What It’s Like to be a Designer in the NBA During the 2018 Trade Deadline
So the Cleveland Cavaliers did a thing last week. They traded almost half their team. Four guys in, six guys out. All within a matter of an hour or two. When trades happen, lots of fans may think of how the General Manager orchestrated the deal. Or how the new players will fit on their favorite team. But that trade also affects just about every member employed by the team. For them there are hours and maybe even days of new work ahead of them.
Last Thursday was the NBA trade deadline. The last chance for teams to drastically change their roster. As an employee for a team, these days are sometimes hair-on-fire crazy, maybe a small fire drill here and there, or just another average day. All depends on what your team does. Well, this trade deadline for a Cavaliers employee was a hair-on-fire-while-swimming-in-gasoline kind of day.
We as designers of NBA teams, find out that a trade went down when the public finds out. We don’t get a heads up from the team at all. I created an NBA writers list on Twitter for trade deadline and draft time. So I do my best to read up on all the latest rumors and rumblings. If there is a lot of smoke on a certain guy, and I have the time, I’ll get him prepped and Photoshopped into a Cavs jersey.
For this past deadline specifically, it was one of the crazier ones I’ve ever been a part of. Lots of movement happened in a very short time with little warning. I had to drop my regular day-to-day projects and focus solely on the trades.
On that day, the Cavs made 3 deals. First they sent Isaiah Thomas, Channing Frye and a 1st round draft pick to the Los Angeles Lakers for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. They then acquired Rodney Hood and George Hill in a three team trade for Derrick Rose, Iman Shumpert and Jae Crowder. They ended the day by sending Dwyane Wade to the Miami Heat for a second round pick.
The first deals were two separate Wojbombs less than an hour apart. I then got word about 13 seconds later, that I needed to have creative and jersey swaps done as soon as possible for official team media releases that would be sent within the hour. Yep. No problem. Should be a breeze.
To start off, I needed to get our four new players Photoshopped into our jersey. So usually for the sake of time, I will pull standard media day poses and switch the jersey from the stomach up. We have no idea what number they will be, so I have to leave that off. Once each player is converted into a Cavs jersey, I then need to create social graphics for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram welcoming them to the team. I also need to create graphics that will be placed into emails which are sent to fans explaining the trade as well as general images that will be placed on the website.
Next, I need to take the newly created player headshots and pass them along to others who need them to update a multitude of items. First is the NBA so they can get the roster page on our website and mobile app updated. I also make sure creatives within the organization have these new players in wine and gold. Designers that handle all our in-game scoreboards need them to update player creative. Our print designers need them to update in-game programs, banners, posters and marketing materials. Final thing is getting the new headshots to our basketball communications team so they can update things like game notes, media guides and travel lists.
Once all that is done, I need to comb through our website and remove any photos or marketing materials of players that were traded away. Depending on the status of players traded, this can either be a huge undertaking or something small. Since we had six guys leaving, and some of them prominent, I had a lot of work ahead of me.
Once all of those tasks are taken care of, we wanted to send out a thank you to Iman Shumpert and Channing Frye considering they were with us for our Championship run in 2016. This is something that purely depends on the players leaving and their accomplishments during their time with the team. We felt like it was important to send this kind of message to those guys since they were a part of such a historic moment in the franchise and city’s history.
Once I get to this point, I’m allowed to breathe a bit. Stand up. Stretch my legs. Maybe even get a cup of coffee. Now that I have just about all my trade tasks completed, I’m making sure I’m ready for any last minute requests or help with with other creative.
All of this is just from a digital designer’s perspective. This does not include tasks others in the organization are responsible for. Things like updating arena banners and concourse posters, sending them off for printing, ex-player and new player jerseys and merchandise in the Team Shop, accommodating the new players with jerseys and apparel, fan giveaways, upcoming player appearances, etc. are all tasks that need to be handled as soon as possible. Just about every single department within the organization is affected by these trades. And all of them need to work efficiently to get everything flipped and updated immediately.
It’s a massive undertaking, but being prepared and discussing a plan of attack beforehand makes a big difference when the news starts breaking and the players start moving.
