Story and Interview By: Brittney Strong
Watch the full interview:
Tim Parham is a Hall of Famer at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, where he attended before going pro. He started his ball journey playing overseas basketball in 2006. Providing him with the opportunity to travel the world and experience many new things such as culture, food and the game of basketball. In the 2013 to 2014 season, he played for the Halifax Rainmen, where he became the all time leading rebounder in NBL history with a total of 429 rebounds. Averaging 11 rebounds per game, which was leading the league. He went on to star in the All-Star Game and was named Canada's Center of the Year. The following season, from 2014 to 2015, he won a championship with the Windsor Express. His professional basketball career is so fascinating. Currently, he's working with NBA 2K, a simulation video game series of basketball where he's a developer. You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter @TPGotGame. Also, if you're interested in more on his stats and career journey, be sure to check out his Wikipedia page by looking up his name, Tim Parham. He's passionate about basketball and in his leisure, he enjoys traveling and attending sports games. Most importantly, he appreciates the quality time that he's able to spend with his son.
Tim Parham on the court in attendance to an NBA game
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7500 Magazine: How did you discover basketball? What sparked/generated your love for the sport?
Tim Parham: My whole family played it, we got a bunch of giants in my family so everybody in my family played it. I fell in love with the game, not early on, I was into video games and other stuff. I knew I wanted to be in tech overall, but just basketball in general. We have a huge rich basketball family in Chicago, the Parhams. So, following suit with my family and I gained a lot of love for the game at an early age, not super early on, like I said, but I love to play basketball all the time.
7500 Magazine: Was there anyone in particular who encouraged you to pursue this seriously that made you say, okay, I want to do this as a full time career, a family member or coach anyone?
Tim Parham: Everybody used to kick my butt. I wasn't the best in the family and I was just motivated. These guys were really playing ball and they were getting picked up, I wasn't getting picked up. So it was a situation where I was motivated by other people doing great things with basketball. All the dudes in high school had all the girls that was playing on the team and I'm like “bro going on? It’s like that.” So I went in, I was kind of motivated, also playing with my cousins Steve, Tree, Little Dre, Corey, Reggie, all those guys. They were way better than me so I just wanted to be half the basketball player that they were. So that's when I just took it upon myself to put my best foot forward and then try to pursue that.
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7500 Magazine: Was there an athlete that you watched growing up that kind of influenced your gameplay in particular?
Tim Parham: I would say a mixture between Michael Jordan, obviously, Chicago. I would probably say, Kevin Garnett and Dennis Rodman, a mixture of those three I wanted to emulate into my game. One, because Michael Jordan is Michael Jordan, it’s self-explanatory. Kevin Garnett was this guy that played his last year in Chicago, just one of the best power forwards to ever play. Relentless, a dog on the court. Won MVP, won a championship, and then Dennis Rodman was just a guy who just didn't care. Just a guy who just sacrificed his body, trying to get rebounds, just out-hustling people. He wasn't the best, I mean, he had a great skill set in what he did, he was a star in his role. So that's what I wanted to be, I ain’t got to go out here and try to get 40 points a game to be a good player to affect the game.” You could affect the game in so many different ways, other than scoring. So, he was one of the best rebounders, a top 75 player, a Hall of Famer and that was the guy that I probably wanted to emulate myself the most with because, his tenaciousness on the glass just to try to get every rebound. So that’s how I saw myself doing.
7500 Magazine: How did you decide on playing for Maryland?
Tim Parham: That's a crazy story, let’s back it up to high school. I got cut my sophomore year trying out for the team because I was a new transfer to Hillcrest so they didn't know who I was and obviously I didn't make enough noise in tryouts, so I ended up getting cut and that kind of cut me deep. No pun intended, but I was just like, “bro, like, how did I get cut trying out for the sophomore team?” So that summer, I just took it upon myself to just go hard, just everyday, just on the court. Like I used to get locked out of my own house, I would go to the courts that summer, we would go early, me and my homie Dave will go work out and then we'll go home and we'll go back out at night and we would have to get kicked out of court because I wanted it that bad. I ended up making the team, Hillcrest, which is number six in the country at the time. I ended up being cut from the sophomore team (to) ended up making a team where its already 3 guys that’s signed to Division One teams. I’m like, “wow, I made the team that's what’s up.” After that it was just a learning process, like okay I made the team, now what? I wasn't getting no playing time, I was just raw talent, a guy that was athletic and I was aggressive. So I didn't really learn how to play until later.
