OKC Thunder’s Darius Bazley Opens Up About New Balance Internship And Unprecedented Path To The NBA In Upcoming Documentary

Darius Bazley’s road to the NBA was truly unlike any other basketball player in our history. This unique journey will be featured in an upcoming documentary called GAP YEAR, produced by The SpringHill Company’s UNINTERRUPTED in association with SLAM & RTG Features, with distribution from 1091 Pictures. Ahead of the upcoming release, I was able to get an early screening of the documentary and have a conversation with Bazley about his unique path to the league.

The documentary will will be available for purchase and rental on December 1 via most streaming services and will go more in depth on this path less traveled to the NBA and how it affects players going forward making similar decisions. It includes interviews with Darius’ agent and Klutch Sports Group founder Rich Paul, ESPN’s Jay Williams and Jay Bilas, NBPA Executive Director Michele Roberts, New Balance Global Marketing Director Patrick Cassidy, rapper Dave East and more.

It all started when Darius Bazley de-committed from Syracuse University to potentially skip college and play a season in the NBA G League. After further discussions, Bazley would once again pivot his thinking and instead take a gap year, stepping away from formalized basketball for an entire year to work on his game individually in preparation for the 2019 NBA Draft.

Not many had ever done what Bazley was about to do. NBPA Executive Director Michele Roberts said it best in the documentary when talking about his decision, “He is a trailblazer of sorts.”

When I asked Bazley what drove him to make the decision he did, it was all about his family and ultimately achieving his dreams.

“When it came to making my decision to doing those things, I always just had in mind what was best for me and my family and which route would help me achieve my dream, which was getting to the NBA. All were capable of doing so, but taking the route I chose to take was what made more sense to me and my family when it came to making the decision to take that path.”

During this year away from organized basketball games and working out with a team, Bazley needed some structure and experience that would help him at the next level. That summer after graduation, he met with New Balance and would be offered the opportunity to earn $1 million as an intern for them in Boston.

Bazley walked me through how the offer came about and where he was pitched the idea.

“We first met in Las Vegas at Summer League and they brought me in and just kinda pitched the idea and their plans of how they wanted to come back and how they wanted to do it with me. To just even be siting in that meeting I was blown away. A lot of guys at that age don’t get that opportunity so to have that was pretty cool.

In GAP YEAR, Bazley gave insight into what his initial reaction was when New Balance pitched him to be their launching point for once again building a reputation on the basketball court, saying, “In my head, I’m like, New Balance?”

It’s fair to have that reaction, considering New Balance hadn’t had a featured athlete or major presence in the NBA for decades. This gave Bazley the opportunity to help build the brand from the ground up, showing just how much faith they had in him.

At 18 years old, Bazley would head into the office to start his first day of work. His cubicle had a whiteboard, laptop, mini basketball hoop, and New Balance shoes all over the place. Patrick Cassidy, Global Marketing Director of New Balance, talked in the documentary about just how overwhelming it must have been at first for a guy of Bazley’s age, saying, “I’m sure it was a crazy culture shock for Darius.”

It certainly was, as he immediately was thrown into things that most 18-year-olds aren’t familiar with. During his first day on the job he met with Human Resources to walk through tax forms, payroll, and all of the other HR orientation type paperwork. He even had to learn how to best utilize Microsoft Outlook to manage emails and how to accept a calendar invite for his busy schedule. In the film, Bazley talked about what he expected the internship would be like coming into it.

“At first I thought a shoe was people just putting together random colorways and just selling them. I learned that’s not how it goes.”

One of the first things on Bazley’s calendar to kick off the summer was intern orientation with all of his peers. As you can imagine, his introduction to the group was slightly different than anyone else’s.

“I’m Darius, I’m with the marketing team. And the cameras are here because I play basketball.”

During his time at New Balance, Bazley did a variety of things, including lab testing, learning what goes into a shoe from a technical and fabric standpoint, manufacturing, marketing, product rollouts, price point analysis, and much more. He really got to see the everything on the business side of releasing a shoe from beginning to end. Bazley would go on to tell me what he ultimately took away from the internship.

“The internship was a great experience, I learned a lot there…I got to sit in on a lot of meetings and a lot of conferences. I got to do some pretty cool stuff. I got to do a focus group. I got to go shopping with some of the people in the apparel group and just kinda see what other competitors are doing. Seeing what’s in and what’s not, what’s trending and what’s fashionable. That whole New Balance internship was just me getting to see and learn what all goes into making a shoe and what goes into getting a shoe out there. I got to learn a little bit from the marketing side and I also to learn a little bit of the apparel. I worked with the social team to see how they do different things as far as pushing things and getting it out there so people can see what New Balance has coming out.”

