Add former NBA All-stars Tracy McGrady and Jermaine O’Neal to the growing list of Black sports agents.
According to nytimes.com, “McGrady and O’Neal, who have 13 N.B.A. All-Star appearances between them, said in a phone interview that they plan to open a player representation agency this fall. They will call it Seven1 Sports Group and Entertainment.
The name is a mash-up of their jersey numbers from careers that propelled McGrady to induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.”
And enabled O’Neal, drafted by the Portland Trailblazers to play for seven teams across 18 seasons, make six All-Star game appearances with the Pacers, and sign player contracts worth more than $150 million.
If successful, they would become the most prominent players in N.B.A. history to enter the highly competitive and hard-to-break-into agent business.”
McGrady and O’Neal, both 41, have known each other ever since they were both high school players who make the jump straight to the NBA. They both live in Texas and O’Neal says the pandemic gave them “time to process and think hard — together” about how they could help young players, particularly young Black players, the most.
“We think it’s needed, and we have a passion for it,” McGrady told NY Times in an interview with Marc Stein. “We’re around kids every single day because we have youth programs. It just makes sense. We see the lack of information that these kids are getting, so we would be doing a disservice to our people if we don’t lend our expertise of what we know and help guide them. This is a calling that we have.”
McGrady would serve as a co-owner and adviser to players, giving up his broadcasting gig with ESPN that he’s held the past four years. O’Neal will tackle the National Basketball Players Association test in January to actually become a registered N.B.A. agent and hold partner status alongside McGrady.
Look out Rich Paul, there are two new brothers on the block that will be competing for the top players in the sport.
