Travis McAvene is the Global Basketball Grassroots Director for Big Baller Brand (BBB) where he is responsible for developing basketball clinics, All-Star games and AAU tournaments across the United States and Internationally. McAvene has 27 years of high level basketball coaching experience at the prep school, college and overseas professional level.

Since 2012, McAvene has coached in the following countries at the professional level; Taiwan, Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos, Lebanon, Tonga, Belize and Mexico. During this time, his teams have won Championships in Taiwan, Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Tonga and Mexico.

McAvene started his coaching career in 1998 and has coached at the NCAA Division I, NAIA and NJCAA college basketball levels.He also won back to back Prep School National Championships in 2003 and 2004 and built the best prep school basketball program in the Midwest at Harmony Prep in Cincinnati, Ohio from 2005-2006.

McAvene served as Head Coach for the USA Jones Cup Men’s National Team in Taiwan from 2012-2013. During this time, he won silver and bronze medals against Olympic Men’s National Teams throughout Asia and the Middle East.

McAvene was also a key part of the recruiting and talent evaluation process with the world famous Harlem Globetrotters from 2010-2016, where he served as a professional scout. During this time, he recruited and signed several college basketball players to play for the Washington Generals.

On this episode Mike & Travis discuss importance of adaptability and diligence within the coaching profession, particularly in the face of the evolving college basketball framework. McAvene draws upon his extensive 27-year coaching experience, which spans various levels and countries, to illustrate how flexibility has become a critical asset for contemporary coaches. Additionally, he provides insights into his role at Big Baller Brand, where he is tasked with fostering grassroots initiatives worldwide, including basketball clinics and tournaments aimed at nurturing young talent. This dialogue serves not only to illuminate the challenges and rewards of coaching but also to highlight the ever-expanding opportunities available within the realm of grassroots basketball.

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Take some notes as you listen to this episode with Travis McAvene, Global Basketball Grassroots Director for Big Baller Brand.

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Travis McEvine is the global Basketball Grassroots Director for Big Baller Brand, where he's responsible for developing basketball clinics, All Star Games and AAU tournaments across the United states and internationally.

McEvine has 27 years of high level basketball coaching experience at the prep school, college and overseas professional level.

During this time, his teams have won championships in Taiwan, Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Tonga and Mexico.

During this time he won silver and bronze medals against Olympic men's national teams throughout Asia and the Middle East.

During this time he recruited and signed several college basketball players to play for the Washington Generals.

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Take some notes as you listen to this episode with Travis McEvine, Global Basketball Grassroots Director for Big Baller Brand.

Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads podcast.

It's Mike Cleansing here without my co host Jason Sunkel tonight, but I am pleased to be joined by Travis McEvine from Big Baller Brand.

Travis, welcome to the Hoop Heads pod.

Nice to, nice to be on tonight.

It's, it's a pleasure.

I always enjoy doing new podcasts and meeting new people.

So it's great to be online tonight.

Absolutely excited to have you on.

Looking forward to diving into all the interesting things that you've been able to do in your career and then get a feel for what your role is with Big Baller Brand.

Let's start by talking a little bit about your coaching career.

How did you get into the coaching profession to begin with?

Well, you know, I just finished up my 27th year of coaching last year.

I graduated from Centerville High School in Indiana, rise an all conference player and got a basketball scholarship at North Florida Junior College in Madison, Florida.

Played four years of college basketball.

So it goes by fast.

But I was real fortunate to get a head coaching job at 21, going on 22 and was just blessed to be around great people and get an opportunity early in my coaching career to move up the ladder.

You always know as a kid while you were playing that you were going to end up in coaching or was that something that you didn't realize until after your playing career was over or as you saw it winding down?

When did the idea of hey, I want to be a coach?

Is that something you always knew?

Absolutely.

I mean, I knew when I was, you know, in middle school and high school.

You know, once I got done playing, I wanted to get into coaching basketball.

And doing it.

They did a feature story on me and my, you know, newspaper back home.

And at that time, I can go back and read, you know, what do you want to be when you're older?

And I stated at that time that I wanted to get into coaching and be a basketball coach.

And so, I mean, I'm doing exactly what I was meant to do and love to do.

So Nobody's surprised at 49 years old that I'm still involved in coaching basketball.

What were your biggest takeaways?

