The Edge by PlaySight

Albert Hall is President of HallPass Media and serves as Vice President of Business Operations at the Samsung NBA Summer League. Hall is a principal in VSL Properties, founders of the Vegas Summer League and acting CEO of the Lott IMPACT Trophy brand. HallPass Media is a full service sports marketing agency specializing in brand consulting, digital and broadcast media, talent marketing and events and properties. Albert Hall has spent over 20 years on the front lines of sports marketing. Past experience includes: professional teams and leagues (Seattle SuperSonics, and NBA Summer League), agencies (Wasserman Media Group, Lagardere), event and property development (adidas Nations, the Lott IMPACT Trophy, the NBA Coaches Association) and brand integration and talent campaigns with adidas, Mercedes-Benz, Toshiba, Sirius XM, Sony, Samsung, Vitamin Water, Virgin Mobile, FOX Sports, CBS, ESPN, Turner Sports and others. As president of HallPass Media, Hall overseas an innovative young team on all areas of the business and is the primary lead generator on all sales initiatives. HallPass Media is based in Newport Beach, CA.

This week on The Edge, we talk to Chris Ebersole, the Senior Director of International Basketball Operations and Elite Basketball at the NBA. We spoke with Chris about his responsibilities at the NBA, where he oversees two of the NBA’s largest international programs, Basketball Without Borders (which has produced players like Joel Embiid and Pascal Siakam) and the NBA Academies (a newer program of elite basketball training centers around the world). Chris told us about the NBA’s Global Games initiative, his favorite international prospects in this year’s NBA draft, and the new G League Selects team. He also shared his thoughts NBA’s partnership with Nex Team and Homecourt, and how it has enabled his staff to stay in touch with their international players during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On this week of The Edge, we talk with Johnny Carpenter, the Director of Player Personnel for the University of Virginia men’s basketball team. Johnny tells us about his role on the UVA basketball staff, what technology they use as a team, and how video has evolved over the years in basketball. Johnny tells some great stories from his coaching career, from writing a handwritten note to Rick Carlisle, head coach of the Dallas Mavericks to eventually working for Rick a year later. We also touched on Johnny’s experience working with Slovakia’s Under 18 team in Macedonia, and of course, he gave us an inside look into Virginia’s magical national championship run last year.

On this week of The Edge, we talk with Tom Bialaszewski, an Assistant Coach at Olimpia Milano of the Italian League. Tom shares his experience of being in Italy during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact it has had on his team, family, and daily life as a coach overseas. We also discussed Tom’s experience in various NBA roles, and winding up leading the NBA’s Global Academy team in Australia. Having worked as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Lakers for five years, Tom shared stories about his relationship with Kobe Bryant, working with him on and off the court, and the unmatched attention to detail that Kobe had.

On this episode of The Edge, we sit down with Nick Friedman, a Player Development Coach with the Charlotte Hornets. We spoke with Nick about his career in basketball, from a D3 player to his time at the University of Miami, the G League, and now with the Hornets. Nick also went into detail on how he’s working with players right now, the importance of the G League, the best way to work with video and technology, and the best pre-draft workout he has ever seen.

On this episode of The Edge, we sit down with two NBA G League head coaches, Brian Adams of the Agua Caliente Clippers, and Sam Newman-Beck of the Iowa Wolves. We spoke about their relationship in the coaching world, and how Brian originally hired Sam to work with him on the Boston Celtics video staff. They took us behind the scenes during their NBA Championship run with the Celtics in 2008. Sam and Brian both talked about the transition from working in the video rooms in the NBA to now running their own teams, and you won’t want to miss some great stories about Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.

Alan Arlt is the Founder of Ultimate Hoops and Senior Director of Basketball Operations at Life Time Fitness. In this interview, we talked about Alan’s career in New York as an ad executive and his experience of playing in leagues all across New York City. We also talked about his move back to Minnesota, where he had a vision as a young entrepreneur of bringing a professional level basketball experience to the recreational level, and what inspired him along his journey to creating the massive success that is Ultimate Hoops. Alan also gave us the inside scoop on the legendary pickup games at Life Time Manhattan’s Sky location, featuring the likes of Lebron James, Kevin Durant and James Harden.

On this episode of The Edge, we talk with Seth Greenberg, college basketball analyst with ESPN. Greenberg shares his thoughts on the current state of college hoops, the new G League Select Team and much more. Prior to joining ESPN in 2012, Greenberg worked for over 30 years as a college basketball coach. Greenberg has been the head coach at Long Beach State, the University of South Florida, and Virginia Tech. He was a two-time ACC Coach of the Year. You can find Seth active on Twitter at @SethOnHoops.

On this episode, we spoke to Anwar McQueen, founder of TEAM Inc. We discussed TEAM Inc. in detail – where under-represented youth work with industry-leading, cutting edge technology in the sports they are passionate about. We also talked about Anwar’s basketball career, coming from the DMV area and playing 4 years at Cal-Berkeley with the likes of Jason Kidd and Shareef Abdur Rahim and what it was like to play a key role in the development and scaling of basketball technology that was eventually adopted by all of the NBA.

On this episode, we spoke to Sammy Gelfand, who is the director of coaching analytics for the Detroit pistons of the NBA. We talked about Sam, his journey in the basketball world. His time in the NBA G league, working his way up to the Golden State Warriors organization and how he landed with the Detroit pistons. We also discussed his relationship with Steve Kerr from idolizing him as a player to ultimately working for him as a coach with the Warriors, being Shaun Livingston's favorite rebounder, and why Steph Curry calls him the ultimate hustler. We also dove into technology and analytics and how it evolve over the years within the NBA landscape.