming less and less prevalent. The players are pounding the heck out of the ball. It just goes with the flow of sports these days – bigger, faster, stronger.

PA: Yes, J, we like long balls, 100 mph serves and pitches, big dunks, safeties laying guys out! It’s all the culture of sports! Because the best today actually have muscle and it’s less of a ballerina game like it once was, doesn’t mean that it takes less work to play or it taints sports, in my opinion.

JZ: Of course, just making an observation. I’m not saying I’m not happy about the transformation.

PA: Sports change with the times, for better or worse. In the case of tennis, it actually forces you to work out to compete. The Williams sisters train like guys and they bulldoze through the circuit without even trying. Did you see how Serena embarrassed that poor woman in the Aussie final? It was sad. Serena is a monster. I love her game.

JZ: I think across all sports, rule changes and the aesthetics in the sports arena will keep adjusting to keep up with the evolving athlete.

PA: I agree. All the skinny guys are going to have to hit the weights and stop popping champagne to compete with Rafa in the coming years [laughs].

JZ: [laughs]. Yeah, he has like a bionicle left arm. Another quick observation about the Australian was the weather. It was so hot out there. The court surface was like 160 degrees. I recently saw an exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History on climate change. It was scary and eye-opening, but also motivating to know that we can prevent the global warming from worsening. Commentator Mary Carillo was an idiot for harping on some of the players for retiring when it was so hot like that. She is continuously obnoxious.

PA: Wow, that was random. But, yes, global warming is a problem. Maybe in 2016, Nadal with his 16 Grand Slams, once he’s the greatest of all time, he will then hit up Al Gore and help with global warming.

Photo credit: Bob Martin of Sports Illustrated

Patrice Altine. Jared Zwerling. The black John Stockon. The white Michael Redd. Longtime friends and basketball teammates, dropping sports knowledge and schooling each other since ‘96. Different backgrounds, different perspectives — but both rise and rest to SportsCenter. PA sweating in Miami, JZ freezing in Manhattan – but both itching to talk sports. Now, they are bringing their unique collaboration to a bigger stage. This is M2M (Miami 2 Manhattan) Sports and everyone’s encouraged to jump in and sound off. The conversation ends with you.

In this week’s installment, PA and JZ discuss the top three things they would change in sports.

JZ: Let’s crack it open like this: This past year in sports was one of the best featuring unbelievable championship games across multiple sports, including the Super Bowl, Wimbledon final and the U.S. Open golf playoffs. But there were also a growing number of negatives, such as off-the-field athlete incidents and major layoffs at leagues, teams and other sports properties due to the economy. Looking ahead, what next week signifies is historic as Barack Obama officially takes office, and he plans to not only change the course of America politically but issues in the sports sphere, such as the BCS dilemma, considering he’s a passionate fan. So on that note, as we speak about change, what are your top three things in sports you would alter, starting with your number one?

PA: So many things! Probably to me, the most glaring, is the college football postseason. I mean, the BCS probably got the champion right twice, but the essence of the excellent college football game has been replaced with university presidents looking for big paydays. Has money gotten so important that some of these historic schools would sacrifice the integrity of the game for cash? The reasoning is sad and the fans are losing out on the excitement that the playoffs would bring each year. These university heads act like the playoffs wouldn’t make massive profits! More importantly, with the playoffs the teams would settle it on the field and there would be fewer debates as to who’s really number one.

JZ: A playoff system should come into effect. For a sport that significant, like college basketball, a playoff system is crucial. Financially and interest-wise it just makes sense. This year, though, I think the two best teams played in the national championship. People were campaigning for Utah, but Utah did not have the athletes like at Florida and OU. I think either team would have run Utah off the field.

PA: I don’t. USC lost early in the season and blew out eight teams. Texas lost one game at the last second. And Utah went undefeated and blew away Alabama – who was No. 1 for five weeks I believe – in the bowl game. There were cases to be made for at least four teams other than Florida and OU. January Madness would settle all that on the turf [laughs]. What would be your number one?

JZ: More funding for heart screening across all sports. The numbers on athletes dying of arrhythmias and other heart conditions is growing, especially on the high school level. More government action is needed to provide heart testing to all schools and universities. It would be costly, but it is so pertinent.

PA: Very true. It seems like there’s a kid dying every year.

JZ: The NBA is doing it more. And they’ve found more players with heart disease, like Cuttino Mobley. The league sparred him his life, and although he can’t play basketball ever again professionally, he can live a normal life now.

PA: Yeah, the NBA didn’t want Cuttino to be another Hank Gathers or Reggie Lewis. With medical technology where it is, kids should be more thoroughly checked from middle school forward.

