Matteo Zuretti has worked at NBPA for almost 10 years and has held the position of Chief Player Experience Officer for the past year. He told us how he emerged in one of the most competitive professional environments in the world.
What professional paths have brought you to America?
Definitely a great passion for basketball. I did a year of high school in the United States, which was very important. I stopped playing early and was involved by Germano D’Arcangeli in the project to relaunch Stella Azzurra Roma-I was with him six years and that was the first important step.
We recruited Andrea Bargnani, who spent a year with us: I saw what was around developing a top-level prospect so I decided to focus on developing athletes. I convinced one of the fathers of the agent profession in Europe, Maurizio Balducci, to take me under his wing-I literally went to his store.
I started in the agency video room, scouted, started recruiting players. Finally, I started negotiating contracts for the players I had recruited-it was a phenomenal cradle in terms of cultural agility.
When I was looking for another professional opportunity in 2015, in America, a series of sliding doors led me to interview for a new position in the NBA world: in fact, the International Department of the Players Association was coming into being. Twenty-five percent of NBA players were born outside the U.S. and a specific Department dedicated to them was opening.
Having worked for years in a multicultural context, I had a great competitive advantage. In America I was able to put the skills I learned into practice by finding a blank slate on which I could design my vision. The part I have always enjoyed most about my job is doing solution design that can support player development.
For the past year I have been given an even bigger role, to apply my strategy to all the players in the league: I am Chief Player Experience Officer of the NBPA.
My vision starts from the premise that the concept of “players” does not exist: there is a wide range of different needs depending on age, background, and situation, subject to the major common needs, clearly related to play, health, etc.
You were not only good at getting on the right trains, but you were committed to creating the right conditions for them to pass.
The key is the people you meet on your path and how well you are able to stimulate them to let you convey the best of them.
In America I faced new situations: it was decisive to find the point of contact between my agility, typically Italian, which they appreciate here, and the typically American structure and processes.
I had the great good fortune to be part of three very important negotiations, the first in 2015, when I had just arrived. Michele Roberts, who hired me, brought me into the working group for the collective agreement: this is a 750-page book that determines the relationship between the 30 owners, represented by the league, and the 450 players, represented by us. An incredible experience, because you are inside a mechanism that makes a $10 billion a year business possible.
Another negotiation we closed in 2023. In between was the “Bubble” experience, with Covid: it was another incredible moment when we had to connect the interests of the business to the interests of the men and their families, and there was real negotiation there as well. In the end we got them to be able to convey the message of “Black Lives Matter.”
How many people work within the NBA players’ union and what is your concept of leadership?
In NBPA we are about 80 people. My team is 15 people, and my leadership style is very much influenced by two basic conditions. I work for the 450 best basketball people in the world, and I live in New York City.
The players force you, a bit like New York, to give your best, otherwise you don’t have a chance: few people have access to them, and when you have the honor of being in this small circle of people you have to give value.
You have to live up to the best, because players are exposed to the best every day: you have to level up.
And New York does the same thing, because people come here to play their cards, so there is a crazy tension. Maybe New York is not forever, but as long as you’re on it, you’re going. It’s a treadmill that they’ve taken apart the speed governor and it goes really fast: you either run or you go down.
My leadership style starts from this premise. Either it’s excellent or we don’t do it. If we don’t do it we are giving up the opportunity to add value, and there is a line behind people who want our work. So let’s make it excellent.
What is your relationship with New York?
My relationship with New York is visceral. It was already before I moved here, but once I arrived I decided to fully immerse myself in the reality of the city. I do not consider myself an expat, like many other Italians, who live here tied to a company or an Italian community. I have inserted myself into American life, embracing it in all its facets.
There is an extraordinary richness in the diversity of New York, which is a core value. I think, for example, of the cultural context around me: 80 percent of our players are African American, and I have so many colleagues from different backgrounds. In the early years I chose to ignore “Italian New York” in order to integrate completely: the idea was to merge my identity with that of the city.
Then, for family reasons, I reconnected with our community, creating beautiful relationships with many people: here relationships are born and develop quickly. Only now am I rediscovering a part of myself, recalling my Italian-ness.
Did you also rediscover different sides of your personality in New York?
Yes, here I have learned to keep an important part of me alive, while adapting to a rhythm that leaves no room for nostalgia. In New York, there is no time to feel sorry for yourself. We Italians often have a tendency to complain, even though we have resources, a unique lifestyle and an ability to build deep relationships that no one else in the world possesses.
We go deep into human relationships, and that is something that is missing here. In New York, everything is very “transactional”: a relationship is based on what you can do for each other and vice versa. But this dynamic is not viewed negatively; it is culturally accepted.
I learned not to judge Americans for this. I accepted them for who they are, making an effort to adjust. With some of them, however, I was able to create deeper relationships, more like the ones we would build.
What is your favorite place in New York City?
My favorite place is Washington Square Park. There is nothing more beautiful than sitting on a bench or walking there on an autumn or spring day. It is a place that represents the true essence of New York: a multitude of people from all walks of life, races and interests expressing themselves in total freedom.
Can New York really become home, or will it always remain a place of transition?
I think it will always be home for a part of me, while another part will find a home elsewhere. New York belongs to you, but never completely. It is a city that welcomes, but does not hold back.
The article Matteo Zuretti: an Italian in the beating heart of the NBA comes from TheNewyorker.
