How this Scarborough man rose to the WNBA executive ranks

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

If the flag on the wall does not give it away, the Blue Jays cap on the locker most likely 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 may’t see it.”

If that wasn’t sufficient, Charles makes positive 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 in the present day.

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 Area because the Air Canada Heart, and to him, the Rogers Heart will eternally be often known as the SkyDome. Charles is already getting ready for the following Wings season, set to start in Might, hoping to make the playoffs for the third yr in a row and develop on final season’s third-place end within the Western Convention.

The Dallas government grew up in numerous components of Scarborough, dividing time between his dad and mom’ houses 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 Highway Runners as a child. He now makes important choices and supplies entrance workplace recommendation for the WNBA.

However earlier than Charles’ rise to government positions, his resolution 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 faculty to working beneath a sports activities company, he moved to Atlanta in 2009 with hopes of moving into teaching. Charles labored at a local people middle whereas discovering the time to attend any NBA basketball sport, faculty and highschool, to attach with as many individuals as attainable. Identified for its wealthy basketball historical past and dozens of NCAA groups primarily based 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 dearth 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 pals. 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 a daily job. Possibly I may do this, however wouldn’t it make me pleased?”

Philadelphia 76ers entrance workplace supervisor Prosper Karangua does not bear in mind how Charles bought his quantity however in some way he did, in search of recommendation. On the time, Karangwa was a scout with the Orlando Magic. Charles known as after discovering his e-mail handle on the Web.

“I combed by way of all of the directories of the NBA personnel, and I will begin with the ticket individual. His e-mail shall be posted to the ticket individual and you may take the format of the ticket individual. The scout individual, normal supervisor, gear supervisor—whoever it’s—can 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 trying ahead to. , however he was reluctant to pursue it for worry 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: If you happen to really need this, if that is one thing you need to do, do not hand over. Hold transferring ahead.”

The 2 constructed a powerful bond and Charles ended up as an apprentice with the dream. He remembers being in Toronto when he bought the information—one of many final occasions 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 while you get your likelihood, balls to the wall,” Charles stated. “I used to be keen 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 apply desk and utilizing towels as a blanket. To at the present time, nearly 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 all the pieces 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 cause. That is earlier than cell telephones. Mother and father are going loopy. It was all love, however it was very aggressive, that space; competitors (was born).”

Jermaine Small, the lads’s basketball coach on the College of Lethbridge, grew up with Charles and stated his competitiveness had light. He remembers how Charles would get pals to journey their bikes to the opposite finish of city to play different basketball skills.

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

Charles will settle for any project — organising the courtroom, washing and rebounding, serving to gamers apply, scouting, chopping the tape and watching assistant coaches — no questions requested. His work didn’t go unnoticed. The top 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 staff 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, an in depth buddy of W Toronto girls’s basketball champion, When he heard that Charles was seeking to transfer into the administration facet 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 staff.

“Fred Williams gave him the chance and he by no means regarded 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, turning into Director of Basketball Operations. Two years later, he was promoted to senior supervisor, and this previous August was named vice chairman of basketball operations and assistant normal supervisor.

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

He additionally attends league conferences, as he isn’t the one Canadian within the room. He is one in every of solely a handful of black executives within the WNBA – although that quantity is rising. The league acquired 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 vice chairman upwards rose 5.2 share factors to 22.4 p.c 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 needed. Charles now feels a way of duty to indicate others that what he has achieved is feasible.

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

“Belief me after I say this: If I can do it, anybody can do it… You simply need to attempt to have a dream, have a imaginative and prescient, after which comply with by way of.”

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