The only person that will find to work the hardest
for you..is YOURSELF!
This was taught to me early in my pursuit of obtaining
my goal and dream of playing professional basketball
overseas. Many of you out there want to make it
to the next level playing basketball and if ask by any average
person it would be the ideal dream job. The idea of playing
basketball 2 or 3 hours a day and getting paid for it is
probably the most unimaginable way to spend time and make
money. When I still tell people that's what I do for living
they first think wow and second they say, "man that
would be nice to have that kind of job".
Enough talking about the job. I want to talk about obtaining
a basketball profession and my journey to where I am now.
I don't want appear like I am special, I just want to share
my thoughts and my experiences. I want to try to help others
that want to make it over seas to play basketball. There
is no real solution or how to manual to make it over seas
to play basketball. But I will share a little of what I
know and have went through.
First, I started the avenue of talking to every agent that
I hear or read about. I was told early well it's sort of
simple to play basketball if your good enough, all you need
to do is get a agent and they do all the work. As I am sure
many of you have been told that as well.
"Oh just get an agent."
My first warning to you is that there are some really good
agents out there that work really hard for there clients,
but just like anything else it's a business. Playing basketball
overseas is not just you playing over seas or just basketball
as you see it in college or high school. It's a BUSINESS!
The sooner you fully understand that you better off you
will be trust me.
My experience with agents
First, how do agents receive and earn money?
They receive money by two ways, either from you paying them
up front fee, which I would advise to never do in any case.
Secondly, they should be and they do get paid directly from
the team which is usually 10% of what you
make monthly. So if your making $2000 a month
he is making $200 a month. Which leads
me to my next point for any agent to be success and to earn
good money is to have a lot of players. So if he is getting
many $200 paid checks a month, it can add up fast. But,
remember the fact he has a lot of clients!!
If you have a big name and went to Big time Division School
I would say a Basketball Agent is a way to go. But, even
then I have known guys that have gone to Division I schools
that have and are still overseas playing to this day with
out an AGENT. So say there is an agent that want an upfront
fee of say $150 before you even give him a tape or anything.
However, what I have experienced is you can do pretty much
the same thing that agent does that you pay $150, and it
would or could even cost you less then that to do what he
does.
The point of an agent is first the medium between you and
the team. But let's remember it's a business. If I am a
business man that has a product that I fully believe in
then why would I want to take it to a guy that could then
return sell the same product when I could go directly and
sell that same product knowing that the job will be done
and done right. And that's what I have experienced. I experience
of all these agents telling me this and that, but when it
came down to getting me a job I had none.
Which this draws us back to my title the only person you
will find to work the hardest for you is YOURSELF!!
This is a true statement and if you really want to make
it over seas bad enough to play basketball you can find
a job out there. You have to sell yourself directly to teams.
Use all and whatever means you have access to like email,
faxes, tapes, and or even going overseas and knocking on
peoples doors to get a job. If you want it bad enough you
have to go after it just like a rebound. It's the person
that wants it the most!
Below I have my top five points to get you started
in the right direction!
1. Read all you can about overseas basketball
2. Get a profile and try to get your name out there
3. Contact the teams directly
4. Be persistent
5. Remember it’s a business
Download the Basketball
Overseas Contacts Instantly
