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[♪ Graduation music]
[Darius] First I called the guy who recruited me.
He spent all that time trying to get me on board
so I let him know first. Boeheim called me, and then
boeheim's like, Darius, you need to think this through.
Little did he know, I'd been thinking
about this for liketwo, three months now. It isn't just
it isn't just I woke up the next day, I'm like, yeah.
I told him, I don't even know how to put this right now.
I'm, I'm not coming to Syracuse.
[Reporter] We have breakingnews here in Syracuse as Darius
bazley has de-committed from the orange.
I'm standing here with Darius bazley, the first guy to jump
straight from high school to the g league.
[Reporter] Darius bazley, let'stalk about this, the
ninth-rated recruit in the
class of 2018, according to ESPN.Com, he has de-committed
from Syracuse to play in the g league.
[♪Graduation music]
We live in a society now where everybody
abides by the rules.
[Rewind sound]
And people don't even know whatthe rules is,
or where it came from.
They just abide by it.
[Jay] When garnet and Kobe cameout I think people where still
having a hard time, myself
included, wrapping their headaround the idea of a high school
kid going into the NBA.
I mean, to be honest, I don't even really
remember exactly when the pushback
started. I mean, LeBron James is arguably the best player
of all time, and a couple of years after he goes pro we're
going to ban people from doing that?
Why are we considering holding dudes back from making
an honest living when we don't do that in tennis
we don't do it
in golf, we don't do it when itcomes to serving our country?
Well, I, I think at the time, my own view
was that we didn't want our scouts
in a high school gymnasium.
Just what a good look for the NBA to kind of be chasing
around kind of high school kids.
Frankly, I don't know what the difference is between that and
seeing them in college at gyms.
The NBA is saying, well, this is really something the ncaa
could fix. And we have the
ncaa saying, weare powerless because that's an
NBA rule. A circular argument going on there.
But once that rule came into effect, now it's like, all
right. Now, let me, let me
hone in on the college that fits me.
Yes, athletes are paid in an education, the only
currency more difficult to spend than bitcoin.
[Dave] With Kevin durant, man, we was talking college
because he committed to Texas
and then I committed to the university of Richmond.
Michael beasley was on theteam. Mike wasn't talking about
college. He went from aau to the, you know what I'm saying?
Just because you're a really good basketball player,
doesn't mean you're ready, uh, physically
emotionally and the like to step into the NBA at age 18.
But there is something slightlytroubling about a billion
dollar sports enterprise where the athletes are not paid a penny,
because they aren't. And as thehead of the ncaa Mark
emmert will tell you, they don't want that to change.
This was another way of us assuring
that your pick wasn't based upon
a grown man beating up on a bunch of kids. [Chuckle]
[♪Music]
[Rich] Everybody in the environment was like, I hope
that he fail. People hoped Darius
failed because of the system. People hope
Darius failed because he's represented by rich Paul.
[♪Music]
[Jay] A lot of people when you say, love the game, a lot of
people love what they get from
the game. It's a separating factor.
Look at all the top guys in ourleague right now. All guys
performing well. They love the game. Kevin durant right now,
today, will play basketball in this room right now.
He don't care. He just loves the game.
[Beep] [Camera guy] All right. Take one.
Wait a minute, this kid's 16, he can handle, shoot,
athletic and he loves the game? Oh, you know what?
Come on.
[♪Music]
I believe college is necessary for most kids. Right?
And most kids aren't one and done.
It was truly about trying to dowhat's best for Darius. And,
when you take on this responsibility, my mind was,
just kept racing about environment
and what is this kid going to do for, you know, the next
eight months and how can I put him in the best position
to where he's not behind?
[Yell] Give it to me! Give it to me!
He could never have done that. Oh my god!
[♪Music]
[David] In addition to Nike, Adidas and under armour,
we now have puma and new balance coming back in,
having abandoned the industry.
[Patrick] There was a time whennew balance was very much part
of the NBA and on the feet of lots of NBA athletes in the
80's the times change. Goals change. Businesses change.
