Profile Blog; Eric Sebastian

  Eric Sebastian was born February 16th 1972 in Columbus Ohio. He grew up loving Ohio State basketball and football. His father had season tickets for the Ohio State basketball team. He remembers especially one night when he was around 7 years old his first ever game at Ohio State. It was against Ohio State’s biggest rival, Michigan. He said it was so loud and amazing he had to cover his ears for most of the game. His biggest dream growing up in Ohio was hopefully getting to play basketball for the Ohio State Buckeyes.
He moved to a little town close to Dallas Texas when he was 11. He knew his options were slim now but he still hoped one day he could return to Ohio State and play basketball. It was his junior year in high school and he was playing basketball for his high school team in Dallas and his dreams and hopes came to an immediate halt; he tore his ACL going up for a dunk. Eric knew now that any hope of trying to get a scholarship from Ohio State to play basketball was dead. His knee was absolutely torn up and his dreams were destroyed.
It was his senior year in high school and Eric still wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life. In his heart he still thought he had a chance to play basketball but he knew every day that was really just turning into a dream. So one night him and his family sat down to discuss his college plans and his lifetime goals. Eric was still completely uncertain what he wanted to do until his dad brought up a great idea. He told Eric that since you love sports so much why not go study Sports Management at Southern Methodist University so you can be around basketball all the time. Eric agreed with his father and decided to attend SMU in the fall.
Eric loved his time at SMU and being apart of SMU basketball. His senior year he got asked by SMU’s basketball coach, Larry Brown, if he would like to join the staff as a player assistant and help the players. Eric’s days of being a college student were coming to an end and he didn’t have any jobs lined up or even any internships. He started to panic and wasn’t sure what he was going to do with his life until one Saturday afternoon.
That Saturday afternoon in July he received a call from the Jerry Jones, the President and General Manager of the Dallas Cowboys. Jerry asked Eric if he would like to join the Dallas Cowboys media relation’s office as an intern that coming fall when the Cowboys were going to start the season. Eric didn’t hesitate; he took the job and started working that fall. Eric was more than happy to finally have a job in sports but he knew he wanted to be around basketball and not football on a daily basis. He was starting to think would his dreams ever come true.
One year past and his time with the Cowboys was up. Jerry Jones decided to offer Eric another internship with the Cowboys for the following season but Eric declined. He decided to go for his goals and do everything in his power to get to the NBA some how and work for an NBA franchise. That night when he got home he started calling all the NBA teams asking if they had any jobs or internships in their media relations department. He didn’t get through to any teams; he left voicemails for all 32 teams hoping to get a call back from just one. Two nights later the Denver Nuggets called him back and said we have a job here and we would like you to come for an interview next week.
He arrived in Denver that Friday night for his interview the next day. Eric decided to go down to the bar that night and relax and get prepared for his interview tomorrow morning. When he got down to the bar he saw this beautiful lady sitting by herself, Eric decided to go up to her and talk to her. They had a couple of drinks and agreed they had to do this again very soon.
The next morning he headed down to the Nuggets organization for his interview. The Nuggets absolutely fell in love with Eric and gave him the job. That night he called Natalie (the lady at the bar) and asked her if she would like to go out and celebrate with him. She said yes and amazingly 5 months later they got married.
Eric worked with the Denver Nuggets media relations department from 1994 through 2009, including a six-year stint (2003-2009) as the department’s Director. In those 14 years he helped the Nuggets direct several successful campaigns for players receiving NBA All-Star and All-NBA honors, including Marcus Camby who earned the 2006-2007 NBA Defensive Player of the Year award. He also worked on statistical projects for the Nuggets Coaches and Management and assisted in the process of free agent recruiting. On a regular day-to-day basis he got to see some of the greatest players and coaches throughout the NBA including Denver’s own Coach George Karl and Nuggets NBA-All Stars Chauncey Billups, Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson.
One January night in 2009 he received a call from his college roommate Jack Murphy (lead assistant to Coach Pastner) asking Eric if he would consider leaving the NBA and come to college to become the Memphis Tigers basketball Director of Operations. Eric was very hesitant at first, because he loved his current job with the Nuggets. The team was on a 7 game winning streak and getting closer and closer to reaching the playoffs. Eric told Jack to give him a week and I’ll get back with you. Three days later Eric received another call, this time from the Coach himself Josh Pastner. Coach Pastner repeatedly told Eric that Memphis wants you here, the fans want you here and especially I want you here. Eric took the job and is still to this day the director of operations at the University of Memphis.
His role with the Tigers is much different than it was with the Nuggets. In his role with the Tigers, Eric deals with all of the program's external and internal operations. He actually gets to attend all the Tigers games at the Forum and most of them on the road. He helps the players on and off the court if they need him and most of all, he helps Coach Pastner with recruiting every year.
He loves his job now with the Tigers and he hopes he can help bring a National Championship to the University one day, but he hopes down the road he can get back into the NBA as either a General Manger or an Assistant Coach. Eric and his wife Natalie now have two sons: Kade and Braxton. Braxton, the older one of the two also has the same dream as his father, to hopefully one day become a General Manager in the NBA or even take over his dad’s job at the University of Memphis.