{"id":704,"date":"2020-08-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/how-the-san-antonio-spurs-people-first-approach-helped-to-prepare-the-team-for-the-nba-bubble-and-beyond\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:12","slug":"how-the-san-antonio-spurs-people-first-approach-helped-to-prepare-the-team-for-the-nba-bubble-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-the-san-antonio-spurs-people-first-approach-helped-to-prepare-the-team-for-the-nba-bubble-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"How the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 People-First Approach Helped to Prepare the Team for the NBA Bubble and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- blocks\/hero-editorial -->\n<!-- inc\/hero-editorial -->\n<div class=\"hero es-hero__editorial hero--var-1\" role=\"banner\">\n\t<div class=\"hero__image\" style=\"background-image: url(https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1227927603.jpg);\">\n\n\t\t<div class=\"hero__overlay grad-overlay content-bottom\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"container\">\n\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"hero__content\">\n                    \n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"hero__content__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t                            <p class=\"es-label es-label--md\">\n                                Aug 18, 2020                            <\/p>\n                        \t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\" class=\"theme-dark hero__back-link back-link es-label es-label--sm\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"icon icon--md icon--arrow-left\"><\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"hero__title\">How the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 People-First Approach Helped to Prepare the Team for the NBA Bubble and Beyond<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n        \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n    <section class=\"es-section theme-light hero__sidebar-wrapper container\">\n        <div class=\"hero__sidebar\">\n                            <div class=\"category-list\">\n                  <div class=\"es-label es-label--sm\">Category<\/div>\n                  <a href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/category\/leadership-culture-performance\/\" rel=\"tag\">Leadership &amp; Culture<\/a>                <\/div>\n                            <div class=\"share-list\">\n                  <div class=\"es-label es-label--sm\">Share<\/div>\n                  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-the-san-antonio-spurs-people-first-approach-helped-to-prepare-the-team-for-the-nba-bubble-and-beyond\/\">Facebook<\/a>\n                  <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-the-san-antonio-spurs-people-first-approach-helped-to-prepare-the-team-for-the-nba-bubble-and-beyond\/&#038;text=How the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 People-First Approach Helped to Prepare the Team for the NBA Bubble and Beyond\">Twitter<\/a>\n                  <a href=\"mailto:?subject=Here's a Leaders In Sport article for you &amp;body=Check out this article: How the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 People-First Approach Helped to Prepare the Team for the NBA Bubble and Beyond. https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-the-san-antonio-spurs-people-first-approach-helped-to-prepare-the-team-for-the-nba-bubble-and-beyond\/\">Email<\/a>\n                  <a href=\"#copyLink\" id=\"copyButton\" class=\"copy-link-clipboard\">Copy Link<\/a>\n                  <div id=\"textToCopy\" class=\"font-hidden\">https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/how-the-san-antonio-spurs-people-first-approach-helped-to-prepare-the-team-for-the-nba-bubble-and-beyond\/<\/div>\n                <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n    <\/section>\n\n\n<!-- blocks\/section -->\n<section\n  class=\"es-section flexible-section  text-only theme-light\"\n    >\n                <div class=\"container\">\n                                    <div class=\"bg-striped-pattern__inner section-padding-top section-padding-bottom\">\n                <div class=\"es-section__inner col-parent col-parent--stack-sm\">\n                                            <div class=\"es-section__sidebar es-section__sidebar--sticky col col--12 \">\n                                                            <p class=\"es-section__label es-label es-label--md\">As a first-year GM, Brian Wright explains how the team creates a safe space for innovation and support networks for families.<\/p>\n                            \n                            \n                            \n                                                            <div class=\"es-section__text content-area\">\n                                    <p><h6>Not a member and want more content like this? <a href=\"https:\/\/info.leadersinsport.com\/l\/856843\/2023-05-10\/371cbj\">Speak to our team.<\/a><\/h6>\n<h4>\u201cI wish RC would have told me in July when he offered me the position!\u201d<\/h4>\n<hr \/>\n<h6>By John Portch<\/h6>\n<p>Brian Wright succeeded RC Buford as General Manager of the San Antonio Spurs in July 2019, but even an executive of Buford\u2019s noted prescience could not have foreseen a pandemic that shut down major sport across the globe.<\/p>\n<p>Wright, who was speaking at last month&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance\/virtual-leaders-meet-total-high-performance-the-key-insights-day-1\/\">Leaders Meet: Total High Performance<\/a> direct from his home office, had overseen just 32 games in his new role when the NBA suspended the regular season on 11 March.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside him, at least in a virtual sense, sat his good friend Howie Roseman, the General Manager of the Philadelphia Eagles. The duo had been in regular contact since the start of the pandemic, each seeking insights from the other in mitigating the disruption. He said: \u201cWe\u2019ve tried to meet with Howie so much that he\u2019s going to block me from Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jokes aside, Wright entered the NBA shutdown with a clear purpose: \u201cThere should be no way we come out of this pandemic on the other side without strengthening our environment and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In some ways, Covid-19 has not altered his outlook. \u201c[It\u2019s about] people, process and technology. In year one, as a new leader and still finding my way in a leadership role, the thing that matters most to me and will always matter most is people. What we\u2019ve learnt during this time period is how resilient, adaptable and bought-in this group of staff and players are.