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For 25 years, Athletes First<\/a> has been one of the most dominant players in the sports management game. Founded in 2001, the firm represents some of the NFL\u2019s biggest names, including Ravens RB Derrick Henry and Cowboys QB Dak Prescott, and its President of Team Sports, David Mulugheta<\/a>, is the top-ranked NFL agent on Forbes\u2019 2025 Most Powerful Sports Agents<\/a> list.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now the company is doing something it\u2019s never done before: launching a full basketball division, adding industry veterans John Noonan<\/a> and Brandon James<\/a> to build out an NBA and NIL practice. Mulugheta spoke with Entrepreneur about why this was the perfect time to make the move.<\/p>\n Dan Bova:<\/strong> How long have you been with Athletes First? What was your focus when you first started?<\/strong> Athletes First is known for football. What made this the right time to launch a basketball division? Related: NFL Greats, Top CEOs Share the Truth About What It Takes to Win<\/strong><\/p>\n For people who don\u2019t fully understand what a management agency does, what\u2019s the day-to-day of what you guys actually do for your athletes?<\/strong> How does that differ as a starting point versus when you\u2019re taking on a client who\u2019s already a pro-level athlete?<\/strong> What does the NBA opportunity look like these days compared to a couple years ago?<\/strong> How do you parlay your success in football into starting a new vertical like basketball?<\/strong> For 25 years, Athletes First<\/a> has been one of the most dominant players in the sports management game. Founded in 2001, the firm represents some of the NFL\u2019s biggest names, including Ravens RB Derrick Henry and Cowboys QB Dak Prescott, and its President of Team Sports, David Mulugheta<\/a>, is the top-ranked NFL agent on Forbes\u2019 2025 Most Powerful Sports Agents<\/a> list.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now the company is doing something it\u2019s never done before: launching a full basketball division, adding industry veterans John Noonan<\/a> and Brandon James<\/a> to build out an NBA and NIL practice. Mulugheta spoke with Entrepreneur about why this was the perfect time to make the move.<\/p>\n
David Mulugheta:<\/strong> I did an internship right before I started, summer or spring of \u201908. So, 18 years.<\/p>\n
Figuring out how to get a job! I was an intern \u2014 printing, binding packages, getting lunch orders, picking up dry cleaning. I was doing as I was told while at the same time trying to figure out how to make myself indispensable to the company.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>We\u2019ve always had our eye on continuing to diversify our business. We consider ourselves at the forefront of football representation, and we have what we believe is the best coaching practice in the business, representing NFL coaches, front office executives, and college coaches. We have an agent, Scott Gaffield<\/a>, who also represents college basketball coaches, which got us into broadcasting a few years back. So as we continued to diversify, basketball made sense \u2014 but we had to find the right people we felt comfortable with. We\u2019re really big on culture here. We\u2019ve had a lot of opportunities to start a basketball division before, and it didn\u2019t feel right until now. That\u2019s why we felt like it was the right time.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>That\u2019s a great question \u2014 there\u2019s not really a day-to-day. Every day is different, and that\u2019s the cool part about this business. You\u2019re dealing with people, not commodities, so every day is an adventure. Some parts of the year you\u2019re focused on contract extensions during free agency; a lot of the year you\u2019re recruiting new clients. With the growth of NIL, that adds a whole different dimension \u2014 now you\u2019re working with clients who are younger and younger. The cool thing is watching them go from high school players trying to figure it out, to college, to hopefully the NFL, NBA or WNBA. It\u2019s really cool watching that transition, watching them grow into young adults, then parents, then business people and entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>When I first got into the business, you couldn\u2019t even talk to a student athlete until they were three years removed from high school. Now you can sign guys when they\u2019re basically kids, if you see the right things in them. Guys who are 20 or 21 and turning pro have a different maturity. Now we\u2019re talking about kids who are 15, 16, 17 \u2014 for us, that means working with families a lot more, with mom and dad, because these kids are so young. The cool part is being able to pull them in at a much earlier age so they can start good habits \u2014 taking care of their body, learning how to become a professional sooner. We talk to a lot of our current pro clients and they tell us, \u201cMan, if I\u2019d have known this when I was fifteen.\u201d Now we actually get to teach that to kids who are fifteen. The financial part is pretty cool too \u2014 you\u2019re building good habits long before a guy hits the NFL or NBA and starts making real money. It\u2019s like a practice run at seeing how money works, how it spends, how taxes work. They have a much longer runway now, and I think that\u2019s going to be huge for their long-term understanding of how money works.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know that the same barrier to entry exists anymore, especially with NIL and recruiting guys a lot earlier. You\u2019re able to build relationships earlier. As far as the NBA as a brand \u2014 football is huge in America and a phenomenal business, but the NBA is more of a global sport. It\u2019s a different model. We\u2019re excited about it because that barrier to entry has changed significantly, and you\u2019re able to show your worth a lot earlier to these families.<\/p>\n
The baseline for what it is to be a good representative \u2014 whether it\u2019s football, basketball, baseball \u2014 is pretty much the same. Our goal is to make our athletes\u2019 lives as easy as possible off the field or court, and to help maximize the hard work, sweat, tears and sacrifice it took to get to this level. Whether that\u2019s football or basketball, it doesn\u2019t change. The sport isn\u2019t going to dictate the success \u2014 it\u2019s how we operate, how we treat our clients, and what position we put them in. We\u2019re not getting into a lane we don\u2019t understand. This is literally just a different vertical of the same business we\u2019ve always been in. It\u2019s just a new application.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n