Sorry part two of my definitions of a professional basketball agent is a week late :(. I have been a little bit busy with new plans and additions to this website.
How to avoid being scammed by a basketball agent?
During the late part of June a player contacted me about a country where they had received an offer to play this season. The player wanted to confirm this because it came between deciding to quit a current steady job to play overseas. The player had to make decisions pretty fast. So I acted as fast as I could because I had a reliable contact in that country they inquired about. Well I informed the player that I would check if that basketball offer that was received actually true. My contact came back saying that the team had no plans on signing an American of that type. So I said hmm, let me check again. So I tried to contact again during my trip overseas and they in fact signed a player from the home country. During all of my checking and asking my contacts, the player contacted me again asking if it seemed right that this would happen. The agent that was working for them wanted a fast decision and had a contract ready for them to sign with an actual team. The player at this time was a bit frantic as anyone would be when you have to decide to quit a steady job and take a risk to play overseas that is not always guaranteed.
So the player was smart and contacted another player that this agent was representing to see what this agent was all about. The player was told by the other person that the same thing had happened to them. Now this seems a bit odd, but very sketchy. After little more investigating and calling around the player found that this agent was in fact a scam artist of some sort. The agent wrote up their own contracts and made the players to believe that they were going to play overseas. The player did not like this and took action by reporting the agent to the IRS and other reputable companies in that state in the USA.
I hate to see this happen because I don’t think its fair that anyone should be taken advantage of in this manner. But this player did not back up and took action so that it would NOT happen to others. This story is the inspiration from that player’s story and first bad experience of basketball agents. I wouldn’t want this to happen to anyone and therefore if anyone knows of any agents that have scammed you please write in the comments your story or the company so that other players can avoid this.
I would appreciate truth and honesty because it wouldn’t be nice to call out people just because you didn’t get a particular job. But any agents that have scammed you, took your money or so forth please post it below. It is appreciated!!
Until next time, I hope to post a very positive agent story 🙂
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Name of the agent.
I will give them name soon.
PJ Hoops Enterprise
Phillip P. Jackson
If that is his real name.
http://pjhoopsenterprise1.tripod.com/
Agent Names : Srdjan & Goran Premovic . ( not sure if that is their real names )
Website : europebasketballacademy.com
Spain
Greece
Serbia
If you receive an email from or contacting to these scam artists, don’t response! They are not legit and are full of lies and promises that never happen. I am still trying to research them to either get them off the market or sue them. I have lost a lot of time and money. I pass offers up for this “exposure” and nothing was exposed except my pocket!
Goran and Srdjan Premovic are good people they are helping players and i got job through them 2 years in row and before i was working with them i never played in Europe. Deals were not big but they can put people in jobs.
Srđan Premovic and Goran are scam they don’t have any connection to no team Srdan can’t coach nor Goran they have no knowledge of any type of basketball facts. They lie about everything they money hungry guys who looking for a quick buck off usa players who hungry to get oversea don’t trust them do reseach on them.. liars!!
I call people to say names Jon and N/A that are commenting about Srdan and Goran Premovic – where you gentleman played and what is your basketball background so to see who are you and what is your credibility. I say by my name that in September 2012 I got 1st job in Europe through Srdjan and Goran and in January 2013 after I killed there they moved me in Kosovo in RTV 21 on better deal. I do not like when people are hiding and speaking bad about people that are legit. My name is Brandon Roberson look for me on facebook I can confirm this to anyone. Not just me I know a lot of other players they put in jobs.
Brob
Ratiomir Petric will charge you a 200 usd finders fee dont mess with him
Goran and Srdan Premovic are the biggest scam in basketball and a shame for serbian people.
All they look for is stealing money of players. They charge even 10 Euros for washing clothes
They will steal all the money of players, and when the player got no more they send him to kind of tryout to teams. The biggest contract they got to a player was maybe 400 dollars.
Those guys are the biggest joke. But they find always players from the states who believe in their lies.
Shame on them. The are not serbian people. Goran a coach ? where did he coach at? In serbia he was maybe a toilete cleaner in a 3.rd division team. Srdan an agent ? Where do they place players
Srdjan and Goran Premovic are very slimy Serbians who will take your money from their website http://www.europebasketballacademy.com and spend it on stuff like boob jobs for his girlfriend or personal trips. These guys owe lots of money to lots of establishments like hotels and gym owners. They used to run a camp in Serbia that got shut down because of fraud. Money hungry people that will find very low level jobs for players and will only find jobs where they can take a cut of the paycheque no matter how small.
How iz yor Engrish there Premovic? Yeah, not so good. After being royally screwed by European Basketball Academy, I ended up taking a trip to your hometown. Bro, you and your staff have fooled a lot of people but, damn. You failed to mention that the development coach (who is conveniently from your Obrenovac village) is a middle school drop out who, after his 18th bday played no basketball. Mofo worked in a furniture store. I heard that he and his family defrauded an American woman. Then I got to your info, and DAMN. Needless to say, these scam artists took my parents life savings and let me high and dry. I will be taking legal action. Anyone else up for a class action lawsuit?