Tim Parham in uniform at his alma mater, University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Tim Parham (cont.): Also, I only lost seven games my whole high school career. I played two years, but we only lost seven games in two, we was really good. I'm playing against guys like Dwyane Wade, Eddie Curry, all those type guys, every day. Senior came by, did pretty good, ended up getting a scholarship to a junior college in Iowa and that was my coming out party, honestly, because that's when I learned the game. That's when I saw a lot of me, I had more freedom and I was more relied upon. The coach really saw something in me, shout out to Coach Muhlenberg at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls, Iowa. So, I ended up going there and just started off kind of rocky because I only had two years prior of basketball, I didn’t start playing until my junior high school. So, just going there and learning myself, it's nothing to do out there. You in the sticks, you in Iowa so it's nothing to do but just play basketball. So I just took full advantage of that and I ended up getting a scholarship offer from the University of Iowa, but I would've only had to play two years.
I had all these other big time scholarships offers like Kansas State, Illinois, Illinois State, a bunch of teams. One of them, my cousin, who was the assistant coach at University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Paris Parham, shout out to him. He seen me playing in a Pro-Am one day against pros and I was holding my own and I hadn't really had that much experience. So he just saw a tremendous upside in me. So he’s like, “man, you know, why don't you just come take a visit here to UMES and we'll if you like it.” So I'm like, “alright cool. I’ll take a visit.” I took the official visit and when I say they rolled out the red carpet for me. I’m talking about, I pull up and go in the hotel, it's like “Tim Parham leads UMES to the conference championship.” It was just a bunch of stuff that they saw in me that they wanted to show that they had a lot of stock in me. It was parties, it was just a bunch of love, like, around people that look like me. So I fell in love with the university, the student body and everything. So I quickly decommitted to Iowa and ended up taking a scholarship to UMES. That’s a thing now, like guys are doing that all the time. They going to mid-majors and they go on to these HBCUs now. I think I was one of the first guys to do that, when it wasn't cool back then because it was like you’re going where? But not to get it twisted though like UMES, Maryland Eastern Shore, that's a division one NCAA school as well that meet at conference. It wasn't really common for guys to like spur top big ten teams to go to a small school like that. But I felt comfortable there so I made that decision.
I had all these other big time scholarships offers like Kansas State, Illinois, Illinois State, a bunch of teams. One of them, my cousin, who was the assistant coach at University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Paris Parham, shout out to him. He seen me playing in a Pro-Am one day against pros and I was holding my own and I hadn't really had that much experience. So he just saw a tremendous upside in me. So he’s like, “man, you know, why don't you just come take a visit here to UMES and we'll if you like it.” So I'm like, “alright cool. I’ll take a visit.” I took the official visit and when I say they rolled out the red carpet for me. I’m talking about, I pull up and go in the hotel, it's like “Tim Parham leads UMES to the conference championship.” It was just a bunch of stuff that they saw in me that they wanted to show that they had a lot of stock in me. It was parties, it was just a bunch of love, like, around people that look like me. So I fell in love with the university, the student body and everything. So I quickly decommitted to Iowa and ended up taking a scholarship to UMES. That’s a thing now, like guys are doing that all the time. They going to mid-majors and they go on to these HBCUs now. I think I was one of the first guys to do that, when it wasn't cool back then because it was like you’re going where? But not to get it twisted though like UMES, Maryland Eastern Shore, that's a division one NCAA school as well that meet at conference. It wasn't really common for guys to like spur top big ten teams to go to a small school like that. But I felt comfortable there so I made that decision.
7500 Magazine: What are the pros and cons of the experience overseas?
Tim Parham: So we'll start with the cons. We'll start with the bad stuff that can happen sometimes. Sometimes they might be a little late with the money. Sometimes they might not try to pay you at all, I've been in some crazy situations. That's the number one thing, because you don't want to go all the way over there and not get paid. Sometimes they're trying to low ball you or they'll try to give you a portion of the money. That's how it goes, that's just part of it. Also, your livelihood, I can honestly say I probably got cut one time overseas, it’s because sometimes they don't care about how you playing, they care about if they win or not. So they'll cut you fast if you're not performing for sure. I'm in my first year in Canada, I probably had like 20 roommates and I came late, I’m like, “bro what is this?” It was like a chopping block, it was crazy. I mean, you've just got to be prepared.
