Pros vs Joes

Every week, there’s a new clip on my feed with some influencer with unnecessarily expensive gear recording workouts with the tagline…Trying to hoop overseas.

Cue the dramatical music and motivational captions.

Ummm…this is professional basketball. We are not the same.

I get why the trend is popular. Overseas looks romantic from a distance. You see the money, and the fancy cities every few months. The post from a guy you played against in high school dunking over someone, with a rabid crowd shooting off fireworks in the background and for some reason think…that seems fun, maybe I should try. Like you can achieve it, if you manifest hard enough.

And that’s where the split happens.

People see the surface and think the surface is the whole story. They treat overseas like it’s some adult version of AAU where you just show up, grab a quick photo in front of a cathedral and suddenly you’re a pro athlete. Like falling in love with the movie trailer and never bothering to ask what the whole film was like.

Walk into a locker room where no one knows you and no one cares yet. They look you up and down and decide if you can make their life easier or harder. That’s pro sports overseas. The room does not give a standing ovation when you arrive. They’ve seen dozens of yous. They wait to see if you are legit, or just another waste of time.

Everyone sees the highlight and thinks,that is the job. However, the job is the hours before that. The job is running plays you learned yesterday, in a language you barely understand against someone who has kids and a mortgage and no patience for your TikTok account. The job is the coach with angry eyes chain smoking cigarettes that thinks, I hate you, but I need you to boost my career. You miss a box out and practice turns into a track meet. You keep your spot by being boring and good…every fucking day for months, upon months, upon fucking months.

And then there is the other shit: The checks that come late, or the two a days bookended with six hour bus rides across three countries. Good luck being charming on camera after you go two games without a touch and your coach and the GM keep whispering and looking at you.

I’m not hating…I’m actually kind of laughing a little because I get it. When I was young I thought confidence grew on trees too. 

Pros vs Joes…the phrase from my childhood where this whole idea first took shape. It came from that dimly lit show where NARPs tried to hang with pros, and for some reason we all kept watching it. Growing up in the Philly area, I already knew the Vince Papale story by heart. Every kid heard it at least twice. But even that story worked because it was one dude in the right moment with the right toughness…not a whole wave of people thinking that shit is normal.

Back then it all felt like such a crazy concept, that you watched on Saturday mornings while eating a giant bowl of Trix and laughing at the guy getting fucking destroyed by Lawrence Taylor.

It’s hilarious, but also plants this idea that you can grab a duffel bag, hop on a flight, throw a filter on a selfie and magically become a pro. That is not how this works.There are tiers to this thing and every tier is guarded by someone who wants your minutes and they are not losing their spot to an Instagram star.

So why is everyone selling overseas as a reachable dream right now? Because reachable sells. Because you can do it too, gets more traction than; you need three years of film, a solid agent and a passport with lots of stamps. We are confusing access with ability. It’s way easier to book a flight than a contract.

Somewhere along the way, the lines blurred. Athletes started becoming influencers. We had to, the world changed. Cameras followed us into locker rooms, while sponsors asked for engagement. So we adapted and became producers. We learned how to tell our story so our names didn’t disappear. We evolved and we survived.

But what’s wild now, is seeing the reverse…with influencers trying to become athletes. That’s not evolution, that’s fucking delusion.

It’s never worked the other way around. You can teach an athlete to tell their story, but you can’t teach an influencer to be a pro athlete. Yet here we are, watching people cosplay our jobs like it’s fucking easy.

And if you were a collegiate athlete and you could have a shot, do me a favor and respect it. 

Put the camera down once in a while. You can’t build a career just on that. Being pro comes from the hours and hours in the dark, that would bore the shit out of your following. If you have spent your energy working on your image rather than your game, you will be exposed real quick. This level demands way more. You either arrive elite, or you grind in the dark until you become elite. There’s no shortcut…the work is the work.

And if you want to build content, cool. Document the work…not the idea. Show the lift at 8 a.m. Show the down game in the LA Fitness runs and what you fixed…we know you filmed that shit. Show the hours learning a new language. Show the face when your direct deposit is two weeks late and you’re still showing up and acting like a pro. The story gets good when it gets honest.

My wife told me I was gatekeeping with this whole thing, which I’m not. I want you to succeed if you are serious. The game is big enough and there are gyms everywhere. There are clubs in towns you have never heard of that would love to have someone who brings a game and a brand.

When I say we are not the same…I’m not saying stay out. I’m saying step the fuck up. Train like a pro. Think like a pro. Live like a pro when no one is watching. Then come take a spot from someone who wants to keep their job. And they will not hand it to you, they will make you earn it. That is the point. That is why the respect lasts.

And to anyone selling this dream like it’s a weekend adventure…please stop! Stop watering down a hard thing to make it feel easy. There’s a whole world between wanting it and earning it, and that gap is where most people disappear.

But if you watched a reel and felt the spark…keep the spark, then get to work. This road will punch you in the mouth repeatedly, then hand you the best moments of your life. You will stand on a balcony in a city you never knew existed and think, holy shit…I made it here, then vomit in a trash can an hour later from a random “beep test.”

Pros vs Joes makes a cute caption…but if you want to step in this world for real, you better show up with more than a tripod.

If you are serious and need a map…I built one with other pros who’ve lived it. Come inside OverseasX and we will hand you tools that help. If you just want a cool stamp in your passport…grab a camera. If you want a career…grab a ball and lace ‘em the fuck up.

We are not the same…until you make yourself the same.