On the day the transfer portal was born, Nick Saban was on stage in a basketball arena in San Angelo, Texas, sharing a few of the secrets of Alabama’s success.



On that afternoon of June 13, 2018, in front of hundreds of high school and college coaches from all levels, he talked about the uncommon things it takes to win like the Tide do. He talked about what it takes to get through to this generation of youth.



“You have to make it about them. This is the most self-absorbed generation there’s ever been,” Saban said.“There’s more information — internet, Facebook, Twitter — coming at ’em. It’s hard for them to focus on exactly what they have to do and make commitments to be successful because they get positive self-gratification from so many other things. So now you expect them to walk into a room and just buy in to what you say? You’ve gotta show them in some kind of way how it’s gonna benefit them...