Moshe Bennett, originally from the Five Towns, recently landed an exciting role as a broadcasting assistant for the NBA. His path to this incredible position was anything but ordinary.
After attending DRS and Shaalvim, he attended NYU for sports management beginning in the fall of 2019. In college, Bennett navigated the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a year and a half of online classes and a return to a socially-distanced campus environment that was far from typical until his graduation.
Throughout college, Bennett gained valuable experience through internships at Madison Square Garden with the Westchester Knicks and at the USTA during the US Open. During his USTA internship, Bennett faced an unexpected and simply remarkable opportunity—a shot at a position working for the NBA.
Upon hearing about Bennett’s recent college graduation and impending job search, a friend of Bennett’s father advised that the best way to get a job was to write a letter expressing interest and send it in a FedEx mailer to the company, but Bennett was skeptical. “It sounds out of a movie; it sounds ridiculous! You have to go through the whole application process!” How could a letter land him a job?
During Bennett’s USTA internship the summer after graduation, he bumped into Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA, in the hallway during one of the US Open night sessions. As a huge NBA fan, Bennett immediately recognized Silver and debated asking for a photo. Seeing as Silver did not seem busy and there weren’t many people around, Bennett asked to take a picture with him.
In September, his father’s friend’s advice came back to him, and he decided to send a letter, the photo with Silver and his resume to the NBA office, thinking there was “nothing to lose besides $10 in FedEx shipping fees.”
After sending the envelope, Bennett and his family went to Israel for Sukkot and had trouble finding flights back after October 7. When they managed to get home, among the large stack of mail, Bennett found a letter from 5th Avenue addressed to him.
In the letter, Adam Silver wrote “Thank you for reaching out, it was great to meet you! Someone from HR will be reaching out to you shortly.” Although nobody from HR reached out, Bennett followed up with the HR team, which “got the ball rolling, no pun intended.” Bennett then applied for his position through LinkedIn, went through the typical interview process, and landed the job he has now. Bennett doesn’t know for certain that his encounter with Adam Silver got him his position, but it certainly couldn’t have hurt.
In his position as a broadcasting assistant, Bennett and his coworkers are responsible for creating reports on the content of each NBA broadcast. This involves everything from monitoring ESPN shows to national games, keeping track of everything that happens on the broadcast from a production standpoint. He looks at promotions, broadcasting elements, camera angles, audio recordings of player interviews and more. With these reports, NBA staff can check what happened in a broadcast without having to watch the entire broadcast over. Bennett took classes on broadcasting at NYU, but this is his first official broadcasting position, with his other internships being more involved in marketing and merchandise.
Recently, Bennett and his wife Emma flew to Las Vegas for the NBA Summer League. Bennett had the opportunity to work as the time-out coordinator, communicating back and forth between ESPN production and the NBA Replay Center in Secaucus. He worked to coordinate everything happening on the court like time-outs and foul shots as well as replay reviews.
As an Orthodox Jew in an environment dominated by non-Jewish people, Bennett certainly has to take some extra steps in his position, such as ensuring time off for holidays and Shabbat and explaining the concept of kashrut. However, Bennett is proud to be Jewish and wears a yarmulke at all times. Bennett is grateful to his manager and broadcasting team who are all very understanding of his traditions.
When asked what advice Bennett would give to young Jewish people looking to join the field of sports management, he answered, “Just be honest about everything. Be you. Wherever it is, whatever time it is, be confident in who you are and what you believe. Hashem helps out when you’re trying to be authentic and really you.” Another piece of advice he gave was, “You never know what opportunity will lead to the next opportunity. Even if it’s something that you didn’t dream of doing, Hashem always has His ways of putting you in the right position to meet the right people at the right time. You just have to have that belief and emunah and hopefully, when you do that, Hashem will make it all work out for you.”
Eliana Birman is a digital intern for The Jewish Link. She is beginning her studies at Barnard College in the fall and lives in Teaneck.
