Josh Scovens’ palms were so sweaty, the junior guard wasn’t sure he’d be able to hold a basketball, much less shoot one.
It was July, and Davidson men’s basketball team had taken over a Bay Area high school gym.
Just play it cool, Scovens kept telling himself. He motioned to Devin Brown, a freshman guard. They turned their backs to the door and started warming up. Sophomore forward Manie Joses shagged rebounds. A few shots in, Joses’ eyes bugged out.
“Are you that impressed by us?” Scovens quipped. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder, turned around and dropped his jaw.
“’Sup man,” said the best shooter in NBA history, extending his hand. “I’m Steph.”
“D-duh!” Scovens sputtered, jittery with awe at meeting Stephen Curry, Davidson’s most famous alum. “Of course you are!”
In 2008, as a skinny 20-year-old, Curry led Davidson on a historic Elite Eight run. The now 11-time All-Star and four-time NBA champ with the Golden State Warriors has remained close to the program since, but took it to another level in March. Davidson announced Curry would serve as the Wildcats’ assistant general manager for men’s and women’s basketball, a first-of-its-kind partnership with an active pro player.
The move started a trend across college hoops. Numerous current players are serving in similar roles for their alma maters, including Blazers guard Damian Lillard (Weber State), Hawks guard Trae Young (Oklahoma) and Nets guard Terance Mann (Florida State). Last week, Duke announced that Celtics star Jayson Tatum would serve as the program’s first chief basketball officer.
Being an alum or active player is not necessary: Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal is GM at Sacramento State, where his son Shaqir is a senior under first-year coach Mike Bibby, who played 14 seasons in the NBA.
The stars have signed up to help fundraise, recruit and do anything else that might be asked. The GM label, though, is mostly a ceremonial title.
About two-thirds of high-major college teams have full-time GMs — or someone with a similar title — charged with roster building, which includes organizing million-dollar payrolls through revenue sharing and booster-run collectives.
In college football, famous names have taken GM jobs at Stanford (Andrew Luck), Cal (Ron Rivera) and UNC (Michael Lombardi), but they are on campus, working daily on rosters, recruiting and pay negotiations, while coaches focus on X’s and O’s. At Stanford, Luck is in charge of hiring and firing the coaching staff.
Meanwhile, active NBA players who have taken the position must juggle their own practice and team obligations.
Schools everywhere are thinking constantly about “how do we stay competitive and set ourselves apart in this (NIL) market,” said Austin Buntz, Davidson’s lead GM, who previously worked with Curry at Under Armour. In the transfer portal era, mid-majors — especially those without football revenue — have to fight to avoid becoming farm teams for power conferences.
Cash helps that cause. Curry and fellow Davidson alum Matt Berman, who played soccer at the school, along with the Berman family, started a fund for men’s and women’s basketball. Buntz declined to give exact numbers but said the Curry-Berman fund is “more than eight figures.” Curry said in March that he planned to “continue to wave the Davidson flag.”
Davidson paid for the trip to Curry’s Bay Area mini-camp out of its operations budget. Scovens, a transfer from Army, had guessed he might get to meet Curry; practicing with him never crossed his mind.
“Everybody always assumed Stephen helped the program,” Buntz said. “Our attitude was, let’s put a name on this. Then it really took off. … We never anticipated all these other schools reaching out, asking us, how does this work?”
NBA player, college recruiter
Though it’s been 13 years since Lillard was drafted, he frequently texts Weber State coach Eric Duft after games to share his observations. He goes back to campus in Ogden, Utah, as much as his schedule allows, doling out advice to teens anxious to make their own mark in the Big Sky Conference. Duft said Lillard leaves “nothing to the imagination,” getting specific about the struggles he faced in going from overlooked and under-appreciated — he had no Power 4 offers coming out of high school — to a nine-time All-Star.
Not that Weber State players are used to Lillard’s presence.
“After he got done talking this summer, two of our players admitted, ‘Coach, we have no idea what he said for the first 15 minutes,’” Duft said. They were too starstruck to absorb anything.
A legacy continues in Ogden. Wildcat legend Damian Lillard is officially joining Weber State Men’s Basketball as the new General Manager.
Dame is stepping into a leadership role that will help shape the future of Wildcat hoops.
