Josh Peter and Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports have a must read article if you are interested in how some athlete agents operate in the world of hoops - Agents and AAU: Unrequited Love.
Some highlights or lowlights depending on your perspective:
- NCAA rules prohibit college players from accepting anything of value from sports agents, and NBA players association rules prohibit sports agents from giving college stars anything of value. But no rule explicitly prohibits AAU basketball coaches such as Barrett from accepting a $250,000 donation from an agency such as Ceruzzi Sports, and then playing semantics by paying for dinner when the agency’s front man is there to recruit a player such as Love.
- Money offered by agents for access to players has empowered AAU basketball coaches and far exceeds sponsorships from companies such as Nike and adidas, both of which have cut back funding in recent years.
- Since it isn’t a violation for an agent to recruit players, the presence on campus of people such as Williams and Brown is an awkward modern reality. The relationship between college recruiters and agent recruiters is rarely adversarial. Especially with the one-and-done rule, the college coach can’t afford to anger a runner, who often has connections to potential college recruits.
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