Free weekend clinic to educate youth about non-playing basketball careers

A free public workshop during NBA All-Star Weekend, called The Business of Sports, aims to show young fans that they don’t have to be elite athletes to build a career in basketball.

The workshop will be presented by the Jr. NBA, an NBA-affiliated group that offers youth leagues, events and resources designed to develop young people’s interest and participation in basketball.

The Business of Sports, which is targeted at local high school students, is scheduled from 3:30 p.m-6:30 p.m. Saturday at the Indiana Convention Center. It’s at the same location as NBA Crossover, a ticketed event for fans, but Crossover tickets are not required for the workshop.

Workshop space is limited, however, and advance registration is required—find the sign-up link here.

“There are so many other ways for young people to stay connected to the game in addition to being basketball players,” said Candice Haynes, the NBA’s director of youth basketball development. “The game of basketball, and sports in general, intersect across so many different fields.”

The workshop will open with a panel discussion about basketball career pathways featuring sports officials and executives with the NBA, WNBA, and the NBA G League, which functions as a minor league for the NBA.

The discussion will be followed by two hands-on sessions—one on officiating and another on sports data analytics.

Parents are welcome to attend the event, and a parent-focused workshop will also be offered on how to use basketball as a basis for their children’s career exploration and social/emotional development.

During the officiating workshop, attendees will learn the basics of officiating and have the chance to officiate a scrimmage. The sports data analytics workshop will focus on ways in which college and pro teams use video technology to analyze games and help players develop their skills.

Haynes said the NBA chose to offer an officiating workshop because of the great need for officials, especially in local youth sports. Teens can serve as officials at youth games in their communities, Haynes said, and serving as an officials can help develop life skills such as communications, conflict management and time management.

“We just think it’s a great opportunity to really home in on some of those soft skills while hopefully helping to alleviate a real problem that exists across the country with the lack of officials,” Haynes said.

During the sports data analytics workshop, participants will learn about a field that’s a hot topic in pro sports, and one that involves both basketball and technology.

“It presents an opportunity for the kids to think about the game in a different light,” Haynes said.

A separate youth event this weekend, a Sunday morning science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, clinic for ages 6-14, has already filled up.

The clinic will take participants through a series of activity stations that blend basketball with STEM topics. A 40-yard-dash station, for instance, will include discussions of physics concepts such as force and speed. At another station, students will use math to test their vertical leap and compare their leaps to that of NBA players.

Haynes herself is an example of how a love of basketball can be the foundation for a sports career. She played basketball all through high school, but said she “was very realistic as a child and knew [she] probably wasn’t going to play professional basketball.”

Haynes did, however, have parents and a grandmother who supported her love of sports and encouraged her to think about where that passion might lead. “I was always encouraged to ask questions and encouraged to really pay attention to the things that I had an interest in, at a deeper level.”

Haynes went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in sports management from Virginia Commonwealth University and a graduate degree in sports management and not-for-profit management from Columbia University.