[Ben] They were in a decent Lane of performance running.
They started to develop a bit of a kind of
dad shoe reputation.
[Patrick] A handful years ago, there was a desire
for the brand to be seen more
as a global sports brand, not just a running brand.
[Ben] It's hard to be a huge global footwear brand
if you don't have basketball.
[Jay w.] I know what Nike standsfor. I know what Adidas stands
for. There's kind of this blankcanvas with new balance
basketball. What are you going to do next? Pphow are you
going to come to market?
[♪Music]
Well, de-committed from Ohio state or de-committed
from Syracuse? Oh, I see. Okay.
Uh, and then he de-committed from the g league.
So he's in the de-commitment stage.
In my head I'm like, new balance?
[Fast forward sound]
Guys his age don't even get this and I'll
speak to him about how he feelsabout it.
Then that'll help us understandwhat's the next step.
[Rachel Nichols] Darius bazley is now participating in what
could add up to a million dollar internship with
new balance.
He's going to be an intern. He starts in
January. It's for three months.
He'll live in Boston.
New balance? Oh, they signed Darius bazley. Oh, that's
pretty dope. He's doing something different.
There aren't that many internships that, where guys
are offered a million dollars tobe anppintern.
He done finessed the whole situation.
I like him. I don't know him, but
I like him. Damn, I should've tried that shit.
As far as just thinking, like, dang you know.
A million dollar intern.
I mean, it's great. But it's like for me, my life didn't
change. You know, I, I'mwearing new balances now, that's
the only thing.
For him deciding not to play in the g league and saying, I'm
going to take a year to train, I thought was the
most fascinating and disruptivething I've ever
seen in basketball.
[Ben] I do think it's possible to bust your ass for eight
months without being on a team and not hurt your pro
potential, but I'm sure it takes a lot of discipline.
[Jay w.] People pay attention toespn. People pay attention to
all these different news sites. They hear
what pundits say. They hear what we talk about.
If you're playing behind closeddoors, you don't have to go
through that. Now that's a giftin a way, but it's also a curse
because we're not talking about you. Now you're an enigma.
[Ben] The best high school basketball players have
had a level of fame
going back to lew alcindor. What has changed
dramatically is how they get toinfluence it. You know.
It used to be just newspapers
shaped how they were viewed. Thanks to social media,
if a fan is interested they canget it right from the kid now.
[Jay w.] Kids are building brands at a lot earlier
stages than we ever thought.
LeBron is a brand, and then Steph curry and Kevin durant
and you name it. The players have moved right in with their
social media, et cetera.
Very good. Breath.
[Trainer] Perfect!
[♪Music]
No, I've definitely dealt with young kids like this before
just Darius was significantly different coming straight out
of high school.
[♪Music]
[Michele] There's no question but that 18 is young. 18
is very young. I recall when I was 18
how much I thought I knew, and I now know how little I knew.
[♪Music]
[Water faucet running]
[Dave] At 18, me personally, going straight from high school
to a office environment would, uhh, would be a shock.
You know what I mean? I feel like it would be a
definite culture shock for me.
[Patrick] I can personally attest to the months
and the weeks before
he moved in, people asking me almost every single day
where's he going to sit? Who's he reporting to?
Is he actually going to do work? Is this for real?
We promised him, we promised his family,
we promised rich that it was.
This was going to be a real deal thing. You're
coming to work every day.
Of course you're nervous, you're concerned.
[David] And you get butterflies.
[David] When I became commissioner
we came back to the office, I was an adult,
and I turned around to the guysand said, what are we ...,
and the girls. I said, what do we do now?
"Oh my god, what did we get ourselves into?"
It will be overwhelming for some kids to be, okay,
hi, you've graduated high school. Now you're an intern.
[Office chatter]
[Office chatter] [Ball bounce]
Coming from high school, I'm used to going to school
in a class filled around my peers.
Hi. I'm Jamie. Nice to meet you. I'm really short.
I'm Linda. Great to meet you.
