But for me, I always felt like it was all or nothing for me. Especially in this space, because being an athlete, it’s like coming down that river and you can’t see the waterfall ahead of you, but it’s there. That’s what happens to their careers. And so I’m like, “Man, I don’t think it’s right that these people in our industry, they’re actors, they’re pretending.” And then the player, they’re not learning anything. What’s the sense of making a ton of money and—forget not knowing what to do with the money, you just don’t know what to do, period? You don’t know how to evaluate, equate, enter conversations.
You’re talking about skills that you should have, or a player should have?
No, just a person. They’re people first. They’re not players, they’re people. So I took it as disrespectful. I’m saying to myself, “Oh, these people, they don’t respect these guys enough to want to educate them.” And then also I started to pay attention. I’m like, “Well, damn, they actually can’t do the job because they’re not really that educated.” Their toolbox is pretty small in terms of life. I started to really evaluate all those different talents. You could be educated—book smart—but that’s not the end-all, be-all at all. Especially textbook smart. That’s only going to get you so far. So I just started to realize, “Oh, I can carve out a real niche.”
Right. And so you go and spend four or five years at CAA, “learning the ropes.”
Learning nothing.
You told The New Yorker a couple years ago that you learned nothing there. Tell me about that experience.
I didn’t learn anything. I wasn’t lying. And it’s because there was no plan for me. It wasn’t like somebody was sitting around saying, “Let’s invest in Rich and let’s make sure he becomes this unbelievable agent.” No, they were nice to me because of who I was aligned to. There wasn’t no real belief that I could become who I am today. And I knew that going in.
And I’m sure that tells you something about the challenges facing someone from your background, who isn’t aligned with who you’re aligned with, when they see an environment like that.
Of course—there’s no chance.
And I’m sure that informs the way you run your company, too.
Yep. There’s very little opportunity for someone that comes from my background in that business, especially back then, that weren’t aligned with somebody. Today, I made them perceive people differently. And now as they’re hiring, they look at it more so now as an asset. It’s an asset to have a cool, young, Black kid in your business now. Today, they may look for it to be an asset—but they’re still not an investment.
This is your 22nd year working in basketball. What’s the biggest change you’ve noticed in your time around the NBA?
I think players are starting to make their own decisions sooner.
I mean, this feels like something you’ve kind of had an influence on.
Maybe, but I also think there’s an abundance of parents that are comfortable in their own skin, and that truly want what’s best for their kid. They’re not trying to get nothing from the situation. They just want their son to be happy. They’re allowing the kid to make the decision. They’re involved, but they’re not overly involved. I don’t know if I had a hand in that.
But when you talk about players making decisions for themselves earlier, someone like Anthony Davis comes to mind, right? You, AD, LeBron, you’re all associated with this idea of player empowerment. That’s what comes to mind when I think about what you’re talking about.
I think it’s just coming from education, though.
And you’re saying, it’s not like you gave them the power. You’re just helping them figure out how to use it.
You’re educating them. There’s more information out there. Most guys aren’t going to want to ask you something because they don’t want to look dumb. There’s no such thing as looking dumb. You look smart by asking something that you don’t know. That’s the smartest thing in the world. The dumb thing is pretending to know something you don’t know. That’s pretty dumb.
How do you think about leverage in your job?
Leverage is scarce. And I think people don’t really know how to identify what leverage actually is. You got to be careful with that. Sometimes your ego tells you that your talent is your leverage, and it’s not. Your ego is your leverage governor, in a lot of ways. And your ego can cause you to floor it at a time where you should be parking.
This is going to sound like a silly question, but do you think you would be a better agent, worse agent, or the same agent if you were six-foot-five?
I wouldn’t be an agent. I probably would’ve been playing overseas. I’m good enough to shoot the ball in the NBA at six-five for sure. But I lack so many other skills.
Do you know what I’m getting at, though? I think there’s something in your character from growing up a little undersized. That you noticed things, and you learned things, that benefited you as an agent.
You know what it was? The thing that benefited me as an agent most, more than anything, was being a role player on my high school basketball team. Because I know the little things that it takes to be a part of it. The ability to be a star is only suitable for a small amount of people. There’s thousands of roles. There’s only so many movie stars, but there’s thousands of extras. There’s thousands of co-stars. There’s thousands of people who played like, “I know that guy! He got several different roles!”
Be That Guy.
Be that guy. Nothing wrong with being that guy. And if you’re able to develop and you become the star, then so be it. And on my high school team, I got to understand that yeah, I’m not the star on the court. I’m the star off the court. Part of my job was helping the other guys. I was a team guy. I didn’t pout that I didn’t get in the game. When I did get in the game, I was appreciative of it. Say whatever you want, think you should have played more minutes or whatnot. But that wasn’t the case. If my name was called, I’m going to step up to the plate, do what I need to do.