What young players need to know about selecting an agent | Axel Hervelle
Dear young players,
I am sure that, like me when I was your age, you are looking forward to becoming a pro, to developing and growing. With this blog, I would like to make you think about a very important figure that can help you achieve that goal: the agent. I would like you to understand that building a career is really starting from the beginning. Choosing an agent is definitely one of the first steps towards that construction.
A basketball career is short and there is no time for regrets. As a player, you will make your career by yourself, with or without an agent. Make sure that the reflection is correct because the only person that you can blame in case of not having success is yourself. Scoring, rebounding, making assists, dunking … nobody else will do those things for you. JUST YOU!!!
If you want to hire an agent, it's because you want to be focused on basketball and let somebody else that you trust represent you to the world. An agent is a facilitator, one that can understand your market value and negotiate with teams to pay you what you are worth; he, or she, understands your needs and goals to negotiate the length of the contract, its value, and extra incentives; the agent can identify, pursue, and secure additional sources of income through endorsements and, additionally, put you in contact with financial advisors or marketing experts if necessary.
"NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE FROM, SELF-CRITICISM IS AN IMPORTANT TOOL ON AND OFF THE COURT.
Agents make the player's life easier and release an emotional charge. He or she will help you manage your time so you can focus on performing better on the court. However, this point is when you will be a confirmed basketball pro player. You are still not there yet. My goal, here, is to make you think about what your priorities are at the very beginning of your journey. Once you identify those priorities, you should stick to them and hire somebody who will represent them.
No matter where you are from, self-criticism is an important tool on and off the court. It would be great if your future agent is somebody that played the game or understands it well so that he or she can help you reinforce your self-analysis. That person must believe in you, like you believe in yourself. The agent must invest time, and maybe some money, in you. To be in the best skills or physical development program has a cost that you, as a young athlete, cannot assume. That person can be in a big or a small agency, for me it does not really matter, especially at the beginning. But the agent must have a solid understanding of the game and professional market, a reputation of being honest and professional, with time to dedicate to you, and, for sure, certification from FIBA.
It is important to communicate with other players and basketball friends to make your own opinion about the agency market and to understand who is representing who and how. You would rather choose somebody who has a balanced representation in terms of clients - between confirmed-mature players and young prospects, but also about positioning on the court. This is important to avoid the dilemma in proposing a player to a team.
Mutual trust and loyalty are the basis for a successful relationship through a career and even beyond. You, as a player, are dictating the rules on how your relationship with your agent is going to be.
Your responsibility is not only to choose the right person but also to build the right confident relationship to achieve your main goal: SUCCESS.
Axel Hervelle
The power forward launched his career in 2000 with Verviers-Pepinster in his native Belgium and then moved to Spain in 2004 to play for Real Madrid, a club he played for until 2009. Hervelle then joined Bilbao and helped it become one of the best in the country. He remained with the Basque team until 2018, when he signed for Spirou in Belgium, before retiring in 2020. Hervelle was a leading member of Belgium's national team, first playing with the youth program as a 15-year-old and from 2003, when he was just 19, with the senior side. Hervelle played for the Belgian Lions at the FIBA EuroBaskets in 2013, 2015 and 2017.
