Travis Stockbridge ’16, a junior Sport Management major at Rice University, is in his third year of working with the Houston Rockets in the basketball operations department.
Stockbridge first began working with the organization in October of his freshman year. A professor in the Department of Sport Management, Tom Stallings, was approached by the Rockets inquiring about any students that he would recommend for a basketball operations internship.
“I thought Travis would be great for the position and thought if the Rockets liked him, he could have the chance to work with them over multiple seasons,” Stallings said. “Fortunately, that has been the case.”
In his first season with the Rockets, Stockbridge’s responsibilities were mostly administrative and included obtaining scouting credentials, keeping track of which scouts had seen which prospects, and office work. Since then, he has gained much more responsibility.
“Last year, I moved into a much more basketball related role," Stockbridge said. "I started doing a lot of video scouting and attending games in the Houston area in addition to the administrative responsibilities. This year…I no longer have a lot of administrative tasks, and am more focused on basketball. I am also moving into a small analytical role, although that is something that is still being developed.”
Jim Paulis, who is the personnel scout for the Rockets, attributes Stockbridge’s increased responsibility to his ability to perform and manage any task that he has been given.
“Travis has been an asset to our organization from the day he joined our staff,” Paulis said. “He…has routinely risen to every challenge we have thrown his way.”
As far as the future for Stockbridge, he is hopeful that his experience at the Rockets will help him land a job in basketball on the scouting or analytics side someday. He ultimately would like to become a General Manager.
Danielle "Dani" Spriggs, a junior at Rice University, is majoring in Sport Management and minoring in Business.