In the beginning of March, it was revealed that former sports agency runner Christian Dawkins was slapped with a six month prison sentence after it was determined that he recruited basketball players, providing money as inducements, to sign with an NBA agent. In reply to a tweet that I published concerning the above, NFL agent Eric Metz wrote, “Not enough room in prisons for all of the agents paying players before they get to leagues.”
Newly discovered documents provided to Sports Agent Blog seem to assist in demonstrating just how pervasive contemplated payment schemes have been. These documents concern an AAU program that has worked with players such as Kevin Love and other top athletes. In fact, it is the same AAU program that was paid $250,000 by Jay Williams’ former sports agency.
Sports Agent Blog is in possession of a “Broker Agreement” dated January 28, 2014 that was intended to be between a former sports agency Top-Tier Sports Management Inc. and AAU coach Pat Barrett, with the latter individual labeled the “Broker.” The first WHEREAS clause of the document succinctly wraps up the relationship. It states:
“WHEREAS TTSM [Top-Tier Sports Management Inc.] anticipates that it will become the exclusive agent of record for all and any players who play(ed) under the Broker’s AAU program, who is owner of South California All Stars (the “Players”).”
The text following that sole WHEREAS clause goes on to lay out the compensation that TTSM will provide to Barrett in exchange for becoming the “exclusive agent of record.”
TTSM was to pay Barrett $7,000 as a donation to Barrett’s AAU program prior to execution of the agreement. Thereafter, TTSM would pay another $15,000 donation to the AAU program. Another $28,000 was to be paid by June 18, 2014, after Broker “showcased agreement progress.”
Barrett’s compensation continued. He would receive 2% of the fees TTSM received based on player endorsement contracts after TTSM acquired at least six professional athlete clients. He was also to be entitled to 5% of the fees TTSM earned from those endorsement contracts once TTSM had at least nine clients.
If TTSM was happy with Barrett’s services, then it would have been required to increase its annual contribution to the AAU program by $10,000 per year.
All of the aforesaid compensation provided by TTSM to Barrett was in exchange for Barrett providing “sit-downs/meetings with immediately family members of the Players that Broker has access to prior to the end of the 2014 AAU program season.” The document included a list of mandatory sit-downs with: Stanley Johnson, Marcus Lovett Jr., Vance Jackson, Tyler Dorsey, Kelly Oubre, Cliff Alexander and Spencer Dinwiddie.
“Agency requires at least 3 Players to represent in the 2015 NBA Draft,” states the document.
The Broker Agreement in Sports Agent Blog‘s possession was only executed by Barrett, with his signature placed next to an indicated date of January 29, 2014 and the signature of a witness in close proximity therewith. There are no signatures placed on behalf of Top-Tier Sports Management, Inc.
Sports Agent Blog has attempted to make contact with those named on the document, but has not received a reply to date.