[Darius] You know, I'm able to like clown around in the
classroom, crack jokes, be on my phone, you know, like,
blurt out certain stuff here and then, so you go to
work, and it's just kind of like...
[Darius] You just want to be professional, but you don't
really don't know like what to do like,
I just didn't want people to not like me.
So in workday, you're going to have to log the hours
that you work every day.
Umm, and there... I printed this for you so it's just-
[Darius] So it's kind of like clocking and clocking out? Ppyeah, clocking in
I'm sure it was a crazy cultureshock for Darius.
What questions do you have? Anything? Ppno, nothing right now.
[Jamie] I know, it's probably a lot right now.
But your tax forms and stuff.
I don't know what tax is. I mean, I know
what tax is but I don't...
Yeah, and that's why... so, I can't legally
tell you what to put here.
[Phone ringing]
Db! B bro.
What's up? I am being sent home
already, bro. [Rich] You're only 27 minutes into this
job. There's no way. [Darius] No, I'm just playing,
I was about to say, man, there's no way.
I was about to say.
[Darius] No, but there's a formi got
to fill out on here and it's about taxes, and I
don't know anything about this. So I kind of need to know..
These are all our like... Employee handbook,
the confidentiality agreement.
[Darius] At first, I thought, you know, a shoe,
people are just putting together random colors and
selling them I learned that that's not how it goes.
[Fast forward sound]
In this blocking, I don't love.
The language barrier, I think sometimes happens in corporate
america where there's a different vernacular that
people speak at.
[Fast forward sound]
[Darius] What do you mean by blocking again?
[Fast forward sound]
All this goes into the final product of me having
a shoe that I wear on the courtand
you paying me a couple of millions of dollars?
[Fast forward sound]
[Sigh] This is harder then I thought.
Oh. This is what work really is.
This is what the grind of work really is.
It would have been different for him going to
college and dealing with professors that he's never
had to deal with or in subjectshe's never
taken before or never contemplated.
You know. Everything at that age that you do is new.
And so of course, I don't know anybody
that goes into a first job and he says,
well, I got this knocked.
I'm going to have to figure this out.
[Jay w.] As much as I thought iknew what training
was, I didn't know anything about my
body. I just came from losing the sweet
16 or winning a championship
the year before and having a pizza after practice.
You in high school, hanging around with your friends,
getting up shots for an hour.
You think that's a hard workout. That's not a workout.
That is not the kind ofconditioning your body needs in
order for you to be successful at the 0.0001% level.
It's not the same as going to gleague practice every day.
It's not the same as going to college practice
every day. It's not the same as going to
practice in Europe every day.
[Pierre] You're going to be playing in that spot,
Trevor ariza, in that corner.
And then, they're going to ask you to come out of
that corner, like Trevor ariza and you got to make a play
going downhill. You got to makea route
coming off the screen. It shows me
how good and where you want to be and what's at stake. Now, I
got to be the one to be like, come on.
This is what's at stake. Let's go.
I would say for Darius that when I initially saw his game,
he looked extremely thin.
All I want you to do is make that needle go as far as
you can. Push down just far
as you can. Nice. Because you will do that for
almost two minutes. Okay? That's our goal.
While breathing.
[Jay w.] I think one of the things that I worried
about with him is, how about his sides?
Hey, is this going to happen intime?
Can he, you know, gain weight?
[Jay w.] Can you shoot the ball if you play with James harden?
Can you be that guy that can shoot the ball
consistently from the three point line, because the
defense is always going to collapse
on a op three or a James harden? But also, can you pace
the game? Can you run? And thenalso, are you long?
Can you be a solid defender?
Can I put you on a guy like giannis and say, try?
[♪Music]
[Michele] What happens with theone and done rule, in my
opinion, doesn't end the conversation because there's
still the question of what's going on at the college level.
There darn well ought to be flexibility from the ncaa, but
those two words don't seem to go together.
Ncaa and flexibility.
For Darius bazley, him coming to that school does wonders
for that school for what they will be like and ticket sales
and Jersey sales and TV rights deals, and
what's going to happen with the
acc network. And now, we can
do more features on Darius and tell his story.