When you think about your life and where you are now and what you're doing, what are one or two big takeaways from your time as a college basketball coach that you still, like, feel like are still impacting your life today?

You mean as a player or as a coach?

As a coach.

As a coach.

What are things that are still influencing you today that you learned early on in your college coaching career?

I think it's good to be, you know, stay.

Stay flexible and.

And stay driven.

You know, I, you know, at an early age, you know, I kind of had a chip on my shoulder because I finished as an NAI college player, you know, and I wanted to.

To get to the Division 1 level.

It didn't work out as a college player, so I was really determined and driven to get to a Division 1 level as a basketball coach.

And I was able to accomplish that by the age of 30 in my first Division 1 college basketball job at Coppin State University.

But, I mean, the things that I've learned over the years, it stays with you as far as just being.

Being flexible and learning to wear different hats.

I think that's the biggest takeaway that I.

That I've got on every level that I've been at, that you just sometimes have to wear different hats.

It's not always just about being a head coach or being a general manager or being an athletic director.

I think you have to be, you know, adapt to change.

And I think as we're getting into a whole new world of college basketball with the transfer portal and.

And things of that nature, I think it's allowed me to stay flexible and grow with the profession.

Yeah, there's no doubt about that.

That flexibility, especially somebody with your background and having been at all these different levels of the college game.

Right.

You've had different roles, you've been A head coach.

You've been an assistant coach.

You've been at the NAI, you've been at the Division 1 level.

I think flexibility as a coach, if you were looking for a piece of advice to give, the coaches are out there.

Certainly the ability to be flexible and to adapt.

And as you said, today's college basketball world in so many ways.

Right.

When you think about your time as a basketball player at the college level or early on in your coaching care, the landscape of college basketball today, Travis, and what it looks like, it's.

I don't know about.

For you, but for me, it feels almost unfathomable the way that the game has.

Has gone in terms of.

I think coaches are feeling that.

Right.

You can sense it in almost every press conference that these major college guys are giving, that there's just a.

A complete, overwhelming sense of, like, they don't even know which way to turn and how to handle it.

And so I think your point about flexibility is huge.

Absolutely.

It's.

Man, it's just.

Players getting money, you know, scholarship money, that's allowed and not allowed, and every level's different.

I guess it's been nice to be at every level.

You know, I've been a head junior college coach.

I've been a head NAI coach.

You know, I've been a head prep school coach, and of course, I've been overseas the last 13 years as a head international coach.

But regardless, I think it allows you to know all sides of the business on every level and what's, you know, what's expected and what's allowed.

At the same time, when you're talking.

To people in your circle of influence that are still involved in the college game, what are the things that you're hearing from guys who are still in the profession that, you know, what's the general sentiment about kind of where things are?

Because I talk to people, and a lot of the guys I've had on the podcast, you could tell that to some degree, they are a little apprehensive about the whole thing right there.

There's something that just doesn't feel necessarily like college sports.

And yet ultimately, as the conversation goes on, what they all ultimately get to is, is that this is the situation that is presenting itself, and whether or not we love it or we don't Love it.

We kind of have to just figure it out and adapt and understand that, hey, we used to be able to impact guys for four years.

Now we might only be able to impact them for one or two.

So how can we still do what we love, still have an impact on the kids, and yet do it in this new landscape?

So what are you hearing from some of the people that you still talk to in the college game?

I mean, I still have a lot of friends that are, you know, major college basketball coaches.

I mean, I've got even former players.

I was just talking to one of my former players that I coached years ago that's at South Carolina State right now.

They're in the miac.

His name is Jerrell Red.

And we were just talking last night about helping him get international players and being able to, to help him out as much as I can because of what they're allowed in NIL money.

That's an example.

I've got, you know, a former player of mine that I used to train here locally in Dayton, Ohio, and I'm good friends with his dad.

His name is Juan Cranford.

He was at St. Francis University and PA, which was low major, Division 1.

Now he's at Eastern Kentucky University where he's on an NIL deal.

So he goes from not getting a whole lot of Division 1 scholarships out of high school to really doing well last year in the NCAA tournament.

Now he's making good money as an nil player at a bigger college and university.

So those are two examples of, you know, both on the coaching side and playing side, you know, with what's going on in today's landscape, that's a whole.

New world, without question.

