Bryson Graham still remembers his very first assignment, when he reported for his first day of work 14 years ago.
“Unload those boxes,” Graham’s new boss told him that day.
Graham has a picture in his cell phone from that September day in 2010.
In the picture, he’s loading boxes in the Alario Center in Westwego. A New Orleans Hornets logo hangs on the wall in the background, which tells you all you need to know about how long ago it was.
The team's practice facility is now in Metairie.
The Hornets are now the Pelicans.
And that box-lifting intern is now the team's general manager, promoted to that new title on Monday after years of dedication to the only NBA team he has ever worked for.
At 37, Graham is one of the youngest general managers in the league.
He knows the same work ethic that got him to the top is the same one he’ll need to maintain to stay there.
“I try to still have that same mentality,” Graham said. “There is nothing too small for me to do. The people that work here, everybody is busting their butt and working towards the same goal. Whatever needs to be done, let’s get it done.”
The right guy
Graham has done a little bit of everything since arriving as a 23-year-old after spending the previous year as a graduate assistant at his alma mater Texas A&M. He played three seasons for the Aggies, but two ACL tears dashed any chance of him reaching his childhood dream of playing in the NBA. But his time as a graduate assistant got him on the path to the NBA front office.
It was during his year as a graduate assistant that he met Dell Demps, who was working with the San Antonio Spurs organization at the time. The two first met when Demps brought his son Tre to a visit to A&M. Tre eventually went on to play at Northwestern, but Demps and Graham stayed in touch. Demps would often get back to Texas A&M to scout college prospects and the ambitious graduate assistant would always help.
Demps, who was named general manager in New Orleans in 2010, saw something special in Graham.
“As soon as I got the job in New Orleans, I called him,” Demps said. “I said ‘Hey, you want to work in the NBA?’. The first thing Bryson said was ‘Quit playing.’”
But Demps was dead serious.
“I didn’t have to interview or anything,” Graham recalled.
Mark Turgeon, the head coach at Texas A&M at the time, didn’t want to lose Graham.
“I didn’t have any doubts Bryson was the right guy,” said Demps, who served as Pelicans’ general manager from 2010-2019. “But as soon as Turgeon said he didn’t want to lose him, it just confirmed it for me. Fourteen years later, Bryson's the general manager of an NBA team. I couldn’t be happier for him.”
It was Demps who asked Graham to unload those boxes that day, the first of many hats Graham wore as he climbed the corporate ladder rung by rung.
For the first two years, Graham’s job title was intern. His job duties included everything from making coffee runs to shuttling free agents to and from the airport to making sure the snack room was fully stocked.
“I still remember the sweet and salty peanut bars that had to be in there,” Graham said. "And Rice Krispies Treats. I was doing anything and everything. No job is too small for you. Starting as the lowest of the low on the totem pole, that’s the only way you can climb, in my opinion.”
As an intern, Graham got a chance to sit in every meeting. He was the secretary for those meetings, responsible for taking the notes.
“That’s where most of my growth came from,” Graham said. “I would take those minutes of the meeting and I would go back and read them and digest them. A lot of the things I was exposed to just really helped shape my thoughts as an executive and how I see the league.”
After two years as an intern, Monty Williams, the head coach at the time, wanted Graham to be his video coordinator.
Graham had never coordinated any video in his life, so he was hesitant to accept the job.
His words to Williams, “I don’t want to fail at it.”
Williams response, “ Because you said ‘you don’t want to fail at it’, you won’t.”
And Graham didn’t.
Two years later, he was promoted again, this time to the front office.
“That’s when I knew that the front office was where I wanted to be,” Graham said. “Not saying I don’t like being on the floor (on the coaching side), but this suits what I like. At the time, I was thinking if I become a GM, I become a GM. If I don’t, I’m just happy to work in the league.”
A decade later, he is a GM, promoted from assistant general manager by executive vice-president of basketball operations David Griffin. Like Graham, Griffin worked his way through the ranks, starting as an intern for the Phoenix Suns.
“His situation very much spoke to me from the day I got here,” said Griffin, who took over in 2019. “There was a connection there in terms of our backgrounds. Even before I got to this organization, Bryson was someone that everybody believed had a chance to be special. Not just in the business, but as a human being. He’s a really rare person. He’s about the work. He’s about winning and he’s not about himself.”
'Straight New Orleans'
In 14 seasons in New Orleans, Graham has experienced the highs and lows. Although he has only worked for one franchise, he credits all the many people who have poured knowledge into him along the way.
It's a long list. Demps, Williams, Griffin, Trajan Langdon (the Pelicans' previous general manager who accepted the Detroit Pistons job, opening the door for Graham). And there were former Pelicans' assistant coaches like Randy Ayers and Michael Malone and former front office personnel like Tim Connelly.
It was Connelly, now in charge of the Minnesota Timberwolves, who gave Graham the one piece of advice that still sticks with him to this day: “Never have a bad day.”
“I’ve tried to keep that with me,” Graham said. “Even if I was having a bad day, as soon as I turn to 5800 Airline Drive and start going down Benson Way, it’s time to put my game face on and be positive.”
While he has received so much good advice over the years, he also doesn't mind giving out some of his own.
"Run your own race," Graham said. "When you start getting caught up into what other people are doing or what other people have and you start coveting those things and playing the comparison game, then you quit because you don't have what they have or you didn’t get to it as fast as they did. When you start doing that, you become unhappy. But when you run your own race and stay focused on you and on you getting better every day, good things happen."
The goal now is to help the Pelicans build on their 49-win season and get past the first round of the playoffs for just the third time in franchise history and first time since 2018. In addition to building a talented roster, Graham believes effective communication is the key.
“You’ve got to be able to communicate as if you were a point guard,” Graham said. "Everyone has to know what they need to do. You’ve got to put people in the right positions, based on their skillset. If you’re able to navigate how to utilize people best and make them feel a part of it, they will run through a wall for you.”
The people closest to him believe he will be successful.
People like his wife Tiffany and their three kids, too young to know the giant responsibility their dad now has.
People like the Simmons’ family, a couple that is more like family than friends to Graham. They made sure he ate well when he got to New Orleans. Graham spent many of his early days in New Orleans at the Simmons’ home in Holly Grove, getting introduced to everything from Yakamein to red beans and rice to crawfish pies.
“They are straight New Orleans,” said Graham.
And Graham, born and raised in San Antonio, is now straight New Orleans, too.
Going into your 15th year in a city will do that to you.
The guy who brought him here believes he’ll do just fine.
“Whatever he puts his mind to, he’s going to do it,” Demps said. “And he’s going to do it at the highest level.”
Graham has had little time to let his ascent to general manager soak in.
His first week in his new role has been quite a busy one.
First there was the NBA draft, where the Pelicans selected Baylor big man Yves Missi in the first round on Wednesday and sharp-shooting Kentucky guard Antonio Reeves a day later.
On Friday, the team orchestrated a trade that brought Atlanta Hawks’ All-Star guard Dejounte Murray to the team.
Now it’s free agency time, a chance to load and unload talent, much like he loaded and unloaded those boxes back in 2010.
He doesn’t mind putting in the work.
He knows it's what got him this far in the first place.
And besides, time flies when you’re having so much fun.
“Fifteen years, but honestly it feels like three,” Graham said. “Time has gone by so quickly. I remember pulling into the Alario Center like it was just yesterday. And now, here I am.”