Do you think all black athletes need to cut the cord of the agents?

[richardmurray]

I can go on a rant about sport agents or media agents, in the music industry or fashion industry for example, and how they destroy people. But, what say you? is it needed?

https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=1914&type=status

[ProfD]

Absolutely.

 

I think it's abominable that black athletes and entertainers pay agents a percentage of their negotiated contract instead of paying them a flat fee.

 

If the sports team or movie industry or fashion industry wants a person bad enough, they're already willing to pay them.  Just pay a lawyer to make sure the paperwork is straight. 

 

A popular NFL sports agent has grossed a billion dollars. Ironically, he went to school to become a lawyer but found a gold mine as a sports agent representing black athletes starting in the late 1980s.

 

Former NBA basketball player Grant Hill and his dad former NFL football player Calvin Hill did it right. They negotiated his contracts. Unfortunately, many black athletes chose not to follow his lead. 

[Stefan]

This is likely because many do not know how. 

It is intellectually dishonest to point to one, two or even a small group of Black professional entertainers, athletes and others who are either saavy or popular enough to make their own demands stick. 

Talented elites from the Black Community are still viewed as anachronisms by most in the U.S. There is much being made of Angela Bassett earning between $450,000 to $500,000 per episode on her hit TV series "911."

But scores of White actors have already pulled down $1 million of more for each episode on their shows. We're poor catcj-ups. 

And how long does a professional Black Athlete remain healthy and super productive? It's certainly not forever. 

And put aside their physicality for a moment. What about all the psychological and racist minefields they must negotiate or tip toe through during their career? It helps to have a media/legal and financial consultant or adviser one can call on. 

Blacks waste an inordinate amount of time, effort and emotion following the travails of celebrities or the famous. It may be fun to speculate about sports stars, entertainers and the moneyed. But unless you're a pundit, you're not being paid for it.                                                  

[ProfD]

13 hours ago, Stefan said:

This is likely because many do not know how. 

It is intellectually dishonest to point to one, two or even a small group of Black professional entertainers, athletes and others who are either saavy or popular enough to make their own demands stick. 

Blacks waste an inordinate amount of time, effort and emotion following the travails of celebrities or the famous.  

Ignorance is no longer an excuse. For several decades now, black folks have had access to every aspect of American business. 

 

There's no shortage of black folks capable of representing black athletes and entertainers and teaching money management too. 

 

The hurdle is teaching black folks how to trust each other. Peeling the layers of that onion is no small feat.

 

We do waste too much time on celebrity culture among other things. 

[richardmurray]

@ProfD you said 

Quote

Just pay a lawyer to make sure the paperwork is straight. 

So, when the athlete is 14 and the agent is hooking them in, giving them and their clan things, cause the parents are flat broke, no bank account, no job, no money, you can accept the agent then but the parents or the player or both together, need to plan to severe later? right? 

 

@Stefan you said

Quote

This is likely because many do not know how. 

Can you also include have the money to do it? Agents hook athletes and their clans in as teenagers in the usa, and usally the parents are flat broke. And money matters in the usa.

[ProfD]

9 hours ago, richardmurray said:

@ProfD you said 

So, when the athlete is 14 and the agent is hooking them in, giving them and their clan things, cause the parents are flat broke, no bank account, no job, no money, you can accept the agent then but the parents or the player or both together, need to plan to severe later? right? 

We know how the predatory aspect of sports agents works. 

 

Black folks have had more than enough time to establish a better way of nurturing our intellectual and physical talent. 

 

There's been no shortage of former and current athletes who could have pooled their resources to create a  super sports agency that works within the best interest of black athletes from the cradle through to becoming a professional. 

 

Basically, the consumerism mentality keeps black folks from working together to build long term wealth.  That's part of the reason we don't own sports agencies or sports franchises. 

 

Instead, black folks rely on and pay white folks to represent them to white owners.   