JZ: I agree. What is your number two?

PA: It would definitely have to be changing the petty conduct and celebration rules, with the NFL and NBA especially.

JZ: That was my number three. When I heard Donovan McNabb was going to get fined for the phone call thing against the Giants, I thought that was pretty ridiculous.

PA: Everyone grows up playing ball on the blacktops or in the parks, talking trash and having fun. So you celebrate for five seconds and you get a 30k fine? Some people work hard to make 30k for the year!

JZ: The NFL is such a military battalion when it comes to these things. But because scoring a touchdown is a rare and special thing, I say let the players celebrate.

PA: They implement a dress code, you can’t make certain comments, you can’t wear long socks, you can’t hit hard in football – I mean, come on!

JZ: Of course, don’t be derogatory, but a little showboating and exaggerated creativity – what’s the big deal?

PA: You can’t be passionate about what you do? You can’t make comments when you think something is unfair?

JZ: I mainly agree with you. The NFL is very uptight and they would prefer to market their teams than the players, so they really take away the individualistic aspects of the sport in a lot of ways. Regulation, unfortunately, is a big issue in sports now, on and off the field. It’s an image thing, especially to keep players levelheaded. The leagues don’t need any more PR hits [laughs].

PA: I think it’s a joke, man. We learn sportsmanship when we are five years old, but if you can’t celebrate by talking a little smack while being competitive in a sport in which you’re making millions of dollars for entertaining fans, then what’s the use?

JZ: Sometimes I wish I could sit courtside for every home game to hear the trash talk because everywhere else it’s censored. That’s why I love watching streetball.

PA: Plus, most of these leagues feature grown men, so you’re going to tell grown millionaires that they can’t wear a hat, they can’t dance after a score, they can’t talk a little junk in a tough back and forth game? It’s ridiculous to me. I’m not giving players a carte blanche to be idiots, but for the most part the players are responsible; it’s the minority that creates and perpetuates negative stereotypes for the majority. So what’s your number two?

JZ: My number two is leagues should create a mentoring program teaming up current athletes with former athletes. So throughout the year, the player has someone older he can turn to who has the knowledge and experience of what life is like as a pro athlete. I think this is important in the wake of what’s going on with pro athletes making stupid decisions, and to prevent more from happening. This could also happen in college athletics, where a player gets teamed up with a graduate from that college.

PA: You read my mind about college. I don’t think that most pros need to be babysat like that.

JZ: Well, it could be just for the rookies.

PA: Yeah, but I think idiots are going to be idiots – like you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. I don’t want to waste brain cells on him, but Pacman Jones is a great example. He never had the right support or guidance, but he wasn’t too bad until he got to the pros and made a name for himself playing. Then he started ordering hits, frequenting strip clubs, etc.

JZ: Well, for repeat offenders, they should eventually be kicked out of the league, but still be provided guidance from that point – not just left in the street basically. What I’m saying is creating more of a link between the players association and retired players association to provide more mentoring opportunities. I still think there is a divide there in most leagues. Many current players have a lack of respect and lack of knowledge about former players, and many former players speak lowly of current players. More bonding and education should be promoted.

PA: Funny you say that about repeat offenders. That’s my number three [laughs]. My number three is 100% accountability and zero tolerance for idiot athletes in all sports. They have it too good. These guys live the plush life, they make the worst choices, many hang around with street guys, leeches, and it gets them into trouble. They need to appreciate the opportunity they have playing pro sports for millions of dollars, so when they are punished, they need to feel it!

JZ: So you’re saying for a first-time offense, you should be kicked out of the league?

PA: For serious offenses only! Flagrant 2 fouls, bad hockey fouls, intent to hurt in football, drug offenses, domestic abuse, etc. It should be drastic, like 1) short suspension; 2) $25,000 fine; 3) long suspension; and 4) lifetime ban with no chance to come back.

JZ: But you can’t just kick them out and make them walk the streets. The league they were playing in should provide them with the necessary guidance, like seeing a psychologist. I think continued support is appropriate, and after some time, depending on how their comeback is coming, maybe give them a second chance.

PA: No J, I disagree. Most of them are not 18 when they come in; they’re 21 to 23. Weren’t you responsible at that age? [laughs]. The pressure needs to be on the athlete, so that they can make conscious decisions about who should be around them and what they’re doing.

JZ: I’m confused with what you’re saying. You want a zero policy or a four-step process? Zero policy to me means you’re out of the league after your first violation.

PA: That’s not what it necessarily means, J. It means no violation goes unpunished.