Mind you, every time these young men hit
the court, they face the
possibility of a career ending injury. So, I appreciate
the fear of delayed entry because it may mean no entry.
If something happened to dariusand he
really couldn't play, or it turned out he wasn't as good
as everybody thought, uh, the school could pull the offer
in a heartbeat. And I don't think anybody
would lose any sleep over it.
It happens. It doesn't happen all the time,
but it happens. And we've seen it before.
[Faucet water running]
[Dave] With the mentality of somebody that been
in the gym for the last 18
years, now you putting them in an office
environment with people that's not
athletic, people that probably don't
talk too much basketball. So now,
you all the way is awkward. Andi mean, that's a place where
you got to really try to fit in.
[♪Music]
I'm Darius. I'm with the marketing team.
[Darius] To me, I thought everyone was just like,
oh, look at this kid coming in to work.
We think he only plays. Like, this fancy kid,
he got this camera crew following him around.
He got a cubicle near
the window. I've been here for three years.
I don't even got that. So, I try to do things that
would make them like me. I mean, obviously be myself.
[♪Music]
I don't know if you're doing something important.
I don't even know if you reallydon't even want to talk to me.
[♪Music] [Conversations]
[Darius] Hello? [Richard] Db!
[Darius] Waz up? [Richard] How are you getting.
[Richard] Along with your coworkers?
We get along well. They all gotgreat personalities. So...
[Richard] Are you interacting with everybody? Ppyeah. I'm
not saying everybody, but I mean, I'm getting
around to it. At first, I wouldjust walked
through the halls and like,
and I would try to keep my headdown
so nobody said hello or anything.
[♪Music]
[Darius] To go from work and tocome home and you're just like,
you have nobody to talk to. Like you just...
You're literally in a house by yourself while
you just chilling. There's nothing to do.
You're by yourself. I'm not thetype to like go out and all
that stuff. I'm literally at myhouse by myself.
[♪Music]
These times, I don't even have an appetite to eat.
[♪Music]
[Trainer] Wakey, wakey. Eggs and bakey.
[Darius] Some days, I'll ask 7:00 ams.
[Bouncing ball]
[Trainer] Head down. And then, separate and knock it down.
[Darius] Then, you go to work at 9:00 am.
[Darius] Then, you lift at 12:00.
[Trainer] Yeah. It's heavy. Good. Look up here. Four. So
push right where my fingers are.
[Darius] 2:00, 2:30, after I'm done lifting and go get food.
I go back to work until 5:00
[♪music]
And then I go home for about hour and a half
and I get ready to go to basketball at 8:00.
Or sometimes, I'll have basketball at 10:00.
[Knocking]
[Bouncing ball]
[Darius] And then, I get home at like 12:00
and then you got to get up and do all over again.
[Jay w.] It's going to be hard as hellpp..For you to go out
and learn, what's a real work day?
What's a real work daywhere there are actually things
that I need to make sure that I accomplish throughout
my work day while I am training, while I am
going, getting my head beat in
by this trainer who is putting me through drills
I've never seen before, who is
pushing my conditioning to a level I've never
witnessed before internally.
No. I'm just not doing
it as fast as you did, so I'm not doing it right.
[Jay w.] So yeah, if you're nothaving some kind of
breakdown, you're not experiencing
that shit because that shit is real, man.
[Darius] It was crazy being in an environment that
I want to be one day because
you know, you're just getting aglimpse of it. Just didn't
like, you know, it's right there in front of you.
And I can be here.
[♪Music]
All star we going up, man.
[Rich] We're all born with somesmall
increment of entitlement and ego.
This ain't no regular shit. We at the spot, bro.
[Rich] But that can't be the majority of the
glass. You don't know which city you
going to. You don't know what your
team mates look like. You don'tknow what your
coach is like because you haven't had any
experience with him. There's a possibility you may
be sent to the g league. And so, if
you're coming into this league with ego and entitlement,
and that is what is your foundation is built upon that,
more times than not, the building is going
to crumble. And depending on where you're drafted, you may
not get a second chance around.
