![\"PORTLAND,](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2022\/12\/desmond_ferguson_full.jpg?resize=1024%2C525&ssl=1\")
“When you look good, you play good.\u201d<\/p>\n“When you look good, you play good.\u201d<\/p>\n
From his days as an amateur and professional basketball player to founding and operating his own sportswear company, it\u2019s a phrase Desmond Ferguson \u201900 knows quite well.<\/p>\n
The former Detroit Mercy student-athlete remembers how similar basketball uniforms looked growing up around sports in the late 1990s. Differences were minimal and generally limited to the team\u2019s name and colors.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s something Ferguson strived to change and it led to him starting Moneyball Sportswear 20 years ago. What started out simply as an idea of making custom basketball uniforms has grown into a large business operation: Moneyball Sportswear produces athletic uniforms for a variety of sports, as well as clothing and accessories.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese kids and coaches, they want to look good while they\u2019re playing, and they want to be different,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cEverybody doesn\u2019t want to look the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey love the designs that we\u2019re able to create for them. We work to create something that\u2019s unique and just for them, so no one else in the country looks like them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Growth in basketball\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Ferguson achieved a number of accolades in basketball, headlined by a stint in the NBA. But it wasn\u2019t always his top sport. Before he started playing organized basketball at the Boys and Girls Club in fifth or sixth grade, Ferguson participated in football, soccer and track.<\/p>\n \u201cFootball was really my love,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cI had a big growth spurt from my freshman year to sophomore year of high school, grew from 5-foot-10 to 6-foot-3 over a summer. That kind of eliminated football; I got a little slower, but taller, and really just focused on basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n The opportunity to play at the NCAA\u2019s highest level appealed to Ferguson, he said, but his first collegiate stop ultimately wasn\u2019t the best basketball fit. After his freshman season, he returned to Michigan to play alongside former AAU teammate Jermaine Jackson \u201999 at Detroit Mercy.<\/p>\n \u201cProbably one of the best moves in my life was when I left Missouri and went to University of Detroit Mercy,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cNot only the success that we had, but just what it did from a relationship standpoint, and fast-forward to my business standpoint as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Ferguson\u2019s basketball career at Detroit Mercy was loaded with individual and team success.<\/p>\n The Titans won 70 games during his three seasons and made the NCAA Tournament twice. Of those 70 wins, three stand out the most to Ferguson: first-round upsets of St. John\u2019s and UCLA in the Tournament, and defeating Michigan State in East Lansing, a homecoming of sorts for him. He scored more than 1,000 career points at Detroit Mercy and is tied with Antoine Davis for the team\u2019s single-game 3-point record with 10.<\/p>\n After leaving the McNichols Campus with a degree in Accounting, Ferguson played professionally for more than a decade. His dream of playing in the NBA came true in 2004, when signed a contract with the Portland Trailblazers and appeared in seven games.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was amazing. I was 26 at the time, so I kind of took the scenic route,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cFor me to have an opportunity to live a lifelong dream playing in the NBA and to have some meaningful minutes was definitely a great highlight of my professional basketball career.\u201d<\/p>\n Getting into business\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n From a young age, Ferguson knew he wanted to own his own business. A pair of hair clippers sparked this entrepreneurial goal.<\/p>\n During middle and high school, Ferguson would cut his friends\u2019 and teammates\u2019 hair in his mom\u2019s basement. The $4 haircuts helped him buy his first car.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was kind of my little hustle to make a couple of dollars coming up,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cI practiced on a couple of my friends\u2019 heads, messing their hair up for a couple of weeks. I finally got a little better. It was just a hobby that turned into me being able to buy my own car at 16.<\/p>\n \u201cI always knew I wanted to own a business one day, not knowing it would be Moneyball Sportswear.\u201d<\/p>\n Like cutting hair, Moneyball Sportswear started out as a hobby for Ferguson early in his professional basketball career. Over the years, the company \u2013 named for Ferguson\u2019s nickname \u2018Moneyball,\u2019 given to him as a teenager by Basketball Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett and his AAU teammates \u2013 has evolved into a full-fledged life-after-basketball venture.<\/p>\n![\"Ferguson](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2022\/12\/desmond_ferguson_titans_side.jpg?resize=400%2C411&ssl=1\")
Ferguson flourished on the hardwood as he fell in love with the sport, starting with Lansing Everett High School and Team Michigan, a star-studded AAU club, in the mid-1990s before signing with Missouri.<\/p>\n