JZ: I agree, but the league should act as a support system even while he’s suspended or kicked out.

PA: I think the guidance should start at home, with the family, then college coaches, then friends. These players need to know who out of these people have their best interest in mind.

JZ: I agree, but you want to make sure if the athlete needs help, he gets help. Sometimes a psychologist or a professional medic is needed – a neutral, third-party voice with no bias or preconditions.

PA: It shouldn’t be up to the league to raise these men, but mentoring and monitoring sure wouldn’t hurt. In the case of the younger guys, it would probably make a profound difference. So did you give your number three?

JZ: Yeah, my number three was your number two. Well, maybe Obama somehow hears about our debate and invites us to play ball at the White House [laughs].

PA: [laughs]. I want to tell him I’m all for the college football playoffs, and I want to see if he can stay in front of me on the court [laughs].

JZ: Because I’m a lefty and so is he, I’d tell him “Let’s play each other righty” to see how good he really is. That’s a true test for a President who is mostly favoring one way [laughs].

PA: [laughs].

Photo credit: Associated Press

Sports social networking websites continue to roll out on the Internet like energy drinks at supermarkets. The market is very thirsty for both. Most of the sites are the same in who they target (the 18-24 sports fan) and what they feature (the ability to upload and share content, create a blog and interact with other sports fans). Some include benefits for engagement, such as RootZoo.com, where users can earn points and redeem them for prizes. Overall, their main purpose is to give fans a voice.

In what is becoming a cluttered web space, a niche segment of sports social networking is heating up and differentiating itself from the general pack – those for high school athletes. Three in particular are the strongest in this market: Takkle.com, ESPNRise.com and Stack.com, which allow these young athletes to create their own profiles and share their athletic accomplishments. The success these sites are seeing is due in large part because teens consume new media more than any other demographic and social networking satisfies their desire to develop their own identity and stand out — major characteristics of a maturing adolescent.

One of these sites, Takkle.com, which has the largest community of high school athletes in the country, is taking its social networking application one step further by helping teens get noticed beyond its homepage. Just recently, it launched Takkle Recruiting to enable them to make the most of their athletic potential and get discovered by college coaches. I spoke with Christian Busch, Takkle.com’s VP of Marketing, to learn more about the online tool, how he’s planning to market it to college coaches, and his future plans for the company and its partnership with Sports Illustrated.

Q: Tell me a little bit about the launch of Takkle Recruiting.
A: We launched the first phase of Takkle Recruiting in December and we are very thrilled with the results: more than 5,000 RecruitMe sheets were created by athletes within the first few weeks. We’re already offering athletes the ability to create their free RecruitMe sheet and get into the Recruit-Match database of high school athletes maintained by our partner, the National Collegiate Scouting Association, which is accessed by more than 30,000 college coaches in the country on a regular basis. The next phase of the project will bring much more informational content for parents and athletes as well as expanded opportunities for kids to get in touch with coaches.

Q: So the RecruitMe sheet is like a high school kid’s athletic resume? Does it also include academic achievements and community service work, which emphasizes the importance of being a student-athlete?
A: You’re exactly right, the RecruitMe sheet is the kid’s athletic resume. It contains academic information, which for privacy purposes we don’t display on the public profile, as well as space for the athletes to highlight their extracurricular engagements and community service work.

Q: Most college coaches won’t even look at a player unless there’s regional or national media buzz about him, they’ve seen him play at an elite event or his high school coach promotes him to a respective university. So how can Takkle Recruiting become a trusted and reliable source for high school talent?
A: Takkle already has the largest community of high school athletes in the country. We’re able to offer college coaches the ability to target a very large number of athletes based on their specific needs. We’re also giving athletes the tools to get in front of the coaches and colleges they’re interested in themselves. With our partner, the NCSA, we have the ability to introduce coaches to specific athletes they otherwise wouldn’t have found.

Q: Do you think that Takkle Recruiting will have more success placing athletes into Division II and Division III programs as well as Division I less mainstream programs, like for wrestling and fencing? Because to get recruited at a Division I level in a mainstream sport, such as football and basketball, is a less than 1 percent opportunity, and chances are if you self-promote yourself you won’t get recognized.
A: We see the core audience as athletes in the less mainstream sports for all divisions and in the mainstream sports for DII and DIII. The football and basketball players who have the potential to play DI are usually very well known already before they reach graduation age. We address these players through the Takkle football and basketball rankings, where fans can look them up and discuss their skills.

