When the second day of the NBA Draft rolls around, the commissioner takes a break from announcing the league’s newest players and hands those duties off to the deputy commissioner. This is, of course, how a lot of folks were introduced to Adam Silver as he worked in this role for eight years under the late David Stern.
Silver’s deputy is Mark Tatum, who took the office in 2014, around the same time Silver became the NBA commissioner.
While Tatum has been the deputy commissioner for a decade – and has worked in the NBA since 1999 – he’s still unfamiliar to a lot of casual fans.
So, let’s get to know him a little bit better before he rattles off second round selections on Thursday night:
1. He played college baseball
While Tatum has worked in the NBA for 25 years, his sports roots are on the diamond.
Before graduating from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in business management and marketing, he played two seasons for the Big Red. Listed as a 5-foot-9 infielder, he played in 41 games as a junior in 1990.
Tatum’s father told Andscape:
“He couldn’t run, but he sure could field.”
Tatum also played in Yankee Stadium once, for his Brooklyn Tech High School team in the 1984 state championship.
2. Before the NBA, there was Pepsi and Clorox
Tatum worked for a lot of different companies before finally landing with the NBA in 1999. He had roles in marketing and sales for Pepsi, Proctor & Gamble and Clorox. After working for bleach and soda companies, he found himself back in baseball, working with MLB’s sponsorship department.
It’s likely that connections to some of those companies helped Tatum in one of his earlier roles in the NBA as the executive vice president of global marketing partnerships, where he negotiated deals with American Express, Anheuser-Busch, Kia and State Farm.
The NBA also credits Tatum – who was born in Vietnam – with leading initiatives that led to the first NBA games played in Africa and India, and the launch of Basketball Africa League.
3. He still takes the subway in New York
Tatum’s parents still lived in his childhood home in Brooklyn as of 2022, and the NBA has held its draft at the Barclays Center since 2013 – the year before Tatum became deputy commissioner.
And every year, Tatum told Andscape in 2022, he takes the subway from the NBA’s Manhattan offices to his old neighborhood before taking the stage at the NBA Draft as an annual tradition.
“I never lose perspective of where I came from. … I just feel so blessed. I am just this kid from Brooklyn. I love the fact that we’re doing the draft in Brooklyn. My hometown.”
