“So I Thought I Would Teach Myself About…”

Quicken Loans Arena, home of the Cleveland Cavaliers

The Newport Daily News had a wonderful feature on Middletown, RI resident, Pete Babcock, whose 42-year career in the NBA culminated in a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Babcock got his start when he dropped out of law school. “I always was enamored with the NBA, and the Phoenix Suns were a relatively new team,” Babcock said. “They started in 1968 as an expansion team. In those days you could buy a general admission ticket for $3.50 and there were like 3,000 people at the game, so you could go sit anywhere you wanted to sit. I just thought if there were anything in the world, this would be what I would do. But I had no idea how to get there. So I thought I would teach myself about the NBA.” And that he did.

Making use of his fundamental basketball knowledge, Babcock spent a year familiarizing himself with the professional game.

“I started videotaping NBA games that were on TV and writing reports on teams just for myself,” Babcock said. “I had a Bulls file, a Celtics file and a 76ers file, about 10 teams total. I charted their plays and I wrote reports on their players’ strengths and weaknesses just for myself — just to learn.

“At the end of the year, I thought the people who would know if the reports were any good were the teams themselves. So I wrote letters to teams and basically said, ‘You don’t know me. I’m a high school coach in Arizona. Here is the report I wrote on your team this year. If you think there is any validity to it, I’d like to scout for you for free. It won’t cost you a penny.”

Several teams wrote back and turned down his request. But the New Orleans Jazz gave him the thumbs up.

E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

E.J. Smith is the Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention. E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com. Sign up here to receive all the best content from Richardcyoung.com each week.