Q: How are you marketing the Takkle Recruiting service to colleges across the country to let athletic programs know it’s a valuable resource to recruit scholar-athletes? Also how aware and knowledgeable do you think colleges are of high school sports social-networking sites, like Takkle.com, to scout athletes?
A: We’re just starting to introduce Takkle Recruiting to college coaches and admissions offices. We’re working with several partners, including Sports Illustrated, on this process and we will provide more coaching tools in the future to support that process. Many colleges are highly aware of Takkle and we know that a bunch of kids have already received scholarship offers from colleges who discovered them on Takkle, even before we launched the recruiting product.

Q: Do you have an estimated number of how many athletes have received scholarships or opportunities to walk on in college through their exposure on Takkle? Is there a story about a high school athlete getting recruited that sticks out for you, which demonstrates the power of Takkle and its impact on a young athlete’s life?
A: We know of quite a few athletes who benefited from being on Takkle. We’re going to release some of those stories shortly.

Q: The partnership with Sports Illustrated was a great branding opportunity for Takkle. How are you looking to integrate Takkle Recruiting into SI and SI.com’s framework?
A: Sports Illustrated is a great partner to us and they will also be fundamental in helping us promote Takkle Recruiting on their website and in the magazine. Takkle is featured in every issue of the magazine through the “Video Faces in the Crowd” feature, for which we are the exclusive nomination engine.

Q: Beyond Takkle Recruiting, are there other properties you are looking to introduce? What are your future goals for Takkle?
A: Our current focus is really on Takkle Recruiting because we see great potential in the market and we know from our users that this is one of their biggest needs. We’re also looking at a few other interesting opportunities, but Takkle Recruiting is definitely the key focus for 2009.

Q: Some kids dream of becoming sports writers or sports agents. Do you think you would ever explore creating opportunities for high school kids to get noticed in sports disciplines outside of athletic participation?
A: We’ve discussed many times about creating a videographer/photographer network for high school kids together with Sports Illustrated. As a small company, unfortunately we haven’t had the bandwidth to do that yet, but I wouldn’t exclude it in the future. If aspiring writers want to get a practice run, please tell them to contact me as we’re always looking for capable writers to support our own efforts.

Q: Overall, in your opinion why is the high school sports social-networking space, with the likes of Takkle, Stack and ESPN Rise, so hot right now?
A: The high school sports social media space is still in its early stages and the kids are already spending more time online than on any other media channel. And their passion for sports among the audience remains immense; that’s why there are so many people trying to create a presence in the space right now. As the largest player in the market, we’re confident that we’ll be able to continue serving athletes and their parents.

To contact Christian for more information or to inquire about writing opportunities covering high school sports, you can e-mail him at christian.busch@takkle.com.

Photo credit: Takkle.com

25 years ago Glenn Young had a simple idea: to create a tournament in Hawaii to raise the level of high school basketball in the state, an unlikely source—and still today—for Hawaiian Hoosiers. Never did he realize the Iolani Classic, more than a weeklong boys and girls tournament in December at Honolulu’s Iolani School, would become, as Young puts it, “such a monster.”

Young’s vision was to bridge the youth basketball playing field in Hawaii with that of the mainland to benefit Hawaiian teams from playing against prominent basketball programs. Because of the distant isolation of Hawaii’s geography and the nonexistent budget schools had to send athletes across the Pacific, the tournament was viewed as an attractive outlet for teams from different states to come together amidst the breathtaking backdrop of Hawaii’s shoreline. As the tournament continued annually and its impact was felt in the community, local residents came forward to support funding and eventually Nike signed on to sponsor the event who helped make it one of the hottest tickets of the high school basketball season.

“Over the years, we’ve had people support the tournament because they believed in it,” says Young, the Iolani Classic director and former head coach of Iolani’s basketball team. “They felt Hawaii needed something like this. So we’ve had great financial support from many people in our community, and without them this tournament would be a bust. And Nike has encouraged us to go out into the community and try to promote basketball.”

Hawaii’s most successful basketball player, Derrick Low, an Iolani 2004 alum and recent Washington State standout who led the Cougars to the Sweet 16 last season, said the success he had in the tournament first exposed him to college scouts. In fact, at the time Kansas coach Roy Williams recruited him to fill the void at point guard left by then-departing Kirk Hinrich, now with the Chicago Bulls. Low, who is a local legend for trying to become the first Hawaiian-born player in the NBA, believes without the tournament he would have been just another Hawaiian no-name.

“Because Nike runs this tournament and I was fortunate to do well, I got a chance to go to the Nike All-American Camp,” says Low, who recently played on the Dallas Mavericks summer league team and is now focused on finalizing a European contract. “From there, that’s where you get noticed by all the colleges. There’s no doubt in my mind that [the Iolani Classic] was one of the first places where I got good exposure.”