And then you have the experience also, not just with the college game, but also, as you talked about, some of that international experience and clearly international guys or this, this scenario for them in terms of the nil and be able to not only come over and get a scholarship, but in some cases to be able to, to tap into some of that NIL money is huge.

Tell me a little bit first before we kind of jump into your last couple of years.

How did you get into the international game in the first place?

What was your roadmap to, to get overseas and get some opportunities there?

Well, years ago I was heavily into bringing in international players when I was a head prep school coach.

You know, I brought in a lot of talented international players from, you know, my time, you know, when I was at, you know, a big time prep school head coach.

At that time, I was supposed to go work for Kobe Bryant's dad, Joe Bryant, and that did not work out.

He ended up taking another job, which kind of landed that job for me as a head coach and got me my first opportunity on the international scene.

And I think as every year has gone along, I think that the more that I've been able to win and win championships in different countries, it's allowed me more opportunities to, to move up the ladder and, and get bigger and better jobs as the years, as years have gone along and progressed.

When you look at the international game and the way that players are developed internationally versus our system that we have here in the U.S. which, again, clearly, if I think back to the time when I was a player or you think back to the time when you were a player, certainly much different how I came up in the game, how you came up in the game compared to how kids play today, completely different.

I played so much pickup basketball and was in the gym by myself without a trainer.

Now, of course, everybody's playing AU and you're traveling around, got all this, so it's completely different.

And then you think about sort of the, again, European model or international model where there's more, more practice, more training time, and maybe less games.

Whereas here in the US we're playing so many AAU tournaments and guys are playing 50, 60 games in a summer.

How do you look at the two systems and compare and contrast?

Not to say one's better or worse than the other, but just when you think about the two systems of how kids are developed.

Just give me your thoughts on both the American and sort of the international system.

Well, I mean, being on the international level as a head coach and general manager, both since in the last 13 years in eight countries, I mean, I've seen how much talent is over there.

And sometimes you don't realize that players, sometimes on the international level, you know, are.

They're harder working.

Sometimes there are kids here in the States because they're not as spoiled, you know, and they've.

And as it's progressed, I think the International game has gotten better and better, which makes college basketball coaches more appealed sometimes to bring the international players because they really know how to play, their fundamentals are sound and they, you know, they just have a better.

Sometimes they're, they're more hungry to prove themselves sometimes than what we see here amongst our kids.

Here there's not rankings and this and that.

Sometimes when you get on the international scene, it's okay, you know, where, where's talent.

And every country, you know, has a different style basketball.

You know, whether I'd been in Asia, the Middle east or Europe or the Caribbean, Latin America, players all play different.

So I think it's just a matter you as a college coach or whoever you're dealing with, you know, what style do they want to play?

And I mean, for example, like, you know, my time in the Dominican Republic, you know, they have great guards.

So I mean, it's like if I'm a college coach, I definitely would go and go in that direction sometimes to find great guards that can play fast, be up tempo and, and you know, be athletic at the same time.

You know, whereas, you know, sometimes in different parts of Europe, you see a lot of great shooters and guys that can really spread the floor and, and shoot the three well.

So it's just this varies from country to country.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, clearly when you look at the international game and the way that the players have developed and you look at the very top, right, you look at the very top of the NBA and we've got international guys that have won what, six or seven of the last, you know, MVP awards in the, in the NBA.

And so clearly that internationally the game is, has grown by leaps and bounds.

The way that players are developed overseas is clearly working from a fundamental standpoint.

It's just amazing as you referenced the 92 Dream Team in the Barcelona Olympics and just what a watershed moment that was for the game of basketball around the world, right, People prior to that, obviously we're watching the NBA and other parts of the world, but to bring those guys to the world stage in Europe, to be able to expose everybody to the game and then just think, I think back to again, like opposing players getting autographs of those guys during the game while, you know, while they're going to play them and just again, it was, it was a crazy, crazy scene that just blew up the game internationally.

And we're continuing to see the results of that over time for sure.

What's your favorite country that you've been in?

Not necessarily to coach basketball, but just in terms of a place that you really enjoyed living in that was unique to.

For.

For you.

From an experience standpoint, I can take away a lot of things from different places that I've been at and coached.

I think the most beautiful place that I've worked at and coached in is Turks and Caicos and the Caribbean.

Is it so beautiful there?

The beach, the atmosphere?

But I mean, you know, it's.

I enjoy my.

