Let’s look at CAA’s basketball division, first.  Before hiring Henry Thomas, CAA already boasted three strong basketball agents: Leon Rose, Andre Buck, and Steven Heumann.  Heumann mostly deals with the high profile overseas players and those born outside of the U.S. who now play in the NBA (think Omri Casspi).  Andre Buck is up-and-coming, and serves as the primary agent for guys like Jason Thompson, Aaron Brooks, and Renaldo Balkman.  Then there is Leon Rose, who has LeBron James, O.J. Mayo, Jonny Flynn, Allen Iverson, Richard Hamilton…the list goes on.  The key thing that I notice with Henry Thomas’s arrival is that LBJ and D-Wade are now under the same roof.  The two most marketable basketball players (you can throw Dwight Howard in at #3 in my book) are at CAA.  Interestingly, though, LBJ has his own marketing company, so CAA, the sports marketing juggernaut, does not reap rewards from that account.  D-Wade will bring in some nice profits, though.  He recently switched from repping Converse to the Jordan Brand (both owned by Nike).

In yesterday’s post, I alluded to Jason Belzer’s Sports Agency Power Rankings.  The list was created a year ago, and I think that he would agree with me that the pecking order should be changed.  I believe that the top 4 are now CAA, WMG, Octagon, and BEST.  WMG, Octagon, and BEST are not all that far from one another, but all 3 are a giant step below CAA, in my opinion.

A key question is: How does one compete?  One thing is sure, you are not going to beat CAA by playing its game.  The company does not have unlimited resources, but something close to it.  They have more connections to producers, directors, potential sponsors, etc, so you can’t out-promise Creative Artists Agency on providing more avenues outside of the field/court.  What you can beat CAA at (possibly) is personal care.  CAA is the largest sports agency in terms of quality of clients and track-record of agents, but they are not interested in players who are going to be taken Day 2 of the NFL Draft, beyond the 10th round of the MLB Rule 4 Draft, or un-drafted basketball players (for the most part).  In fact, even if you are a 2nd round NFL draft pick, do you want to be splitting time with Matt Stafford?  If you are a 4th round pick, will you get the same attention as Derek Jeter?  LeBron Jame and Dwayne Wade might get a few more phone calls then a 2nd round NBA draft pick.

A lot of athletes crave attention.  They also want someone that they can relate to.  Personal relationships mean a lot in this business.  Just because CAA is growing by the day and seems like it is a company that is beyond competition, does not mean that it is immune to losing some big potential clients to a boutique firm that knows what it is doing and can connect with the athletes.  Don’t fight CAA at its strengths, find out what your own strengths are and use those to impress future clients.

All of that being said, CAA sure got a lot stronger with its latest acquisition.

Sports Agents

• Past SportsAgentBlog.com interviewee, Mark Steinberg, chats with Darren Rovell about representing Tiger Woods [The Man Behind Tiger Woods].
• An interview with the agent of Maurice Jones-Drew and Matt Forte [Meet Sports Agent, Rob London].
• What it’s like to manage Kenyan runners [Kenyan runners' second home: Norristown].
• A UF Law grad making big moves [Lawyer, agent, world traveler].
• The anti-agent agent? [Bridgeton native Andre Buck bringing undervalued talent to light as rising basketball agent]

Baseball

• Moneyball will not be turned into a movie…yet [Sony scraps Soderbergh's 'Moneyball'].
• I guess I am in the minority, because I say no [Does Don Fehr Get An *?].

Basketball

• Time for agents to get creative. How about some type of running royalties deal with a minimum attached instead of the normal large up-front payment? [Bad Year For NBA Draft Pick Shoe Deals]

Want to know what it takes to land a professional athlete client?  I am not the person you should be asking.  The best practices for recruiting professional athletes can be found straight from the mouths of those who have made that very tough decision…the decision of picking a sports agent for representation.  No one knows better about what it takes to have them sign their name on a Uniform Player Contract with yours attached as the certified representative.

