Showing posts with label #8manrotaion. Show all posts
True Faith HR Replay: Why #HR Should Care About the NBA Summer League #8ManRotation
by Matthew Stollak on Tuesday, June 27, 2017
I'm heading to Las Vegas in two weeks with a few of the 8 Man Rotation folk (Kris Dunn, Steve Boese, Lance Haun)
to take in a couple days of NBA Summer League action. Worth revisiting
this July 2013 post. If you're in the area, come join us.
On July 13-16, I will join three of my colleagues behind the 8 Man Rotation
in Las Vegas (we always leave one behind to keep it going in case
something befalls the rest of us) for two to three days to catch some NBA Summer League action.
Why
do we want to head to the desert in summer time to spend 8-10 hours a
day in a gym watching exhibition basketball when those games don't
matter?
Because, in actuality, the games DO matter....for those playing. In his piece on Grantland, Steve McPherson describes what it is like for those involved:
These are guys who have worked their entire lives to be one of the 450 players in the top basketball league in the world. Guys who spent their whole lives being one of the best basketball players in any situation they ever found themselves in. And now it’s just the grind. They’re simply looking for their shot.
The ones hoping for that shot are almost universally flawed in one way or another: undersized or stuck between positions; not good enough at one specific thing to be useful to a team; dogged by problems we can’t even see, the kind of stuff many of us carry around.........
But for these players — who are among the top one or two percent of basketball players in the world — it’s their big chance. Not to become something they’re not, but to see their years of work turn them into what they’ve always been striving toward.
Those playing over these few days in Orlando and in Las Vegas are no different than the applicants to your organization. They're polishing their resumes, taking your work sample test, engaging in your role play or simulation, trying to impress you enough to take a chance on them.
For us watching, it will be passing entertainment...but for those involved, it will be all too real, with stakes that truly matter to them.
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If you wonder why I continually write about sports and HR, take the trials and tribulations of former Detroit Lions 2nd round pick, Titus Young. In Monday's column, Peter King highlights Young's on- off-the-field actions over the past year:
• Got into a fight with teammate and safety Louis Delmas.Today, it was reported that Young has a brain disorder, but one has to wonder how much is real (which, if true, I hope Young gets the help he needs), or how much is it a father trying to protect his son.
• In at least one game, lined up wrong on purpose multiple times because he wasn't happy with his role in the Detroit offense.
• Shouted at receivers coach Shawn Jefferson on the sidelines.
• Was sent home during the regular season for insubordination.
• Was cut by the Lions.
• Was signed by the Rams, then cut by the Rams eight days later.
• Was stopped in California for making an illegal left turn, charged on suspicion of DUI, and arrested hours later for attempting to steal his own car from a police impounding lot. (That's right....arrested twice in the span of 15 hours)
• Was arrested for suspected burglary, and charged with resisting arrest and assault on a peace officer.
Nonetheless, it demonstrates the vagaries of the selection process. Young was the 44th pick in 2011. The Lions had hours of game tape to evaluate his work performance. He was prodded and poked at NFL combines. He was interviewed over and over and over again. Young was suspended for much of his sophomore year at Boise State after getting into a fight with a teammate. He was a first round talent who dropped in the draft because other teams considered him a risk based on the character flaws. Yet, the Lions selection committee chose to take him over such talent as Randall Cobb or Torrey Smith (who both have had much more successful careers with the Packers and Ravens, respectively, while being picked later).
"Scout to me before Titus Young was drafted, 'I don't know if he'll ever be in trouble, but he's just not a good person.' ''
-- @Schottey, Bleacher Report NFL writer Michael Schottey, on Sunday.
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