My time in Taiwan with the culture there.

I enjoy my time and years in Dominican Republic.

I just finished up a stint last summer, you know, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, which is right outside Cancun.

And all the, all the places have been great as far as dealing with players, dealing with imports, the way I've been treated, it's all been positive.

I've taken away a lot of things in my time as being an international head coach, but I would say as far as the most beautiful place I've been to is definitely Turks and Caicos.

If you had to give a piece of advice to a young coach who maybe for whatever reason, coaching internationally is appealing to them, and they're a young coach here in the United States, and they, they look at it and they say, hey, maybe that would be something that I'd be interested in getting involved in.

What piece of advice for you would you have for them if they wanted to take their career in that direction?

What, What's.

What's a.

What's a step or two?

What's a piece of advice you'd give them?

I think, definitely have a good balance with your.

Your work and family life.

Make sure that, you know, they've got great support, whether it be from their girlfriend or their wife.

You know, as far as going abroad, you know, during different times, being internationally and being abroad, you know, my daughter just got.

She just graduated from playing college volleyball, and she was young at the time, and it was.

It was challenging at times to balance that work in life, being away from home and.

And trying to, you know, be the best dad you can be.

So, I mean, it's.

That's the most challenging part.

I would tell a younger coach, make sure that you've got great support from your loved ones back home.

And I think it can work out, But I see so often coaches there, you got to be all in.

Sometimes people, they.

They think it's just because it's so cutthroat overseas.

You gotta win or you'll lose your job.

And, you know, you can come back to nothing if you're not careful.

I think that's one Thing that I tell people, make sure that they, they get the right job and, you know, have the great, the right support surrounding them.

And I think things can, can go their way.

But I think sometimes people don't realize when you're coaching internationally, you're going to move around country to country.

You're not going to be all in one place for the duration of your career.

It's just the way it works during.

The time while you're coaching internationally.

And I know it probably varied year to year and country to country, but how much time in a given year are you spending overseas?

In a typical, if there's such a thing, in a typical season, are you over there for six months out of the year?

Are you over there for nine months?

What's, what's the schedule look like in terms of overseas versus home with your family?

I think it just depends on what country you go to or, you know, what area of the world you know.

I've seen seasons that, you know, go two and three months long, call them short seasons.

And I've seen some go six to nine months, just depending on where you go and what, you know, what.

You could also go there to coach major events too, which I've done as well.

So I think it's just a matter of, you know, what part of the world you're going in.

But most cases it's, you know, three months on a low, you know, and nine months on a high.

As far as being gone away from home makes sense.

I mean, again, you would expect it to vary when you're in different countries and at different levels.

Obviously it's not the system for anybody who is familiar with basketball overseas knows that the system is, is different from it is where it is here, where you're in a country and you have different tiers of their professional leagues and that kind of thing.

So you would expect that you would have a varying amount in terms of the length of the season.

But let's talk Big Baller Brand and get started with, first of all, how do you get hooked up with Lavar and the brand?

Where does that start?

And then we'll get into kind of your role and what you do day to day.

Well, I mean, I, I took on my role as global basketball grassroots director for Big Baller Brand last October.

His name's Tony Cole.

He lives in Indianapolis, Indiana.

And we've remained in touch over the years.

And I've actually helped place international players with him at his program as he's expanded.

And, and they wanted to hire somebody.

Him and Lavar wanted to hire somebody with great international experience to help expand their brand as far as globally, not just here in the States.

And that's what I've really taken a lot of pride in doing, is being that.

That person to, to help expand their basketball grassroots with big baller brand.

So when you're out there and you're trying to expand the brand, explain for somebody who may be like me, who doesn't understand exactly what does that mean when you say exp.

Who are you talking to?

Who are you trying to expand it to?

Obviously in your title it says grassroots.

So that means you're trying to reach youth players, get the guys who, when they're, when they're young, as they're developing.

But just talk to me a little bit about exactly who it is that you're talking to and how you're trying to help the brand to be able to grow and get more exposure.

I mean, most people realize when you're working for a shoe company on the grassroots side, I mean, there's so many levels.

But as far as what we do, I mean, we're handling things from all the way with basketball camps and clinics throughout the world to now starting an AAU circuit.

Last year we started doing middle school and high school all star games and then also doing what you call transfer portal workouts or unsigned senior workouts, where we bring in college coaches and help those young men get recruited to transfer as needed.

