The Tao of Rick 

Over the past 30 years, Rick Sund has made an indubitable mark as one of the NBA’s brightest front office executives. The secret to his success: listen, communicate and lead.

By Michael J. Pallerino

It’s not surprising. Rick Sund is busy. And his plate keeps getting fuller. It’s just a few days before the Atlanta Hawks officially report to their 2009-2010 training camp to pick up where they left off last season – a season in which they secured home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. A season where a young team – sprinkled with some key veterans – finally found their footing in the ever competitive and always exciting NBA Eastern Conference.

In just his second year as the Hawks’ executive vice president and general manager, Rick Sund has a million and one things on his “to do” list – the continual shuffling of which stretches each of his days to their fullest. Contract negotiations. Coaches meetings. Paperwork. And the list goes on. After returning from a quick meeting down the hall, Sund is ready for the questions.

“What was the best advice you ever received in this business?”

“The best advice?” he asks, taking time to reflect with some nostalgia.

When you look at when and where Rick Sund grew up in this business, it’s not surprising that the best piece of advice he received came from one of the game’s greatest pioneers. In 1974, while finishing the sports management program at Ohio University, Sund was an intern for Wayne Embry, the former Hall of Fame player and first African American general manager of a professional sports franchise. The young intern had just earned All-Big Ten honors his senior year at Northwestern. The NBA was a different world in those days. Your typical NBA front office typically had a handful of staffers: a GM, a PR person, a controller and a ticket manager, a far cry from the global, multi-billion dollar machine it is today.

“The best advice was that you have to be able to communicate. If you can communicate, you can manage people,” Sund says.

With more than 30 years of NBA front office experience – with stints in Milwaukee, Dallas, Detroit and Seattle – Rick Sund knows a thing or two about how effective communications not only serves as a foundation for leadership, but how it helps build championship organizations, too.

“The ability to communicate to the athlete and to reach him is imperative. If you don’t have the ability to be a people person with basketball knowledge you’re in trouble. It’s about being able to get everybody on the same page. It’s about management.”

On Court Player Development® caught up with Rick Sund to get his thoughts on succeeding in the game of basketball and why helping strengthen the development of young players is important to the sport.

Following is what he had to say.

On Court Player Development: What role do you think a coach of young athletes should play in the development process?
Rick Sund: You hope that they [coaches] are doing the right things with fundamentals, leadership and sportsmanship. You hope that they are emphasizing how it is important to be competitive – without over doing it. The question with youth basketball and youth sports is that when you over do it, you accelerate the process faster than it has to be.

At each level, the intensity level gets a little stronger. You don’t want to over do it, not at the youth level, the middle school level or even the high school level. Winning is important, but it might not necessarily always be the most important thing in the development of young players. The course happens: They go to high school, maybe college. And if they are gifted enough – lucky enough – they go beyond that.

On Court: What should a coach look for in young players?
Sund: What you hope to find in a young player is that through the stepladder of his development comes a sense of competitiveness. And with that competitiveness develops a real positive character. This means that the player has a certain amount of integrity and sportsmanship in his game. You can win and be competitive, but you still have to have integrity, character and sportsmanship.

On Court: Beyond a player’s skill set, what are some of the characters a good player must have?
Sund: A good player is going to have the tangibles – ball handling, shooting, rebounding. But he also has to have the intangibles – being a good teammate, being coachable, having integrity, having character, having sportsmanship. These are all part of becoming a good player on whatever level he plays.

And I don’t think a player should ever take himself too seriously. That’s very important. You have to have confidence to take a leap. I understand that. But I just don’t think he should ever take himself too seriously.   

On Court: What are the characteristics that make up a good coach?
Sund: Being a good coach means that you are somebody who can relate to your players and emphasize that, on the youth level, it is important to have those tangible skills: fundamentals like ball handling, shooting, playing the game. But you must also emphasize those intangibles traits, which include showing your players how to be a good sport, and how to have integrity and character. These are really important parts of the whole process. They are important to a young player’s overall development. It’s about becoming a well-rounded athlete.

On Court: What should every parent, coach and player know about playing the game?
Sund: That it’s not always about winning; it’s about competing and doing your best and what it takes to do your best. They should know that it’s about developing the tangibles and intangibles of everything we mentioned before.

On Court: What should be in every coach’s lesson plan?
Sund: The ability to communicate with the athlete and be able to reach him.

On Court: Why are fundamentals so important to the future of the game?
Sund: A player, at any level, can be a great athlete and have great talent, but if he has to have solid fundamentals and learn how to use his talents to the best of his abilities.

On Court: With everything that you have accomplished, is there something – a player, team or season – that stays with you?
Sund: The thing that I am most proud of is the longevity that I have had in this business. I think it is because I have had the ability to communicate to players, to coaches, to my colleagues and to the owners. I’ve had a 30-plus year career, and God willing, a few more left. I’m probably most proud of that.

This is a business in that so much is dependent, on this level, on wins and losses. I think that I have been lucky enough to have enough wins to survive. When you combine these two things – the ability to communicate and winning with those people – then, yes, I would say that’s a good memory.

I remember sitting down with Wayne Embry one day to discuss the biggest part of our jobs. It was communication. Today, it’s more prevalent than ever. I don’t think it was that big of a factor back then, but on a daily basis, today, I talk to my owner, my coach, my players, their agents, my colleagues from around the league, the NBA, the media. I talk with my staff and the scouts. So it’s about managing and communicating – on any level.   

On Court: Is there a moment that you remember, early on, where you thought, “Hey, I made it?”
Sund: When I first got into the business, Wayne got me into all the circles. We were having dinner one night with Red Auerbach (legendary Boston Celtics coach, president and front office executive), Pete Newell (legendary basketball coach and instructor) and Stu Inman (legendary scout, coach and front office executive) before heading to a game. Pete came up to me before we left and said, “Rick, I want to give you a little advice. While you’re going through this tonight and in the future, remember to spend more time listening than talking.”

It was such great advice, to have this legend of the game tell me, “Hey, you’re going out with other legends, so listen to what they have to say.” He told me that I didn’t always have to agree with them, but listen. His advice verified that old adage that I still use a lot: “Knowledge speaks; wisdom listens.”

I’ve tried to follow Pete’s advice every day. And as I have gone up the ladder, I know I have found myself talking more than I should. But over the years, I have tried to implement the listening and the communication aspects. I’ve also tried to remember that you’re never as great as people make you out to be. And you’re never as bad as they say you are. Don’t ever get caught up in that one way or another.

The other thing I always tell people: never underestimate the role of luck. Just remember to parlay that luck into success. But don’t ever underestimate it. OC