 

White folks recycle money among themselves through vertical integration on the physical abilities of black folks.

[Stefan]

Someone explain to RichardMurray that when engaging an attorney, many will usually accept a percentage of what they believe might be coming to you in lieu of an upfront payment. 

[richardmurray]

@ProfD your right, over 150 years since the end of the war between the states, means the black community in the usa had time. But, the problem is the black leadership in the usa has never guided the black community to be communal. Many Black people will say, the NAACP  or the panthers or the nation of islam or the black soldiers from World war I or the Garveyites or the Historical Black colleges or the black church all fought for communal strength. but , beyond who financed some of those organizations or their true intention, I argue that all of them, in cheap retrospect, had strategies that could only result in individual growth. 

I can use the harlem rens of harlem nyc as an example. 

The black man who financed them, was their owner. But, if he would had succeeded in his goal of the Rens. THey would be an NBA team today. What is the problem? 

At the end of the day, even though the HArlem Rens played in harlem. The renaissance ballroom, now destroyed, that existed next to the abyssinian baptist church, was owned for most of its history by Black people. Was the best plan for a fiscally rich black person to own a team in the predecessor of the modern NBA, or was it to create a black basketball league side other fiscally rich black people?

My point, it isn't merely consumerism. It is the strategy of Black people who are not beholden to white money like the average black person. They historically don't utilize their wealth to empower the black community, they use it to empower themselves, sometimes they succeed, sometimes they fail. but how many of them have plans that actually involve empowering the black community. And the sport world is a prime example. 

Why are black women not the owners of any WNBA team? why not? are black women in the usa financially unable? the answer is no. but Black women with money didn't seem interested in owning multiple wnba teams. so... that is their choice. but, that choice doesn't empower the black community.

 

@Stefan yeah, sadly, the race of lawyers in the usa has a poor record of warranting trust by fiscally poor people. Every single black athlete that has severed the agent cord did it after they gained money. I don't think that is an accident. 

[ProfD]

15 hours ago, richardmurray said:

My point, it isn't merely consumerism. It is the strategy of Black people who are not beholden to white money like the average black person. They historically don't utilize their wealth to empower the black community, they use it to empower themselves, sometimes they succeed, sometimes they fail. but how many of them have plans that actually involve empowering the black community. And the sport world is a prime example. 

 

Why are black women not the owners of any WNBA team? why not? are black women in the usa financially unable? the answer is no. but Black women with money didn't seem interested in owning multiple wnba teams. so... that is their choice. but, that choice doesn't empower the black community.

Under the current system, any and all black *wealth* requires white approval and cooperation.

 

Black folks do not have an infrastructure in place to independently generate and sustain wealth. 

 

Like everything else, the sports world is white-owned.  They decide who can and cannot buy teams and franchises.  They use black bodies for labor.

 

Black folks have been conditioned to work for money and spend it on things (consumerism) to reward themselves. 

 

Wealth building is very different.  It is an integrated system of moving parts utilizing someone else's knowledge, skills, abilities (labor) to produce goods and services to make money. 

 

For an example, at 58 years old, Jezz Bezos is the 2nd wealthiest person in the world right now.  Bezos would be a good case study in how he made his money and through vertical integration enriches his community. 

[richardmurray]

@ProfDyes but the reason why all black wealth requires a white approval or cooperation in modernity stems from the past when all but haiti or ethiopia among black countries wasn't controlled by a white empire. so white wealth comes from empire. Black people never talk about empire so... 

[ProfD]

 @richardmurray, for a few hundred years now, white folks have been controlling wealth all over the planet by any means necessary (cooperation, coercion, theft,  violence, etc). They have the infrastructure in place to sustain it. 

[richardmurray]

@ProfD infrastructure and power... I think we black people don't like to say power. Everything with whites isn't about infrastructure, it is about power. what do i own, if I own more than you and you can't take it, that is power. even if I make mistakes, even if I treat you different or better, who owns more and who can take it?