What doesn't kill you...
As More Than Basketball celebrated its 1 year anniversary a few weeks ago I could not help but to reflect. Reflect on the good, the bad, the ugly...and at times it got very ugly. The times where it was Hoop Magic who? Where? Chantilly? To the present. It began August 2009, I had just completed my final AAU event (Certified Big Time Bump) at Hoop Magic and was set to embark on this life long voyage that is now known as More Than Basketball.
Wait, I think I should rewind some. About 30 days before, the buzz began to get out that I was thinking about leaving Hoop Magic to do my own thing began to spread. By who I can't answer but I can say that once it did I realized exactly what the term "dog eat dog world" meant. Vicious gossip spreaders with malicious money motivated agendas like irresponsible websites used to make money and boost their children began to whisper in both Hoop Magic & my ears having us wonder about one another. They were wondering what type of events I would be running, would I become a competitor to what I helped build and if I could still be trusted in meetings or alone in the offices. I began wondering if they were gonna allow me to still do events there or if they were bringing in someone new I think we all know who they let "TAKE OVER."
As July began and my time with Hoop Magic was coming closer and closer to an end tensions between myself and them began to rise more and more. Things were being said in meetings like "We would have gotten there anyways" or "Nice floors won't save you". There were obvious differences in long and short term visions and overall operational concepts so much so that it got to the point where so many things were said and the trust had dwindled so much that both sides were just trying to make it through July.
Needless to say a divorcee was inevitable it was just a matter of whether it would be neat or messy. But when a significant amount of funds went unspoken for at the Live Period Tip Off in early July the situation did just that...it TIPPED OFF!!! A combination of finger pointing from both sides, the lack of trust that had developed and the bottled up tension and questions that had been manifesting and most important...the leeches who continue to put BULLSHIT in their ears about me and vice versa took us to the point of no reconciliation.
Now that we are all caught up I'll continue where I left off. After the Big Time Bump I had one event left under Hoop Magic but it wasn't until December so I decided that I would do a fall league in the city to kind of introduce myself as an independent entity and quickly answer any question about my abilities to Captain my own ship. We ended up selecting Cesar Chavez as our location and the fact that we are back this year with an even better cast of teams shows how successful that was. In the midst of the Fall League we decided to help out Capitol Hoops (for the right price of course) by canceling our fall league games that weekend and handling the administrative and operation portions (among other things) of their Top 100 camp. And I have to admit all though the first half of the first day started off shaky it was still a great event.
I fulfilled my final obligation to Hoop Magic with the Virginia High School Season Tip Off. I'll admit it probably wasn't my best work but the games were competitive and It was a good way to go out. Now that I was completely unassociated with Hoop Magic and headed into a new year it was More Than Basketball from here on out. With maybe my biggest high school showcase and MTB event yet just a week and fresh off TWO major snow storms to end the year I was in high spirits. That is until that faithful day I walked into Coolidge Senior high which was suppose to be the location for the event and heard the unfortunate words that I was unable to have the event there. Not for any reason other than the powers that be with the DC Schools heard that a young guys was doing an event that had the potential to make a lot of money and like Frank White said in King of New York THEY WANTED IN!!! So they tried to tax me with all these security and police fees (in excess of 10K) that they demanded 48hrs before the event which in turn nullified any thought of walking out of the event with a profit or holding the event there. That left me scrambling for a location by Saturday and it was Wednesday when I got the news.
One of my guy from DC Assault referred me to the guys over at Northwestern saying that I could probably get their gym and I did.....for about 48 hours. But the combination of
a greedy AD who saw a young guy scrambling for a location last minute compounded with the opportunity to make a marginal profit for doing close to nothing more than opening and locking the doors...I mean come on $100 an hour for her and the another person to let teams in and out of the locker rooms? PLEASE!!! Regardless I was still gonna do it until someone upstairs heard what was going on and decided to do the same things that were done to me in DC. Little did they know that while I was in the Principal's office awaiting what I knew was gonna be a no my good friend over at Riverdale Baptist texted me some of the most beautiful words I have ever read. It said "If things don't work out at Northwestern we got your back."
