How Do I Get Overseas?

I get asked this question more than anything else via DMs, emails, texts…

“Hey man, how do I get overseas? What do I need to do?”

So here’s the answer:

Play in the TBT. Play in a ProAm. Train with other pros…Or at least try.

That’s it. That’s the whole post.

Alright, not really. But I could honestly leave this shit right there and feel good about it. Because that’s the advice nobody wants to hear, but everybody needs.

If you’re not NBA Summer League caliber, then these are your next best options.

You get to play with pros who have passports and contracts and you get to be seen.

And you don’t have to wait on an agent to vouch for you, or send 400 emails to coaches who don’t know your name and don’t care about your stats from five years ago.

You need to get in shape, find a squad, and get on the court.

Stop Emailing. Start Playing.

There’s this whole wave of “overseas consultants” online…half of whom have never played professionally…telling young players to “make a highlight package” and “send it to 200 teams.”

Like what the actual fuck are we doing?

This isn’t JV tryouts at the YMCA.

Overseas basketball is pro basketball!

It’s a business.

Nobody is handing out a contract off the grainy clip of you hitting five wide-open threes in an open gym run at L.A. Fitness.

You want to get noticed? Get in the gym…a real gym with players who have been there. Get into a Pro-Am or the TBT with other pros.

Put your fucking game where the eyes are.

Real Hoopers Network During the Game

I always say networking is everything after the game ends…but networking during the game could change your life.

That’s how I got one of my jobs overseas.

I was in between contracts, and my old teammate Keena Young hit me up. We played together years before and stayed in touch.

One call, and I was in Kosovo, suiting up next to him again.

That kind of connection only happens if you’re playing. If Keena hadn’t gone to battle with me and I was just some guy DMing him a highlight reel, I’m probably not getting that job.

Same with the Philly runs I used to play in.

We’d run in gyms where everyone was there. Sixers guys. Philly NBA vets. Big-time college names.

If you’re not from Philly, you probably don’t realize how deep those runs go…but the connections I made there still hold weight today.

Nobody’s passing your name around based on a highlight reel. You need to be on the floor with these athletes, competing against them. And when you do, they remember you.

Networking Isn’t Cold Calling

Let me break this down.

I’ll give you every overseas coach’s email and a brand-new MacBook.

Then I’ll give another guy a spot in a Pro-Am with overseas athletes.

I guarantee you the second guy is getting a job first.

Because coaches don’t care about your emails. They care about who’s vouching for you. They care about what you did in a game, not what you say in a paragraph.

Now, look. Yes, the occasional cold email works…usually out of desperation.

A team just lost a guy or a player flamed out midseason and they need a body.

So sometimes someone checks their inbox and finds your email.

But that’s not a strategy…That’s a Hail Mary.

Control the Dream

I was watching Gordon Hayward on Paul George’s podcast recently, and he talked about how he once asked to work out with Kobe.

Straight up reached out, put himself out there and got results.

Now obviously, if you’re not NBA-caliber, you’re probably not getting a “yes” from legends like that, nor are you getting their number, but it’s the mindset that matters.

He didn’t sit around waiting for someone to hand him greatness. He asked for it. 

And here’s the part that blows my mind…

I know guys willing to send $2,500 to a total stranger on the internet, hoping they’ll land them a job overseas, but won’t spend that same money on a flight to train where the real ones are.

Where Mike James, TJ Shorts, Kendrick Perry, or Shane Larkin are actually working out.

Why aren’t more players trying to network like that?

Why are you trusting someone you’ve never met to manage your dream?

This is YOUR career, YOUR shot, YOUR name on the jersey.

You need to control it by being in the gym, not in your inbox.

Final Thought

You want to know how to get overseas?

You want to know where pros are working out?

Click on a vet’s name in the Members section and ASK THEM YOURSELF.

Stop acting like someone else is supposed to hand this to you.

This is your dream…Own it. 

So please, stop asking how to get overseas and start putting yourself in the places where overseas jobs come from.

It’s at that next Pro-Am, or that next TBT squad you weren’t sure you were good enough for.

Go find a team, get in shape and prove it.

You want exposure?

Go play.