[♪Music]
[Phone rings]
Just texted Darius, checking tosee if he's coming in today,
but haven't heard back from him.
[Phone rings]
With any employee, teammate, team member, especially
a young guy, he's got a lot of stuff going on
and a lot of attention. Sometimes, you need
to have some reminders about staying on the path. How do
you juggle going to all starweekend one day where you're at
huge parties with LeBron, Ben Simmons and other superstars,
and then literally a day or twolater, you are
being expected to follow up on
projects that you've been working on. I had to
sit him down and be like, hey, you know,
do you want to keep doing this? Is this what you want?
[♪Music]
[Rich] I purposely left him alone. I purposely not
babied him. I purposely not flew to Boston every week to
check on him, to see how he's doing, purposely because
you have to be responsible and you know,
he's going into adulthood wherehe has to be responsible.
And he has to be professional
and he's going to get paid to do a job.
What's up y'all hey, what's up?
Rock and roll live, what's up bro?
You good? It's nice to meet you bro. Bro.
Damn, that hoodie is tight as fuck. I'm so blessed
to be working with you guys. I'm so happy for this
collaboration and I think it's going to be awesome.
It was great meeting Jayden. You know, he
just wasn't like laid back and it was just like, yeah.
Okay that's fine. You can do that. He really was like up,
active. To see that, to see how he interacted
with people, to see how
he carried himself. People think of
18, teenagers, like just immature.
He's not immature, you know what I'm saying, he loves is fun
or whatever, but he's not immature.
And then you got me just coming from the
immature and then seeing that it's just
like, that's what you want to be.
I hate to interrupt. But I'm about to dip.
Pleasure meeting you. Yeah!
Mind if I get a picture of you?
Oh you about to dip? [Laughter]
That's lit, thank you for coming through bro.
[Patrick] To his credit. He waslike,
no man, I'm in, I'm want to make this
as fulfilling and gratifying asi possibly
can for the last five, six weeks.
There's a time and place to be professional. There's a time
and place to, you know, relax a little bit. Be yourself,
laugh, trip out with your friends. And
I think that I've learned that.
[♪Music]
[Rich] There's no quote on quote, perfect way to prepare
for going to the NBA. One of the biggest things that I wanted
him to align himself with is needing to build good habits.
[♪Music]
[Darius] Yeah, you put them on some new balances
and they post in on their page.
And they tell you like I'm surethat it will get
other people just more interested.
[Woman] That's so, this is so helpful.
I developed habits. I developeda routine.
[♪Music]
I didn't realize how big that was.
[Grunting] [Trainer] Come on. 6more. Last 5.
Both legs equally. 4... 3...
[♪Music]
Good. Let's do it then. Let's do it then. Pp..[Grunt]
Yeah. Fair enough, get that thing down. Okay.
It's like, that's where theinternship came in clutch for me
because now it's just like I'm building habits off the court,
like, that I know that aren't an everyday thing.
When you think of new balance, what comes to mind?
What fabric do you prefer to train in?
Cuz I don't mind working on a cotton team,
some people will find that like, annoying.
What matters to you more for a workout, comfort or style?
Where do you keep up with the latest fashion trends?
I think that's like really important.
I think all the lifestyle b-ball questions,
those are really good here.
[Jay w.] So what teaches you how to network.
Yes, I am Darius bazley, but also
I am a guy that wants to understand business.
He's getting the opportunity tolearn the business.
Understanding what goes into
making the shoe from a technology
standpoint, fabric standpoint, from the way they
mold the foot. Why it's important from a
marketing standpoint, from a rollout standpoint,
from a demographic standpoint, from a price
standpoint? People don't even understand that.
It's a lot that goes into the business of
making a shoe. He understands that.
[♪Music]
[Man] Excited to talk to you guys today. And
lucky enough, igot to bring my guy Darius here.
He's going to talk to you guysand ask you guys some questions.
Did y'all know new balance got stuff like this coming out?
Do you guys like stuff like this? Like this cammo vibe?
