Bryson Warren is probably>What is Overtime Elite?
Founded in 2016 by Dan Porter and Zack Weiner, a pair of alumni from the Hollywood talent agency WMA, Overtime is an experiment in both sports and entertainment.
The league, which kicked off its first competitive season last year, livestreams games and posts player highlights for Overtime's millions of followers>A day in the life of a pro high school athlete
Warren spends most of his time at Overtime's 100,000-square-foot Atlanta facility, which is an all-in-one arena, training facility, dormitory and boarding school.
He gets picked up by an Overtime athletic trainer at 6:15 am nearly every morning to spend about 90 minutes in the gym, before heading to a three-hour basketball practice>Chasing his NBA dream
Without Overtime, Warren would currently be finishing his junior year of high school and likely receiving intense recruitment pitches from prominent college basketball programs. But if Warren feels like he's missing out by choosing Overtime over college, he's not letting on.
For now, he says, he's focused on reaching the NBA. His high marks on ranking websites like ESPN suggest he has good shot of getting there. "My goal once the program ends is definitely just to get drafted [in the NBA]," he says. "That's everybody's goal here."
Warren also says he dreams of using his basketball success to positively impact his community. He looks up to LeBron James, he says, for what James has done off the court — including opening a public elementary school in James' hometown of Akron, Ohio, where students have a chance to earn free tuition to the University of Akron.
"Everyone doesn't do that, just him willing to give back and starting a school for free," Warren says.
Warren is already investing some of his Overtime salary in a local co-educational AAU basketball team in his Arkansas hometown, helping support kids from 2nd grade through 6th grade. Still, he says, he couldn't resist at least one splashy purchase with his newfound income — and he'd always dreamed of owning a Dodge Charger.
"That actually came true. So, I was just blessed for that to happen," he says.
Warren says he's aware that taking such a non-traditional path to chase a lifelong dream can be incredibly risky. There's no guarantee that Overtime will give him a better chance of impressing NBA scouts than playing in college or the NBA's developmental G League.
"You could see Overtime as a risk, or you can see it as an opportunity," he says. "This is the opportunity I chose, and it's the one I'm going to live with, and I'm at peace now."
