Categories
Sports Agents

Shaq’s Spit Splatters The News

This comes by way of a reader of the blog who wishes to remain anonymous:

Many sports management firms tout their abilities to assist their clients with contract negotiations, finances, tax prep, PR and marketing. Agents bend over backward to court the spouses and family members of their prospective clients. What happens when that comes crashing down in a divorce?

An agent’s duty is to serve his/her client; yet that client is to serve his/her family as the breadwinner. Knowingly the sports agent inks the phatty deal to serve his client and his client’s family. What duty does the agent have to the family?

So Shaquille O’Neal makes a cool $20 mil plus endorsements…I’m not saying $10 million a year won’t help feed the 6 kids Shaunie will be caring for (yes, I’ve heard there’s an iron-tight prenup of what I’m not sure). I’m sure Perry Rogers (or whomever Shaq’s agent is today) sugared Shaq’s wife and kids with all kinds sweet talk and goodies over the years.

In general, and more often in the lives of professional athletes, divorce is commonplace. With this in mind, it is vital that sports stars have a reliable team of prenup lawyers on their side to protect their property and assets. Are sports management firms living up to the expectations they create or are the peripheral services illusions? “Behind every successful man is a successful woman” as the old saying goes. Depending on the athlete it may be several women; regardless, are the sports management firms of today living up to the expectations they create for the client and their family?

By Darren Heitner

Darren Heitner created Sports Agent Blog as a New Year's Resolution on December 31, 2005. Originally titled, "I Want To Be A Sports Agent," the website was founded with the intention of causing Heitner to learn more about the profession that he wanted to join, meet reputable individuals in the space and force himself to stay on top of the latest news and trends.

Heitner now runs Heitner Legal, P.L.L.C., which is a law firm with many practice areas, including sports law and contract law. Heitner has represented numerous athletes and sports agents as legal counsel. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University Bloomington from 2011-2014, where he created and taught a course titled, Sport Agency Management, which included subjects ranging from NCAA regulations to athlete agent certification and the rules governing the profession. Heitner serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he teaches a Sports Law class that includes case law surrounding athlete agents and the NCAA rules.

One reply on “Shaq’s Spit Splatters The News”

I believe the agent’s obligation is to the client, and I think most family members understand that although they enjoy a cordial or even friendly relationship with the agent that agent works for the athlete. If Shaq involved his agent in the prenup and his agent did his job, then Shaq has an iron-clad prenup. Beyond that it gets a little murky. As a woman who has read Ann Crittenden’s “The Price of Motherhood,” I hope any wife in this situation has the best representation she can find, and I hope she first found that representation around the time of the prenup. With personal matters like this it’s different every time…In most cases, relatively blind allegiance to the client is probably the best bet for an agent who wants to stay in business. That said, I guess I think it’s best not to parse the facts or judge just in case there’s a reconciliation down the road.

Comments are closed.