Jason Thompson of the Sacramento Kings is going into his second year in the NBA.  Before embarking on his journey from tryout to tryout and eventually being selected by the Kings, Thompson had to make a choice about representation.  He went with Andre Buck of Creative Artists Agency, and is still with Buck today.  Sure, Thompson has not been with Buck for all that long, but in today’s landscape of players switching agents by the day, credit has to be given to any agent who can hold onto a client for any considerable length of time.

Thompson recently talked about what he was looking for in an agent and why Andre was the right person for him.

“Nowadays, guys usually go with agents just because of their name, and they don’t have a real relationship with them,” Thompson said. “For the younger guys, they say, ‘Go with an agent you’re comfortable with, feel comfortable around, feel supported by, get along with and make sure they’re on the same page (as you).

Relationships are key, but as Jason admits later in the interview, many young athletes look over this important aspect and instead sign an agent or agency based on name recognition alone.  This can be a big mistake.  Sure, agents get a “name” by representing high profile athletes and often because of something extraordinarily good they have done for their clients, but that does not necessarily mean that the person is right for every athlete.

“My agent, Andre Buck, is really supportive, and Leon Rose with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) Sports really helped me out on scheduling the workouts because, obviously, you can’t plan them last minute. So everything was planned, but once I started doing well additional workouts were planned.”

Thompson and Buck were together before the workouts, before the NBA draft, before any negotiations with the Kings commenced.  A basketball player needs to have that level of comfort with an agent so that he can contact the agent every hour during those stressful workouts if need be.  Kudos to Buck and Thompson for forging a successful relationship that hopefully will last for their lives.  Every week we hear about athletes changing agents.  If athletes took Thompson’s advice, perhaps we would see a decline in that type of news.

Have anything to add or information about a change? Email me.

Octagon (unsure of primary agent) – Sam Young, Wes Matthews, Brandon Costner, Jack McClinton

Have anything to add or information about a change? Email me.

When people think about agents, they often think: football (Rosenhaus), baseball (Boras), basketball (Falk/Tellem), hockey (who cares?).  Meanwhile, CAA, with its prominent agents (Condon, Dogra, Close, Brisson, Barry, Rose…) really run the sports agent industry.  Funny thing is, CAA is an entertainment agency that only recently entered into the space of sports.  Hold onto that thought.

On July 16, 2007 (almost 2 years ago), I wrote a piece titled, An Industry Of Conglomerates.  Since then, IMG has completely removed itself from representing athletes other than the world’s best tennis and golf players.  The New Guard consists of CAA, WMG, and BEST (the sports and entertainment wing of Blue Equity).  It does seem as though the door has been closed for a while on potential conglomerates.

What will the future hold?  Will two major entities like a Rosenhaus and Boras ever team up to battle against the New Guard?  Or will other competitors of CAA in the entertainment space pick up on CAA’s business model and join forces to compete with Creative Artists Agency?  Could we ever see a company like Endeavor enter the world of sports.  May it possibly come about after a potential merger between Endeavor and another massive entertainment agency?

Over the past few months, I have heard many rumors about the potential merger of Endeavor and William Morris Agency (WMA).  The two companies are rivals (CAA is also a rival), but their merger would put over $300 million in under one entity (fun for its accountants!).  This new company, if created, would have all of the television and entertainment connections as CAA (if not more), and would be in a situation to take a huge chunk of the money out there in the world of sports.

If this new merged company were to create an athlete representation division, who would run it?  Would they hire the best, brightest, and most ambitious young minds who have shown a proclivity for success or would they model the division after CAA’s, prying some of the most respected names in the industry from other companies and paying top dollar salaries for their services?  Maybe it will be a mixture of the two.

The character Ari Gold on Entourage is based on Endeavor’s Ari Emanuel.  Might we see Emanuel/Gold representing sports clients in the future?

