MILWAUKEE BUCKS

With his bank account now full, Donte DiVincenzo's rookie education features NBA training program

JR Radcliffe
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Donte DiVincenzo poses with head coach Mike Budenholzer, right, and general manager Jon Horst when being introduced to the Milwaukee media. The Bucks signed DiVincenzo on Tuesday.

Donte DiVincenzo said he wasn’t aware DJ Wilson had even snapped the picture.

DiVincenzo, the Milwaukee Bucks first-round draft choice in 2018, was in Las Vegas with his teammates and holding up his phone that showed his bank accounts – a paltry $3.71 between them. Wilson took the photo and uploaded it on Instagram.

“He just said, ‘Let me see your bank account,’ ” and when he took the photo, I was looking away; I didn’t even know he took the picture,” DiVincenzo said. “I woke up in the morning and I saw it on Bleacher Report, Ball-is-Life ... it was all good though. People messaging me said it was so relatable; it was kind of cool interacting with college students (in the same boat).” 

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DiVincenzo isn’t hurting for funds anymore. His rookie contract will pay him $5.3 million over his first two seasons.

Now, he has to learn what to do with it. DiVincenzo took part in a three-plus day rookie training program engineered by the NBA and the players association, spending the time in Parsippany, New Jersey, absorbing information about everything from social media to personal styling – and plenty on finance.

“It's not about just how to maximize your finances but make sure it lasts a long time,” he said. “You want to make sure you’re aware of who's dealing with your money, what it's doing and how you can save.”

Raising rookies with a multi-faceted approach

Greg Taylor, the NBA’s senior vice president of player development, said the program serves many functions. In addition to acclimating new players to the pro-athlete lifestyle, it also creates an environment to develop a peer group.

“We have a number of topics we know our guys have to navigate effectively to be in the league, but we also take time to create small learning teams of 10 to 12 players, and those guys bond,” Taylor said. “They're able to experience rookie transition and learn the lessons, but one of the most important lessons of the program is that they bond in a way where they stay in touch throughout their careers. … That’s why we kind of take our time and go over the number of days that we do.”

The program has been in place since 1986. In addition to its curriculum – other topics include hydration, benefits, player assistance programs, mealtime mores, leadership and how the G-League works – Taylor said his team keeps tabs on players throughout the year both to ensure a healthy career and to learn how to evolve the program.

“November to March, (we discuss) what worked, what info do you wish you had now and constantly applying those to our execution,” Taylor said. “For us, it's an evolving process and has yielded a tremendously effective program.”

The social media sessions

Donte DiVincenzo gets ready to throw out the first pitch.

Social media, for example, features a shifting landscape that requires the program to adapt.

“There have been a lot of conversations about image that you want everybody to have, how to prevent certain things from happening, how to be secure in what you're posting,” DiVincenzo said. “What people see from you, they might not know you as a person, they might only know what they’re seeing from (your social media feeds).”

In Milwaukee, Brewers pitcher Josh Hader drew criticism in July when a series of offensive tweets from his high school days were unearthed. Something similar happened to DiVincenzo during his playing days at Villanova – an offensive song lyric from a tweet years earlier was discovered in early April, and he has since deleted his Twitter account. DiVincenzo was 14 at the time it was posted.

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“We know the power of social media when used properly can catapult your brand, engage fans, give fans a lens into a life of a player,” Taylor said. “If used improperly, it can be devastating. The NBA has a formal social media policy, and we spend time educating on the do’s and don’ts of that. How are you authentic with fans and how can you focus on things that are positive?”

Several former and current players take part in the program, including Grant Hill, Emeka Okafor and Jahlil Okafor. Chris Herren shared his struggles with addiction and finding sobriety, and DiVincenzo said he chatted with Carmelo Anthony at the NBPA offices.

“It was really cool seeing someone you watch on TV all the time,” DiVincenzo said. “It’s a different feeling now that we all have the same job.”

From here, DiVincenzo expects to resume training briefly in New York, then make his way to Milwaukee. He’ll know the difference between business casual and casual on his flight back to the Midwest.