“Why don’t I know what EBITDA is? He asked himself once, and then he answered: “Well, I want to study it.”
A small anecdote to illustrate the drive behind all progress. And so, in the final years of his sport career, he embarked on various courses, some of them focused on economics, others on business or social issues, and with all of this, he bolstered his own foundation, “making it grow.” Making others grow too. There’s more, of course. José is restless. Since 2022, he has been working as a special advisor for the Front Office of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Did you know he’s the first Spaniard to hold such a position in the NBA?
“I want to keep learning, I want new projects, I want to be involved in things, I want to collaborate, I want to keep helping.”
Has he achieved it? Is he doing it? This is our Game-changer. Let’s start at the beginning.
“YES, OF COURSE”
1994. Villanueva de la Serena, Badajoz (Spain).
The first significant “yes,” one of those groundbreaking ones with far-reaching consequences, he said without much thought when he was 13. From Extremadura to Vitoria to play in the youth teams of Baskonia. A simple decision? “Maybe it was easier for me at thirteen than if I had been sixteen because I was still unconscious, but in a good way! A team calls, and your dad asks if you want to go play basketball, and your answer is: ‘of course I do.’ You don’t think about what that entails because you don’t think about who you’re going to live with, what’s going to happen with school; you just see it as ‘how cool! I’m being signed,’ but you don’t think about the downside. As a family, what consequences does it have? I know my parents asked around, family, friends, psychologists… They considered all possibilities for me to go, I don’t know if still to pursue a dream. I played basketball because I had fun. At thirteen, I didn’t think if I was going to make it to the NBA or the ACB; no, it was ‘how cool, I have to play basketball longer.’ And off we went.”
Some other geographical jumps, his debut with the Spanish national team at the 2002 World Cup in Indianapolis, and back to Baskonia, but this time to the first team. He begins to fill his medal cabinet. He starts to become one of the greats.
STARTING TO CREATE AGAIN
2005. Toronto Raptors.
Another fundamental “yes” comes, and with it, he goes to the NBA with the Toronto Raptors. And if we think that the hardest part is getting there, we’re mistaken; there’s still proving oneself and adapting.
“Yes, it was a goal or a dream, but for me, it has always been that I wanted to be better than the year before. At 16, I wanted to play in the LEB league and then in the ACB. I didn’t want to play in the NBA directly; I’ve always been very much about taking things step by step. So, the moment comes, and I decide to leave. And even though it seems so, making the leap isn’t that easy. You’re playing very well in Europe, in your team you’re a star, you know what’s around, you know the league, the rivals, you know what you’re going to find, and then you go to a place where probably nobody knows you or very few people do. It’s like starting to create again. Everything you’ve done with the Spanish national team, everything I had done in the ACB or in the Euroleague, was useless. I was a rookie coming from Spain who had to prove again that he knew how to play basketball and with a certain level to play in that league. Yes, you’re very happy to be in the NBA, but at the same time, you think, ‘this has just begun, now I have to keep working, improving, because if not, they’ll take my place or the coach won’t put me on the court.’
And on top of this…
“I had a significant problem, especially with the language. The first few months were very tough because I played as a point guard and I was the one who had to give orders. No matter how much I thought I spoke English, it cost me a lot. In my first preseason, when I got home, I had a headache. Not tiredness from playing basketball, and why? Because I had to receive orders, translate them, think them in Spanish, and translate them again with my English. It was constant work, and it was one of the first challenges I faced”.
There were many others, but the point is, he stayed in that league for 14 seasons. No gifts, overcoming setbacks, with a lot of work and the focus firmly in place. Eight years in Toronto and then Detroit, Dallas, Chicago, L.A, Atlanta, and Cleveland. A complete point guard. Cerebral, with control of the games, knowing how to move his team’s gears, with a good shot, with defense; he penetrated well, assisted well, and knew that, ahead of him, was the team.
“I’ve always put the team ahead because it’s a team sport. When you play basketball, we all win, we all lose, and yes, you try to be the best you can be, and not just for yourself – because of course, you have to have that ambition, because ultimately, your contract depends on it being better or worse, and that helps your family – but it’s also because being your best helps your team be better too. And then… I didn’t care if you played in my position or not, the coach puts you in, and once he puts you in, I’m not going to get mad at you for playing more than me; on the contrary, we have to keep working to make it harder for the coach. That’s what I’ve been and what I keep trying to be. It’s the education my parents gave me, and it’s what I try to pass on to my children. You can do thousands of things in any sector, but you have to be a good person. Respecting everyone, collaborating where you can, and giving your best in what you can.
