Clutch the Bear – the Houston Rockets Hall of Fame Mascot – ripped off his Rockets uniform to show a VIPERS UNIFORM. My jaw dropped when that happened. It was kind of like seeing the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man walking down the streets of NYC, only with positive reverberations.
Was legitimacy the right word? Debatable, but the spirit is correct. Before it was really cool for us to have the NBA in the building, whether it was wearing their uniforms or having their mascots. Now it's really cool for them to get to be a part of the NBA D-League.
It also speaks to the close relationship between the Rockets and the Vipers. Everyone says it's about getting to the baseball model of single affiliations... and that's true on the court... but the great thing about the D-League is that it's not only about developing players and coaches, but front office staff too.
I don't know of many minor league baseball teams that have this kind of relationship with their parent club, and that includes those that are owned by the big league team and happen to be close by.
I really don't think you're going to see Mr. Met in Buffalo, for example, and if you do, what are the odds he puts on a Bisons jersey?
But we've developed that kind of relationship on the business side. This isn't just a basketball affiliation, it's about so much more.
My moment of zen yesterday was when the Rockets re-sent my press releases about Coach of the Year Chris Finch and MVP Mike Harris to their media (with me still listed as the media contact).
Plenty of team are interested in the single-affiliation for basketball, for for business? I'm not sure. It might help if the league brought more exposure to the front office staffs.
I asked Reed about this yesterday... maybe doing front office staff awards. Honors for hitting bench marks in various sales categories are nice, but I think individual awards are good too. Yes, as both Finch and Harris said, there are no individual awards, they are a reflection of those around them, but that's okay. The individual award brings attention to the whole team. Additionally, they look good on a resume and bring exposure to people who are trying to move up. Why do we work in the minors? To make the majors. So why just give exposure to players and coaches?
If we're going to be serious that we want this league to be a feeder to the NBA for staff, there need to be individual awards. There needs to be a broadcaster of the year, a communications executive of the year, a group sales executive of the year, a season tickets executive of the year, a corporate sales executive of the year and a team president of the year, at the very least.
Pretty much every minor league that I know of has such awards. They often include things like visiting hotel of the year, arena of the year... etc.
I also work for the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings of United League Baseball. I was honored as both broadcaster and communications executive of the year after last season. I intend to work my rear end off to earn them again this season. How come I can't get a chance to compete for similar awards in the NBA D-League? What about my colleagues? There are some really good communications folks around the league (I didn't say PR people because I hate being called a PR guy. Call me an MR guy. My primary job is media relations). I might win, I might not. Either way, there should be something.
Same goes for broadcaster and ADB.
Or those other front office awards. Plenty of people would be competing for those awards both in this office and around the league.
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As for the awards that were handed out, Mike Harris was the no duh MVP. I imagine he got every vote. The funny thing is, he probably got most of those votes for his on court stats, rather than his off court leadership.
Did you know that after the Vipers lost the first game of the season in Austin, Harris held a players only meeting and basically told them this would not happen again? The Vipers won their next six games and never looked back.
Chris Finch earning Dennis Johnson Coach of the Year didn't surprise me either. In my opinion, he's the best of the upper echelon of coaches in the league, which includes Iowa's Nick Nurse and Austin's Quin Snyder. Finch had to deal with an ever-changing roster... 10 GATORADE Call-Ups, 5 NBA-Assignments and injuries up the wazoo. Yet he never panicked. Never made a move just to make a move. Always got the most out of what he had.
What's more is that Finch is also a heck of a nice guy and willing to do pretty much whatever you need. He's very accommodating to helping us on the business side succeed, and that has included changing practice times so we can have players/coaches at appearances, camps, clinics and media events.
Mike and Chris are two of the best people I've come across. They're good human beings and very deserving of every accolade.
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Sometimes the door swings both ways. My co-worker Shu Muthyala and I have to go speak at a Pharr Rotary Club lunch in a few minutes. Shu and I were there just a few months ago for Coach Finch's first Rotary Club appearance. They asked this morning if they could get someone to speak today, so the coaches asked us to go. Should be fun. =)
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