That's part of being a professional. It's just like real life, you can't show up to a corporate job with shorts and a white t-shirt. You gotta be ready, you gotta always be prepared. You gotta be in the best form, you gotta be in your best shape. That's part of the preparation and being in any type of professional setting but that's some of the stuff, just the money stuff. Just being away from family. The language barrier is not too bad because you can probably get over it a little easier, usually they have a translator for you and they know you’re American, so they try to accommodate you as best as they can. Most countries, or if they don't have a translator then a lot of the guys on the team speak English. That's a lot of them, they speak British English so you can get over the language stuff.
So with pros, I want to say, just man, like I'm getting paid to play a game. I'm getting paid to play basketball. So that's a big pro. You can stay out of the way a little bit, it's a lot going on elsewhere. You be in your bubble, you can look around like I'm in China, I'm in Beijing, like walking the Great Wall of China. Like people talking about “oh I like hiking,” that’s the ultimate hike right there.
The food, the culture, like in Turkey, all the beautiful mosques and all the food and just like seeing people's different religions or how they operate. Like here in parts of Dubai, you can't, like chew gum, you can't like walk with your girlfriend. You can't do certain stuff in certain areas that may be a little crazy over here but to them, that's just how they rotate. Just your status too, saying I'm a professional basketball player is like you got to look at it probably coming out of college, like college seniors or whatever is probably like 1.3 of those guys go pro every year. So to have that as your title, what do you do? I'm a professional basketball player. That's pretty dope, it's a lot of stuff that you can look at as pros when playing overseas, even in like NBA, anything, like any type of if you play in a game to get paid, I mean, you're winning right now. You just gotta capitalize though because a lot of people, they don't know how to capitalize off of it. You have to take that money and do something with it or you spend the money and then, this is another kind. Whatever you made there, if you’re not a worker worker because I was a worker,
I would go play here for eight months and then I have a job waiting for me within five months. Like, “okay soon as you finish there, they're going to bring you here for the playoffs,” then so on and so forth. Like you got to keep it moving but if you're not doing that and just relying off of that money, when you a professional basketball player nine times out of ten you got good taste. You like to do things, you go for it but then it's like if you don't got no income like that stuff runs out real fast. So if you're not like a guy who likes to work year round it could be a little tough unless you invested. When I was playing, I always had a career. I always had a crib in Chicago or Atlanta just in case I got hurt or something silly happened. I wasn't going back home to mom crib, you got to have your priorities together in those situations.
That's part of being a professional. It's just like real life, you can't show up to a corporate job with shorts and a white t-shirt. You gotta be ready, you gotta always be prepared. You gotta be in the best form, you gotta be in your best shape. That's part of the preparation and being in any type of professional setting but that's some of the stuff, just the money stuff. Just being away from family. The language barrier is not too bad because you can probably get over it a little easier, usually they have a translator for you and they know you’re American, so they try to accommodate you as best as they can. Most countries, or if they don't have a translator then a lot of the guys on the team speak English. That's a lot of them, they speak British English so you can get over the language stuff.
So with pros, I want to say, just man, like I'm getting paid to play a game. I'm getting paid to play basketball. So that's a big pro. You can stay out of the way a little bit, it's a lot going on elsewhere. You be in your bubble, you can look around like I'm in China, I'm in Beijing, like walking the Great Wall of China. Like people talking about “oh I like hiking,” that’s the ultimate hike right there.
