Legends Among Legends

Chrysa Chin

THE GODMOTHER OF THE NBA

BY Chris Sheridan

As if on cue, Louis King Jr. of the G-League Westchester Knicks popped through the office door at the NBA Players Association and greeted NBPA Executive Vice President of Engagement and Development, Chrysa Chin: “Hey, Moms.”

Whether it is “Moms,” “Aunt of the NBA” or “Mama Chin,” there are many endearing terms when it comes to the woman who everyone reading this article probably already knows. When it comes to the NBA, she is everywhere! Mama Chin is a fixture in locker rooms, travels internationally to meet with BAL players in Africa, and has worked in the NBA league office.

“I have heard it all, guys always say to other players: ‘Talk to her but don’t call her Chrysa. That’s Momma Chin of the NBA.’” Chin’s background as a problem solver began at the New York City Human Resources Administration, where she was a caseworker in the 1980s. People who had fallen through society’s cracks and needed help were her specialty. Out of a cramped office in the Bronx, she worked with juvenile delinquents, the homeless and mental health patients whose needs she always tried to fulfill.

The Aunt of the League joined the NBA Players Association in 1991 under then union’s executive director Charles Grantham. He immediately recognized her as a problem solver extraordinaire and gave her the first big professional break of what has become a decorated career.

As if on cue, Louis King Jr. of the G-League Westchester Knicks popped through the office door at the NBA Players Association and greeted NBPA Executive Vice President of Engagement and Development, Chrysa Chin: “Hey, Moms.”

Whether it is “Moms,” “Aunt of the NBA” or “Mama Chin,” there are many endearing terms when it comes to the woman who everyone reading this article probably already knows. When it comes to the NBA, she is everywhere! Mama Chin is a fixture in locker rooms, travels internationally to meet with BAL players in Africa, and has worked in the NBA league office.

“I have heard it all, guys always say to other players: ‘Talk to her but don’t call her Chrysa. That’s Momma Chin of the NBA.’”

Chin’s background as a problem solver began at the New York City Human Resources Administration, where she was a caseworker in the 1980s. People who had fallen through society’s cracks and needed help were her specialty. Out of a cramped office in the Bronx, she worked with juvenile delinquents, the homeless and mental health patients whose needs she always tried to fulfill.

The Aunt of the League joined the NBA Players Association in 1991 under then union’s executive director Charles Grantham. He immediately recognized her as a problem solver extraordinaire and gave her the first big professional break of what has become a decorated career.

“That was when there weren’t many women working in professional sports,” Chin said in a sit-down interview on a drizzly spring day at the union’s Manhattan offices.

Chin spent three years at the union as Special Assistant to the Executive Director, then three years at Nike as a Relationship Management Consultant, before returning to the Association as Director of Player Development for 18 years.

When former Players Association director Michele Roberts saw how well Chin worked a locker room, Roberts asked which media outlet she worked for. When explained that Chin was the woman every NBA player could confide in, Roberts scooped her up and brought her back to the union.

If a player has a problem, needs a sounding board, or just needs someone to speak to, the Godmother is the point person. Everyone needs a problem solver, a guidance counselor, and a voice of reason.  The is all those things for the more than 450 players currently on NBA rosters, along with G-League players and players who have moved overseas to play professionally in China and/or Europe.

Pretty much any situation that an NBA player needs guidance on, she knows how to handle it. If a player is unhappy with his representation and wants to switch agents, that is best not handled alone, and Chin is at the ready with solutions.

She stays awake until 2 a.m. ET every night so that players on the West Coast can reach her up until 11 p.m. their time. “And I never fail to answer the phone,” Chin explained.

Even with Roberts leaving, Chin will stay on board with the NBPA. New executive director Tamika Tremaglio has made her Executive Vice President of Strategic Engagement and Development. She is a part of five different union initiatives: Player Programs, Career Development, Off-Court Transition (for retiring players), Mental Health and Wellness and Sports Medicine.

And she does all this while “doting over my son Joel, 26.”

