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Nothing but net, part 2 Success in recruiting is relational, not transactional, so keep those contacts warm and be prepared to wait for that all-star to join your team.
L ast year I had the privilege of watching the courting of Kevin Durant once he decided to leave the OKC Thunder for greener NBA pastures. In early July 2016, there were several days of recruiting and negotiations by some of the biggest teams in the NBA that all wanted what Kevin had to offer. In the end, the Golden State Warriors prevailed and ultimately won the NBA Championship with their new star. I wrote about this in a previous TZL article. I highlighted the efforts that every team undertook to try to get Kevin to join them and ultimately how the Warriors won the recruiting battle. The bottom line? When recruiting good candidates you need to pull out all the stops and make it happen.
Randy Wilburn
he lead his team on a fairy tale romp through March Madness and a date with the Duke Blue Devils in the Championship game. They lost in an epic battle, but Hayward and the Butler Bulldogs both made a name for themselves. “One of the foundations of recruiting is developing relationships both for the short-term and long-term.”
Fast forward to this year’s free agency season in the NBA. Outside of some of the monster salary extensions received by a few of the NBA’s biggest stars – James Harden comes to mind at about $248 million – one of the best off-season recruitment efforts came when the Boston Celtics were able to lure away NBA star Gordon Hayward from the Utah Jazz. Over the past seven years, Hayward proved to be a diamond for the Jazz. Picked up in the early part of the first round of the 2010 draft, Hayward had just come off a remarkable sophomore season with Butler where
See RANDY WILBURN, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER September 18, 2017, ISSUE 1216
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