Slam Dunk with Jason Smith
http://www.titanmanagement.com.au

I guess you could say my basketball career started with an ill-fated trip to the dentist. Growing up in Melbourne, of course I grew up playing AFL football. At school I also competed in every athletics discipline that involved running or jumping. But, “footy” was my real passion. I was at about 12 years of age when I was selected to play in the little league grand final at the MCG at half time of the AFL Grand Final. It was the biggest stage for any up and coming player. I remember going in for the ball at ground level and clashing heads with another boy. The fact that I was wearing a mouth guard at the time did not help me in the least, I came away with my two front teeth embedded somewhere in the MCG turf. On the way to the dentist after the game, my mother was asking me if I would like to try another sport, as my teeth had been knocked out about four or five times before. I told her no way that I loved footy! She insisted that I try a game called basketball that some of my friends at school had started playing. There was a basketball camp during the school holidays that my twin brother and I should go and give it a try. It was not until I got home and was walking up the steps, on a typical wet and rainy day in Melbourne, that I tripped over knocking out my brand new replacement teeth that my mother made the decision for me.

So that is how I started to play the game. I mentioned before that I already loved to run and jump, and this sport had plenty of both. I was relatively tall for my age and had my twin brother as an eager one on one competitor. We would play outside after school, first to eleven. It usually got to ten all and then a fight would start and the process would repeat itself everyday. My brother and I were extremely competitive and I would attribute any success that either of us had early in our careers directly to our battles. When I finished High School I did not really know what I was going to do. My grades were not great because I had put all my time and efforts into my sport. In fact I got fired from an after school job I had at Pizza Hut for taking my basketball too seriously. After finishing school though it was the only thing I had going for me. I was playing in a game one day when an American guy introduced himself to me and asked if he could talk to my parents and me. He went on to offer me a scholarship at a small university, just north of L.A. I took it and spent the next two years training and playing collegiate basketball. I ended up hurting my knee in the U.S and I decided to come home and sign a professional contract with the South East Melbourne Magic. The coach was Brian Goorjian and the team had just won a national championship. I was really excited and thought I was going to come back and dominate. After three years of sitting on the bench and playing limited minutes clapping along my team mates I thought I was going to give it away. I was sick of training my butt off and sacrificing for little rewards. I sat down with Brian and told him how I was not enjoying it anymore and that the seven thousand dollars a year was not exactly what I thought being a professional was going to amount to. But he sat me down and told me, “Stick with it, you’re going to be a great player in this league”. So I did.

The next year my career took off and I began to play really well. I made the National Team the next year, 1998 and was selected to play at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. I have played professionally in Italy and Croatia and have competed at the Athens Olympics, Won Gold at the Commonwealth Games and Captained the Australian team at these years World Championships. I must say that the things that have helped me most to achieve success are quite simple. I know I have a great work ethic. From an early age I would see my dad get up at six in the morning go to work and get home twelve hours later. So I was accustomed to thinking that nothing came easy. In basketball, I was never the most skilled player, but I would out work anyone of my team-mates and peers. Again I am extremely competitive. I always hated losing and the daily battles I would have with my twin brother definitely enhanced this characteristic. I believe I am easy to teach or instruct. I had always a respect for people in positions of authority. Coaches, teachers, instructors, you name it I would always listen to advice and try and absorb it if I could.

The highlights of my career are definitely the Sydney Olympics and being named the captain of the national team. Besides that meeting my wife in College in LA and the birth of my two children would have to top any career achievements. Plus my wife would kill me if I did not mention them!

http://www.titanmanagement.com.au

In this issue

Strategies for Retaining Staff

Slam Dunk with Jason Smith

Top 10 Business Tips

Marketing Your Accounting Practice Through Powerful PR