In commemoration of last week’s 25th annual Iolani Classic, which routinely features nationally-ranked teams and future NBA stars (most recently Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder), Nike unveiled a custom-designed shoe called “Air Force 25,” which featured the tournament logo on the tongue and a palm tree imprint on the side. Coaches and supporters were granted free pairs to wear throughout the tournament, which wrapped up last Monday after three overtime thrillers in the final brackets of the top boys’ division. ESPN Rise’s No. 3 school in the country, Oak Hill Academy (pictured), won the championship with a 74-62 double-overtime victory, led by Lamont “Momo” Jones’s 40 points, over No. 9 ranked Montrose Christian.

Some positive reinforcement for the Iolani School players competing in the tournament were scouts from the University of Hawaii on-hand watching the game. Young said only college coaches from the mainland had been in attendance through the years, but never the University of Hawaii—until this year. It’s likely second-year head coach of the Rainbow Warriors, Bob Nash, will hear from his staff about 6’1” Pablo Warner (named to the Iolani Classic All-Tournament Team) and long-range marksman 5’10” Kainoa Chu (23 points, seven three’s in the seventh-place game against top-ranked Oklahoma’s Putnam City).

After the team and individual trophies were distributed, thoughts from several participating coaches were that the Iolani Classic had cemented its place as the most competitive high school basketball tournament. That’s great news for teams from the mainland looking to boost their national ranking, but the Iolani Classic also needs to become a better proving ground for Hawaiian hoopsters. It’s pitiful that the tournament’s scholarship rate for Hawaiians stands on one player (Derrick Low). Low himself is even proof that basketball in Hawaii is losing some traction; he said that the streetball scene had “died down” since he left for Washington State. In fact, while I was driving through Oahu, I was stunned to see so many playground courts without hoops. Hopefully with Nike’s support, these courts will be utilized during the year to enhance the grassroots image of basketball in Hawaii. If more community outreach is not executed, such as basketball clinics and tournaments like Hoop It Up, the Iolani Classic will simply remain an all-star concert headlining visiting acts with hardly any standout performances by local artists.

Derrick Low Interview Excerpts

Q: What are your thoughts on the tournament?
A: This tournament is just one of the best—if not the best—tournaments around, so it’s good for the local kids in Hawaii to see what basketball is all about, because over here we’re so far away from everything else. People forget that there’s a whole other dimension of basketball out here.

Q: Do you sense that more kids in Hawaii are interested in basketball because of the tournament?
A: Yeah, I just think when kids come watch this tournament over here, I’m positive that it makes them go, “One day I want to play in it” when they see all these guys from the mainland coming down here and putting on a show. There’s no doubt in my mind that kids here say to themselves that they want to be in their shoes one day, so I think that motivates them to play basketball and one day get the chance to play in the Classic.

Q: When you were growing up, was your goal to play in the tournament?
A: When I came to Iolani in the seventh grade, I watched really good players come and go through here. I just said to myself, “Man, I can’t wait until I play Varsity and play in the Classic.” I knew it would be fun. I got my chance to play here and it was a really good experience for me.

Q: How can colleges in Hawaii leverage the tournament better to retain some of the talent that comes through here, both locally and from the mainland?
A: Hawaii has its pros and cons. The cons: If you take a [University of Hawaii] and UCLA, UCLA has tradition, they play in the Pac-10, they have a number of championships. Hawaii’s got the weather, the beaches, but it all depends. In the end, it comes down to what you want. If you want to come to Hawaii and have fun in the sun, and you don’t really worry about the basketball stuff, then go to U of H. Or you can go to UCLA and get to the Final Four.

Q: Do you think there are opportunities for Hawaiians to play in more tournaments in the mainland? For example, the Iolani School going to Ft. Myers to play in the City of Palms Classic.
A: See, that’s the problem with coming from Hawaii. We don’t have too much opportunity to play against mainland competition. The only time we get to play against mainland competition is during the summer. That’s when Hawaii has a few all-star teams that go to Vegas for the Big Time tournament and wherever else they can go. But like I said, it’s real hard, it’s expensive from Hawaii going to the states to play somewhere. But it’s not impossible.