“My job is to be there for them, and if I do not know the exact answer myself, I know the options,” Chin stated. “A lot of it is crisis management and strategy, giving them resources and information, lending an ear when someone needs to figure out all of the options beforemaking up their mind.

“We laugh together, cry together, argue, everything. I want what is best for them, and I don’t want anything [in return]. I don’t want game tickets, I don’t want plane tickets, I just need for them to do what is in their best interest, and however I can provide that path, I am going to do just that.”

It would be easy to call Chin the union’s secret weapon, except she is no secret, and she is not a weapon. She is a soft-spoken but strong and wise woman whose personality resonates with many players because she reminds many of them of the women that helped raise them.

It is not easy to navigate when a player wants to make a change in his support team. Often, a player has been with one agent since he was a rookie. Because of different circumstances in different cities and with different types of teammates, coaches, and team executives, things do not always work out as initially envisioned.

“Sometimes guys want to start over, so I talk with them about what types of questions need to be asked,” she explained. “That can be very difficult for someone in their mid-20s. They do not have the same growing-up experiences and frames of reference as their peers. If you have to disconnect relationships, you have to be careful
how you do it, so it’s about guiding.

“It’s painful because sometimes there is betrayal, a need for a new personal assistant, sometimes a family member or a friend needs to be disempowered, so undoing that web can be complex.”

Chin recalled working with Bo Outlaw when he was an undrafted rookie in Los Angeles with the Clippers, as she helped him keep his patience as he piled up DNP-CDs. He eventually moved on to the Orlando Magic and the Phoenix Suns.

Another example of the work she does can be seen with Rod Strickland, now the program manager for the G-League Ignite, following an 11-year playing career followed by stints as an assistant coach and administrator at Kentucky, Memphis and the University of South Florida.

Strickland was an extremely talented player who eventually needed to retire and pursue a new career path. The next step is always a struggle for all professional athletes because, since their teenage years, most of them have pursued playing sports as a profession without all that much focus on what they will do when their
playing careers are over.

“As basketball players, we have to navigate through so many situations, relationships and even some disappointment along the way,”  Stricland explained. “Chrysa is that constant guidance that we as players can count on.

“For me, Chrysa has been a strong influence on my life and my career after basketball — someone who not only believed in me but showed me how to be at my best.”

Sometimes a player nearing the end of his career needs someone to help him identify his outside interests and be steered toward the p.9 league and the union’s leadership or broadcasting seminars. Some players endeavor to work in front offices, but learning the ins and outs of the NBA business requires a trip to the general manager’s school, which exists but needs to be navigated from an application, paperwork and logistics
standpoint.

“Sometimes they forget that these programs are available, but we have a program if a guy is interested in real estate. If it is international branding, I tell them we have a program in Milan this summer, and folks from Lamborghini have spoken there. I help them navigate our matching grant program if it is community outreach. For others, there are other programs through the NBPA’s foundation.

“I always ask: ‘What is authentic to you? What do you have and who do you want to help?” Chin says she has met roughly 400 of the players currently in the NBA and has gotten to know the rest over the phone, the lack of faceto-face encounters is primarily due to COVID restrictions.

Asked for an example of what a typical crisis management day might include, she chuckled and said it could be just about anything. Chin offered up a story about where she had to prep for a call with NBA security as an example because players involved in altercations are often interviewed after the fact. This scenario is uncharted territory for many of them, but not for her. 

A second example was a player who wanted a new personal chef but needed to figure out if that new chef would cook daily or weekly. He also needed to be vetted for security and experience purposes and provide references. “A background check will show whether there is anything there that will compromise your safety, and you will
learn whether he has been a chef for a pro athlete before.”

Sometimes a player simply needs an offseason “keep busy” plan.

Chin always attends the McDonald’s All-American Game and the Jordan Brand Classic to begin building relationships with young athletes she will be working with in the future.

“I build relationships by going to games, meeting players and underscoring the confidential nature of my relationships, and then it goes from there. Some anagement folks and coaching staffs don’t know what I do, but they know I get results.”

For many folks reading this article, y’all already knew that. So take solace in the fact that Chrysa, or the “Godmother,” has helped hundreds just like you and will continue to do so.

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