Sports Management

This past week I had the honor of listening to the Minnesota Timberwolves president Chris Wright and our very own athletic director Joel Maturi here at the University of Minnesota. I was eager to listen to these speakers due to my interest and dreams in a career within the great sporting world. Prior to the date of the presentations, I prepared some questions for the two men in order to gain a better understanding of how to stand out in the business and find out what I needed to do to be successful. I wanted to get the inside scoop on the types of personalities that would be ideal for the job as well.

My initial thoughts about sports management were that you needed to follow a strict path to become what you want to be. Along the way you might need to have connections to people already in the business, otherwise you would not even get an interview. After hearing Joel and Chris's respective stories I found out how wrong I was. Chris grew up with poor parents in a foreign country. He came over to the United States of America with the intention of playing soccer and he was quite good. I found it astonishing that the only reason he went to college was because he got injured while playing soccer! Now, he's the highest ranked foreigner in the NBA. Joel Maturi clearly stated to us, "There is no one right path to be what you want to be". I think he was trying to tell us that sometimes you begin a certain career path and it can completely spin you in a different direction to ultimately help you become what you want to be. I took this piece of advice and realized it can be applied to every career in the world, not just sports management.

Normal entry-level jobs in the sports industry will generally have hundreds of qualified applicants. Joel Maturi and Chris Wright preached to us the importance of having unique qualities that will make you stand out from others. Displaying leadership and confidence is key, because professional sports organizations will only be looking for the best of the best when deciding whom to welcome into their franchise. This made me realize that starting early and getting involved within your community is essential. I have been inspired to volunteer and try to better my community in addition to being able to account for that on a resume. I now see that I need to build up my resume to help get me an interview. Furthermore, while in the interview, I need to show enthusiasm and confidence in what I can do for that specific organization.

Once they began their journey inside the sports industry, Joel and Chris climbed the ranks by having excellent initiative, dedicated hard work, and teamwork. Chris in particular had a fascinating story. He volunteered himself to confront NBA superstar and franchise player Kevin Garnett after he failed to make a season ticket holder event. Not only did Chris display assertiveness in challenging Kevin Garnett, he even had the guts to hand him