Interview with a Sports Agent

Corey Oliver of 360 Management took some time out to talk to me about how his every day life is working as a sports agent for basketball players. The portrayal of Jerry Maguire is the first thing that people think of when they think of sports agent. He said take that image out of your head immediately. Flying back and forth with your client to random cities it is not what they every day should be expecting as soon as they get into the career. Corey has recently entered into this world. For the past 2 years he has been working as a sports agent. He said that he took the hard road of getting into this career. He wishes that he could have taken another way but he had a great mentor to fully understand what it takes to make yourself a relevant player for sports agency.

Key thing that people want to know is what you get done for me. If you have no connections, no one wants to deal with you no matter what ideas you may have. His advise is to make as many contacts as possible. Get to know what key players and companies are out there today and what they are looking for. What he suggested for anyone who wants to start in this career is to do internships. This helps out in so many different ways. You have to get to know what companies are the "movers and shakers" in the industry. Once you are in the company, do not be a shadow on the wall. Make yourself stand out. If they ask you to sweep floors the whole time, you make sure you are the best floor sweeper that they have and constantly ask questions what they are doing and what is the best course of action to handle the situation. 

The toughest thing with his job, of course, is the negotiation. Every athlete feels like that they are the best thing to happen to sport but how do you convey the wealth of your ability to what the league is offering to them right now. All players want to enter the NBA as soon as possible but most players do not realize the amount of eligible slots for being invited to make a NBA team. During the selection and negotiation process between the client and agent, this must be communicated on what are the steps that need to be taken to get to this level. Corey informed me that it is about the talent of the client but what is funny, talent will not get you there alone. Just like any other job, it is about the player's resume. All teams, domestic and international, want to know what has the player done in their career. Corey currently has clients that would be top picks in the top international markets but most of his players played in the NCAA Division 2. Top international teams do not want these players even though their talent is far superior than most NCAA Division 1 teams. International teams want to see that they played against top teams in the United States even if the player did not have that much playing time while playing at that school.  But players and agents always bicker back and forth about why they are getting calls to go try out for different teams and sometimes they decide to part ways. But if you do not build up that relationship early between you and the player, this can happen way too early for both.

Now that you have the commitment of the player with you, you must land him a job but that is not the first step into this world. Once again you have to have to right connections and know the right moves for your client to make him or her successful. Now most athletes feel that as long as they are playing with a team, domestic or international, that means that it should count for something on their resume. That is far from the truth. As the agent you have to know what leagues are the best for the client to build on their resume. You have to know what the teams are looking for so you are not wasting the client's time or the team's time. Corey told that most international leagues want different type of players during different times of the seasons and based on what they have on their teams right now. All of this must be known by the agent. 

Even with this knowledge, they are many underhanded tricks that can happen in this industry. What is not known by many players is that even when they are signed to a contract to play internationally for a specific amount, the player sometimes still will not get paid. The team cannot afford to pay the player no matter how good he or she is and they will not. They are many instances when a player was performing their job for the whole season and was not paid since the beginning of the season. Once again the connection that you made between you and the player and you and the team will be key for the present and the future. Corey had a player just in the situation but Corey's client was playing in one of the top Greek leagues. The coach of the team did not want to lose his player and wanted him to convince his client to stay for the remaining of the season. He had to inform his client that he would be paid for this season but to take this as a way to build his resume. The key thing is it helps all parties. Corey now has a favor he can call on the coach for future clients. The client now has a prestigious league on his resume and the team has kept a key player that they did not have to pay for a season. 

This is something that he has to deal with on a daily basis. Making calls to teams, players, and coaches is only half of the negotiations that he has to deal with. He did not even get into dealing with sponsorships for clients or having to file lawsuits against different teams. If you really want to know all about this world, stay tuned to part 2. 

http://keepingitheel.com/2012/05/26/the-411-on-overseas-basketball-is-it-worth-it/