A sports agent represents an athlete and helps identify, pursue and negotiate jobs and endorsement deals. As your career grows, you may experience greater demands on your time. More competitions, media appearances, speaking engagements and travel requirements can leave you with less time to develop and maintain your skills on-the-court.
An agent can help you manage your time, allowing you more time to focus on playing the game and your performance, by:
- Understanding your value in the Basketball market and negotiating with team management to pay you what you are worth
- Understanding your needs and goals to negotiate the length of your contract, salary and extra incentives that may be available to you
- Identifying, pursuing and securing additional sources of income through endorsements, appearances, speaking events, etc.
Some agents can also provide legal and/or financial counseling, but there are some important things to consider before giving too much influence to one person (see further below ‘How to choose an agent’).