Last week we posted our 2011 NBA Draft Listing Of Players Selected And Their Agents. While the list includes the standard NBA agent names like Arn Tellem, Bill Duffy, Rob Pelinka, Happy Walters, Leon Rose, etc. it also has some lesser known people on it. One of them, Austin Walton, was featured in a recent Sports Agent Blog interview. Today, we focus on another agent – Michael Lelchitski – who had his first client drafted into the NBA. Lelchitski’s drafted client is Ater Majok, who was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers with the third-to-last pick in the 2nd round of the 2011 NBA Draft. Interestingly, the Lakers are also the team that picked Walton’s client.
Michael Lelchitski works for Sports International Group, Inc., which is also known as SIG. The family company, based in Gaithersburg, MD, was founded by Michael’s father Boris Lelchitski in 1996 with a primary focus of representing professional female basketball players. Today, SIG is one of the top agencies in women’s basketball, representing over 40 players in the WNBA (which amounts to roughly 30% of the league). Prior to starting SIG, Boris was the head coach of Euroleague powerhouse Spartak in Russia.
Michael’s title at SIG is Men’s Basketball Executive Director. He and his father launched SIG’s Men’s Basketball division in 2008 and have largely focused on recruiting and placing players in Russia, Ukraine and all the countries of the former Soviet Union. Michael is currently the only Russian-American agent licensed with the NBPA.
SIG hopes that Ater Majok’s selection by the Lakers will be the start of a successful group of NBA clients for the company. However, SIG wants to remain as a boutique agency in men’s basketball and not outgrow itself.