Y'all like the zipper, like the, like the pocket on this?
Remove the zipper and keep thatlogo on the side.
Get rid of this little patch right here? Yeah
this is more like workout, thisis more lifestyle. Yeah!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. Before he shows
you this, there's some shoes inhere that's better than
any shoe that's on ya'll feet. [Laughing]
[Kids] That's not your size. That one...
[Darius] You're going crazy, right?
You like loud course shoes?
So for basketball shoes, you rather loud
than like black, gray or whatever.
You stand out anywhere bro. [Darius] Alright, cool.
Well, all this is ya'lls, but y'all got to win it.
So we going to play knockout for all this.
[Michele] I have zero influenceover the ncaa.
I spent a little time wondering
about what I can make them do because I know
the answer is nothing. But
to the extent we all share, and I think we do,
the league, the union players and the ncaa in improving
the game of basketball. They need to confront
the issue of compensation for these players.
These players are worth a ton of money, a ton of money.
When I was commissioner, I saidto the ncaa,
you're worried about kids leaving school
I got a great idea. How about if the NBA ensures
the top number of prospects, sothat they're
not afraid they'll be injured, and if they get drafted,
they'll pay us back. If they don't get drafted,
they won't pay us back. And thencaa
came back and said, oh, thatonly works if you do it for all
sports. And we said, okay. [Laugh]
These guys are starting this at15, they
don't see a payout until 19?
Like, and everyone else is getting paid off their back?
So, that's the, that's the, that's the
missing link. When does this get
turned into, when can theymonetize their reach, basically?
If Darius bazley had gone to Syracuse, he would have
been an unpaid billboard for Nike. Instead, he took the
deal with new balance and he
was a paid billboard for new balance.
It's finally here, I'm sending out my seeding kit.
As you see I got this dope bookbag. These notepads, parking
pass, portable charger. These shoes here.
Actually, these are going to ...quavo.
I got the new balance shoes theintern. Uh, yeah. [Laughing]
Just as a thank you for
following my journey and you know, as hopes
that they keep following my journey.
Today's my last day. I thoughtl'd read my seeding kid letter.
I think it, um, really just wraps up, um,
reflects my time here at new balance. I'm coming
to the end of my internship at new balance. In just
three months, I've learned so much. When I first started,
I thought that making a shoe was simple,
but I couldn't have been more wrong. The shoe
has to hit milestones before going into production.
We have to get prototypes, style testing, record their
measurements. At times a shoe can get sent
back to the designers more thana hundred times.
We have to find the right materials, look into future
trends and eventually hit our margin targets.
I hope you enjoy everything. I have to get back to work, peace.
Sincerely, the intern.
[Patrick] It's funny. The buildup before
his arrival was so significant.
And then he's here, and then the novelty wears off
a little bit after a while. And then he's
somebody who's part of the team,
to him suddenly being gone. It's sad,
because he's super funny kid,
that's really smart. And he's brought a lot
to the table and he's contributed a ton. I,
for one will be really sad to see him go. But we've
all valued his time here and
hope that it has served him well.
[David] There's no one way thatworks because there's now a
fourth way. [Chuckle] Don't go to college, go to college,
go to g league. I guess I'm gonna, I guess I'm
adding a fifth, go to g league, go to international play
or get an internship in a shoe deal.
We'll see.
The next two, three months for Darius will be hell.
A good hell, without the fire.
With sun and ocean.
[♪Music]
We'll do everything. All court work,
strength and conditioning work. Preparation in terms of teams
and rosters and different things like that, work.
Bazley was sort of out of sight, out of mind
for a lot of people, myself included. I wasn't,
I wasn't calling new balance saying, hey, how'd he do
today. You got any footage of his workout.
So it's like a chess game. I think 10, 15 years
ago you would have a pawn and you would have a bishop.
You would have a rook andeverybody did different things.
I think you still have that to certain degrees,
but you have more queens on thecourt.
You have more interchangeable parts on the court.
[Ben] And this is a really, really intense
time for guys that are entering
the draft. I mean, no mistakes on social media,
no incidents off the court. And then on the court,
you just got to bust your ass and play well.