The food, the culture, like in Turkey, all the beautiful mosques and all the food and just like seeing people's different religions or how they operate. Like here in parts of Dubai, you can't, like chew gum, you can't like walk with your girlfriend. You can't do certain stuff in certain areas that may be a little crazy over here but to them, that's just how they rotate. Just your status too, saying I'm a professional basketball player is like you got to look at it probably coming out of college, like college seniors or whatever is probably like 1.3 of those guys go pro every year. So to have that as your title, what do you do? I'm a professional basketball player. That's pretty dope, it's a lot of stuff that you can look at as pros when playing overseas, even in like NBA, anything, like any type of if you play in a game to get paid, I mean, you're winning right now. You just gotta capitalize though because a lot of people, they don't know how to capitalize off of it. You have to take that money and do something with it or you spend the money and then, this is another kind. Whatever you made there, if you’re not a worker worker because I was a worker,
I would go play here for eight months and then I have a job waiting for me within five months. Like, “okay soon as you finish there, they're going to bring you here for the playoffs,” then so on and so forth. Like you got to keep it moving but if you're not doing that and just relying off of that money, when you a professional basketball player nine times out of ten you got good taste. You like to do things, you go for it but then it's like if you don't got no income like that stuff runs out real fast. So if you're not like a guy who likes to work year round it could be a little tough unless you invested. When I was playing, I always had a career. I always had a crib in Chicago or Atlanta just in case I got hurt or something silly happened. I wasn't going back home to mom crib, you got to have your priorities together in those situations.
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7500 Magazine: Thinking back to your time in Canada, you ended up gaining Center of the Year, you were the all time leading rebounder. How did that feel? How was that year for you?
Tim Parham: That was awesome, honestly because I wasn’t even supposed to be in Canada. I actually was waiting on this other like I was supposed to go play for this team in Iran but for some reason, the work visa stuff was taking too long because they had some issues over there with just the government and stuff, especially bringing an American over there. I'm just waiting so my agents like, “yeah, you want to go over here? while you wait and play in Canada, just stay in shape and get a little bread.” Cool, why not? So I get over there and I'm just killing it. Then the Iranian team was ready for me to go and I'm like, okay, I told the team that, “my team ready for me to go, I got to bounce,” and they're like “no dude, what’re you talking about? You’re here for the year, you signed a contract." It was crazy, they were like if you try to leave you could be banned for a couple of years from FIBA. So I'm like, what? I had to just stay in Canada. That situation kind of happens a lot, like it kind of happened to me in Mexico too. I’ll get into that later but as far as Canada, just hearing my name and being the all star and, saying I’m an all star, I broke the all star record in rebounds. I had like 17 rebounds, all star starter, center of the year, led the league in rebounds and all time leading rebounder.
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Tim Parham flying down the court with teammate on Canadian team, the Windsor Express
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It was awesome but it was a grind, a real grind like, you know Lethal Shooter, you heard him before? He's like a, I want to say he's an NBA shooting coach, very popular. I think he got like 2 million followers on Instagram. Me and him was roommates over there in Canada. So we both put in the work and we just tried to make each other better every single day, challenging each other. We didn't sugarcoat nothing with each other. We had a great coach and Craig Hodges, who won, I want to say two or three, three-point contests in the NBA, played with Michael Jordan on the Bulls. I don't know, man. It just turned out to be a really good situation for me and the team. We ended up losing in the conference finals, but it was a great experience that year just to do that and the next year win it all. So definitely shout out to the Halifax Rainmen, the whole city of Halifax and Nova Scotia, that's where my son is from also. So yeah, good times. Good times in Halifax but what I was saying before, this situation kind of happened with me in Mexico because I was in Mexico in the LNBP, the top league in Mexico and they had me playing. My plane got there like, I want to say at 3 p.m. and then I had a two hour bus ride straight to the gym and I had to play a game. So I’m like “I got to play today?” Like, that's how it was, so I was so fresh off of the plane and I wasn't the best offensively this year. I had no legs. I was rebounding the ball pretty well, as usual. If anything, I'll rebound the ball but they're looking at you like you got to be Michael Jordan over there. That's just what it is.
You got to be MJ or, you know what I mean? That's just that's just what it is. So I'm just hooping, I’m doing pretty good, but I guess I wasn't up to their specifications, so I noticed that they brought another guy in. I guess he was supposed to take my spot, I guess people don't know what I'm about. So I told my agent they got me a job in Argentina like that, super fast so I'm like, alright I’ll go to Argentina. So the other guy, like I said earlier, like it takes a while for the work visa to kick in. I already have my work visa, they have my work visa ready for me when I landed but this guy was new so they didn’t have his. He had to sit out a couple of games so the next game, I'm playing, cool I got nothing to lose. I had like 35 points and 23 rebounds, I killed it and we won, right? So now they’re looking at me like, well, wait. The guy supposed to replace me with just on the sideline, he was looking scared, like “oh my, he’s killing.” The next game, we played against the number one team in Mexico, I had like 40 points and like 40 rebounds. No, BS like I had 20 rebounds at half, I was going crazy because I felt disrespected. I took it upon myself, it was crazy.
