Enjoy Basketball Talks To Bobby Marks

Whether you have rebuilt teams in NBA 2k or went full First Take mode at the high school lunch table, once or twice you’ve probably thought “I could be an NBA General Manager!” And who wouldn’t want Woj’s job? We talked to a man that has done both of these gigs: Bobby Marks.

For the past 5 years, he’s been a premier NBA Insider at ESPN. Before that, he worked in the front office of the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets for 20 years from the Jason Kidd 🏆 and Richard Jeferson 👨‍🦲 glory years to the Kevin Garnett 🎟 and Paul Pierce 💩 era.

Last week we had the honor to bring this GOAT onto our Twitter spaces and it was the best convo we had all year. Bobby talked about the thrills and chills of working at an NBA front office, the dynamic life of an NBA journalist, and some awesome Nets stories we’ve never heard before. Listen to the audio here or read below for some truly Enjoyable stuff:

EB: Tell us a little bit about your journey because you've certainly had a really interesting one. You began as an intern for the Nets in 95, but what happened from there?

BM: Yeah that's how I kind of started. I played college football at Merritt in Poughkeepsie, New York and was about six credits short to graduate and needed to do an internship and was fortunate to get one in New Jersey at the time back in 95. And actually my first internship was in PR. I couldn't get a job after that, so I wound up staying on for free working for Willis Reed, who was the GM at the time and parlayed that eventually into a full time job starting in January of 96.

And as I say things were a lot different than departments were smaller. staffs were smaller, everything was smaller, and I just kind of worked my way up the food chain in New Jersey for Willis and then I worked for Coach Caliperri. Don Casey, John Nash, a lot of different front offices. In 2001 Brad Thorn came in and I started to kind of get a little more of an understanding of the collective bargaining agreement and how the cap worked. Then in 2010, I got promoted to assistant GM under Billy King and was there for five years under Billy, but my contract wasn't renewed after the 2015 offseason.

So I was still getting paid for about a year and really didn't know what I wanted to do. I didn't know if I wanted to work for a team again, which would make us relocate somewhere and my kids were younger at the time. I ended up taking a month off from doing things and started to dive into a little bit of media. And back then in 2015, nobody was really using Twitter to break down trades and look at the cap and how it impacts your roster and all these different things. So I started doing that just for free and built up a following from there.

Then Yahoo was starting a new basketball division and so I went out and met with them and got offered a job. It involved writing, which was really not a focus for me in Brooklyn or New Jersey. Woj was there and Shams and Chris Mannix and Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz, just a really good group. And that’s kind of how my journey in sports writing started. I spent about two years with Yahoo writing articles, videos, podcasts, and then I moved to ESPN in 2017 and have been there ever since.

EB: Going back to your front office job, how did that role change during the busiest times of the season for you?

BM: It kind of goes in cycles, just like how we cover the NBA. Let’s say free agency ends in August. I always say, either people have babies, or their wives have babies or you're getting married in August because that’s usually a dead month for front offices. September is kind of building up for training camp. You're doing your camp lists, your roster list, you're probably watching film of guys from summer league here.

Then you start training camp at the end of September, which is kind of like a maintenance part from a front office perspective. Do you have guys who are rookie extension eligible? If you have guys that you really like but you don’t have any roster spots, is there a trade out there? So training camp is all about tweaking as far as your 15 man roster.

When the season starts you rarely see any blockbuster trades in the month of October because you’re still kind of evaluating everyone. And as you start to get into the flow of the season you’re certainly going to start evaluating college prospects but everything is sort of in a holding pattern until about 30 or 40 games in.

Then come January the trade deadlines about a month away, that's when things start to really pick up. You’re looking ahead to your offseason as far as who’s under contract, who fits, can you make a deal for a guy, can you make trade one of your expirings for someone with another year left on his contract? Of course you always have to be in conjunction with your head coach as far as what he’s looking for.

Once you get through the deadline then it’s the buyout period, so you’re trying to add some vets to the back end of your roster, or maybe trying to convert some players on a two way. This is where you start thinking about the standings. Are you looking to make a run or are you one of those teams jockeying for lottery position?

