How this Scarborough man rose to the WNBA executive ranks

Inside Travis Charles’ workplace, it would not take lengthy to see the place the vp of basketball operations for the WNBA’s Dallas Wings is from.

If the flag on the wall would not give it away, the Blue Jays cap on the locker in all probability ought to.

“I am shouting from the mountaintops that I am Canadian,” stated Charles. “You stroll into my workplace, the very first thing you see is the Canadian flag. You possibly can’t see it.”

If that wasn’t sufficient, Charles makes certain to inform anybody who bothers to hear that he is from Scarborough. It is the place he calls residence and the place a hearth was planted to make him the WNBA government he’s as we speak.

As a result of the job requires time all yr lengthy, Charles has been away from residence so lengthy that he nonetheless refers to Scotiabank Enviornment because the Air Canada Heart, and to him, the Rogers Heart will endlessly be often called the SkyDome. Charles is already getting ready for the following Wings season, set to start in Could, hoping to make the playoffs for the third yr in a row and broaden on final season’s third-place end within the Western Convention.

The Dallas government grew up in several elements of Scarborough, dividing time between his dad and mom’ properties on Victoria Park Avenue and Lawrence Avenue East, and Nelson Avenue and Shepherd Avenue East. He can bear in mind taking part in for Scarborough Street Runners as a child. He now makes crucial choices and offers entrance workplace recommendation for the WNBA.

However earlier than Charles’ rise to government positions, his choice to play basketball largely left him out of a job for years. With out realizing a single soul within the business, he left Canada as a result of the possibilities of discovering basketball work within the nation have been like discovering a needle in a haystack.

After years on the transfer, from junior school to working beneath a sports activities company, he moved to Atlanta in 2009 with hopes of moving into teaching. Charles labored at a area people middle whereas discovering the time to attend any NBA basketball sport, school and highschool, to attach with as many individuals as potential. Recognized for its wealthy basketball historical past and dozens of NCAA groups based mostly there, Atlanta is the place Charles needed to be, getting his foot within the door. Inside three years, he had utilized for greater than 500 basketball jobs, however was seldom heard of. The shortage of a steady earnings in a metropolis he barely knew, and the rejection and heartbreak that got here with it, took its toll.

I used to be away from my household, I used to be away from my buddies. I did not have any cash. My profession did not appear to have any legs on the time. “I did not know the place to go subsequent,” stated Charles. “Individuals who do not train do not perceive. (They will say) Go get an everyday job. Perhaps I may do this, however wouldn’t it make me completely happy?”

Philadelphia 76ers entrance workplace supervisor Prosper Karangua would not bear in mind how Charles acquired his quantity however by some means he did, looking for recommendation. On the time, Karangwa was a scout with the Orlando Magic. Charles referred to as after discovering his e-mail handle on the Web.

“I combed by means of all of the directories of the NBA personnel, and I will begin with the ticket individual. His e-mail will likely be posted to the ticket individual and you may take the format of the ticket individual. The scout individual, basic supervisor, tools supervisor—whoever it’s—could have the identical e-mail handle because the ticket individual.”

“It took me some time to determine that out, however trial and error,” laughed Charles.

Not often did anybody reply to Charles and his requests, however Karangua was a fellow Canadian and represented Canada on the 2002 FIBA ​​World Cup and the 2003 Americas. He was keen to assist one other Canadian and inspired Charles not to surrender, and to use for a job with the Atlanta Dream of the WNBA – a job he was wanting ahead to. , however he was reluctant to pursue it for concern of one other rejection.

“I bear in mind telling him the toughest factor to do on this enterprise is get in. When you get in, it creates your personal path and alternative,” Karangwa stated. “My recommendation to him was: For those who really need this, if that is one thing you wish to do, do not surrender. Hold transferring ahead.”

The 2 constructed a robust bond and Charles ended up as an apprentice with the dream. He remembers being in Toronto when he acquired the information—one of many final instances he was on the town—earlier than coaching started. He wasn’t paid on the time, however he did not care.

“I stated to myself once you get your probability, balls to the wall,” Charles stated. “I used to be prepared to do something to make it occur.”

For a yr, he labored 85 to 90 hours per week and barely left the world, sleeping on a follow desk and utilizing towels as a blanket. To this present day, virtually nobody is aware of he was doing it. Most days, Charles would end work at 2am and must be again at 6am, so it made sense for him to sleep within the yard as an alternative of coping with Atlanta visitors.

The yard additionally had the whole lot he wanted, from limitless snacks and meals to cable TV. His evening was basketball, a bathe, and 4 hours of sleep to be his first and final evening on the job.

“Rising up the place I grew up in Scarborough, it was nearly no matter you needed to be aggressive,” stated Charles. “From Victoria Park, my boys and I rode our bikes to the SkyDome simply to see who may do it first, for no motive. That is earlier than cell telephones. Mother and father are going loopy. It was all love, but it surely was very aggressive, that space; competitors (was born).”

Jermaine Small, the boys’s basketball coach on the College of Lethbridge, grew up with Charles and stated his competitiveness had pale. He remembers how Charles would get buddies to trip their bikes to the opposite finish of city to play different basketball abilities.

“He was very aggressive,” stated Small. “He is the sort of man who desires to be the most effective. He would not accept second, third, or something like that. If he does one thing, he desires to be the most effective at it.”

Charles will settle for any task — establishing the court docket, washing and rebounding, serving to gamers follow, scouting, chopping the tape and watching assistant coaches — no questions requested. His work didn’t go unnoticed. The pinnacle coach on the time, Fred Williams, introduced him in as a basketball operations assistant for the following yr.

Their relationship blossomed to the purpose the place Williams accepted a head teaching job with the Tulsa Shock after he left her at Atlanta, and supplied Charles a job as a video coordinator. Within the subsequent few years, Charles tasted nearly each job as Tulsa’s WNBA crew moved to Dallas in 2016. He was director of basketball logistics for a couple of seasons, and even an assistant coach for a part of a yr.

This got here as no shock to Kareem Griffin, a detailed buddy of W.J Toronto ladies’s basketball champion, When he heard that Charles was seeking to transfer into the administration aspect and get extra concerned within the decision-making course of.

Griffin visited Charles when he was an apprentice in Atlanta, and he remembers how he all the time envisioned managing a crew.

“Fred Williams gave him the chance and he by no means appeared again,” stated Griffin. “He is dwelling his dream, and phrases cannot even describe the sensation. That is my brother.”

In 2019, Charles continued to rise within the Wings group, changing into Director of Basketball Operations. Two years later, he was promoted to senior supervisor, and this previous August was named vp of basketball operations and assistant basic supervisor.

Charles helps handle free company choices and hires – together with the Wings’ new head coach Latricia Tramell.

He additionally attends league conferences, as he isn’t the one Canadian within the room. He is one among solely a handful of black executives within the WNBA – although that quantity is rising. The league obtained an A for its racial and gender practices in 2022, in accordance with the annual report from the Institute for Variety and Ethics in Sport. The variety of blacks in positions from vp upwards rose 5.2 proportion factors to 22.4 % in 2022.

The largely unknown basketball thoughts from Scarborough has saved fairly a low profile throughout his basketball journey, however he not thinks that is vital. Charles now feels a way of duty to indicate others that what he has completed is feasible.

He has plans to start out a scholarship with Paris Media Group in Toronto, which does neighborhood outreach work, to assist younger folks attempting out for basketball in the US. He additionally hopes to do some motivational talking.

“Imagine me after I say this: If I can do it, anybody can do it… You simply should attempt to have a dream, have a imaginative and prescient, after which observe by means of.”

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