Next thing you know, the GM is begging me to stay. His name is Paco, he's begging me to stay out there going, “please stay out here, I’ll give you-”. He offered me more money, gave me, I want to say 3,000 more dollars to my salary. So I'm just like, what? I’m telling them I don’t know I might stay. I go to my hotel, and I always keep my passport in the drawer or whatever because we stay in the hotel. My passport is missing. I'm like, bro, what is this? What is going on? I mean I decided to stay but they made sure I couldn't go. It was crazy. They wasn't playing with me, they weren't playing around. I was like, y'all added that type of more money to my contract and we winning games. I'm having a good time, I love the team. I'll stay but don't ever disrespect me like that again for real. You bring somebody else for me the day after my first game like I'm trash, I feel disrespected. You could take that two different ways. You can put your head down and just be a sad guy, oh i'm going home, feel like a failure. Or you can respond and that's why I chose to respond in a way where I felt disrespected. So, I want to show them what they was giving up on so fast. That's just another story that I had, I got a million of them. We can do this all day.
You got to be MJ or, you know what I mean? That's just that's just what it is. So I'm just hooping, I’m doing pretty good, but I guess I wasn't up to their specifications, so I noticed that they brought another guy in. I guess he was supposed to take my spot, I guess people don't know what I'm about. So I told my agent they got me a job in Argentina like that, super fast so I'm like, alright I’ll go to Argentina. So the other guy, like I said earlier, like it takes a while for the work visa to kick in. I already have my work visa, they have my work visa ready for me when I landed but this guy was new so they didn’t have his. He had to sit out a couple of games so the next game, I'm playing, cool I got nothing to lose. I had like 35 points and 23 rebounds, I killed it and we won, right? So now they’re looking at me like, well, wait. The guy supposed to replace me with just on the sideline, he was looking scared, like “oh my, he’s killing.” The next game, we played against the number one team in Mexico, I had like 40 points and like 40 rebounds. No, BS like I had 20 rebounds at half, I was going crazy because I felt disrespected. I took it upon myself, it was crazy.
Next thing you know, the GM is begging me to stay. His name is Paco, he's begging me to stay out there going, “please stay out here, I’ll give you-”. He offered me more money, gave me, I want to say 3,000 more dollars to my salary. So I'm just like, what? I’m telling them I don’t know I might stay. I go to my hotel, and I always keep my passport in the drawer or whatever because we stay in the hotel. My passport is missing. I'm like, bro, what is this? What is going on? I mean I decided to stay but they made sure I couldn't go. It was crazy. They wasn't playing with me, they weren't playing around. I was like, y'all added that type of more money to my contract and we winning games. I'm having a good time, I love the team. I'll stay but don't ever disrespect me like that again for real. You bring somebody else for me the day after my first game like I'm trash, I feel disrespected. You could take that two different ways. You can put your head down and just be a sad guy, oh i'm going home, feel like a failure. Or you can respond and that's why I chose to respond in a way where I felt disrespected. So, I want to show them what they was giving up on so fast. That's just another story that I had, I got a million of them. We can do this all day.
7500 Magazine: Is there a story about your championship in Canada, how did it feel?
Tim Parham: Yeah, it was pretty. It was pretty crazy because I was in Halifax, right? And I went back to Halifax. I was with the Clippers that summer, all sorts of stuff. I end up going back to Halifax, just being loyal, but they weren't loyal to me. I don't feel because they brought in a new coach without telling me, like I signed it to be coached by Craig Hodges again, because we had so much great chemistry and this guy played in the league for a lot of years, and he stood for something. He did a lot, not just on the court but off the court. I felt that he was the best coach I've had at the time, so I was like, cool I’ll run it back with y’all after I signed the contract for whatever reason, they didn't bring him back and they hired some other coach. Me and him just did not get along at all, he’s, I want to say, he's from Spain. But he wasn't he wasn't a good fit for me like at that time in my career, I was a veteran. I played probably in 20 countries prior to that. You don't treat a veteran that's been around, that came back to your program (and) I have no clue who you are, like a rookie. You can't treat everybody the same.
