Signing and Waiting

Well its official, at the tender age of 27 years old, I just signed with my first Sports Agency.... “SHOW ME THE MONEY!” It was actually quite a tough decision on who to sign with because I had two very different options. I never thought I would have an agent, let alone be coveted by two agencies.  

            The recent tryout I attended in Florida was hosted by the Maccabi Haifa team and their partner agency Triangle Management.  To watch a bit of info on the team and tryout check out THIS LINK... You can see me from minute 17+. The relationship between Triangle and Haifa was a bit confusing.  They are both owned by Jeffrey Rosen, an American businessman who bought the team in 2008.  Basically, after the tryout concluded, the Triangle/Haifa people told me there was a very good chance I would receive a contract offer.

First, I would need to sign with their agency so they could represent me in future negotiations.  Immediately I was confused.  Why did they need to represent me if I was going to play for their team?  They later elaborated that I would be placed on either their 2nd division team (HAPOEL KIRYAT TIVON) or placed on another team in the league, depending on the situation.  It seemed like an obvious conflict of interest.  Why would they want to place me on another team and play against me?  It didn’t make sense.  Theoretically, if I signed with them and ended up playing for Haifa, they would be negotiating with themselves for my contract.  The basically tried to “Jew” me.

Luckily, I had another option.  During my first few months of getting back in shape, I was introduced to many people in the local basketball community.  At the tryout in Florida, I met Andrew Morrison, a Philadelphia based agent who happens to be the cousin of one of my friends Matt.  Andrew is partnered with one of the top agents in Philly and has connections in Israel.  His main connection is Zeev Gross, the powerhouse Israel agent who has over 50 players and coaches in the league.  It turns out that Zeev is the agent for the Haifa head and assistant coaches.  Although I was appreciative of everything that Haifa/Triangle had done, I felt it was in my best interest to sign with a third party who could represent me and my interests.

So here I am… signed with a solid management team… waiting for a contract which I have been told may come this week… In the meantime and as a backup plan, I’m headed to Boston to play in the Boston Exposure League starting Sunday.  It should be a nice opportunity to play against other high-level athletes and see how I fair. 

In other basketball news, I have been playing the Delco Pro-Am league here in Philly.  It’s a semi-professional league with current and former college players, plus the sporadic NBA players like Hakim Warrick and Jon Salmons.  In two games thus far, I am averaging 18pts per game with my 19pts and 17pts performances.

…until next time