Prior to becoming the 23rd overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, five-star prospect Darius Bazley took a unique path to land with the Oklahoma City Thunder last year.
Bazley committed to playing at Syracuse and even signed a letter of intent. He eventually backed out of that commitment in order to turn pro but it wasn’t the traditional method by playing basketball overseas or in the NBA G League.
Of course, Bazley instead shocked the basketball community and opted to take an internship at New Balance for the year. He earned $1 million for his time with the apparel company and has since signed a five-year endorsement contract.
Bazley and his agent, Rich Paul of the Klutch Sports Group, jointly decided that taking the internship with New Balance was best for him. In a recent interview with Joe Vardon of The Athletic, Paul spoke about Bazley’s internship.
In the Darius Bazley situation, I was literally trying to do what was best for him. And in doing so, doing what was best for him allowed me to evaluate everything in the world that would be around him. And so the creativeness to come up with the internship at New Balance, the basis of that was, what’s going to be best for this kid? How do I find an environment where, number one, he can learn, and number two, he can be evaluated from a character perspective, because that’s what they’re going to ask about?
And number three, there’s a discipline implemented because when you work somewhere, there’s expectation. There’s, you have to get up and be at work at nine. You can’t be there at 9:05, 9:10. Timely. Being prompt. What do you miss out of college? Team building? When you work at a company like that, you are a part of different teams — whether it’s the marketing team, the innovative team, the creative team, and so those are your teammates. And so, where he would have been missing it at Syracuse, he’s now getting that somewhere else.
Bazley has since said taking that internship with New Balance helped shape who he is today. The program offered Bazley with structure and keeping to a schedule, something Paul eluded to. The decision ultimately worked out for Bazley after becoming a first-round pick last year.