A new era begins now.#WeberStateGreat #DameTime pic.twitter.com/MV3bVHX6st
— Weber State Men’s Basketball (@WeberStateMBB) August 3, 2025
“Something I care about is mentorship and helping push the game in the right direction,” said Lillard, adding that he imagines a future where “even the best players could go there, four-star, five-star (prospects), and what they’ll get is something that can’t be bought.”
He got started in his new job early. Months ago, Lillard tipped Duft off to an under-recruited point guard from Oakland — sound familiar? — who Lillard thought would be a good fit for Weber State. ArDarius Grayson committed in March, and is scheduled to play his first game on Nov. 3.
“I don’t know what Dame told them,” Grayson said, “but it worked.”
None of the NBA players listed in this story are taking a salary from their schools, though Weber State is toying with the idea of paying Lillard a nominal fee.
“We’ve talked with our administration about, what are the rules exactly?” Duft said. “Could he go on the road? If there’s a summer AAU tournament he wants to be at, can he go and wear a Weber State shirt? I can see him wanting to get into it. We might have to pay him something so he could officially be an employee. Maybe like, $1 annually?”
‘I’m gonna be more involved than people think’
After Oklahoma lost to UConn in the first round of last season’s NCAA Tournament, Sooners coach Porter Moser mentioned how, in a world of NIL and the transfer portal, “it’s tough to retain guys, and we didn’t retain a couple.” Trae Young was listening.
Young, who graduated from Norman North High and played one season at OU before being drafted No. 5 by the Dallas Mavericks in 2018, lives in Norman during the NBA offseason. He’s tuned into the Sooners’ triumphs and struggles, and said he takes pride in “really repping my school — like, talking trash throughout the season, hoping my team does well.” In September, Young appeared on ESPN’s “College GameDay” as the celebrity guest picker before Michigan-Oklahoma, leading the crowd in a “Boomer! Sooner!” chant.
Young felt pulled to help OU basketball, which has missed the NCAA Tournament three of the past four seasons, and he plans to be hands-on.
“I may not talk to every recruit, but if there is a high-level recruit, you best believe I’m gonna talk to the kid,” Young said. “If there’s a kid I feel like we’re not going after hard enough, I might bring it to their attention. … I’m not gonna overstep. But there’s definitely opinions I’m gonna mention.”
At Sacramento State, O’Neal has attended a few fundraisers, helping boost its status with deep-pocketed alums and locals who want to help the Hornets vault to the Football Bowl Subdivision someday. So far, he hasn’t stopped by practice to see Shaqir, a transfer from Florida A&M, or offer post move tutorials or his business savvy — but Bibby said whenever O’Neal wants, he’s more than welcome.
Granted, getting ahold of O’Neal isn’t exactly easy. He’s surprisingly elusive for someone who’s 7 feet 1 and 325 pounds.
“We let Shaq do what Shaq wants,” Bibby said, laughing. “Even if he answers one out of three calls, that’s a great problem to have.”
In July, Curry didn’t just invite Davidson to the Bay Area to work out with his personal trainer — he participated in drills, donning his own Wildcats practice jersey. He played like them, too.
“He missed nine 3s in a row!” Scovens said. “But even when he was missing those shots, his energy didn’t drop at all. Like, this is the best shooter ever, but he’s still encouraging us as he’s struggling, that’s a boost to the team.
“When we did tennis ball drills, he was making mistakes, too — I mean, way less than us — but it just shows it’s all part of the game.”
Players were struck by his humanity and his desire to genuinely connect with them. That didn’t surprise Davidson coach Matt McKillop, who is entering his fourth season and still looking for his first NCAA Tournament appearance.
“He wears Davidson on his heart every day,” said McKillop, whose father, Bob, coached Curry from 2006-09. (Matt was on staff Curry’s final season.) “I could write a book about that whole week. The way he prepared, the way he treats people … the way he represents himself every day is a commercial for Davidson basketball.
“Also, we hope that players listen to us as coaches, but you know for sure they’re gonna listen if they hear it from Steph.”
It’s pretty wild, said junior guard Parker Friedrichsen, to think that now, Davidson players can tell recruits, “Hey, basketball is a priority here. You’re gonna get a great experience here — and Steph Curry is gonna be part of that experience.”
Scovens put it another way.
“He is definitely the coolest celebrity I’ve ever met,” Scovens boasted. “I think I can call him my friend now!”
He paused.
“I mean,” he said, “I don’t have his number or anything.”
— The Athletic’s Fred Katz contributed reporting.
