In sports, perception is often more powerful than reality.
The truth about those involved is sometimes lost in the debates over legacy or dominance, and the dissecting of even the most minute of details. What is too often forgotten, is the human element.
Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby is known to most fans as the man tasked with negotiating contracts and guiding the vision for the franchise’s future. To others in the sports business world, he’s known as a former agent and high-powered attorney. While those roles and responsibilities are all part of his impressive resume, there is another side of the 63-year-old that most never get a chance to see.
A year ago last May at the 2013 NBA Draft Lottery in New York’s Times Square, Babby offered a glimpse behind the perception, a private look into the reality of who he is at heart and what is most important to him. While standing in the Good Morning America studios waiting for the ESPN lights and cameras to turn on, he pulled something from the inner pocket of his gray suit jacket that said much more than any words could. It was a trading card.
It wasn’t a card of top NBA Draft picks Tim Duncan or Grant Hill, both of whom he represented during his years as an agent, nor was it of one of his beloved New York Giants he rooted for when he was kid growing up on Long Island. It was something much more personal. Much more simple.
It was a tee-ball card of his then 4-year-old grandson, Josh, complete with autograph.
See, what many people should know is family, and in particular his grandson, are what keeps Babby anchored in an industry known for its long evenings and chaotic moments.
“He’s my best bud, my friend” Babby said of his grandson with a large smile on his face. “Virtually every day he calls before he goes to sleep. He talks to his grandmother, who sings him a little lullaby he likes. Then he talks to me and I ask him about his day and what he did. He always says something that makes me laugh. We laugh a lot. He helps me put things in perspective.”
That perspective is something more difficult to find in sports than a championship roster, especially in this technology-driven world, where everyone is accessible at every moment. Babby seems to have found the right family and work balance.
“We'll FaceTime while he’s having dinner and I’ll watch him eat. It’s like we’re having dinner together. I do the best I can to get back there [to the east coast] as often as I can. In a way it’s the greatest joy in your life.”
That dedication to family has deep roots for the Suns' president. He met his wife, Ellen, when he was 16-years old at a summer camp. The rest was history as the couple just recently celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary.
“The only event she missed in my life was my bar mitzvah,” Babby joked.
The couple have two children, son Ken (Josh’s father) and daughter Heather. Despite first being a defense lawyer who was involved in many high-profile cases and had to be away from home for weeks at a time, he always made sure family was at the top of the list.
“I always made it a top priority, as best I could, to find time for family,” he said as he reflected on his children’s youth.
The key? Never missing any of the important moments that they would remember years later. It’s a tradition he continues to this day with his grandson.
“If you build that kind of foundation with your kids, or your grandkids, the relationship can withstand the times you aren’t able to physically be there,” he said while gazing towards pictures of family on his desk. “It is the biggest challenge of my professional career, because I feel like I’m missing out being there for his games.”
When he does get the opportunity to be with Josh, he makes the most of it, ensuring he soaks up the little lessons the now 6-year-old has to offer.
“The things that bother him are, in his world, just as important as the things that I’m confronting every day in this job,” Babby said. “We just have a different frame of reference. To hear him talk about what’s going on in school, what his friends are up to and what he did that day are as important to him as whatever I’m working on that is going to effect the franchise or the community”
Babby takes realizations like that and uses them to make sure he stays in touch with what is truly important in a profession where every action you take can become part of a 24-hour news cycle.
“Whenever you have a professional responsibility, like we have in this job, it’s important to not lose your moorings,” he shared. “It’s important to have your guide posts that keep you grounded about what’s important and not important.”
Humor seems to be the language the elder Babby and the younger use to guide the way.
“I was sitting with him and said ‘Joshy, let me tell you a story,’” Babby reminisced. “And I start telling him this story about this man named Pop -- which is what he calls me -- and I said ‘there’s this man named Pop and he has this little boy he really, really loves named Josh.’ He interrupted me and said ‘ Pop, is this a fiction or non-fiction story.’ I’m still laughing about it three weeks later. That stuff is priceless.”
Those priceless moments will soon be double for Babby and his wife. Their daughter Heather and her husband Eric are adding another member to their roster and the family couldn’t be more thrilled. But until then, Josh will be the superstar tasked with making his grandfather smile on Grandparents Day this year.
“No matter how daunting the challenges are here some days," Babby smiled, "he can always bring me back to what’s really important."