October Member Profile: Alisha Smith
In celebration of our newest partnership with MLSE and NBA Canada, we are proud to recognize our October Member Profile - Alisha Smith.
Alisha played on the Canadian Women’s National Basketball Team for nine years, enjoyed a professional career in Europe for five years and achieved her dreams while playing in the 2012 Olympics. Her National Team and high-performance sport experience led her to a career in sports management. Starting off with Sportsnet, Alisha made the career transition through connections from her days as a National team athlete. Besides playing for the Olympics, she also got to cover the 2016 Olympics by always looking for her next opportunity. Outside of her full-time job, Alisha did many speaking engagements, mentored young female athletes, wrote articles for the Sportsnet magazine and website, acted as a color commentator and took on various coaching positions. From old coaches' connections to taking on additional PT work, Alisha knew she was destined for big things off the court as well.
Now well into her career, Alisha is now managing NBA athletes and reaffirms, “It’s all who you know.” She wasn’t always confident she could make the career transition from professional athlete to sports management. With time, Alisha found she had a lot of transferable skills from her days on the court and her connections to coaches, athletes and other people in the sports management industry gave her the foundation she needed. She was accustomed to being in different environments with differing cultures and using those adaptable skills helped her to be the success she is today.
Early on in her career, Alisha didn’t have many colleagues of colour. She didn’t see Black women in places of leadership and says it made her shy away from wanting to stay in those roles long term. Now working for an athlete management company, Alisha is surrounded by strong women (and men) of colour and believes it makes a big difference. “It feels different - different conversations; different views or perspectives; the difference is cultural. Culture is important when you’re thinking about marketing and the athletes that we’re managing.”
Alisha Smith works for BDA Sports Management as a Client Relations Manager. She represents NBA players in their business and personal lives. Follow Alisha and her career on Instagram and LinkedIn.