I attended this academy in October 2014 and I am very happy with Srdjan Premovic and his academy I got a job in Romania and I can recommend this academy to everyone. Players with no level should not be entering this academy.
I need to know if this agent is a fake.. My bf received as Facebook message from someone named Allan Scott who claimed to be a scout who asked him to play in China on a team called Jiangsu tongxi… The agent name was Donald Ford? Help please!!
I will have to do a bit more research but have you looked up the team name? If so, try to contact them directly to be sure. If they are asking for some type of payment stay away..
Trying to see if anyone has background on a Corey Edmondson or Shasta Scott? Shasta runs Sims Basketball and Corey reached out to me about possible jobs in Chile, South America, New Zealand and others. Wanted to see if anyone has heard of them or worked with them? They have a site at http://www.sims-basketball.com that I’ve been through a couple times to check them out. Help and thank you!
SOS! My fiancée was contacted in May to go play for that Chinese team mentioned in the post above, jangsui Tongxi! They asked for money via western union. The team was supposed to reimburse him. The travel agent asked for more money for a visa and other documents to get to the sports ministry etc. he didn’t give more money, but they have contacted him again with a new offer. The team is real but I can’t find any email contact info on the website. Please please please help!!!!
Sorry, I forgot to mention that the agents name is Christian Foxx and uses an email address ending in basketballhoops.com
He also received his first contract from “the team” the coach was the sender
My name is ######, and I have a son, #####, age 24, an African-American Player from Los Angeles who aspires to playing professional basketball as a point/combo guard. He reviewed a website of an agency called Europe Basketball Academy (EBA), an agency I am sure you are familiar with. The website was very appealing, making promises that made Corey confident that EBA would provide the training and exposure to give him a good shot at getting a professional basketball contract in Europe. So #### paid the required of fee of 1,870 Euros to attend EBA for 1 month (ATTACHED is a copy of the invoice) between November & December 2017 (note that EBA states on their website that 1-month programs are available to accomplish the player’s goal of trying to play pro). ####’s experience was that EBA did not live up to even one of their promises and left EBA without feeling his skills were any better (in fact he felt his game had deteriorated because of poor supervision, no individual attention, no gym time to practice on his own, street-ball type scrimmages, and no game experience against teams with pro-level type players). ####’s bad experience was shared by almost all the players that he met while he was at EBA.
So I filed a dispute with my credit card bank (Capital One) to get the money back, the 1,870 Euros that I had wasted for #### to go to EBA. Not surprisingly, EBA refused to refund any of the money because of their dishonest claim that they had provided the services promised. However, one of their requirements is that I provide them with a letter from another academy that would support my claim that EBA’s service to #### was defective. ATTACHED is the portion of Capital One’s letter to me showing their requirements, which includes the following:
A second opinion on company letterhead from another merchant in the same field that
states how the service was defective or did not match the description of your sales invoice.
If you look at EBA’s website, you will note that they say they will provide the following:
1. Evaluation of each player on arrival to EBA, by Goran, the only person on the website said to be a ‘Basketball Coach’.
####’S EXPERIENCE was that he was not evaluated by anyone when he first arrived at EBA, and never individually evaluated at any time while at EBA, so that he would know what he needed to do to prepare to play professional basketball.
2. They have an EXTENSIVE staff of coaches, agents, etc. to train players to be prepared to play pro in Europe, focusing on European-style basketball, and individual teaching players techniques based on the position they play (Point guard, forward, etc.). EBA even states “all members are highly skilled professionals able to respond to players needs at any time”.
####’S EXPERIENCE – only 1 EBA person showed up during the month he was there – a guy named Ivan, who is a “Physical Coach” whose duties on the website is to help the players to become well-conditioned. Ivan’s experience makes no mention that he has the training to coach. There is no mention that he is a certified basketball coach. In fact, no one of their website is said to be certified in anything. Ivan was the only one who “supervised” drills and scrimmages. He would tell the players what they were to do, such as shoot 50 Free throws, or 3 3-pointers from different spots, or do one-on-one drills, or pick teams to scrimmage. Then he would sit in a chair after that and watch. He never demonstrated how to do any of the basketball moves or how to shoot or how to defend (I think it’s because Ivan doesn’t know how to). He never assessed and corrected guards how to dribble or pass, nor did he assess the big men how to rebound and box-out (I think because Ivan doesn’t know how to). He never called out to players as to what they were doing right or wrong while shooting free throws or other shots. He just watched. The scrimmages were like street ball where you pick two teams and it doesn’t matter how you play, so there was no team work during scrimmages. It was every man for himself. Scrimmages also involved teams mixed with pro prospects and high school kids, which wouldn’t help pro prospects develop. EBA stated that the daily schedule would involve intense training, and yet the average “workout” was about 1/2-2 hours in the morning and 1-1/2 hours in the afternoon, with much of the time spent with players standing around watching other players get their turn, rather than actually training. So actual time spent training averaged 2 hours a day or less. How could one person, Ivan, attend to the 20-30 players’ needs at any time, and how could he help players develop without certified basketball qualifications, as EBA promised? Then, the director of EBA, Srdjan Premovic, never showed his face during the entire time. Some players told Corey that they heard that Srdjan is banned from showing his face in Villanova. The reason is not known, but how can a director ensure that players are getting trained as pro prospects if he never comes to the academy?