We're also in the talks and, and preliminaries of possibly working with the tbl, which is, you know, minor league, and that's recognizable, you know, with going the prep, the pro model, which is going to be huge news if it pans out.

We're, we're in talks that way.

You know, players out of high school that don't want to go to college, they can go the prep school route and then go perfect, then go professional.

But there's so many levels to it, and I enjoy all aspects, whether I'm, you know, helping coordinate, coordinating, you know, a high school all star game or, you know, helping, you know, a transfer portal workout because you're getting the chance to network with college basketball coaches once again, which, you know, that's where I ultimately want to get back to sooner than later is get back to the major college basketball level as a coach.

But right now I'm in position that I'm in and I'm trying to, you know, utilize it and help help the brand grow.

And I think that the basketball grassroots is, has been great to, you know, helping open up a lot of doors for me.

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When you start talking about getting involved with camps, clinics, starting AAU tournaments, what does that look like in terms of who are you talking to?

Where are some of the locations that you're trying to go to?

Explain a little bit more of the logistics of how you're trying to get those events started or partner with some existing brands to be able to, to kind of grow and again expose big baller brand to more people.

Well, this year, this summer will be our first year of actually being on an AU circuit.

But we're in the final stages of finalizing that for this upcoming spring and summer.

You know, the target is seven cities.

You know, if we end up finalizing five and it be being successful, we've won that battle.

But you know, we're not trying to really compete with other shoe companies like Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, New Balance.

That's not, that's not the goal.

We're trying to set up tournaments that can provide, you know, AU teams a quality tournament to be competitive.

And you know, they might be going to three other tournaments, five other tournaments that are totally separate shoe brands and we're okay with that.

We're not trying to, to battle anybody, if that makes sense.

And I think that's, you know, that's why we try to add other categories to our grassroots like the all Star games and transfer portal workouts.

And then we also have been running, you know, very good basketball camps and clinics.

We just got back this past September and in the Navajo Nation community out Phoenix, Arizona, which is a great experience to deal with the Navajo Nation community, the Native Americans, and seeing how big basketball is out there and how it's trying to grow and how we're able to help Them grow as a community.

Yeah.

To be able to touch again on maybe some groups that have been underutilized or underserved by some of the other bigger brands that, you know, that you mentioned earlier there.

When you think about just the opportunities that exist in grassroots basketball, clearly it continues to expand.

Right.

The pie continues to get bigger and bigger and bigger as more and more kids get involved in it.

And then as you look at just the way the college landscape has changed AAU basketball, if you'd have told me, again, this is something that when I go back, like let's say 10 years ago, and somebody would have told me, oh, yeah, you know, AAU basketball and how important it is in the recruiting process and this and that and compared to high school basketball.

And until my son kind of went through the recruiting process and he ended up as a Division 3 player.

So it's not like we're not talking about a big time major recruit, but still at the same time talking about a kid who all of his college opportunities came through AAU basketball.

Right.

Once he was identified in AAU basketball, people watched him play and then coaches would come to his high school games, but they already knew who he was from aau.

And so it's just, again, the pie in the grassroots space has gotten so big and it's allowed for, again, as you said, you guys, to be able to reach out and find, okay, we want to run camps, we want to do some clinics, we want to get involved in these AAU tournaments.

And so as you start to set those things up, right, you start to set up a camp or you set up a clinic, or you're setting up an AAU tournament and you're targeting, whether it's a given city or a given age group of kids or whatever it might be.

What's the first step if you want to run a camp in a particular place?

Who are you talking to?

What are the, what are the steps that you go through to get something like that started in a particular location, whether it's a camp, clinic, or an AAU tournament?

I think, you know, that's part of my, part of my role as being a grassroots director.

I have to utilize all 27 years of my background and experience and networking and knowing people where I can, like, for example, we're, you know, I'm dealing with a good friend of mine in Nashville, Tennessee right now to set up, you know, all star games and, and so on and so forth.

And another former player of mine is in Chicago, Illinois.

I think you have to utilize your relationships in the basketball world to set those things up where it goes a lot smoother because you have some trust and some rapport with those people.

And I think that's what I've relied on the most, whether it's been here or globally, knows we're setting up a lot of things internationally as well.

