And I am not referring to the creation of Allen Iverson robots. According to the New York Times, David Stern is interested in creating an NBA Academy that is similar to IMG’s Academies [The N.B.A.’s Push for Reform Leads to Talk of an Academy]. This move could potentially take a bargaining chip away from IMG when it comes to recruiting basketball players to join with its firm. One major pro of joining a huge conglomerate such as IMG would be for the extra services provided (such as the Academies). Now basketball players may be able to join with any agency and still benefit from extra practice at an academy run by the NBA.
We are talking about an NBA Academy opening up as soon as 2008. Pretty exciting news.
This is the kind of analysis they do at the IMG Academies for tennis players: [YouTube – Tennis Bollettieri].
-Darren Heitner