At The Basketball Tournament, Career Opportunities Are Second to Fun

A championship game with a beef-jerky sponsorship, a $2 million grand prize, and a spot on ESPN doesn't sound like an upstart, avant-garde sporting event, but make no mistake: The Basketball Tournament is still weird, and still magical.

The event's final two rounds, held at Fordham University's 3,200-seat Rose Hill Gymnasium in the Bronx, gave TBT its biggest shot yet of mainstream exposure. However, the tournament's success lies in its grassroots feel. From the various alumni teams—featuring players from low-major and high-major programs, recent NBA veterans and well-credentialed ex-collegian weekend-warrior types—to the fans in Seattle Supersonics shirts and Chauncey Billups college jerseys, the single-elimination, open-entry tournament is part serious competition, part nostalgic jamboree.

When summer comes around and good basketball becomes scarce, TBT—in just its third year of existence—has become a godsend for basketball nerds hungry for a fix.

"I expect it to get a lot bigger," TBT founder Jonathan Mugar told VICE Sports prior to Saturday's semifinals. "The original idea is a $50 million prize, so that's the original expectation, to keep growing it to that point. We're two years and two months old, and I didn't expect it to be this big this quickly."

The tournament already has upped its grand prize from $500,000 to $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 this year. But even as the pot gets bigger, its low-key charm remains intact. The entrants included players from a Virginia state championship based out of Council (population 500); a squad comprising personalities from a popular sports podcast; and a team called Kimchi Express, so named because, as point guard Jae Byun put it, "We're a bunch of Asian guys." Jerseys left behind by losing teams go up for sale, which means there's likely a "Pedro's Posse" Mike Bibby jersey hanging in somebody's closet right now. The whole scene was enough to make veteran sports and basketball reporter David Aldridge laugh with glee, just at the spectacle.

That said, TBT features high-end basketball, and wherever high-end basketball is being played, scouts are watching. Front office personnel from the NBA and other leagues are now taking a closer look at TBT, with tangible results for its participants.

"We hear it all the time," Mugar said. "We had a couple NBA scouts at our games in Chicago last weekend. I'm sure we're going to see some guys signed out of this."

Jhondre Jefferson, center for the two-time champion Overseas Elite, said that after he signed in Italy, his coach asked about one of his TBT teammates.

"To have the opportunity to see multiple players that play at high levels professionally, that played at major DI programs, all in the same setting—to me it's an absolute must to attend during the summer," Joe Salerno, head coach of the Island Storm in Canada's National Basketball League, said. "You want to say that the sky is kind of the limit. It's become a very big thing."

Salerno has been scouting The Basketball Tournament since its inception, and signed three players from it after his first visit. He's watched as the talent pool has widened since.

"This year, I went to the Los Angeles regional, the first-round regional in Los Angeles, and I just said to myself, 'Wow.' It was almost similar to the Sweet Sixteen the year before," Salerno said. "I think the talent level has grown every year, and I think what the TBT has seen is more and more high-end European pros that are home for the summer competing. It's pretty impressive. The talent this year was through the roof."

Part of the tournament's appeal, for fans as well as scouts, is seeing familiar faces, such as NBA alumni Alex Kirk, Russ Smith, James White, Jason Williams, and Patrick O'Bryant.

"I think the level of competition is just going to keep going up and eventually it'll be a place where you'll see a lot of NBA guys looking to find some players for camp," said O'Bryant, who was told by his agent that he might have some overseas scouts watching his games.

You can already find "NBA guys" at the tournament. Ed Pinckney, who has been an assistant coach for the Timberwolves, the Bulls, and now the Denver Nuggets, was taking in the semi-finals on Saturday.

"I think that the more detailed scouting becomes, general managers and scouts are looking for talent all over the world," Pinckney said. "So there shouldn't be any reason why they wouldn't be here just to keep tabs on guys—where they're playing, how they're playing—because the talent that the league has gotten, especially this year, has been really good."

Names like Kristaps Porzingis, C.J. McCollum, and Karl-Anthony Towns were also on rosters in non-playing roles this year. Tack on the ESPN broadcast deal, and that's still more eyes on TBT moving forward. The winner-take-all format of the tournament isn't going to change, but more attention on the games means more deals for players.

"If you got to know the guys as well as I do, the players, you would feel really good about it," Mugar said. "Genuinely really good, down-to-earth guys who you really want the best for. You see them play up close and you're saying, 'Why isn't that person in the NBA?'"

However, none of the players interviewed worried about that. They didn't want to talk about scouts, contracts, or millions of dollars. This was more about basketball than anything, and the players were more focused on playing with their old college teammates and friends again. They were more focused on winning the next game than scoring their next pro contract in Europe or Asia.

"We don't look at it like that," point guard Marcus Hall, who scored 24 points in a championship game loss for Team Colorado, said. "I know it's not in my head, and I know any of my teammates that I've talked to over the past four weeks, we haven't talked about opportunities off of this."

For all the magical things about The Basketball Tournament, nothing speaks louder than this: all these pro players are too busy having fun playing basketball to worry about anything else.

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