YO BRO IT’S ME LITTY

Last week I came across this article on SI.com by Alexander Wolff. Besides being an esteemed and award-winning writer for Sports Illustrated, Wolff also is the owner and president of the Vermont Frost Heaves, the defending champions in the American Basketball Association. Wolff is looking for a new GM for the Frost Heaves and encouraged all talented candidates to apply.

I’m perfectly happy at Sportsvite but have always had a dream to be a GM for a pro sports team and still think about trying to go down that route in my career. Ironically, I am also working with the ABA to create a “Go Pro” contest where a member of Sportsvite gets a private tryout with an ABA franchise.

I figured I would write a note to the Frost Heaves, because there is no reason not to and who knows what it could lead to. I haven’t heard back from the Frost Heaves so figured I would post the note on this here blog to have something come of it. I didn’t really put much time or thought into this note and just impulsively zipped off a letter late at night last week.

Here it is. Perhaps a bit unconventional but i like it….

So you need a GM, huh. Perhaps you want somebody who learned how to use a fax machine in grade school so he could receive weekly fantasy baseball stats and propose trade offers to a league of computer engineers quadruple his age. The kind of guy who wrote a high school term paper on the rising valuations of professional sports franchises. Maybe somebody who made thousands in college selling tickets to the Big Game (Michigan vs. Ohio State) on eBay. Or the guy who blew off his school work senior year of college to create a college basketball fan website because he was sick of listening to Digger Phelps and Billy Packer. Maybe somebody savvy enough to leverage his website into his first job with a sports internet company.
Or perhaps you are interested in somebody who built up an online college sports auction program with over 20 universities and half million in revenues. Maybe somebody who worked on the original March Madness On Demand (coolest product on the web) or invented college fantasy football. Perhaps the kind of young, visionary, technologically savvy type with new media experience in blogs, podcasting, wireless, content syndication and interactive sponsorship experience.
Or you might want a budding entrepreneur who is just kooky enough to walk away form a great job with a sports media powerhouse to join a start-up with no employees, no funding and no recognition. A start-up that deals with social networking sports and is community-oriented. A start-up that is now on its way to raising a seven figure round of capital, partnering with major sports media properties, and creating a innovative and compelling product in a space that amazingly seems to be overlooked (recreational sports). A start-up that employs (if you can call it that) twice as many interns as employees, has a five-tiered marketing strategy that would take hours to explain but seconds to calculate its budget ($0). Perhaps somebody who is currently working on a deal with the ABA to find the best basketball player on the website and offer them a contract to their local ABA team. Yup, the first professional athlete signed off the Internet.
Maybe you are looking for somebody who could continue to build the Frost Heaves into a team that makes the community proud. Maybe someone who could leverage the power of new media to make the Frost Heaves a national brand and convert fans out of people who think a Frost Heave is an Antoine Walker three-point attempt on a bad shooting nightt. How about a person that thinks about live web streaming, podcasts, player interviews, and sharing all that good behind the scenes stuff that you get to see on the Real World. To him a bump in the road is the only thing in the way of turning the fan club into a passionate online community and social network. Maybe somebody who would guarantee a lifetime contract to Germain Mopa Njila and permanently dedicate the spot halfway between mid court and the three point line in any Vermont gym as Sorrentine-land. Should we have Sorrentine-land sponsored by Ben & Jerry’s or Burlington Coat Factory?
Perhaps you are looking for a guy who thinks that this job you are dangling might be the most perfect challenge, opportunity and experience he can find in the working world. Somebody who might take some licks but won’t be afraid, won’t say can’t and won’t settle. Somebody who really knows how to hype up himself and his ventures.
I suppose I might have the guy for you. I’ve attached his (my) resume.