1. Wasserman Media Group (Arn Tellem, BJ Armstrong, Dan Tobin, Greg Lawrence, Thad Foucher, Bob Myers) – The WMG team had an unprecidented draft.  BJ Armstrong stole the show by representing the #1 overall pick, Derrick Rose.  Because BJ was always mentioned with Rose, many looked over the fact that he is also the primary agent for #14 pick, Anthony Randolph.  Quite a first year for the one-time Chicago Bull.  Arn Tellem did not do too poorly himself.  Danillo Gallinari went higher than many had anticipated during the week.  While Tellem may not be “listed” as the primary agent for many of WMG’s 7 first round picks, you have to believe he had a heavy hand in persuading the players to go Wasserman’s way.  Add to the stable Brook Lopez, Robin Lopez, Maarty Leunen, D.J. Augustin…yeah, this one is easy…Grade = A+
2. Priority Sports (Mark Bartelstein, Aaron Mintz, Brad Ames) – Forget A-Rod vs. Canseco, T.O. vs. the media, and Shawn Chacon vs. the Astros GM.  I want to see Tellem vs. Bartelstein.  If you had to ask me which two names currently dominate the NBPA agent landscape, it would have to be these two fellows.  If your last name starts with a “B”, chances are, Bartelstein represents you.  His company got J.R. Giddons drafted in the first round, way above where I thought he would go.  At the same time, Trent Plaisted slipped a little further than Bartelstein probably hoped he would.  The company definitely jumped for joy when Brandon Rush became a lottery pick.  Overall, Priority had another solid showing.  Grade = A
3. BDA Sports (Billy Duffy, Calvin Andrews, Rade Filipovich) – The biggest news leading up to the NBA Draft had maintained the spotlight for quite some time: O.J. Mayo fired Calvin Andrews and BDA Sports after NCAA violations came to light regarding Mayo’s acceptance of money through a runner for the agency.  In my mind, BDA had to do quite a lot to rebound from that devastating news, which may continue to get worse if further sanctions are placed on the agency.  I do not feel like they ended up very happy.  Besides losing Mayo, James Gist was picked later than expected, but Goran Dragic was taken right about where he was predicted to go.  Overall, 2008 was a disappointing year for a company that used to be right up alongside Priorty.  Grade = C-
4. Excel Sports Management (Jeff Schwartz, Sam Goldfeder) – For a long time, mock drafts had Jerryd Bayless projected as a top-4 pick.  It is not Schwartz’s fault that Bayless slipped as draft day approached; Bayless was probably being hyped a little bit too much beforehand.  Having a lottery pick is always a win for a sports agency, and Excel must be happy that Bayless went in the top 14.  Having two lottery picks is even nicer…Kevin Love is also a client.  The true icing on the cake is that Luc Richard Mbah a Moute was taken at the beginning of the second round.  Mbah a Moute was not even a lock to be picked at all.  Grade = A
5. Montgomery Sports Group (Roger Montgomery) – Not a bad draft for a man who only represented four guys going into last Thursday.  Sonny Weems was taken higher than expected and Darrell Jackson went right about where he was predicted to land…and to a team that desperately needs some help.  I have no criticism for Roger, but until he breaks into the first round, I am unable to give him an A.  Grade = B+
6. Creative Artists Agency (Leon Rose, Andre Buck) – It was looking like CAA was going to be left out of the first round shuffle until the aforementioned O.J. Mayo affair went down.  But even more surprising is that CAA ended up with two lottery picks.  The second is Jason Thompson, who has Andre Buck as his primary advisor.  Who could have predicted that the Rider forward would be selected twelfth overall?  The only thing holding me back from giving CAA an A+ is the slipping of CDR (Chris Douglas-Roberts).  Tenth pick in the second round?  Something went wrong there.  Grade = A-
7. ASM Sports (Andy Miller, Justin Zanik) – Serge Ibaka, Sasha Kaun, Omer Asik, J.J. Hickson, Marreese Speights, Deron Washington, and Richard Hendrix all got drafted.  It seems like ASM has not gotten its due praise because WMG has been taking all of the headlines.  Someone hire a PR expert for this company, ASAP!  Between WMG and ASM, how does anyone else compete?  Sure, James Mays and David Padgett were not selected, but I am sure that they will find a team to play for.  Grade = A+