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs you go through any transfer of leadership,\u201d he continued, \u201cyou can have great process and technology but if there isn\u2019t a known commitment to the people and there aren\u2019t those established relationships, no matter how great those processes are, you can\u2019t get those off the ground successfully.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><b>Creating safe spaces for innovation<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Wright alluded to the fear, anxiety and uncertainty faced by all those connected to the Spurs organisation.<\/p>\n<p>There were four distinct phases in the team\u2019s approach to the pandemic, which Wright discussed at length <a href=\"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance\/virtual-leaders-meet-total-high-performance-reinventing-leading-during-ambiguity\/\"><u>here<\/u><\/a>, but, in short, they began with education, progressed to player health conditioning and wellness, before continuing with community engagement and the creation of Covid-19 testing protocols.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cIt\u2019s been a tremendous task and adventure but I think that\u2019s one that\u2019s brought us closer together as an organisation. It\u2019s built trust and collaboration and it\u2019s really changed the way we communicate and operate, which will hopefully help us as we move into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zoom and Teams may have replaced face to face meetings at first but this, as Wright explains, proved to have its advantages. \u201cIn your practice facility it\u2019s tough to get all of your staff in one room at one time to have a meeting to talk through what\u2019s truly going on, what\u2019s coming next. For us, when we sat down after the first week or two we knew that we had to get information out to our staff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe actually had bi-weekly Zoom meetings. One was the full Spurs Sports and Entertainment staff; so all the business side, all the basketball side, all the various franchises. We got together and we talked about exactly what we knew until that point.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the early stages of the pandemic, the talk increasingly turned to the creation of the NBA bubble in Orlando. The Spurs were among the 22 teams invited to the bubble and, in mid-August, the NBA announced with considerable pride that no player at the bubble had tested positive for a fourth consecutive week. Quite a feat considering the bubble idea was considered fanciful at one stage.<\/p>\n<p>During the build-up, Wright held meetings with the NBA itself and enjoyed regular check-ins with his counterparts at the other competing teams. He was the Spurs\u2019 conduit to the world of basketball beyond San Antonio. \u201cWhat I tried to convey is that we were going to be as transparent as we can, we\u2019re going to be consistent, and I\u2019m going to be vulnerable &#8211; I\u2019m going to tell you when I don\u2019t have an answer for your question but I\u2019ll go and search it out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bubble certainly posed more questions than answers at first. \u201cWe\u2019ve been hyper-focused on education and understanding that this is something completely unheard of that we\u2019re going to walk into.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not lost on us that there\u2019s a fear of the unknown, that stress and anxiety, not just for the people going into that situation but the people they\u2019re leaving behind for two months.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wright stressed the importance of creating safe spaces for staff to present ideas that enabled the team to be flexible and adaptive, not only ahead of the bubble but in the longer term. This week, the Spurs enter the NBA Draft Lottery for the first time since 1997 when they drafted Tim Duncan. The NBA Draft itself and free agency have been pushed back to mid-October, while training camps have been earmarked for November.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the NBA, there is still no guarantee of college basketball this season, which will impact on the Spurs\u2019 scouting plans. \u201cOur process doesn\u2019t start the moment a guy steps on campus &#8211; if that\u2019s the first time we\u2019re aware of a player than we\u2019re already four or five steps behind,\u201d said Wright.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we talk about in terms of data, we talk about being analytically driven and managing the objective with the subjective we\u2019re not going to have the same ability to do that. We talked about a staff restructure and how we do it; do your scouting staff start to do more pro work or do they start to do more international work?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve already shifted to a place where through this time period and in the years prior where your reliance on film is much\u00a0more heavy. How do you restructure regionally so that you are maximising travel because we know that travelling is going to be an issue whether teams are practising or what have\u00a0you.\u00a0How do you have access to practice film if there is that?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose are things we discussed; and then information gathering. Understanding that the people coming into your organisation are\u00a0oftentimes more important than the talent; it\u2019s how you build and retain culture. Those are questions that we\u00a0have to\u00a0answer; are there other behavioural and cognitive assessments out there that add data to our process that may not be part of our process right now?\u00a0As you get to pre-draft, do you revamp your pre-draft process to try and make up for any differences that you had in evaluation points?\u00a0So\u00a0what does a draft workout look like? What does a visit look like? How do you do\u00a0all of\u00a0those things to give you as many data points and evaluation points to give you as much perspective as you can possibly glean?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These are uncharted waters that require a degree of organisational ingenuity. \u201cIt starts with you modelling that as a leader,\u201d he explained. \u201cThere will be some meetings where I\u2019ll tell the person leading the meeting that I\u2019m going to start with the most ridiculous, off-the-wall idea and concept that I know is completely flawed, that people will tear apart &#8211; and that\u2019s completely fine if it opens up the pathway for the next person to come up with an idea behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Wright, success needs to be measured on the process rather than the outcome and he believes that any leader in his position must ask themselves: \u201cHow do you encourage not just an idea that worked but how do you encourage and compliment something that did not work because you\u2019re not measuring success based on the outcome?