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Labor and Agents

Rosenhaus Sports making inroads in basketball, baseball

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year after branching into basketball and baseball, powerhouse NFL player representation firm Rosenhaus Sports is seeing some progress.

 

RSR Basketball has signed a projected first-round NBA draft pick, and RSR Baseball now has a client in the major leagues.

 

Shane Bieber, a right-handed pitcher who was drafted in the fourth round of the 2016 MLB draft by the Cleveland Indians, was called up for his major league debut last week. He is represented by RSR Baseball agents Dennis Wyrick and Barret Arthur.

 

Additionally, RSR Basketball is representing 19-year-old point guard Anfernee Simons, who did not attend college but trained at IMG Academy. The basketball press has called him a “mystery” prospect because he didn’t compete against other prospects in college. But some in the press have speculated that Simons could be a lottery pick and he was ranked No. 19 last week on the nbadraft.net mock draft.

 

“He has 24 scheduled workouts,” Drew Rosenhaus said. “He is a very hot prospect.”

 

NBA prospect Anfernee Simons skipped college to train at IMG Academy.Getty Images

Rosenhaus and his brother Jason founded Rosenhaus Sports almost 30 years ago and represent 100 players in the NFL. They branched into baseball and basketball last year by hiring young agents in those sports with an eye toward building from the ground up.

 

Drew Rosenhaus said he is focused on the agency’s NFL player clients, while Jason is overseeing the new divisions.

 

“It is exciting that in the basketball division we have a potential lottery pick,” Rosenhaus said of Simons. “That is a big signing for us.”

 

He added that he’s pleased with both divisions.

 

“It’s nice to see production because when you start in a new business, it takes a little bit of time before you see the fruits of your labor,” Rosenhaus said. “And we are seeing it now.”

 

NCAA TRIAL SET FOR SEPT. 4: A trial that could strike down limits on what colleges can pay basketball and football players has been set to begin in Oakland the day after Labor Day.

 

Federal Judge Claudia Wilken has set Sept. 4 as the first day of a 10-day bench trial on the question of whether NCAA rules limiting the amounts paid to college football and basketball players violate federal antitrust law. The trial will be held Sept. 4-7, Sept. 17-21 and Sept. 24-25.

 

In a bench trial, there is no jury; instead, the trial is before the judge. Wilken is the same judge who ruled in favor of former student athletes in O’Bannon v. NCAA in 2014. In that case, she found that the NCAA violated antitrust law by not giving student athletes a share of revenue earned through the use of their name and likeness. This case challenges the NCAA’s limits on athletic scholarships.

 

“The players in D-I basketball and FBS football are delighted that they will soon be getting their day in court,” Jeffrey Kessler, co-lead counsel for the student-athlete plaintiffs, said in an email. “Their hope is that the anticompetitive, unfair and hypocritical set of rules which prevent them from sharing in the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue that they generate will finally be struck down. Individual conferences and schools will then be able to make their own choices on how to fairly compensate these wonderful athletes.”

 

The NCAA declined to comment for this story.

 

The trial originally was scheduled for December of this year, but the NCAA asked for a change, citing conflicts with its lead counsel, Beth Wilkinson of Wilkinson Walsh + Eskovitz. The NCAA had asked for the trial to be postponed until sometime in 2019. But the student-athlete plaintiffs, who are represented by Kessler, a partner at Winston Strawn, and co-represented by Steve Berman of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, opposed delaying the trial and asked for the trial to be moved up to late summer or early fall.

 

MONTAG SIGNS TERRY: The Montag Group has signed veteran NBA guard Jason Terry for broadcast work. TMG agent Gideon Cohen is representing him.

Liz Mullen can be reached at lmullen@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @SBJLizMullen.

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