“FORWARD WE GO, ONWARDS AND UPWARDS, UNTIL NEXT TIME!”
2017. Golden State Warriors?
Calderón is going to join the team with the most chances to win the title that season. Due to Kevin Durant’s injury and the necessity to strengthen the small forward position, José´s contract was terminated as a result. So he signs with the Atlanta Hawks. The Warriors end up repeating the title. A ring that could have been and wasn’t. Frustration?
“I can only control what I can control; what happens around me is impossible to control no matter how much we want to. Whether someone gets injured or not is part of the job, but it’s beyond your control. Of course, there’s frustration; a fantastic opportunity was missed, and it wasn’t just about winning; it was about joining a super team and sharing the locker room with them. What could I have done to change that situation? Nothing. But I’ve never been one to dwell on ‘what ifs’; whether I would have won or not. Because another team might play better, or you might get injured during the playoffs. Ultimately, I turned it around. By not going, I had the luck to end up in Cleveland playing with LeBron and reaching the finals.”
“I was super excited to go to the Warriors, bags packed and ready, and then suddenly an injury happens, and you’re left behind. And what are you going to tell them? They said to me, ‘you’ve understood it well,’ and what do you expect me to say? Am I supposed to get upset? If you’re going to cut me anyway. It’s logical and normal that you make the decisions you have to make because they’re the best for your team, and you don’t need a point guard; you need someone to fill in for Kevin Durant. So, onwards we go, until next time!”.
There are no tales in his speech. Sensibility, humility, and hard work; then achievements.
“The championship puts you in your place. If you play well, you end up where you deserve, and if there are five teams ahead, it’s because there are five better teams. I’ve always had the idea clear that ‘I don’t know how far I’ll go, but I’ll give my all’; and if the maximum was the ACB league, then the ACB league it would be, and I would have been happy to have played for as many years as necessary. It would have been difficult if I had realized that I could have given more and that due to my laziness or way of being, I hadn’t achieved those successes. Because it would have been my fault, in the sense that I didn’t give it my all, I didn’t commit to it, when I had to train, I slacked off, or I wasn’t the teammate I had to be, and that made me miss out on opportunities. It goes with the values. I have sacrifice, humility, and then respect for my teammates and my opponents tattooed on me.”
“Could I have done better? Could I have won more? Yes, but due to circumstances or other factors, I haven’t reached that point, because personally, I couldn’t, or the team couldn’t take that extra step. But I’m at peace; I’ve given it my all. Everything I had. And you try to keep improving. That’s the fuel we need. Just losing a game or things not going well is enough to make you come back the next day and say, ‘Well, now I have to work on this, because I failed there or in the other thing’; and wanting to be better is what has brought me to where I am.”
OFFICE COURT VISION
2022. Cleveland Warriors Front Office
In 2019, our Game-changer retired. He had spent years preparing for another career path. He becomes Michelle Roberts’ right-hand person at the NBPA (National Basketball Players Association), “the player in the office.” Then the pandemic hit. The NBA came to a halt, but for him, it was two intense years, even organizing an All-Star event in the midst of it all.
And as they say, you reap what you sow. The worst of the pandemic is behind us now. Kove Altman, who was the manager of the Cleveland Warriors when Calderón played there, reaches out to him. Kove is now the director of operations for the Cavs. They discuss his future. He feels like seeing “how a team operates from the other side, another perspective of the business, so to speak, closing the loop.” It’s been almost three years now as a special advisor to the Cavs’ Front Office, “putting the pieces together” to make the team better. It seems that once a point guard, always a point guard.
“THEY ARE THE KEY”
José Manuel Calderón Foundation
A vision from within, on one side or the other, but also towards those who come after, because it is in them where real changes can truly sprout.
“If we want to change things in our society, they are the key. Sport serves as an excuse to educate, to send messages, for these kids to truly see many of the problems or mistakes that we as a society have been making and how they can improve it. Whether through sports camps, courses, or projects we have in schools, whether by telling them about the challenges they face at parties with alcohol, or why we emphasize so much on nutrition or the importance of rest, or doing sport… Through all these projects, we are able to show them all the values we’ve been talking about. To respect everyone, no matter where you come from or who you are. In the end, we are all one.”
“Let’s all be together.” José Manuel Calderón. A Game-changer.