By the time Northwestern gave me the nod I had already confirmed with Riverdale and called my business partner giving him instructions on how we will go about contacting all the teams and staff AGAIN telling them we are changing venues AGAIN going out in the middle of winter putting fliers on cars AGAIN and doing all this in less the than 24 hours. It was 3:45pm Friday and the first game was noon Saturday. None the less I'm sure everyone knows how well that event turned out.
We then headed into summer which was very important because we were attempting to host our first annual "Born to Bump" Summer League. As I was calling different schools and attempting to secure a location I got an email from the head basketball coach at Georgetown Prep saying he's been trying to do a summer league at Prep for years and they want to partner up and a bunch more blah blah blah which I came to later find out. So I drew up the proposal, played the waiting game and went to a few meetings at the Hanley Center. When it was all said and done I got a yes and proceeded with the promotion. About a week before the first day a participating coach calls me and says that there is a rumor going around that the coach has left the school and that it will affect the league...funny he must have know what happens when a kid in his mid 20s with a name like mine tries to do events at Prep without a trusted middle man. Cause next thing I know I get a call from the facilities director (no not the coach he still hasn't called me to this day) saying that if I still wanted to do the league the gym will cost 15k...yeah 15 THOUSAND. So we were left scrambling for a location. We were able to secure a location but it wasn't close to the caliber of Prep and it made what could have been a great summer league a good one.
Regardless we made it threw and even though I received TONS of negative emails, posts to my feed back page and remarks from parents & coaches we made it through. And I did what any 25 year old business person would do. I listened, took notes and made changes to avoid a situations like these from ever happening again. And the biggest changes are 1.) Understand that THERE ARE NO FRIENDS IN BUSINESS. 2.) A mans word in business means as much as a two week old twitter post and 3.) Remembering that what doesn't kill you MAKES YOU HUNGRIER.
So here we are...A year in...Back down Chavez...match ups and locations FIRMLY secure for the showcases and the memories and wisdom taken from the good, bad and ugly of the last 12 months. If there were ever a time I believed I would make it....THAT TIME IS NOW....MY TIME IS NOW and as you learned from reading I'm not taking no for an answer.
This Article was written by Arize Ifejika
Wait, I think I should rewind some. About 30 days before, the buzz began to get out that I was thinking about leaving Hoop Magic to do my own thing began to spread. By who I can't answer but I can say that once it did I realized exactly what the term "dog eat dog world" meant. Vicious gossip spreaders with malicious money motivated agendas like irresponsible websites used to make money and boost their children began to whisper in both Hoop Magic & my ears having us wonder about one another. They were wondering what type of events I would be running, would I become a competitor to what I helped build and if I could still be trusted in meetings or alone in the offices. I began wondering if they were gonna allow me to still do events there or if they were bringing in someone new I think we all know who they let "TAKE OVER."
As July began and my time with Hoop Magic was coming closer and closer to an end tensions between myself and them began to rise more and more. Things were being said in meetings like "We would have gotten there anyways" or "Nice floors won't save you". There were obvious differences in long and short term visions and overall operational concepts so much so that it got to the point where so many things were said and the trust had dwindled so much that both sides were just trying to make it through July.
Needless to say a divorcee was inevitable it was just a matter of whether it would be neat or messy. But when a significant amount of funds went unspoken for at the Live Period Tip Off in early July the situation did just that...it TIPPED OFF!!! A combination of finger pointing from both sides, the lack of trust that had developed and the bottled up tension and questions that had been manifesting and most important...the leeches who continue to put BULLSHIT in their ears about me and vice versa took us to the point of no reconciliation.
Now that we are all caught up I'll continue where I left off. After the Big Time Bump I had one event left under Hoop Magic but it wasn't until December so I decided that I would do a fall league in the city to kind of introduce myself as an independent entity and quickly answer any question about my abilities to Captain my own ship. We ended up selecting Cesar Chavez as our location and the fact that we are back this year with an even better cast of teams shows how successful that was. In the midst of the Fall League we decided to help out Capitol Hoops (for the right price of course) by canceling our fall league games that weekend and handling the administrative and operation portions (among other things) of their Top 100 camp. And I have to admit all though the first half of the first day started off shaky it was still a great event.
