Some attorneys take up sports in their spare time.
They might hit the golf course, aiming to have a little fun while perfecting that swing. Some might play weekend softball with the church league. Many others lace up their running shoes and simply run.
Attorney Ron Sholes is more of a basketball guy.
His spare time away from his law office of 20-plus attorneys, though, doesn’t entail practicing his three-pointer or working on his post-up game.
Instead, it’s as owner of the Jacksonville Giants, the successful American Basketball Association team he brought to town in 2010.
It’s been a love of Sholes’ that’s helped him give back to the community, such as through a recent night dedicated toward Jacksonville Area Legal Aid that provided $10,000 in funding. Or through several education-related initiatives that earned the team recognition from Duval County Public Schools.
Sure, it’s not the NBA. But Sholes has brought professional basketball — winning basketball — to a city that’s had aspirations for the sport for some time.
And as time consuming as owning a team and his own law firm has been, it’s been pretty fun for Sholes.
Sholes grew up in Rockford, Ill., a city about 30 minutes away from both Chicago and Milwaukee.
With his father from Wisconsin, though, it was the Milwaukee teams he followed growing up in the late 1970s and early ’80s.
In the spring and summer, that meant baseball and the Brewers. In the colder months, it was the Bucks on the hardcourt.
When he was a young teen, his father was let go from his job in the steel industry.
“We started listening to the Bucks on the radio almost every game,” Sholes recalls.
Marques Johnson, Bob Lanier, Sidney Moncrief and Brian Winters were players he fondly remembers coming to him through those broadcasts.
Sholes’ basketball career began on his neighbor’s hoop playing pickup games and ended in high school on the sophomore team.
He wasn’t in school much after that, dropping out at 16. Rockford, he said, was a rough city. And school just wasn’t for him back then.
He worked full time at different jobs until he picked up with his girlfriend and drove south. He ended up in Tampa, but not really for any reason in particular.
“I think we just hit the Gulf of Mexico,” he said.
After about a year there in 1987, he joined the Navy. His sister’s boyfriend was in the Air Force and his stories ended up piquing Sholes’ interest to join the military.
After about 25 countries and three deployments, including to the Persian Gulf, Sholes’ tour of duty was up after a few weeks shy of a decade.
The time was hard on his family. His girlfriend from the Tampa voyage became his wife, who became his ex-wife. He would soon have a son.
Sholes said after 10 years of service, there’s usually a choice.
“It’s either staying and doing 20 or get out,” he said.
He chose to take his life in a different direction, but had prepared along the way. Sholes received his GED and a bachelor’s degree through weekend study programs.
He started law school at the University of Florida eight days after he left the service.
Sholes did an externship with a judge in some of the more rural Northeast Florida counties before working with attorney Terence Brown in Starke. Family law was Sholes’ main interest.
In 2003, he incorporated the firm to what people now see on the billboards throughout town — the Law Offices of Ron Sholes. He mainly focuses on criminal defense and personal injury law.
A decade of growth has resulted in 21 attorneys, almost all of whom are military veterans, and half a dozen offices in Northeast Florida. He’s growing more, too, hoping to open a larger office in the Regency area.
Sholes attributes the growth with “treating clients right” over the years and said he routinely tells his staff to treat them like your family. Sholes handles some clients personally, but mainly manages in a broader scope with a more hands-on style.
It’s the same way he’s run the Giants since bringing them to town in 2010.
Sholes’ foray into basketball actually started as a restaurant endeavor.
He remembers seeing a big “For Sale” sign in the old Amsterdam Café, the small building adjacent to Veterans Memorial Arena.
He bought the joint and renamed it City Hall Pub, but after a great first year things weren’t as busy.
There weren’t enough events in the Sports Complex, enough reasons to make the area a destination.
So, Sholes wanted to bring something else to do Downtown. Hockey was a possibility. But basketball was his choice.
In 2010, he secured the territory rights for American Basketball Association in Jacksonville. The Giants were born.
The ABA wasn’t like it was in its heyday of the through much of the 1970s. It’s a more loosely organized basketball league with different competition tiers.
However, it’s what you make of it, Sholes said.
“We can control what we do in Jacksonville,” he said.
And what he’s done is bring consistency and success. In his six years, the team hasn’t canceled a home game. It’s established roots playing in front of now more than 7,000 in the arena, where most of its home games are played.
The Giants won back-to-back championships in 2012 and 2013 and are annual playoff contenders, like they are this year with the regular season concluding Sunday.
“We’ve tried to make Jacksonville a minor league basketball town,” said Sholes.
He’s upgraded production values for TV viewers, which sponsorships have helped offset.
Like his law firm, Sholes said he’s pretty hands on with the basketball team, too.
He constantly talks to front office staff and the coaches about players, the team, how they’re playing and other aspects you’d hear from an engaged owner.
Eventually, he’d like to see it become something bigger. He’s interested in trying to make the team the D-League affiliate of the Orlando Magic. The development team often acts as sort of a feeder system for younger or rehabilitating players.
“They know we’re interested,” Sholes said of the city and Magic.
Until then, though, Sholes said the plan is to keep improving on and off the court.
He wants to continue to use the team as a vehicle for partnering with different organizations like nonprofits and schools. That includes The Jacksonville Bar Association, which recently held a themed night.
Despite how time consuming running the firm and team has been, Sholes has no complaints. It is his fun away from work, after all.
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