[Jay w.] So we haven't been talking about Darius bazley.
Yes, he'sbeen very disruptive in the way
he's going about it, but we haven't talked about
him all year, the same way we talked about
a ja morant, the same way we talked about a
rui hachimura, the same way we talked about
rj Barrett or cam reddish or
Zion Williamson. So now you're coming out
to the scene. We get a chance to see you for the first time.
So how are you psychologically going to be
able to handle taking criticism from people?
[Jay] Agents are trying to do what's best
best to put their clients in the best
positions, but as much as you try to manipulate it,
this is what I believe, it's really hard to fool the NBA.
It's really hard to fool them. Everybody makes mistakes
on players, but they make very few.
Hour long jog, got some chik-fil-a,
about to go hard.
Because I didn't have a chance to put anything into my body.
Let me see.
Because we were rushed out of the house. So I
grabbed chik-fil-a for everybody.
Well, at least you were thoughtful.
Very thoughtful. I appreciate that.
[Darius] Gm's, presidents, headcoaches, scouts, they all
gathered in one gym to watch mework out.
[Squeaking shoes]
[Barius] I kind of felt like myshot was a bit flat.
Flat. I'm just like, aw, man,
it's tingling through mebecause it's just like, this is
big. This day matters just likethe combine, these days are big.
We know how tall you are, your
vertical, your wingspan, your hand size.
We know all those things. What we don't know is
how you think on a daily basis. And what
buttons push certain things andhow it affects you.
We don't know that. That's so hard to
evaluate. So when people get on these
gms about picking certain... They don't know that.
For Darius, the biggest thing that I've always been harping
on him is to understand how to think to gain.
Build good habits, think to gain.
[♪ Music]
[Darius] Definitely I learned a lot and didn't
realize I was learning. Interviewing with
teams, when they ask me about new balance
and I have all this stuff to tell them.
I was talking to Sam presti today. I was telling him
about the focus group. Those clothes,
how many of those that they're making.
Some stuff they already have for
fall 2020. Even with shoes, youhave to
make at least two years ahead of time.
You have people who look into future trends
to make the color ways of this
shoe, to see what'd be hot. Andi went in,
on and on and on and eventuallyl'm like,
all right, he's probably sick of me
talking about this. Let me close it up.
[Jay] There were 20-some guys that were invited
into the green room with 30 first round picks,
and bazley wasn't one of those invited.
[Michelle] As far as I know, he's still anticipated to be
drafted into the NBA.
[David] It's great for the league, it's not designed for
the faint of heart, though, because these young men don't
know exactly where they're going.
Their agents think that they'regoing to help
them get some place or someplaceelse, and often
they're disappointed. So it's an interesting time.
[Adam silver] With the first pick in the 2019
NBA draft the New Orleans pelicans
select Zion Williamson from Duke university.
2019 NBA draft the Memphis grizzlies
select ja morant.
With the sixth pick in the 2019nba draft
the Phoenix suns select jarrettculver. The Atlanta
hawks select Jaxson Hayes. The Minnesota timberwolves
select Cameron Johnson from theuniversity of north Carolina.
[♪Music]
With the 13th pick, the Miami heat select
Tyler herro. With the 14th pickthe Boston
celtics select Romeo Langford.
With the 15th pick of the 2019 NBA draft
the Detroit pistons select sekou doumbouya.
[Jay] When you decide you're going to go
into the NBA, that's big boy school.
You're saying, all right, evaluate me.
And if you think I'm really good, take me.
If they don't take you, they'resaying,
I think somebody's better than you.
That's what you ask them to do.
You put yourself in that position.
[Adam silver] The 22nd pick in the 2019 NBA draft
the Boston celtics select grantwilliams
from the university of Tennessee.
With the 31st pick in the 2019 NBA draft
the Utah jazz select Darius bazley
from Cincinnati, Ohio. [Cheering and clapping]
I'm proud of you. I knew you would do well.
Thank you. Thank you. I'm proud of you, bro.