He's having me do all this stuff. He's running me into the ground. I'm not no stranger to hard work, that's what I do but it's like in practice I go hard to practice no matter what. But the stuff you was having me do was running me into the ground like I'm a rookie, like I'm fresh out of college. He didn't understand that so I ended up getting traded with a pregnant girlfriend in Halifax. So I was like, “dang, y’all really don't care about me.” Imagine, you came back, you was Center of the Year, you did this and that and the third. You bring in this coach that I had nothing to do with. My girlfriend at the time was pregnant and you trade me. It’s like dang I didn’t even have to come here, bro. I ended up getting traded to the Windsor Express and just a great experience man. It was like we could've had a whole team from Chicago shout out to TB, Tone Tone, Big Dre, Cornell Brown me like we could have had a whole starting five from Chicago. We’re down there grinding and we ended up going through the playoffs and ended up playing Halifax in the finals and beating them in the finals. It was just divine to be matched up with my old team and we end up winning the whole thing. So, like come man you traded me to this team now we beat y’all in the finals, good job. Now I went back to Halifax after that with my pregnant girlfriend at the time like okay good job, it is what it is but that was a great experience winning with those guys. Those group of guys won the whole thing, everybody was committed, everybody brought in, it was no egos and we ended up doing this. So big shout out to Windsor Express 2015 Champs.
He's having me do all this stuff. He's running me into the ground. I'm not no stranger to hard work, that's what I do but it's like in practice I go hard to practice no matter what. But the stuff you was having me do was running me into the ground like I'm a rookie, like I'm fresh out of college. He didn't understand that so I ended up getting traded with a pregnant girlfriend in Halifax. So I was like, “dang, y’all really don't care about me.” Imagine, you came back, you was Center of the Year, you did this and that and the third. You bring in this coach that I had nothing to do with. My girlfriend at the time was pregnant and you trade me. It’s like dang I didn’t even have to come here, bro. I ended up getting traded to the Windsor Express and just a great experience man. It was like we could've had a whole team from Chicago shout out to TB, Tone Tone, Big Dre, Cornell Brown me like we could have had a whole starting five from Chicago. We’re down there grinding and we ended up going through the playoffs and ended up playing Halifax in the finals and beating them in the finals. It was just divine to be matched up with my old team and we end up winning the whole thing. So, like come man you traded me to this team now we beat y’all in the finals, good job. Now I went back to Halifax after that with my pregnant girlfriend at the time like okay good job, it is what it is but that was a great experience winning with those guys. Those group of guys won the whole thing, everybody was committed, everybody brought in, it was no egos and we ended up doing this. So big shout out to Windsor Express 2015 Champs.
7500 Magazine: Through all of the experiences that you've had, what did basketball teach you that you carried on into your personal life that still resonates with you today?
Tim Parham: Just be a pro in what you do. Being a professional is no matter what's going on in the area you stand at a wavelength, you’re in the middle of everything. You’re not too up and you’re not too down, you stand solid. Basically, you got teammates where you work out regularly. I got teammates at 2K like I got teammates on the court so you treat everybody differently. I was the captain always, when you’re the captain you gotta deal with other people's mental states. You gotta deal with other people's emotions, everybody has different emotions. For a guy that’s sensitive, you don't want to come down on them too hard versus a guy that can take it, you want to pat him on the back more. You deal with a lot of stuff and it all comes down to that and also just being a team player by putting other people before you. Instead of putting yourself first, put other people first. It's all the same mentality just being professional and being a good person. All of that ties in with each other, basketball or in real life. You want to put your best foot forward, you gotta put in the work. I can work for 12-15 hours at 2K and come home and play 2K. That's how dedicated I am because of, “oh, what if I find something that I could fix?” or "what if I see something that nobody saw or what if I think somebody is on something that I can sensor,” it’s different.