Photo credit: Al Linsky

When they say the sports business industry is like a close-knit fraternity, it’s no joke. Last week I attended a full-day sports symposium at Princeton University where many of the who’s who in sports business converged — Ronald Shapiro, Mark Shapiro, Frank Vuono, Ben Sturner, Christian Busch, Doug Perlman, Christopher Russo and Darren Rovell, to name a few. It felt like a high school reunion of sorts; in fact, a few random people approached me and said, “Hey Jared, how have you been?” They probably glanced quickly down at my name tag — a sly, seasoned networking skill, I suspected; nevertheless, their friendliness made me feel part of the exclusive and experienced club that gathered on this day.

The symposium hovered around answering two buzz-worthy questions: how are sports properties overcoming the tanking economy to maintain a return on investment and how are they expanding in the sports digital and mobile space? Here are my notes and reactions on the discussions that took place:

Facing the Economy

Notes: A panelist during a seminar on sports marketing and sponsorships said that ROI these days should not be looked at as return on investment, but rather “return on involvement.” In this economic downturn, as advertisers eliminate budgets and pull back on spending, marketers who are creating sales opportunities for their companies need to think beyond dollars and cents, and focus on over-delivering and partnership development. It might mean obtaining less revenue in a deal by offering an advertiser more sponsorship opportunities, mainly to avoid a potentially devastating lost relationship. Or it might mean negotiating a simple barter exchange, providing your partner free exposure and allowing your company to tap into your partner’s resources (i.e. on-site added value to offer to your advertisers). Nowadays, it’s extremely important to scrutinize an advertiser’s budget and campaign objectives, so a marketing concept can be more precisely aligned with the client’s strategy.

Reactions: Two marketing takeaways for me, dealing with today’s tough market, were: 1) you must have the ability to create a highly unique and customized program (but simple enough for a smaller investment) and to execute it efficiently, especially keeping hard costs to a minimum. Basically, the days of three generic S’s in sponsorship — signage, sampling and sweepstakes — are numbering. The fact that the job market is thinning out and there isn’t a lot of turnover in the sports industry, for the few positions available, you can be sure recruiters are more aggressively evaluating job candidates based on their experience and success developing and executing marketing programs. If you go on a job interview soon, don’t be surprised to get grilled with questions on your aptitude to deliver sales.

Growing Technologically

Notes: The hot trend in the digital space are social-networking/aggregated content websites, such as BallHype.com, Yardbarker.com, OpenSports.com and SportsFanLive.com, where sports fans can interact and post/share articles, photos, videos and more. Advertisers gravitate toward these sites because they realize the power of sports to create fan bases is best represented through online communities. Interestingly, two of the panelists featured in a sports business 2.0 seminar, Chris Russo and Doug Perlman, had previously worked for high-profile sports organizations (the NFL and IMG, respectively), but they became entrepreneurs to capitalize on the growing digital market. They saw it as a more robust opportunity to connect advertisers to ultra-passionate consumers via a more targeted and interactive online experience. The panelists also stressed the importance of technology to enhance not only online play, but also mobile usage. They brought up two innovations in the industry; one by a technology company called Vivid Sky, which recently created the SkyBOX Personal Sports Network where fans can use their mobile phone to view exclusive, on-demand content, including multi-camera instant replays and streaming video real-time stats. The other concept is focusing on creating youth sports video networks allowing parents, who may be busy or away on a business trip, to watch their child’s game. Furthermore, there are some ideas floating out there about instituting a mobile service for parents, where they’ll get buzzed on their phone when their child is about to bat or check in the game, and then they can tune in to watch via mobile video. This, of course, is a complicated, time-consuming and investment-heavy idea because at the very crux of it, a video feed will have to be installed and monitored at hundreds of thousands of youth sports venues. Compelling idea, nonetheless.

Reactions: What Vivid Sky and the youth sports video initiative represent is the art of being progressive — creating a niche technological application that no one else is offering, selling advertisers against it and then using it as a bait to partner with a prominent sports property, such as a major sports league. The key is knowing your objective and target market; for example, if you’re looking to develop a program to help the NFL increase exposure in the U.S., chances are the league would rather meet with you to discuss expansion on foreign soil. Beyond most website content, which consists of articles and photos, the popularity of video is still in its infancy. Even though most users don’t upload their own videos, more companies are experimenting with and instituting streaming video on their digital platforms. What’s really untapped is maximizing mobile phone features to combine content streams with an advertising model. Unfortunately, because handheld devices update so frequently and operate on their own services, reaching a broad range of consumers is nearly impossible. Plus, many consumers are very particular about the content that appears on their device and are wary of advertising messages interfering with their private experience. But tackling these obstacles is a hot button in sports business, especially when it comes to reaching the ever-evolving fantasy gamer who is all about continuously accessing real-time stats at his or her fingertips. Looking ahead, there is no doubt that fantasy sports will be the most sellable aspect of sports engagement.

