The NBA is a "booming business," but for agents, actually representing players for their basketball contracts "doesn’t make much business sense," according to Kevin Draper of the N.Y. TIMES. The NBPA in '16 "started requiring" a test for potential agents who must "correctly answer at least 42 of 50 questions." The certification process also "includes a background check and dues of at least $2,500 each season." That in turn makes trying to represent players "such a poor decision, one wonders why anyone makes it at all." About 60% percent of certified agents "did not represent any NBA players last season" and most of those who did "represented only a few, little-used substitutes." That is because a "handful of power agents run the NBA." Just nine agents "represent a quarter of the league, and 27 represent half." Priority Sports & Enytertainment's Mark Bartelstein represented 26 players last season, including Celtics F Gordon Hayward and Wizards G Bradley Beal, while Excel Sports Management's Jeff Schwartz "was second, with 24." Schwartz' client base includes Cavaliers F Kevin Love, Mavericks F Harrison Barnes and Hornets G Kemba Walker. Schwartz estimates that the top agents are "chasing just 150 players who have the potential to make them money." He said the landscape "doesn’t really make sense." In January, 174 people "took the agent test, and 93 passed." However, of the 160 or so agents who have "become newly certified in the past two years, fewer than 10 have represented an NBA player." An estimated 20-40 agents "fail to pay their dues each year and let their certifications lapse, deciding it makes little sense to pay thousands in fees when they have no clients." The union is "formalizing this process as well, requiring any agent who hasn’t negotiated an NBA contract in five years to take, or retake, the test, a gentle suggestion that maybe this isn’t the right profession for them" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/21).