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow did you get to that outcome? So as you work through that space, as you work through ideas, as we debrief things that happened or decisions that we make, oftentimes not focusing on the final outcome of that decision and retooling; where do we go right in our process and where do we need to tweak it? Encouraging people to think that way allows them to focus on getting new and creative ideas and really make them explicitly known.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are no bad ideas and no wrong ideas. We don\u2019t do every idea that we suggest but we work through how it could impact us and work through from there. I think when you evaluate your process and not the final outcome at times, it gives people the wherewithal; and knowing that they won\u2019t be reprimanded for something that might be out of the box and is a little different; we\u2019re just going to evaluate how we got to that result and constantly refine that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that you then create an environment that\u2019s safe for people to suggest ideas and continue to innovate and to ideate together. It\u2019s creating space in that way and I think all of us have adopted that process together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><b>The Spurs family<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Wright returned to the theme of those who would not be travelling to the bubble, the families of the of the players and staff. \u201cWe sat down with families &#8211; one of my longest Zoom meetings of the year was with the spouses of the travelling party staff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was \u2018hey\u2019, ask any question that\u2019s on your mind and I\u2019ll try to answer it to the best of my ability and what I don\u2019t know I\u2019ll promise to take to the highest levels of leadership at the NBA and I\u2019ll ask for you.\u2019 In order for us to be able to do our jobs in this campus environment, players and staff need to know that their families feel secure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Spurs have now left the bubble having been eliminated but, with discussions still ongoing ahead of the 2020-21 season, there is a distinct possibility of further regional bubbles when action returns in December or January.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe went through things like how do we provide services to them when we\u2019re gone? If somebody needs a Covid test how do we help the with that? For team doctors and physicians, how do they have access? The mental health and wellness space, how do they have access? How do we give families a break?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With regard to the final question, Wright spoke of his own experience. \u201cI haven\u2019t been home for 100 consecutive days for the past 15 years and so one of my biggest growth points was being a dad again.\u201d Not that it was a complete success: \u201cI learned I was not meant to be a teacher &#8211; I learnt that in the first three weeks. I was fired by my wife as a teacher; I just managed attention when the kids got in trouble!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In short, Wright knew what a number of his colleagues were going through. \u201cWe wanted to make sure we put resources in place so that the family members had a break; or if it\u2019s virtual platforms for their kids to give them a break; if it\u2019s creating the family room environment when we\u2019re having games, or different support systems with how they can help each other.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had to put things in place, have those conversations, and ask the right questions to truly listen to what those concerns were and how we could be most helpful. It was a tremendous learning experience and it\u2019s something we\u2019ll continue to add to what we provide to our families and players coming out of this bubble situation and the pandemic overall.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wright also touched upon the use of predictive analytics and cognitive assessments as valuable tools at a time when there is no guarantee of college basketball in the near future, but it will still be people first and foremost.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour biggest advantage is your people, your environment and how it all functions together. Through get adversity you develop those bonds and you develop that trust. Organisationally, we\u2019ve been transparent, consistent, vulnerable and adaptable in this time period. I think those things have created an environment of trust and an environment of shared leadership, responsibility and ownership.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom that position, you\u2019re able to make the process changes, the technology changes that give you that marginal increase &#8211; but there\u2019s no better competitive advantage than your people and seeing them come together.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis pandemic and what we\u2019ve been through over the last 100-plus days has brought this organisation together and there\u2019s no doubt that we\u2019ll be better coming out of this than we were going into it.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Looking for more performance insight?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Performance<\/em> <em>21<\/em> is available for download now and leads with a selection of insights lifted from our At Home With Leaders podcast series, which has featured the likes of <strong>England Rugby\u2019s Eddie Jones<\/strong>, the <strong>Toronto Blue Jays\u2019 Mark Shapiro<\/strong>, and <strong>Chelsea\u2019s Emma Hayes<\/strong> speaking directly from their home offices.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/info.leadersinsport.com\/l\/285402\/2020-06-23\/b3234b\"><button>Download Journal<\/button><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n                                <\/div>\n                            \n                            \n                            \n                                                    <\/div>\n                                        <div class=\"col visibly-hidden col--flex-align-right\">\n                                            <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n        <\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a first-year GM, Brian Wright explains how the team creates a safe space for innovation and support networks for families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":705,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[20],"pathway":[],"topic":[],"sport":[],"class_list":["post-704","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership-culture-performance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - 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