3. The academy’s facilities includes a gym, pools, sauna, weight room, etc. and “provides athletes and coaching staff outstanding exercising possibilities”.
####’S EXPERIENCE – the EBA facilities is not their own except for the gym, which is a 10-15-minute walk from the gym. EBA contracts with a training facility for the players to get membership so they could work out. It took EBA 2 weeks to get #### membership because Ivan made no effort to get ####’s urine for drug testing and photo ID for the first 2 weeks #### was there, so #### didn’t have access to the facility for close to 1/2 of the time he was there at EBA. Then Ivan, as a physical coach, never attended the facility with the players to make sure that their workouts, including weight lifting, were appropriate.
4. Scheduled games against pro-level outside competition – EBA’s website states there would be 30-40 scheduled games during the 2017-18 season so pro prospects could gain experience at a professional level.
####’S EXPERIENCE – No games were scheduled during the month he was there, and other players who were at EBA for several months told #### that rarely were games scheduled.
5. Accommodations -EBA has photos showing bedrooms that would be shared, and state that accommodations are with “maximum comfort”.
####’S EXPERIENCE – #### had to share the living room of an apartment, which had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. #### did not get to stay in a bedroom as he expected. Then he shared a bathroom with 6 players, and the bathroom shower head did not work, so players had to shower in a bathtub using a hand-held shower. Since the bathtub had no curtain, whenever a player took a shower, the bathroom floor would become flooded with water. This was brought to EBA’s attention, but nothing was done. Also, sleeping in the living room meant that there was no privacy, so players who went into the kitchen or “guest” bathroom at night would disrupt the sleep on the players in the living room.
6. Meals/nutrition – EBA’s website promised 3 “sport” meals a day and lectures on nutrition for athletes. EBA also stated on the website that players can get individualized meal plans according to their personal tastes.
####’S EXPERIENCE – #### and other players were provided with only 2, not 3 meals a day, and there was no way that these were “sport” meals. They were terrible meals that were so disgusting that #### and other players often ate out. I have ATTACHED a photo of a sample. You must admit that this food looks disgusting. This sample was what the meals had to eat most of the time, often being provided for lunch AND dinner. They were definitely not “sport” meals, whatever that is. And they were never given any lectures on nutrition and definitely not allowed to get meals based on their personal tastes.
7. Injuries. Srjdan promised medical treatment.
####’S EXPERIENCE – Corey was encouraged by Srdjan to attend the academy even though #### had a sprained ankle. Srjdan said that EBA had a sports doctor to examine and treat his ankle. However, turns out was a physical therapist EBA contracted with. Her office was a 45-minute walk from the gym, and a 15 minute walk from the apartment. The therapist did very little to help ####, and for a couple weeks refused to see him or any of the other players with injuries, because she said that EBA had not paid her as contracted.
PLEASE REVIEW MY COMMENTS AND RESPOND ON YOUR LETTER HEAD WITH A SIGNATURE.
PLEASE STATE WHETHER EUROPE BASKETBALL ACADEMY SERVICES TO ######## MET THE STANDARDS OF A BASKETBALL ACADEMY IN EUROPE, OR NOT, AND WHETHER THE SERVICES PROVIDED WERE PROVIDED, BASED ON WHAT I HAVE TOLD YOU. IF YOU AGREE THAT EBA HAS NOT MET THE STANDARDS THAT YOU BELIEVE THEY SHOULD HAVE, PLEASE BRIEFLY STATE WHY THEY DID NOT MEET THE STANDARDS.
I would appreciate it if you would assist me and give this your prompt attention so that I can provide your letter to Capital One. It is obvious that EBA is a very dishonest outfit and should not be allowed to continue taking advantage of young men seeking a dream of playing pro basketball by lying to them and taking their money.
If interested in europebasketballacademy .com in Spain…
Don’t merely walk away….RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!! They are ripoff artists, and what is promised their website is a lie.
There is a new website which was started because it is sooo difficult to find HONEST reviews.
Not many people are aware of the site, which is a shame, because every parent I know who sent a kid to their “academy” as well as the players themselves, has a negative story.
Just like in any industry, there are good agents and there are bad agents. I know its difficult to do but you have to try to do as much research as possible. If anyone ever have any questions about the process, reach out to imgllo.com. It is an international basketball agency but has resources on overseas basketball.