Joey Graziano

Joey Graziano is the Senior Vice President and Head of Global Event Strategy & Development for the National Basketball Association. In this role, he leads strategic planning, new asset creation, business development, data analytics and process improvement for the NBA’s marquee global events, including the NBA All-Star Game, NBA Finals presented by YouTube TV, NBA Draft, NBA Draft Lottery, NBA Summer League, Jr. NBA Global Championship, international preseason and regular-season games, and affiliate league events with USA Basketball, WNBA and the NBA 2K League.

After play was suspended following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Graziano and his team spearheaded the strategy and execution of the 2020 NBA Bubble when the NBA resumed the 2019-2020 season at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at the Walt Disney World Resort.

Prior to joining the NBA, Joey was the Chief Operating Officer & General Counsel of The Headfirst Companies – growing a 15-employee startup into an industry-leading immersive live event company with more than 1,500 employees operating in 20 states and four countries. At scale, Headfirst operated events for one-third of Major League Baseball teams, as well as the English Premier League, Barcelona Soccer and 150 colleges and universities.

Joey was previously an associate with the international law firm Jones Day, where his practice focused on complex civil and criminal litigation. A Mitchell Scholar, Joey received an LLM in Public Law from the National University of Ireland, Galway and worked at the Office of Evaluation and Suspension within the World Bank, focusing on bribery and corruption investigations surrounding World Bank grants.

Joey is an ardent supporter of veterans and has founded the Academy for Veterans and served as a law clerk with the National Veterans Legal Services Program to ensure governments honor their commitments to veterans. He also helped start a nonprofit in the Dominican Republic that uses baseball to encourage literacy for the children of a barrio in Consuelo.

Joey received his B.A. and J.D. from Georgetown University summa cum laude, where he played for the baseball team.