En Route to the Raptors

As a kid growing up in a single-parent family where money was scarce, Aleem Hassanali had an unusual way of predicting his future.

The evening before a high school test, he would go by himself to a basketball court near his home to shoot some hoops. “I would say: ‘If I get this shot, it’s a sign I’m going to get an A+,’” says Hassanali, BComm’14.

He went on to be a finance student at the Haskayne School of Business, and now, at age 25, he’s using his education to reach his goal of not only becoming a general manager of an NBA team but helping it win the championship. He expects it will take at least 15 years to realize what he is careful not to call his dream. “If I use words like ‘practical,’ or ‘dream,’ then I’m limiting myself mentally,” he says.

Hassanali was raised in the Toronto area and in Calgary by his mom, an immigrant from Tanzania who worked in house- and hotel- cleaning services to put food on the table. He learned from her example about the value of hard work and perseverance.

“I would get frustrated because I couldn’t help my mom financially because her priority was that I got an education,” says Hassanali. “I started worrying about adult problems when I was about 10 years old, so that was the value that basketball had for me. Basketball made me feel like a kid.”

Hassanali wanted to play in the NBA, but by age 17 he realized that may not be an option and began considering how to break into an NBA front office job.

While a Haskayne student, he learned how hard it is to get into team management at the NBA. It took numerous attempts over a year and a half to arrange just a brief phone call with an NBA management executive about what it takes to land a job. Haskayne professor Marc Boivin mentored Hassanali about the importance of networking, to be unafraid not only to cold call or e-mail key people but to connect in creative and unique ways.

“Haskayne really cares about students, and in keeping that mentorship alive even after graduation,” says professor Sharaz Khan. “Aleem still reaches out to me every so often just to say: ‘This is what I’m doing and these are the challenges I’m facing. Could you provide some guidance?’”

Hassanali’s Haskayne education prepared him for how to understand people’s communication and leadership styles, skills that have been particularly useful in the time-challenged world of basketball. “You have to be mindful of how you connect with people, making sure it’s at the right time — when it’s convenient and relevant to them — and communicate in a way they prefer to be communicated with,” he says.

Although Hassanali worked after graduation in a high-paying job as a strategy management consulting analyst, he continued to network on his own time with people in the basketball world. He used his education to create statistical models about the sport, studying hundreds of video clips of games of the men’s team at the University of Toronto to potentially help it refine its strategies. Such efforts led to a volunteer position with the team in 2015 as an assistant coach, personnel scouting. This paved the way for an offer in 2016 to work for six months as an unpaid video co-ordinator/ basketball operations intern at the Atlanta Dream, a team in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). He was responsible for putting together personnel scouting reports to help shed light on opposing players’ key tendencies.

Moving to Atlanta meant Hassanali had to leave high-paying jobs. “I’ve sent about 1,300 emails in the past two years and I’ve gotten two opportunities out of it,” he says. “Hearing ‘no’ 1,298 times was tough.”

But circled on the vision board in his bedroom are the words, “You are blessed.” Speaking as someone from an immigrant family, Hassanali says anyone who gets to enjoy the opportunities available to Canadians is lucky beyond measure.

As he keeps networking with the NBA, a thought occurs to him as he considers his future. “Let’s plan to do this interview again in 10 or 15 years.”