Golden opportunity

Brett Creamer ’14 credits BGSU degree for quick rise with NBA’s Warriors

By Bob Cunningham

For the second straight year, Brett Creamer ’14 finds his employer in the national spotlight.

Creamer grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and currently is employed by that region’s NBA team as a special event assistant. 

He said he never would have had the opportunity to work for the Golden State Warriors, who are attempting to defend their NBA title, if not for his Bowling Green State University education.

When Creamer was a senior at his Petaluma, Calif., high school in 2010, he asked himself a question: Which was a better fit for his collegiate education and career pursuits, the University of Oregon or BGSU?

“I visited both schools and it just felt right at Bowling Green, and, obviously, I wanted to go somewhere that I’d get the highest level of education,” said Creamer, who earned a Bachelor of Science in Sport Management. “I think that it was very important, looking back, that BGSU offered sport management classes as a freshman. I think that’s huge as a freshman seeing what the curriculum has to offer right off the bat. At Oregon, it would have been two years of general classes before I got to take a sport management class.”

Creamer said that having four years of sport management classes was “very eye opening to me,” and that the opportunity to learn firsthand right away was an invaluable learning experience. While at BGSU, he was the recipient of the M. Joy Sidwell Award for Outstanding Sport Management Internship Project in 2013. 

Even though Creamer was “seven or eight states away from home,” he said he used that to his advantage from a maturity standpoint.

“I really think in general I blossomed while at college and I turned into the person I am today and I am very thankful for that,” he said. “I was 17 when I originally moved from California to Bowling Green, so there definitely were many times when I was in that sink-or-swim mentality. I was able to realize right away I needed to find time for the things that are important.” 

The day after Creamer graduated from BGSU, he accepted a job as director of community relations and game day operations with the Sonoma Stompers in their inaugural season of independent minor league baseball. At the season’s end, he went through a three-week interview process with the Warriors before starting about 10 games into what would be a championship season. 

“I was fortunate to have been selected from a huge number of applicants,” Creamer said. “As a member of their special event team, I was responsible for setting up community and sponsorship activities, implementing promotional programs and acting as a guest relations escort for VIPs.”  

Creamer was promoted to special event assistant in February after being named employee of the month five times in a 12-month period. In his current role, he is responsible for overseeing small work groups and projects on game days as well as at special events in the community. 

Of course, during Creamer’s time with the Warriors, their star player, Stephen Curry, has won back-to-back MVP Awards. Naturally, friends and family always ask if he knows the sharp-shooting point guard. 

“I get asked that two to three times a week,” Creamer said, laughing. 

Even though Creamer doesn’t have any personal stories to share about Curry, he has seen several other familiar faces while working at Golden State’s Oracle Arena in Oakland. 

“I’ve seen a lot of cool people, whether it’s childhood basketball heroes like Vince Carter or Dirk Nowitzki or whether it’s Prince, who performed at Oracle Arena and came to a game, it’s incredible some of the experiences this job has presented me,” said Creamer, who recently added the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Shaquille O’Neal to his celebrity list.

Probably his favorite moment with the team, though, is Game 6 of the 2015 NBA Finals. 

“I hate to bring this up because of all the Cavs fans back in Bowling Green,” Creamer said. “We had a watch party for the game with 19,000 fans in the arena and my boss let us off at halftime and put us in the suite in the middle of the court. The game was on the big screen and we got to enjoy and reflect on the entire season while seeing the Warriors win a championship.

“Even though it was my first season with the team, it was still a great experience to see that happen firsthand and feel like I was a part of it.” 

He even has an NBA championship ring to prove it.