6 Youth Sports Leadership Lessons From NBA Executives

If you’re a leader in youth sports today, you most likely didn’t inherit a business. You started with a passion for the game.

So how do you take it to the next level? That was the question on the table when two people who’ve built winners at the highest level sat down to share what they’ve learned.

Marc Lasry built one of Wall Street’s major investment firms and co-owned the Milwaukee Bucks through their 2021 NBA title. These days he’s investing in women’s sports. Arn Tellem spent years representing some of the biggest athletes of his generation, and now he helps lead the Detroit Pistons along with a new WNBA team in Detroit.

The session was hosted by a 27-year ESPN veteran who grew up playing boys tackle football and later coached her daughter’s teams, so she knows youth sports from just about every angle. Here’s what the panel at NextUp 2026 said, and what you can actually do with it.

1. Make fun the whole point

The host opened with a story about the Savannah Bananas. Founder Jesse Cole loved baseball as a kid, but somewhere along the way the joy faded. Even at games, he noticed, fans weren’t really paying attention.

So he and his wife bet everything on a new idea, right down to selling their house. They started 11 years ago with 11 people and a handful of tickets. Today they sell out pro baseball and football stadiums across the country.

Even as they grew into a $5 million company, they never raised ticket prices. They got there without investors or real marketing, focusing only on making it great for fans and making it fun.

What to do:

• Write your purpose down in a single sentence, then test every new program against it.
• Ask kids what they like most about your program, and do more of that.
• As you grow, check in on whether you’ve traded any of the fun for the money.

2. Don’t run kids’ sports like the pros

Tellem got into youth sports through his own kids in Los Angeles, where their Little League was packed with parents who acted like an elementary schooler’s career was on the line.

He became league commissioner mostly to protect his kids. He wanted a league that was fun and fair, where everyone got to play. What he got instead was a pile of letters from lawyers, with parents fighting over playing time and who should coach. By his count, that one league generated more legal mail than all of his pro athlete negotiations combined.

Eventually he called a meeting with a couple hundred parents. He reminded them that he represented MLB stars, told them their kids weren’t going to be those players, and asked everyone to settle down and enjoy it. It didn’t work.

In his view, the push to make every kid elite is exactly what turns kids off sports. Lasry agreed and added a simple explanation: parents love their kids and will spend almost anything to give them an edge. That’s a big reason so much money is pouring into youth sports right now.

What to do:

• Set playing time rules before the season starts, put them in writing, and share them at sign-up.
• Give parents one clear place to raise concerns, and commit to a set response time.
• Hold a preseason parent meeting about what your program is really for. Then keep repeating the message, because one meeting won’t do it.

3. Close the access gap

Lasry didn’t sugarcoat it. Money is what separates kids, because more of it buys better coaches, more practice time, and better facilities.

Tellem sees that gap every day in Detroit. Kids in the suburbs have great fields and gyms, while plenty of kids in the city have almost nothing. Some can’t play soccer because there’s nowhere to play, and many high schools struggle just to field a volleyball team.

And it isn’t only about facilities. Travel is its own barrier, with families driving all over the state for tournaments and kids missing school to get there. A lot of families simply don’t have the time or money for that.

Tellem’s answer is to keep more of it local, so playing doesn’t depend on whether a family can hit the road every weekend.

What to do:

• Map where your families live, and schedule more games and practices close to them.
• Put a cap on how many travel weekends a season requires.
• Offer scholarships, sliding-scale fees, or payment plans, and make them easy to find at registration.
• Partner with schools or local pro teams that have facility space or community funds to share.

4. Use sports as the hook, not the goal

Tellem’s group is building a sports campus in Detroit for public and charter schools to use. The plans include eight basketball courts that convert into 16 volleyball courts, along with five or six soccer fields.

When they asked the community what it actually needed, though, people asked for classrooms. So the campus is being designed to serve the whole kid, not just the athlete.

As Tellem put it, sports is the hook, and the real goal is raising better students and better citizens. Very few kids will ever go pro. He also pointed out that there are more jobs in sports off the field than on it, which is a good reason to keep school in the picture.

What to do:

• Choose two or three life skills your program teaches on purpose, like leadership, teamwork, or showing up on time.
• Train coaches to call out those skills when they see them in practice.
• Ask families what they need beyond the game. The answers might surprise you.
• Build schedules that respect school time.

5. Get ready for the girls’ sports boom

The host pointed out that women who reach the executive level very often played team sports growing up, since being on a team builds leadership and accountability.

Lasry described a big cultural shift that’s already happened. When he was a kid, his dad took him to games but never thought to bring his sisters along. Today, the idea of leaving your daughter home from a game would strike most parents as unthinkable.

He believes that shift will drive huge growth, and he walked through the math. The average WNBA game draws about two-thirds the viewers of an average NBA game, yet the WNBA’s media deal is only about 3% of the NBA’s. He expects that gap to close quickly.

What to do:

• Look at your girls’ offerings by age group and find where the gaps are.
• Recruit and train more women coaches.
• Promote girls’ programs with the same energy you give boys’ programs.
• Plan for demand to grow by lining up fields and coaches early.

6. Lead with belief, keep it simple, and set standards

Lasry is a big believer in force of personality. If you have a clear vision and you truly believe in it, he said, people will follow you.

He shared a story from the 2021 Finals, when the Bucks were up 3-2 and playing at home. The players were tense, so he pulled Khris Middleton and Giannis aside and told them all they had to do was put the ball in the basket. They looked at him like he was crazy, and that was the point. When people are nervous, simple words help calm them down.

Tellem said the greatest athletes he worked with all shared one trait. Talent mattered, of course, but what really set them apart was a mental drive that put no limits on what they could do.

Both of them closed on the same note: believe in yourself and be willing to outwork everyone else. Or as Tellem joked, hard work pays off, even for someone with no talent.

Good leaders also set standards. Tellem said his biggest worry as a parent was the quality of coaches and referees, because families are trusting you with their kids. Background checks and clear coaching standards are how you protect that trust.

What to do:

• Share your vision often, and keep it short enough that every coach can repeat it.
• In high-pressure moments, boil your message down to one simple ask.
• Require background checks for every coach and volunteer.
• Write down your standards for coaches and referees, and hold people to them.

Your next-season checklist

Start with the items you can do this week.

• Write your program’s purpose in one sentence
• Publish playing time rules before registration opens
• Schedule a preseason parent meeting
• Cap required travel weekends
• Add a scholarship or payment plan option at sign-up
• Pick two life skills coaches will teach on purpose
• Review girls’ offerings by age group
• Confirm background checks for every coach and volunteer
• Write down coaching standards and share them