You always got to, if you want to be great at something you can't just do the job and then go home. You gotta live it, you gotta drink it, you gotta eat it, you gotta smell it. It got to be a part of your fiber. Even when you play basketball, the greats don't just go to practice and then just go home and lay down and then get up tomorrow and go to practice. They put in the extra work they do the stuff that other people don't want to do, so it all ties together in some kind of form or fashion. But that's how it is for me, I look at it as an opportunity. Nobody's going to outwork me and I'm going to do the extra work to prove that and then other stuff comes up, “oh, he knew about that?” Oh yeah, I live it. I'm not just showing up and getting that check and going home. Just like in basketball after I was done with my work as I'm shooting hundreds of jump shots, I'm working on a rebound, I'm working on my legs. I'm doing rehab, going in the hot tub, going in the cold tub, I'm doing all that stuff. So you just gotta live it and if you live it you'll be very successful because you taking it serious and you have an edge over other people when doing that type of stuff.
You always got to, if you want to be great at something you can't just do the job and then go home. You gotta live it, you gotta drink it, you gotta eat it, you gotta smell it. It got to be a part of your fiber. Even when you play basketball, the greats don't just go to practice and then just go home and lay down and then get up tomorrow and go to practice. They put in the extra work they do the stuff that other people don't want to do, so it all ties together in some kind of form or fashion. But that's how it is for me, I look at it as an opportunity. Nobody's going to outwork me and I'm going to do the extra work to prove that and then other stuff comes up, “oh, he knew about that?” Oh yeah, I live it. I'm not just showing up and getting that check and going home. Just like in basketball after I was done with my work as I'm shooting hundreds of jump shots, I'm working on a rebound, I'm working on my legs. I'm doing rehab, going in the hot tub, going in the cold tub, I'm doing all that stuff. So you just gotta live it and if you live it you'll be very successful because you taking it serious and you have an edge over other people when doing that type of stuff.
Tim Parham in a captured screenshot from the gameplay of NBA2K.
7500 Magazine: Can you tell me about your position at 2K and what it is that you do?
Tim Parham: Yeah, I got into 2K in, I want to say 2010. I was in mocap, that’s motion caption when they put the suit on you with the sensors and all of that. I did that and I just kept it, it's a whole story behind that but as far as development side, I'm on the presentation team. A lot of stuff you do that you see in the court and off the court, like arena stuff, lower bowl stuff, character development. It's a lot, when you’re a developer you wear many hats. It’s not like you own one thing, you own so much stuff. You own a lot of things within the game and you just have to put your best foot forward in it, accomplishing those goals and things of that nature.
It's a really dope job just year in and year out, it can get a little tough sometimes cause the goal is always the same, you're trying to make the best basketball video game in the world every single year. It has to be different, it has to be this, it has to be that and it's never a copy and paste thing like ever. So we just gotta put our best foot forward every year. I work with some of the most talented and smart people in the whole world, just to be in the same vicinity as those people I'm very proud and honored. This is a dream come true. Like you said, I always wanted to be in tech, I was into video games at a very early age. My mom used to take me to the Museum of Science and Industry all the time in Chicago and that's when I really developed that. I’m seeing stuff in the 80s and just getting inspired by it all. I always knew I wanted to do something with video games or be in the tech world in some kind of way, but I was able to pull off the basketball thing and the tech thing, so I just feel very blessed and highly favored.
It's a really dope job just year in and year out, it can get a little tough sometimes cause the goal is always the same, you're trying to make the best basketball video game in the world every single year. It has to be different, it has to be this, it has to be that and it's never a copy and paste thing like ever. So we just gotta put our best foot forward every year. I work with some of the most talented and smart people in the whole world, just to be in the same vicinity as those people I'm very proud and honored. This is a dream come true. Like you said, I always wanted to be in tech, I was into video games at a very early age. My mom used to take me to the Museum of Science and Industry all the time in Chicago and that's when I really developed that. I’m seeing stuff in the 80s and just getting inspired by it all. I always knew I wanted to do something with video games or be in the tech world in some kind of way, but I was able to pull off the basketball thing and the tech thing, so I just feel very blessed and highly favored.
7500 Magazine: What's your favorite part about your job currently working for 2K?
Tim Parham: Just saying I work for 2K, it’s just awesome it holds a lot of responsibility. I'm a VC Dev, that just holds a lot of responsibility. Millions and millions of people playing this game all around the world. You gotta take that in and go to work everyday knowing that you could be tired or whatever but guess what, you affecting millions of people. So you gotta do right, you gotta put the work in and do what you supposed to do. Handle your business, handle your work. Everybody's cool up there too, it’s a laid back environment, everybody's chill. Just do your work, you won't have no issues. Just like anywhere in life, right? You do what you’re supposed to do, you’re good. I've been with them since 2010, but not full time. I went full time in 2016 and I've been with Visual Concepts, which is the developer because I was a tester as well. I've been with Visual Concepts since 2019, January so I've been with them for almost 4 1/2 years. It's been a journey but every year it's like I said, you're in a situation where you have to make the best basketball video game every single year so that can be a tough task sometimes but I got the best team in the world.
