(12-17-2021, 07:35 PM)fifteenth Wrote: There are reasons why Nico's experience does apply to working in the NBA. I am not, in my job, responsible for judging and building relationships with NBA talent or building relationships with adjents or team execs.
And "shoe salesman" could be comedic, or it could be shorthand for "not qualified." Is Nico, in fact, not qualified?
I don't see how someone could regard him as qualified in the usual sense of the word -- having a successful track record as a GM, or maybe an assistant GM, at another NBA franchise. Or even having substantial experience working in the front office of another NBA franchise, or possibly even as a successful agent.
Say I am an executive at a company that sells medical equipment to physicians. I know the physicians, the practice managers, I'm familiar with each of their medical equipment needs, and their preferences in that regard, and I have a lot of product knowledge. Everyone respects and likes me. That's great. But it doesn't mean I'm qualified to start practicing medicine. To be qualified usually requires training/experience in the actual job or something very similar -- not just doing business in a related field.
I think Nico has certain experience and qualities that may indicate promise that he could become a qualified GM in time -- maybe even a great one. He might be able to hit the ground running on some aspects of the job now. But I don't know how anyone would think he is there at this point. It's a job he's never done before. In the summer, he came out and admitted that there were many areas of the job with which he was unfamiliar. I expect that Cuban wasn't too worried about it, possibly because that particular hire was more about establishing a cultural reset than in-house training of an expert on roster construction and other technical aspects of the position. And maybe he is able to accomplish that task -- I hope so.
And if culture-setting and organizational management are really his jobs, with the broader titles being largely window dressing, then maybe he is pretty close to qualified now. Could be.