Final Thoughts

The sports industry is hurting a bit in today’s financial crisis (the latest news is that the NFL is laying off 150 employees), but it’s still largely recession-proof. Although fans may not have the disposable income they once had to attend a ballgame, they are hungry to remain connected with sports via multimedia vehicles. And advertisers are eager to connect with fans in innovative and interactive ways, knowing full well the popularity of sports and how it is the common cross-cultural thread that binds people around the world. From online to mobile, from HDTV to 3D-TV, from local to global, it’s evident that the sports experience is just starting to set in the technological horizon.

What’s on your mind? Chime in.

For Part One of The Buzz in Sports Biz, click here.

Will 2007 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow repeat?

Patrice Altine. Jared Zwerling. The black John Stockon. The white Michael Redd. Longtime friends and basketball teammates, dropping sports knowledge and schooling each other since ‘96. Different backgrounds, different perspectives — but both rise and rest to SportsCenter. PA sweating in Miami, JZ freezing in Manhattan – but both itching to talk sports. Now, they are bringing their unique collaboration to a bigger stage. This is M2M (Miami 2 Manhattan) Sports and everyone’s encouraged to jump in and sound off. The conversation ends with you.

In this week’s installment of M2M Sports, PA and JZ discuss the 2008 Heisman Trophy — whether or not more candidates should have been nominated, whose name will be called on Saturday night and plenty more. You’ll come to expect that.

JZ: Let’s crack it open like this: We’ve seen several special quarterback performances this year from Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford, Colt McCoy, Graham Harrell and Chase Daniel. But only three of these players were invited to the Heisman Trophy ceremony. Do you think the right three players were invited?

PA: The rules say you can invite three to five players to New York. I think the right three are going, but I think Harrell should be there also. If you know Texas Tech football, their “Air Raid” offense has benefited a lot of record-setting QBs, like Kliff Kingsbury and B.J. Symons. But Harrell has the sick stats, better instincts and more talent. He definitely should be in NY.

JZ: I think Harrell and Michael Crabtree basically canceled each other out, but I still think they both should have been invited. My “Fab Five” would have been Tebow, Bradford, McCoy, Harrell and Crabtree.

PA: I love Crabtree, but you don’t catch 100 balls in college without that kind of offense and the QB to get the ball to you. The other Tech receivers had good numbers also, and half the talent of Crabtree.

JZ: College football analysts were saying they probably didn’t invite Harrell and Crabtree because of the low Heisman votes they will probably get, but who cares — it’s what they did on the field and the invitation that counts. These kids are college students at the end of the day, so to be elected into that prestigious Heisman category is an honor. No embarrassment should come into the mix. These guys aren’t pros and there shouldn’t be as much criticism. It’s a little ridiculous that they can nominate up to five players for the Heisman, but this year there’s only three.

PA: In the end, those players that are not going shouldn’t be there, so it’s not like someone is getting blatantly robbed. Crabtree can’t be there because he got hurt after a fast start, and after his crazy freshman year he saw regular double teams this season, so his stats were way down. He did catch over 20 TDs though — can’t argue with his skills.

JZ: True, Crabtree was a big-time playmaker and he came through in that Texas game at the very end.

PA: Game of the year in my book, but his injury towards the end of the year hurt his Heisman chances. Oh well, he’ll cash in next year in the first round of the NFL draft!

JZ: Yeah, a top five pick for Crabtree. I think it’s also good to have a non-QB position represented at the Heisman Trophy celebration. It shows the diversity of the game and its talented players.

PA: I mean, that’s fine though, but it boils down to what they did. This was the year of the QB: Tebow, McCoy, Harrell and Bradford; not to mention, Juice Williams, Chase Daniel, Pat White and more. So I have no problem with who’s in NY, except for the Harrell omission. So give me your top two and your Heisman winner.

JZ: Tebow is my No. 1 and Bradford is my No. 2. Let me explain. Tebow, in my opinion, is the most dynamic player in college football and he runs that Florida offense so creatively and he’s got a mix of tricks. Although Florida has deep talent in the running back and wide receiver positions, Tebow still accounted for most of the team’s scores. He also has got an incredible leadership personality, which was proven after the Ole Miss loss. He kept to his promise that they wouldn’t lose another game and they didn’t; then they toppled Alabama to end the season. He’s a true star in my book. Bradford was probably the most efficient QB. In some games, he would only have like 14 passes and five of them would be touchdowns. Also, Oklahoma played the most ranked teams (five) and they only lost to one of them (Texas).