Thank you. Yeah boy!
Thank you.
[Jay] It did sort of surprise me when he
was taken kind of middle of the first round.
Uh, that was, that was above where I had him,
that was above where, uh I
think most people had him slotted.
I'm in the NBA, bro. I'm in thenba. I got drafted.
Let's go, bro. I can't wait to get to work.
That's all I can think about isgetting to okc. Like.
I really want to go tomorrow, just get to work, bro.
I really loved it there. They seemed
seemed really genuine like they had a classy
organization, everybody cared.
I just can't wait to get to work,
man. This is crazy, man. This is crazy. This is wild.
[Man] You're now in the NBA, bro.
I'm in the NBA.
[Man] Now looking back at everything,
what do you have to say?
It was all part of the plan. Itworked. You know, it worked. I'm
here, that's all I can ask for. I'm here. I won
tonight. I won. Mr. Presti.
I just want to congratulate youand tell you
how excited we are to have you. And the
main thing that I want to make sure that you understand is,
we're looking at you because of your maturity and your
understanding that you've got a lot of work ahead of you.
Right!
And that this is a place where players
get better and they improve, but it's
all going to come down to your attitude, your work ethic,
and a lot of the things you learned at that internship,
quite frankly. You know. Real
life experiences, but we're really
excited about having you. You fit the profile of the
players that we've had success with,
and um, you know, we'll have a great plan for
you. At the end of the day, a lot of
it's just going to come down toyour commitment
and your persistence. And I have a lot of
confidence that that's going to work out. Pp..[Barius] Yeah. Well I
just want to say thank you onmy behalf, of taking this chance
on me. And I'm excited to come in and get to work.
[Michele] As long as guys have a choice and they're able to
make that choice unconstrained, that's fine. Unfortunately,
they don't have the choice ofcoming straight into the league.
I'm a by-product of a college education. Let's throw the
education part out the door, because
who really knows if you're actually getting
education or not. I'm a by-product of
the network that comes from
the value of an education. But I think if a kid wants
leave from high school, leave from high school.
If you want to come to college for one year,
come to collegefor one year. I don't understand
why there has to be a ceiling on, hey, you have to do this.
One and done has not been a problem. What one and done has
been is a convenient scapegoat. Jordan spieth
was one and done, anybody have a problem with that?
Anybody think that Jordan spieth was making a mockery
of education by only going to college for a year?
I think you have a more open-minded culture, you have
a more principled head of the player's
association in Michelle Roberts.
The tide is shifting on whetherguys should get paid,
and it's like, if that's not going to happen,
well obviously the other option is let them
go pro and only make guys play in college
that want to play in college.
As long as the status quo remains that
these young men are not being paid,
then the attraction of the college option,
in my view, isn't going to diminish.
It seems clear that the NBA is going to go the route
of allowing high school playersto come into the league again.
I think many people in college are applauding that,
that's going to take this off our plate now.
Now that's the NBA's problem, when college's problems
are going to be exactly the same.
They're not going to change one iota.
You wonder, when do the kids, and I say kids,
the players, profit? And so maybe
it should have changed in a strong way a long time ago,
but I'm sure that Adam silver will figure
it out, because he's a smart
guy. And whatever the NBA doesl'm going to support completely.
Darius is someone, and again he doesn't know
know this yet, who will addressthe first
rookie class, the next rookieclass, and help them understand
the options that exist and why he took the path he took.
He is a trailblazer of sorts. Again, he's not the first but
he's the most recent. And his story, I'm glad you're
telling it, but I'd like to hear him tell it as well on
this basketball court to our next class of
rookies, because it's a story that should be told.
[Darius] Something to take awayfrom this, definitely, is bet
on yourself. You know. Take, take a risk. I think
with me, this whole thing, I'vealways thought positive.
We did it. We conquered the mountain.
Be open minded, open to all newthings.
Umm, you know. That's it, really.
[Yelling song the lion king]
[Yelling] Hello. Hello.
[♪ Music]
Hey, hey, hey, hey!
[♪ Music]