Tim Parham back at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, pictured next to his Hall of Fame section.
7500 Magazine: What is some advice that you can give to our youth that want to win at life?
Tim Parham: You got to find something within you. If you love it that much and you motivated, just do it. You can do anything in the world that you want to do. Can’t nobody tell you what you can't do. What you can't do is lie to yourself, you gotta make sacrifices on a daily. You gotta make life decisions that would be profitable for you in the long run. I quit at 33 because I had my son, I didn't want to be 40 years old but a 20 year basketball career asking who's hiring after. You got to do stuff that’s for your best interest and it made it look crazy at first. Like I said, I went from playing ball and I'm working two jobs, working security. I knew where I wanted to be and I knew that it took that to get to where I wanted to go so I did it. You just got to know what you want to do, have a solid plan and execute. So whatever it is you want to do, put your best foot forward, write it down. You need to write it down so you can see it every single day. You may gotta edit it. If you stick to it and it’s something attainable. Anything is attainable, but is it attainable for you?
Are you willing to put in the work? Are you willing to give yourself up for this? Are you willing to sacrifice?
Everybody's not willing to do that. You gotta find what's best for you and put your best foot forward so you can be successful. Just come up with a solid plan, know what you want to do, write it down, and every day just get better. I'm 1% better today, oh I got a lot done today I’m 3% better today and so on until you get to a hundred. When you at 100, you made it in it. You're going to have that goal. You're going to have that. You know, you could grasp it like, okay, I'm here now and this is what I wanted to do and I actually went out there and did it.
So that's what I would offer for anybody that wants to win in life, just have a solid plan and go as hard as you possibly can, in a smart way. Make it make sense. You know what you can do and what you can't do. Sometimes you gotta push yourself to the limit. Sometimes you gotta work harder not smarter and that's not that's not a typo, sometimes you just have to put the work in. Everybody wants to try to find the shortcut, it ain't about shortcuts all the time. That's basically the advice I can give you. Just be the best person that you can possibly be and try to assert yourself in a way that you never did to get things that you never got, you gotta do things you never thought you would have to do. I never thought that I would have to work two jobs, get three hours of sleep after the career I had, but it set me up for life after basketball. Now I ain't gotta worry about if I have a bad game, they flying somebody in tomorrow or all that silly stuff. Now I’m stable, I can do things past my income, it's just that people gravitate towards that. So be the best person that you could possibly be and work hard.
Are you willing to put in the work? Are you willing to give yourself up for this? Are you willing to sacrifice?
Everybody's not willing to do that. You gotta find what's best for you and put your best foot forward so you can be successful. Just come up with a solid plan, know what you want to do, write it down, and every day just get better. I'm 1% better today, oh I got a lot done today I’m 3% better today and so on until you get to a hundred. When you at 100, you made it in it. You're going to have that goal. You're going to have that. You know, you could grasp it like, okay, I'm here now and this is what I wanted to do and I actually went out there and did it.
So that's what I would offer for anybody that wants to win in life, just have a solid plan and go as hard as you possibly can, in a smart way. Make it make sense. You know what you can do and what you can't do. Sometimes you gotta push yourself to the limit. Sometimes you gotta work harder not smarter and that's not that's not a typo, sometimes you just have to put the work in. Everybody wants to try to find the shortcut, it ain't about shortcuts all the time. That's basically the advice I can give you. Just be the best person that you can possibly be and try to assert yourself in a way that you never did to get things that you never got, you gotta do things you never thought you would have to do. I never thought that I would have to work two jobs, get three hours of sleep after the career I had, but it set me up for life after basketball. Now I ain't gotta worry about if I have a bad game, they flying somebody in tomorrow or all that silly stuff. Now I’m stable, I can do things past my income, it's just that people gravitate towards that. So be the best person that you could possibly be and work hard.
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