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I
N HER CAREER, LAFLIN, 35, has gone from NBA/NFL cheerleader to L.A. Lakers scout to D-League Assis- tant GM to charity creator, future book author and radio host. She's seized seemingly every opportunity that the City of Angels, and sports world, has to offer. And as she looks forward to the next plot point in her professional path, Laflin has left us wondering what
avenue can't she make an impact on.
When you go through the necessary channels to connect with Laf- lin, you immediately realize that she is no ordinary basketball scout. There are publicists, restricted phone numbers and a Twitter fol- lowing of around 17,000 deep. It's partly due to her extensive reach across media platforms, but also because, to our knowledge, there's never been another member of the profession who's been slugged into a Maxim Hot-100 list before. Scouting just went Hollywood.
As a scout with the Lakers – where Laflin arrived via working in sports broadcasting and after a few years removed from dancing as a cheerleader for the Golden State Warriors, San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys – Laflin was challenged to comb through the talent pool of the Big 12 and Pac-10 conferences. After becoming an integral piece of the Lakers' franchise, for which she holds five NBA championship rings, she was able to move over to L.A.'s D- League affiliate, the D-Fenders, as their Assistant GM. Currently, the Northern California native is in discussions to bolster her portfolio even deeper into athletics, although as of yet, it's something she cannot comment on.
But what further separates Laflin is her never-ending motor to keep going and keep pushing the boundaries of her public reach. She's walked the red carpet at the ESPYs, models for commercial
"I like to prove WRONG."
people
shoots, and if she isn't responding to almost every direct tweet in her Twitter timeline, it sure looks like it. Away from the spotlight, Laflin's an advocate for both animal rights and our nation's armed services – having traveled overseas for an astonishing 18 tours with the military as of this August. In dipping her hand in all of these respective buckets, she's essentially built a brand, and a standard, of silencing any doubters that may lie in her wake – and she's doing it her way.
"A lot of people think that if you're female or come from the path that I came from, that you can't be attractive and have brains," she says. "And I'm here to show you that you can. I like to prove people wrong."
Consider yourself proven.
DIME: What initially made you want to be a scout? BONNIE-JILL LAFLIN: The long-term goal was for me to own and
run my own team. So, what better place to start than to scout and to know the (dynamics) of running a team. I've always loved basketball and it was just something that I had felt was something I've always wanted to do. To be able to scout and to be able to scout the Pac-10 and Big 12 was just like a dream come true.
DIME: So what did your typical day-to-day look like? BJL: With scouting, you're on the road at all different games and,
obviously, there are tons of tournaments. There's everything from going to – oh gosh, there are so many tournaments, I can't even tell you how many – we had the Portsmouth (Invitational) that we'd go to, then we'd go to the NBA pre-draft camp. People think it's just during the season, but it's year-round scouting.
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