Brian McIntyre and Terry Lyons join Joe this week for a conversation on public relations at the NBA. Brian oversaw public relations activities for every major NBA event from 1982 through 2010, including The Playoffs, The Finals, NBA All-Star, the NBA Draft, the NBA Draft Lottery, the McDonald’s Championship and other events. He was heavily involved in the launch of both the WNBA and the NBA Development League. He developed and implemented many of the communications policies and procedures currently in place for all three leagues and oversaw day-to-day responsibilities, strategies and problem solving. Lyons was responsible for all NBA communications, public relations and media activities outside the USA. He supervised and helped train 15 regional communications staff stationed in the NBA’s Asia-Pacific and European offices and coordinated for all international public relations activities generated in the NBA’s headquarters in New York and New Jersey.

Brian and Terry talk about their time at the NBA, from being one of the first hires by David Stern when the NBA only had 30 employees to growing the league into a multi-billion-dollar company. They share stories of working under David Stern and growing the NBA internationally. They also tell us how it is to work with some of the all-time greats like Michael Jordan and Larry Bird. If you are interested in the inner-workings of the NBA or sportsbiz in general this is a must listen!

 

The Facts

The CUSP Show is a production by the faculty of Sports Management at Columbia University. You can get in touch with the program on Twitter @CU_SPS_Sports Our presenters are Joe Favorito (@Joefav) and Tom Richardson (@ConvergenceTR).

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