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Exclusive Sports Group (ESG) Acquires Basketball Agent Sam Porter’s Business

At one point-in-time, basketball agent Sam Porter was affiliated with SportStars, the company that led in the number of clients selected in the 2012 NFL Draft with a total of 20 (2 in the first round).  Recently, Porter’s practice was acquired by Exclusive Sports Group (ESG), which is run by President and CEO Andrew “Buddy” Baker.

I had a chance to catch up with Baker at this past week’s Sports Lawyers Association conference in San Diego, California.  Buddy seemed very excited to add Porter and his clientele to the ESG family.

Porter has been named Director of Basketball Operations at ESG.  At the moment, all ESG basketball players are either playing in the D-League, overseas, or are eligible for the upcoming NBA Draft.  ESG’s 2 draft-eligible players are Jesse Sanders, a guard from Liberty University and Mindaugas Kupsas, a 7’0 center from Lithuania.

Porter will be largely responsible for the growth and development of ESG’s basketball division and will work out of ESG’s Indianapolis headquarters as well as run the New Jersey office.

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.