PA: As much as I want to disagree, I can’t [laughs].

JZ: And it’s incredible to see the numbers Bradford put up even with a couple of solid running backs who both rushed for more than 1,000 yards.

PA: I would give Tebow the trophy by a hair over Bradford. Remember, Bradford is a sophomore and he threw for 48 TDs — that’s like video game stats! I was rolling with the underdog a bit when Tech started picking up steam and then ultimately beat Texas. But Bradford led OU’s absolute drilling of Tech. True leadership, true talent.

JZ: Video game stats for sure [laughs]. You also have to give credit to McCoy for holding home field advantage all season. He was the only quarterback to do that out of the three. His only loss was on the road to Tech.

PA: Tebow, on the other hand, is a prototype for what the QB can be in the future: tall, big, cannon arm, fast, great insticts and accuracy, easily coachable, no ego, proven leadership. Tebow, a great runner and great passer, and he knows what to do at a moment’s notice. Tebow’s success at the next level largely depends on the system he plays in.

JZ: I don’t think he’ll be a great QB in the league, though, because Florida ran too many option plays. Bradford is a pocket passer and he’s got the height at 6′4″. He’ll be the best QB out of the three in the NFL in my opinion.

PA: After that sloppy loss to Ole Miss, UF simply bulldozed the competition culminating with — my predicted — a butt whooping of Alabama who, as everyone knows, was previously undefeated and on a roll.

JZ: I forgot to also mention how tough Tebow is; the dude is fearless. The Alabama win was icing on the cake and last impressions are everything for the Heisman voters.

PA: I agree. The BCS is “what have you done for me lately,” which I don’t think is fair, but that’s another topic [laughs].

JZ: For another time [laughs].

Photo credit: Tim Casey

The moment of greatest change our country has ever seen came when these words appeared on the television screen on November 4, 2008: “Barack Obama Elected President.” Well, that night there was another time-changing image on TV that, no matter one’s partisanship, awakened many of our viewing experiences. If you were glued to CNN during election day’s critical hours, you saw that before Obama took the stage at Chicago’s Grant Park for his victory speech, Anderson Cooper interviewed rapper will.i.am in-studio. But the Chicago local and Obama supporter wasn’t actually there — he was beamed into the television set via hologram technology. It was like watching a scene from Star Wars.

What this advancement represents is that the way we interact with popular personalities is evolving at warp speeds digitally. About a week ago, I attended a seminar hosted by the Center of Communication called “The Future of Web Video.” The principal speaker, Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3, an Internet television network, said that video holograms embody the closer degree of immediacy people want from their favorite celebrities by having the ability to bring them into their homes. It’s a “mega-friend” digital culture in which we live now and the model for web 2.0 businesses is to build real-time communities, especially around online personalities that attract many followers through applications like Facebook and Twitter.

Although many athletes are wary to let their private guard down, the idea of exposing their daily experiences beyond what they do on the playing field can mean an influx of fans and potentially new investment avenues. Think The Truman Show starring Jim Carrey whose character is living in a constructed soap opera, televised across the globe. President-elect Obama is prepared to take the American people further behind-the-scenes than any other President has via web video. Some athletes have forayed into blogging and keeping up with their journal entries, but video is still uncharted territory for most. As an example, Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas could have a highly-trafficked online show. He’s known for being a prankster and having an eclectic lifestyle. His blog describing his out-of-left-field thoughts about a number of topics on NBA.com gets solid hits on the web, but the response he would get by showing how he acts on his eccentric impulses would be wild. And by the easy functionality of viral marketing, thousands more would receive the video link in seconds.

Adidasbasketball.com has recently dabbled with this interactive tool by creating a new video ad campaign called “NBA tested. Brotherhood ready,” where visitors can watch a multipart film series featuring the brand’s endorsed athletes interact with each other off the court. But these video clips were shot before the NBA season started and fans won’t be able to follow the players in the present. According to Louderback, it’s about being “always on” to maintain a following. In the past, players like Chris Bosh and Kobe Bryant have created hilarious video segments, but they weren’t part of a continuum. They were one-off surprises and made fans antsy to see more.

Sports television studios will surely explore creating eye-popping experiences for viewers, enabling the spot on their couch to seamlessly turn into a courtside seat. So imagine one day, if you will, a player utilizing 3D technology (yes, 3D TV is on the way) through his or her personal website and creating a pseudo-realistic — but close enough — opportunity for fans to hang out with them during the course of a day. And if the athlete’s personality shines, it’s very likely that his or her agent will be getting a call from Revision3 or Hulu, another successful web TV network, to inquire about hosting their video adventures.