And, you know, and going back to the AAU topic, I mean, I was real fortunate to play for a legendary AAU coach in Indianapolis, Indiana.

His name is Tom Red Taylor.

If you look him up, he's.

He's just.

He's the best.

I mean, he ran an organization called Municipal Gardens aau, and that's where I grew up playing at and had a multitude of teammates that have gone on to great things, whether they're college or pro coaches.

One of my former teammates is Brad Stevens, which is, you know, president of basketball operations of the Celtics.

And we were teammates for a long time.

And I could go through countless players that I still stay in touch with and have relationships with.

But AAU was that start.

Growing up as a kid.

I'm born and raised in Indiana, but it's just, you know, AAU was such a big part of my life growing up as a kid and allowed me opportunities to play college basketball.

And I. I look back on that and I want to give that back now as I've gotten older as an adult.

I think there are great people in the AAU world just as much as they're bad people.

But that's what.

That's that way in high school and college, too.

You have great coaches and you've got crappy coaches.

So I think it just goes hand in hand.

And I just try to surround myself around good people and then good things happen.

Yeah, I agree with you 100% there.

I think that sometimes, and I think this is.

I don't know if it's gone away completely, but I do think that there was a stretch where lots of people looked at AAU as being sort of this evil stepchild of the basketball world and that the high school basketball space was more pure basketball, for lack of a better way of saying it.

And I think that people have come around on that to see that there's positive in both sides, right?

There's.

There's positive in high school basketball.

There's positive in a.

You basketball.

I think you said it really well that no matter where you Go.

There are good coaches and there are good directors that are doing things the right way, that are in it for the right reasons.

And yet if you want to look for people that are doing it wrong and doing it for the wrong reasons, you can certainly find those people too.

And so when I look at what you're trying to do and I think about what Big Baller Brand is trying to accomplish, right, you're trying to put on those first class events that are beneficial for the kids who are participating in them.

I hear you talking about running the workouts right for guys who are trying to get an opportunity to play college basketball.

Ultimately what you're there to do is try to serve the kids.

So when you think about the vision of looking ahead 2, 3, 4, 5 years out for Big Baller Brand and what you'd like to see, what Lavar's vision is for the whole thing, what's sort of the, the end game or, or the, or the long term goal of what you envision this brand becoming.

I think it's been easy and I was able to, I was fortunate to get invited out to his home and, and do a camp out in la, in Chino Hills this past July and got a chance to really sit down with him and get to know him as a person and let him get to know me and see what his vision's about.

And Obviously he's got two sons, you know, that are in the NBA, Alonzo and LaMelo.

And they, they, they made a great name for themselves and helped, you know, build everything that he's built in house.

But I think he wants to be able to have things going on every month out of the year, whether it be here in the States or globally, and have a great grassroots program from start to bottom, whether you're dealing with young kids that are elementary age or guys that are college going into professional.

So I think it's, it's, it's, it's off to a great start with what we've built since last October.

And it keeps getting bigger and bigger and better and better, but we still have a lot of room for growth and we're still looking for new ways to expand and meet people like yourself.

We talked about that earlier today on the phone.

We might be able to work together in the future on projects and you'd be able to use my resources as much as I can use your resources and network.

And that's what it's about.

I think sometimes you have your own circle of people and people you trust, but you never know who Your next best friend might be who you build relationships as.

We started a foundation called Triple B Cares this past summer, and I actually served as a board member and have another board member that's a head college basketball coach out in South Dakota.

That's what the Lakota Nation, you know, Native Americans.

So it's.

It's.

It's crazy how.

And you.

You meet people out of coincidence, but they know who you are, and you have no idea who they are, but they've been following you for years, and you're like, okay, this is great.

And you hit it off right from the start.

But, you know, I think it's this.

This basketball world is somewhat of a fraternity at times, and I think it's awesome to meet new people and.

And grow because, you know, I'm far from.

From being where I want to be at.

You know, I still have a lot of things I want to get accomplished, so.

Well, your answer there answered my first question, but it also answered my next question, which was, what do you find to be the most rewarding or fun part of the job?

And I'm guessing that the answer is going to be the people, right?

The people that you get a chance to interact with, that you get to work with, whether it's people that you already knew or new people.

So I'm going to skip over that because I kind of feel like you.

You already answered that part of it.

So let me go to the second part of the question, which was, when you look ahead to what you guys are trying to accomplish, what's the biggest challenge in getting that vision to come to reality?