As you get into the postseason teams really start preparing for the draft. You're doing all your background, you're starting to bring players in for interviews and workouts. And of course everyone is thinking ahead to free agency. This is the part of the year where each teams gonna think a little bit differently. Houston might have the #1 pick, another first, and $60 million in cap space, while the Knicks don’t have cap space, don’t have a draft pick, and their biggest decision is re-signing Josh Hart. So some teams are making major changes while others are just worried about tweaking around the edges. Then you get to July and August and that cycle starts all over again.

EB: Is there any story that was particularly fun from your time as an Assistant GM?

BM: I don’t know about a fun story but the Jimmy Butler 56 point game brought back some bad memories for me. It’s a very helpless feeling when you’re in the front office and sitting in the stands during a playoff game and a player gets going because there’s nothing you can do.

So back in 2013 we’re in Chicago for game four, up like 12 or 13 with three minutes left. And Nate Robinson just went off. He completely willed them. Actually I remember we were up 13 and C.J. Watson hadn’t dunked all year and had a wide open dunk and missed it, then Reggie Evans got fouled and wound up missing both free throws and they just went on a run. Wound up losing that game in triple overtime and the series in seven games.

EB: After leaving Brooklyn you decided to transition to sports media, was there anything that drew you to that role?

BM: What kind of triggered things for me was right around the 2015 draft. I was at that point where I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do next and I knew Howard Beck at Bleacher Report and Mark Stein at ESPN. So I reached out to them and said ‘Hey, If you need help with stuff for free agency, I can work for free’.

Then Mark asked if I had any interest in doing anything for ESPN on TV and I was like ‘Sure, but I’ve never done TV before in my life’. He told me that if I could get to Bristol they’d put me up in a hotel. I was living in New Jersey at the time so I drove up to Bristol and did like six TV segments in one day. That’s when I first thought that this could be something.

And then I was in Florida and they asked me to come back. So I flew myself out, paid my own way, and did it again. I really enjoyed the analyzing perspective as far as just giving my thoughts. And that got my thirst going a little bit as far as maybe this media thing could be something for the me. And eventually, two or three years later, it turned into something.

EB: Do you have a quick piece of advice for those who want to be involved with a team or get into sports media.

BM: Getting to work for a team today is highly competitive. I always say, the way to get in is to network. Don’t be afraid to reach out to people on LinkedIn . And if you’re ever in a position to do an internship, do it. If you’re in college and need credits, reach out to teams, apply to work there, even if it’s something you don’t necessarily want to do. If there’s an opening for selling tickets and you want to work in the front office, take it anyway because that’s a way to get your foot in the door.

The media thing is a bit different because I’m in a unique position where I have a role carved out for me based off my past experience. But I think the goal is that you always want to create value for yourself because there’s always going to be somebody out there that is going to try take your job.

EB: What’s the most enjoyable moment of your career overall, whether it was in the front office or the media?

BM: Getting to the Finals in 02 was probably one of the most rewarding things I’ve gone through. Back then first rounds were best of five, and we were the one seed and Indiana was the eight. So, we lost game one and everyone was scrambling, but we ended up winning game five in triple overtime in one of the greatest games I’ve ever witnessed.

We play the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, go to Boston for game three, and we’re beating them by like 20 going into the fourth and end up losing the lead, going down 2-1 in the series. But we ended up coming back in that one as well to win in six. And you know, we got our butts kicked in by Shaq and Kobe, but it was still one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve gone through.

EB: Build the best team around Damian Lillard using two all-stars, one rookie/sophomore, and one ex player in their prime.

BM: First I'm gonna pick a rookie, and I think it would have to be Jalen Williams from Santa Clara. I just kind of like everything about him. As for all-stars, man, I would love a healthy Kevin Durant, and I think I’d take his teammate Devin Booker as well. I think what you want here are closers, guys who can finish games. Finally we need some size, so for a former player I’d probably go Shaq, people forget how dominant he was in his Lakers days.

EB: Which NBA team would be most fun to join their front office today?

BM: Oklahoma City just got some play-in experience, some great young guys, and a ton of draft picks in the coming years. And they’ve got flexibility. I think the new CBA rules will help them as far as leveling the playing field. And Orlando is intriguing because of Banchero and Wagner and they have 2 picks in the lottery this year.

EB: Your team is down by 2. What NBA player, past or present, are you giving the ball to?

BM: I've seen Jason Kidd make a lot of big shots. I mean, a lot of big shots. But for a guy who wasn’t on the Nets team, how could you not pick Stephen Curry? I think anytime if he has the ball in his hands, it feels like it's going in.