Saturday, May 16, 2009

Basketball Agent Steven Olenick - April 16th


Steve Olenick joined the Wharton Sports Business club over lunch to discuss his career path as a sports agent. Steve is a basketball agent with Entersport, LLC, one of the top agencies representing professional basketball players in the United States and abroad. Steve works with Mark Fleisher, whose current client roster includes Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko. Steve has worked within the sports representation industry for the past 8 years as an advisor and business manager for professional athletes. Prior to joining Entersport, Steve worked as an attorney for Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in New York City, focusing on sports and media transactions.

Steve talked about the hard work, focus and ability to cultivate relationships that has helped him succeed as a basketball agent. We discussed a number of interesting topics during a wide-ranging hour long conversation:

NBA contracts. Interestingly enough, Steve said that the first contract for a player is typically very basic. Draft pick compensation is “slotted”, so there is not really a lot of room to negotiate an improved deal. Most of the value an agent can deliver during the first contact comes from their ability to land marketing deals, etc. The second contract is typically more complicated, and this is where you can see the deal-structuring ability and creativity of an agent pay off.

LeBron’s next contract. You might have heard, but there’s a rumor that LeBron might sign with the Knicks after becoming a free agent in 2010… One WSBC member said he’d heard that LeBron is looking for an equity stake in his next deal. Steve thinks that Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, should strongly consider giving him an equity stake because if LeBron leaves for a larger market in 2010, the franchise value will take a very big hit anyway.

Overseas teams. In light of Josh Childress defecting to Olympiacos Piraeus, someone asked whether or not Steve thought this would become an emerging theme. He made several interesting points. First, the style of play of a typical NBA player does not necessarily translate well to the European game. NBA players are typically great athletes, but in games predicated upon spot-up shooting their ability does not always stand out. Second, Steve thinks the economic downturn will hurt the overseas market. Many of these owners are paying for players out of pocket. Russia in particular sets the market for players. Many of the Russian owners made their fortunes in oil, so the current economic downturn has hit them particularly hard.

Niche vs. mega-agency. Entersport, LLC focuses exclusively on basketball. One member of the audience asked what the pros and cons were of the niche vs. mega-agency approach. Steve thinks that the relationships IMG has are definitely helpful. However, he explained that a large agency like IMG will actually have in-house marketing and PR departments. In his opinion, if you have a great player, you can afford to hire a player-dedicated marketing and PR staff. In the end, the strength of an agent or agency’s relationships – both within the industry and with his players – is what will determine their success.

Overall, it was a very entertaining and enlightening hour. The Wharton Sports Business Club would like the thank Steve his time and condor in describing the life of a sports agent.

Article Contributor: Robert Sebastian

1 comment:

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