Balancing the internship and his workouts was no easy task. He would wake up early in the morning and get an on-court workout in before his internship started. From there, he would typically eat and hit the weight room during lunch. After wrapping up his afternoon at the office, he would have a second basketball workout that would sometimes result in him getting home around midnight. From there, it was time to go to bed and start the process all over again.

To Bazley, having this busy schedule paid off in the long run. During our conversation, he talked about how this got him ready to be a professional in the NBA.

“I was able to just work on my body, work on my game, and just kinda live the pro life before I actually got the chance to enter the pros…It really taught me how to be professional. It taught me how to interact with different people. I mean I was 18 or 19 years old working with people in their mid 30’s with families. I got the chance to be around so many different people and learn so many different things, which just taught me how to be a true professional and even how to manage my time. I was trying to incorporate the workarounds along with the busy work schedule.”

Bazley is very into fashion, not only when it comes to shoes, but also with clothes. After the opportunity to work for New Balance and see what all goes into the business side of the industry, he gave me insight into whether or not that could be something he gets back into after his NBA days are over.

“It’s definitely something to think about and the option is definitely there. I liked the time at New Balance and I liked working with the apparel team, by just getting to see what goes into new clothes. Whether it’s for basketball, for lifestyle, or for runners, or just making clothes for working out — being able to test all that stuff out was pretty cool for me. Getting to see things be made two years in advance before it comes out. There were things that I saw in my internship that are just now coming out.”

By the time the internship was over, Bazley had about three months until the draft. While the office work had come to an end, his work on the court had just begun. It was time to start spending full days focused on basketball and getting exposure to NBA teams to show of his talent. I asked Bazley what his days looked like leading up to the draft after the internship was over, and they were truly all about basketball.

“Filled with a lot of work. Just to take you through the day-to-day, when I first started out, we were doing two-a-days. So I would go to the gym early in the morning. We would go lift afterwards, then head home to eat and maybe take a nap. Then we would head right back to the gym again for a second workout, then finally the day was over with.”

The 2019 NBA Draft was expected to be uncertain for a guy like Bazley. After not playing for a year, what were teams supposed to think? Jay Williams spoke about this in GAP YEAR, mentioning that not being in the headlines can sometimes be a good thing, but can also be detrimental.

“People pay attention to ESPN, people pay attention to all of these different news sites…They hear what we talk about. If you are playing behind closed doors, you don’t have to go through that. Now, that’s a gift in a way, but it’s also the curse because we’re not talking about you. 

Bazley wasn’t one of the prospects that was invited to the green room on draft night to walk across the stage when his name was called. Instead, he would spend his night with friends and family off-site while watching the picks come in. The night of the draft, Bazley had a couple of teams in mind that he thought might be selecting him, but was unsure where he would go if they didn’t.

“If the Celtics or the Pistons don’t pick me, I don’t know where I’m going”

The Detroit Pistons had pick No. 15 while the Boston Celtics had picks No. 14, No. 20, and No. 22 in the first round. Ultimately, none of those were used on Bazley, as he was taken with the No. 23 pick by the Utah Jazz that would be conveyed to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The upcoming documentary gives exclusive access to the conversation between Bazley and Thunder General Manager Sam Presti on draft night after he became the newest member of his team.

When I asked Bazley if he thought the route he took and not playing for a full year hurt his draft stock, he didn’t seem to think that played much of a factor.

“I don’t think it hurt me… I won in the position that I was in. I didn’t play basketball for a year and went in the first round, which is a blessing. I had an amazing team with me, Klutch Sports is amazing and they were able to help me and make sure I was being seen at the right time, in front of the right people, on the right stages.”

It worked out great for Bazley, who had an excellent rookie season with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was surrounded by great teammates and went on to average 5.6 points and 4.0 rebounds per game on 34.8 percent from deep. Bazley told me that the guys he was surrounded by in his rookie year really helped him make that tough leap after so long away from organized basketball. He was extra thankful for Thunder guard Terrance Ferguson, who played overseas for a season rather than going to college and was drafted two years prior.

“It definitely helped a lot, especially with Terrance Ferguson. He helped a lot with the experience he had in the league and making a similar jump that I did with not going to college…He went through things and was able to help me kinda navigate as I was going through them. Or maybe help me avoid certain things or getting my mindset ready for certain things.”

Overall, Darius Bazley paved the way for future NBA players to take unique paths to the league and potentially even have the opportunity to once again be drafted straight out of high school one day. It just took one success story to start changing the narrative for future classes of players. With a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, this could happen as early as 2022.

The GAP YEAR project leans into SpringHill’s mission of empowering greatness in every individual, along with how it was produced by The SpringHill Company’s UNINTERRUPTED in association with SLAM & RTG Features, with distribution from 1091 Pictures.