What do you see as being the hardest part of making that dream come true?

I think there's always challenges.

I mean, right now, putting together an AAU circuit is challenging, you know, because you've got so many different teams across the country that are already a part of a circuit, whether it's Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Under Armour, whatever it is.

And I think it's trying to.

To sell people on the fact that they can come be a part of our tournament and not get anybody mad, and, you know, there's enough food to go around the table.

Figure of speech.

But that's.

That's one of the few challenges I think, too, is as we're trying to get more merchandise out there, we have sales and marketing director.

His name's Greg Ruffin.

You know, he's real passionate about getting teams in uniforms and getting them into shoes and, you know, putting apparel on teams across the country and across the world.

You know, Then utilizing our brand to wear, whether it be practice or games and things like that.

So those are always challenges to, to get brand awareness, get people familiar, you know, with big baller brands.

Some people are you, like, you are familiar with it, but some people are not, you know, so it's like, that's what I try to take a lot of pride in is, is getting our name out there more and let them get more familiar with what we're doing.

You get the circuit up and running.

What do you envision that looking like in terms of, I know you mentioned earlier you're trying to get to seven cities, but let's say you get that circuit going this summer, this spring, summer, what does that look like in terms of the reach?

How many teams do you think you can put together on the circuit?

What's the ultimate goal?

What does that look like?

I think anytime you're getting, you know, close to 30 to 40 teams at each event, you know, it's a winning situation.

We'd love to have 80 or 90 teams, but at the end of the day, I think every city is different.

What you're going to get in, you know, L A is going to be different than Dayton, Ohio or Indianapolis, Indiana.

So I think it's more of, you know, the people we have working with us and for us that are doing the marketing and, and getting the name out as far as the events, that's the hugest piece is getting those people involved with what we're doing.

Because you're not, you're not a one man army.

If you get a team of people that you're trying to work with and there's, you know, that's why I tried to get people involved that are great at, you know, recruiting, because that's what it's about.

You know, you could be the best, you know, organizer you can be, but if you don't have somebody recruiting and hitting the streets for you and getting people to get registered for your tournaments and events, you're not going to succeed.

But we work hard at it.

I mean, because this is a position that it is contractual and people, people have the, the myth or theory that, that you're making, you know, big time, you know, money working for a shoe company.

There, there can be times where you can make good money doing it, but you have to work at it.

You know, you're not going to get paid unless you work at it and produce.

And that's the one thing I like about working for Lavar is he doesn't micromanage.

What I do I put some things into place, give my ideas and put it into action.

And if it makes, you know, if it makes money, it makes sense.

And that's, and that's what he's about.

He's a very easy person to work for in that aspect.

I will say if you are in the basketball business of any kind, your comment there about recruiting and being able to go out and sell yourself and promote what you do, there is no question that you had better be able to do that.

With as crowded as the landscape is, I always say there are plenty of opportunities that if you don't want to come to my camp or play in my tournament or do this, there's always another guy right next door that's running another tournament or running a camp or doing training, whatever, you better be able to, to sell yourself.

And I think that's a great point that you make that you really got to get out there and get on the streets and talk to people and, and get people familiar with what you're trying to do.

And if you don't, you're just not going to be able to.

You're just not going to be able to have success.

All right, we're coming up on our time limit.

I want to give you a chance to share.

How can people reach out to you?

How can people find out about more about big baller brand, what you guys are up to, Share, social media, email, website, whatever you feel comfortable with.

And then after you do that, I'll jump back in and wrap things up.

Well, I mean, it's.

Our grassroots website is, is triple B experience.com BBB experience.com anybody can go there.

As far as getting in touch with us via email, it's.

We're not hard people to find.

Obviously, you know, we met, you know, on LinkedIn, I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on Instagram, Tick Tock, Facebook, you know, it's, it's.

I'm very easy to find and very approachable.

So I mean, we, we want to, you know, build a network of meeting new people and, and anybody that's interested in getting involved with us, whether it be a tournament, you know, an AAU tournament transfer portal, workout about, you know, hosting a basketball clinic.

It could be in Cleveland where you're at.

You know, we're open minded to doing that and very accessible.

Awesome.

Travis, cannot thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule tonight to join us.

Really appreciate it.

And to everyone out there, thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode.

Thanks.

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