NBA Summer League Conference 2009 Recap

The NBA Summer League Conference on July 10th & 11th, 2009 was a great success, with more than 150 people in attendance.  Everyone who came benefited learning from front office executives, sports agents, basketball scouts, sports media, and many more experts to promote their careers on the business side of basketball. Speakers included "NBA Executive of the Year" Denver Nuggets GM Mark Warkentien followed by Phoenix Suns Senior VP of Basketball Ops David Griffin who highly praised Sacramento Kings Director of Scouting (and legend) Scotty Stirling who in turn honored former Golden State Warriors GM (and legend) Ed Gregory. Attendees heard about the huge opportunities in Asia from Beijing International Group Tom McCarthy, and United States Basketball Academy Bruce O'Neil.

A conference favorite sports agent panel consisted of Tel Aviv, Israel Sports Attorney & FIBA Agent Solly Laniado, (Sacramento Kings Omri Casspi), Goodwin Sports NBA Agent Steve Banks, (Detroit Pistons Rodney Stuckey), and VP of BDA Sports David Mondress, (Houston Rockets Yao Ming) shared their stories and did an insightful Q&A for everyone.  Mark Warkentin was quoted as saying SMWW Faculty Frank Burlison is the best high school basketball scout in the world! ESPN writer Marc Stein was stymied to hear Dr. Lashbrook predicts the Trail Blazers will move to Seattle. (But don't worry, Portland fans will get a new team!) And NBA summer league games at the Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion were once again a big hit.

Don't miss next year's SMWW's Career Conference at the NBA Summer League  in July of 2010 in Las Vegas.

Thank you to Amy Florez for the fabulous photos of this event! See all the photos here.