Carl Krauser Signs With The Waikato Pistons of the NBL

Two months ago, on February 13, I received a surprise email.  Actually, me and 9 other agents received the same email.  It was from Carl Krauser, and he was “looking for assistance in finding a sports agent.”  Asking agents for assistance in finding an agent is like putting candy in front of a baby and asking where the baby can find candy.

Immediately, I had memories of watching University of Pittsburgh basketball games and wondering how such a talented point guard had this German sounding name.  Needless to say, I remembered Carl from his college days, and I also remembered thinking that he had tremendous talent.  I couldn’t let this opportunity slip by.

He emailed me at 8:33 p.m.  I responded at 8:34 p.m.  I found out that Carl decided to go on ProPlayerVideo.com (major shout-out to my man Tyler Smith who runs the website that hosts our players’ bios and video) and emailed agents that he found on the website.  Carl explained that he had played in Venezuela, Germany, the Saint Croix National Team, and Romania (where he won 2 championships).  He was playing in Venezuela, where he was getting paid well, but did not enjoy the location, the team, or the mediocre competition.  Later, he would be threatened at gunpoint, which signaled that it was time to move on.

With a pregnant fiancée back home, Carl needed a change.  He told me, “a lot of agents have been feeding me lines of course
thats their job but i just need something that will actually pan out.”  Never one to make any promises, I told Carl that I would put some feelers out and see if there were any opportunities for him.  It didn’t hurt that I have also represented his buddy Pete Parise (also a Pittsburgh alum), so we already had a good mutual friend.

Originally, Carl was thinking the NBA D-League.  Before we even approached that idea, I was talking to a team in Hungary that was thinking about acquiring Carl.  Hungary didn’t pan out.  I tried with Puerto Rico (they only wanted big-men) and Mexico (tough to talk to anyone down there), to no avail.  I eventually told Carl that I would try to place him in the D-League player pool, but could not take that step until he officially signed with Dynasty.  He put his faith in me.

At first, it did not seem like I would be able to get Carl’s name in the D-League player pool.  Apparently, he had an issue coming out of college where he accepted an agreement with a team, but then left the country to play overseas.  Carl admits that at the time, he was young and stupid…following the money ($18,000 per month overseas) and not caring about the consequences attached to his actions.  We got lucky, and the generous people at the D-League decided to give Carl another chance and put his name in the player pool.  While teams seemed to be very interested in Carl, by that point in the season, there were no openings.

And then I got a call at 6:00 a.m. last Friday.  A team in New Zealand was very interested in Carl Krauser.  Meanwhile, I had to pack and leave Gainesville to give a guest speech at Flagler College.  While I was supposed to treat my trip to St. Augustine as a little vacation, I never stopped working until I came to terms with the fantastic leadership for the Waikato Pistons of the NBL.  Carl will be flying to New Zealand on Tuesday to hopefully help the Pistons win a championship.  He will be replacing their former point guard, Eric Devendorf, who was also a guard in the talented Big East (Devendorf played at Syracuse).  This will be a great challenge for Carl, but I have absolutely no doubt that he will succeed.