As Director of Team Marketing & Business Operations at the National Basketball Association, Justin Gurney is responsible for consulting with NBA, WNBA, and NBA Development League teams in an effort to help them maximize profitability. He advises teams on best practices as well as creating “next practices” via in-market visits, webinars, workshops and training sessions. One of Gurney’s primary responsibilities over the past year has been to train teams on how to properly adopt “social selling.”

Gurney has 11 years of experience in sales, management and consulting in the sports industry. Before joining the NBA in 2012, Gurney worked for the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he held the positions of Manager of Group Ticket Sales and Manager of Inside Sales. Prior to his time with the Pirates, Gurney served as General Manager for the Orange County Flyers, an independent professional baseball team in the Golden Baseball League. He began his career as a Ticket Sales Representative for the Chicago Bulls and, shortly afterwards, joined the Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers and Philips Arena as a Group Sales Account Executive.

Gurney received his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University with a major in sport marketing and a minor in business from the Kelley School of Business. He is a native of Shaker Heights, Ohio, just outside of Cleveland.