BRAD CASPER built his career working with consumer products during stints as Dial President & CEO and with P&G. Now, after being named President of the Suns three months ago, he is looking to grow the NBA team's brand in Phoenix. But while he has immersed himself in learning the ins and outs of the sports business industry, he still takes the little time he has off to spend with his family. This weekend is no different, as he plans to relax at home with his wife and kids before heading to N.Y. for his first NBA presidents meeting.
WELCOME TO THE SHOW: We have a home game on Friday night; it will be a late game with ESPN. That’ll mean Saturday -- my wife’s sister is in town -- I’ll probably end up having to take the two of them out to dinner or do some sort of entertainment. On Sunday, a family tradition -- I have three kids, one is in college but local -- we try to get the family together on a Sunday afternoon or early evening. … I’m leaving for N.Y. on Sunday because of the NBA Sales & Marketing Conference and presidents meeting. I’m actually looking forward to it since it is my first. And I’ll be going to Brooklyn that afternoon.
NEW YEAR, NEW YOU: I have three teenagers, so we try to make Sundays a day in which we as a family can get together and celebrate each other. This past Sunday I made a mandatory New Year’s Day resolution dinner where everybody had to come to dinner with what they were most proud about from 2011 and what their New Year’s resolution would be for 2012. In six months from now I will take out all these pieces of paper and see how everybody is doing.
DINNER FOR FIVE, PLEASE: My wife is a great cook, so maybe we have her do a family dinner. But she’s learned that the kids, they are so wired. They’ve got their digital devices, etc. When we do something around our own dinner table we keep their attention for around 15 or 20 minutes. When we take them out to a nice restaurant we keep them captive for about two hours. Part of our strategy is to take them to nice places so that they spend more time talking with us, sharing parts of their lives, and less texting their friends.
RISE AND SHINE: I still roll out of bed on weekends probably 6:00 or 6:30. So even if we don’t get home until midnight I will probably still roll out at 6:00 or 6:30 because the dogs will see the first glimmer of light and think it’s time to get me up. We have four dogs and three of them sleep in our room.
ANIMAL HOUSE: We have two very large Bernese Mountain dogs, they’re kind of like Saint Bernards -- really big, beautiful dogs. And then we have two really small dogs. It’s really a menagerie of animals. We have two horses and two rabbits. When I’m in town and not travelling I take care of the pets almost all of the time.
GROCERY LIST: I spent 25 years of my career in consumer packaged goods, making packages, making products and so I actually enjoy going into the store and doing some shopping and looking at packaging and looking at how people have re-positioned things and looking at some of the brands that I used to work on and be associated with. … I spend more time in grocery stores than I think the average man does because it’s still to me kind of a fascinating playground for 25 years.