I fulfilled my final obligation to Hoop Magic with the Virginia High School Season Tip Off. I'll admit it probably wasn't my best work but the games were competitive and It was a good way to go out. Now that I was completely unassociated with Hoop Magic and headed into a new year it was More Than Basketball from here on out. With maybe my biggest high school showcase and MTB event yet just a week and fresh off TWO major snow storms to end the year I was in high spirits. That is until that faithful day I walked into Coolidge Senior high which was suppose to be the location for the event and heard the unfortunate words that I was unable to have the event there. Not for any reason other than the powers that be with the DC Schools heard that a young guys was doing an event that had the potential to make a lot of money and like Frank White said in King of New York THEY WANTED IN!!! So they tried to tax me with all these security and police fees (in excess of 10K) that they demanded 48hrs before the event which in turn nullified any thought of walking out of the event with a profit or holding the event there. That left me scrambling for a location by Saturday and it was Wednesday when I got the news.
One of my guy from DC Assault referred me to the guys over at Northwestern saying that I could probably get their gym and I did.....for about 48 hours. But the combination of
a greedy AD who saw a young guy scrambling for a location last minute compounded with the opportunity to make a marginal profit for doing close to nothing more than opening and locking the doors...I mean come on $100 an hour for her and the another person to let teams in and out of the locker rooms? PLEASE!!! Regardless I was still gonna do it until someone upstairs heard what was going on and decided to do the same things that were done to me in DC. Little did they know that while I was in the Principal's office awaiting what I knew was gonna be a no my good friend over at Riverdale Baptist texted me some of the most beautiful words I have ever read. It said "If things don't work out at Northwestern we got your back."
By the time Northwestern gave me the nod I had already confirmed with Riverdale and called my business partner giving him instructions on how we will go about contacting all the teams and staff AGAIN telling them we are changing venues AGAIN going out in the middle of winter putting fliers on cars AGAIN and doing all this in less the than 24 hours. It was 3:45pm Friday and the first game was noon Saturday. None the less I'm sure everyone knows how well that event turned out.
We then headed into summer which was very important because we were attempting to host our first annual "Born to Bump" Summer League. As I was calling different schools and attempting to secure a location I got an email from the head basketball coach at Georgetown Prep saying he's been trying to do a summer league at Prep for years and they want to partner up and a bunch more blah blah blah which I came to later find out. So I drew up the proposal, played the waiting game and went to a few meetings at the Hanley Center. When it was all said and done I got a yes and proceeded with the promotion. About a week before the first day a participating coach calls me and says that there is a rumor going around that the coach has left the school and that it will affect the league...funny he must have know what happens when a kid in his mid 20s with a name like mine tries to do events at Prep without a trusted middle man. Cause next thing I know I get a call from the facilities director (no not the coach he still hasn't called me to this day) saying that if I still wanted to do the league the gym will cost 15k...yeah 15 THOUSAND. So we were left scrambling for a location. We were able to secure a location but it wasn't close to the caliber of Prep and it made what could have been a great summer league a good one.
Regardless we made it threw and even though I received TONS of negative emails, posts to my feed back page and remarks from parents & coaches we made it through. And I did what any 25 year old business person would do. I listened, took notes and made changes to avoid a situations like these from ever happening again. And the biggest changes are 1.) Understand that THERE ARE NO FRIENDS IN BUSINESS. 2.) A mans word in business means as much as a two week old twitter post and 3.) Remembering that what doesn't kill you MAKES YOU HUNGRIER.
So here we are...A year in...Back down Chavez...match ups and locations FIRMLY secure for the showcases and the memories and wisdom taken from the good, bad and ugly of the last 12 months. If there were ever a time I believed I would make it....THAT TIME IS NOW....MY TIME IS NOW and as you learned from reading I'm not taking no for an answer.
This Article was written by Arize Ifejika
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