After years of hard work honing his craft, former Wayne State (Michigan) basketball player Nick Mutebi made it to the NBA. 

As a walk-on member of the team, Mutebi used every opportunity basketball provided him. Although he did not receive any playing time his first two years, Mutebi contributed by empowering his teammates through encouragement and holding them accountable to high standards. He did extra workouts outside of practice and helped his teammates with their classes, all while working part time at a hospital. 

Eventually, his leadership and dedication earned him significant playing time his junior and senior years, along with the honor of being a captain. Although Mutebi knew his basketball career would end at Wayne State, his lessons as a student-athlete became the blueprint for a professional career that eventually led him to the NBA.

After graduating college, Mutebi accepted a role with the NCAA academic and membership affairs department as a postgraduate intern, driven by his desire to stay involved in sports. Mutebi worked with member schools to process academic eligibility for student-athletes, additionally helping with the education process of new NCAA bylaws and waivers. 

“When you step back and look behind the scenes, there’s so many other extenuating factors that go into someone potentially being ineligible. And for us, it was cool to be able to support and provide opportunities for folks who may have ended up ineligible,” the 2018-19 intern said.

Mutebi said the internship taught him tangible skills like creative storytelling, professional writing and presentation skills, while also providing intangible opportunities like networking and mentorship. An invaluable part of the experience, Mutebi said, was the connections he formed with his fellow interns.

“We still stay in touch to this day and really support each other,” he said. “That peer-to-peer resource system and support system that people really sleep on is very important in your career growth. There’s just so much connectivity between us.”

Mutebi also used his time at the NCAA to expand on his interests, taking it upon himself to learn more about the men’s basketball department, championships and partnerships.

After his yearlong internship, Mutebi went back to school for his graduate degree at Central Florida. From there, the Detroit native made three other stops in the sports industry before he landed at the NBA five years later.

“I took a very nontraditional route to get to the NBA, but I ended up getting there,” he said. “My career mirrored my playing career because I’ve had to work to get to the league and put in a lot of time.”

Now, he works in new business development and global partnerships, working with brands such as SKIMS and CarMax. 

Throughout his experiences, he draws back on his year at the NCAA, where the work he did — clearly and concisely articulating an idea through written and verbal presentations — directly carried over to his work at the NBA. 

“There’s actually, quite frankly, a lot of similar thread lines between the NCAA and NBA. You think about national governing bodies, you think about representing a bigger group versus a singular entity. Having that mindset already embedded in me because I worked at the NCAA was something that really helped me to transition to the NBA.”