For 25 years, Athletes First has been among the most foremost players in the sports administration game. Founded in 2001, the resolute represents several of the NFL’s biggest names, including Ravens RB Derrick Henry and Cowboys QB Dak Prescott, and its President of Team Sports, David Mulugheta, is the top-ranked NFL delegate on Forbes’ 2025 Most Powerful Sports Agents list.
Now the business is doing item it’s never done before: launching a complete basketball division, adding industry veterans John Noonan and Brandon James to build out an NBA and NIL practice. Mulugheta said alongside Entrepreneur concerning why this was the ideal period to create the move.
Dan Bova: How lengthy have you been alongside Athletes First?
David Mulugheta: I did an internship correct before I started, summer or fountain of ’08. So, 18 years.
What was your concentration whenever you archetypal started?
Figuring out how to get a job! I was an intern — printing, binding packages, getting lunch orders, picking up dry cleaning. I was doing as I was told during at the identical period trying to fig out how to create myself essential to the company.
Athletes First is known for football. What made this the correct period to initiate a basketball division?
We’ve continually had our eye on continuing to diversify our business. We regard ourselves at the forefront of football representation, and we have what we accept is the finest coaching custom in the business, representing NFL coaches, forefront agency executives, and university coaches. We have an agent, Scott Gaffield, who additionally represents university basketball coaches, which got us into broadcasting a few years back. So as we continued to diversify, basketball made awareness — but we had to discover the correct group we felt comfortable with. We’re really big on civilization here. We’ve had a lot of opportunities to commencement a basketball division before, and it didn’t awareness correct until now. That’s why we felt akin it was the correct time.
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For group who don’t completely comprehend what a administration agency does, what’s the day-to-day of what you guys really do for your athletes?
That’s a awesome inquiry — there’s not really a day-to-day. Every day is different, and that’s the chill part concerning this business. You’re dealing alongside people, not commodities, so all day is an adventure. Some parts of the twelvemonth you’re focused on agreement extensions during liberated agency; a lot of the twelvemonth you’re recruiting new clients. With the growth of NIL, that adds a entire distinct size — now you’re operating alongside clients who are younger and younger. The chill item is observing them go from elevated academy players trying to fig it out, to college, to hopefully the NFL, NBA or WNBA. It’s really chill observing that transition, observing them develop into young adults, afterward parents, afterward endeavor group and entrepreneurs.
How does that differ as a starting item versus whenever you’re taking on a client who’s already a pro-level athlete?
When I archetypal got into the business, you couldn’t equal conversation to a pupil sportsperson until they were three years removed from elevated school. Now you can sign guys whenever they’re basically kids, if you see the correct things in them. Guys who are 20 or 21 and turning pro have a distinct maturity. Now we’re talking concerning kids who are 15, 16, 17 — for us, that method operating alongside families a lot more, alongside mom and dad, since these kids are so young. The chill part is being capable to drag them in at a much before age so they can commencement fine habits — taking attention of their body, learning how to rotate into a expert sooner. We conversation to a lot of our current pro clients and they inform us, “Man, if I’d have known this whenever I was fifteen.” Now we really get to instruct that to kids who are fifteen. The financial part is beautiful chill too — you’re construction fine habits lengthy before a guy hits the NFL or NBA and starts making genuine money. It’s akin a custom run at seeing how prosperity works, how it spends, how taxes work. They have a much longer runway now, and I think that’s going to be huge for their long-term understanding of how prosperity works.
What does the NBA chance appearance akin these days compared to a brace years ago?
I don’t cognize that the identical obstacle to admission exists anymore, particularly alongside NIL and recruiting guys a lot earlier. You’re capable to build relationships earlier. As far as the NBA as a brand — football is huge in America and a phenomenal business, but the NBA is additional of a earth sport. It’s a distinct model. We’re enthusiastic concerning it since that obstacle to admission has changed significantly, and you’re capable to display your value a lot before to these families.
How do you parlay your achievement in football into starting a new vertical akin basketball?
The baseline for what it is to be a fine delegate — whether it’s football, basketball, ballgame — is beautiful much the same. Our goal is to create our athletes’ lives as uncomplicated as imaginable off the site or court, and to assistance maximize the difficult work, sweat, tears and sacrifice it took to get to this level. Whether that’s football or basketball, it doesn’t change. The athletics isn’t going to dictate the achievement — it’s how we operate, how we treat our clients, and what stance we put them in. We’re not getting into a lane we don’t understand. This is exactly fair a distinct vertical of the identical endeavor we’ve continually been in. It’s fair a new application.
For 25 years, Athletes First has been among the most foremost players in the sports administration game. Founded in 2001, the resolute represents several of the NFL’s biggest names, including Ravens RB Derrick Henry and Cowboys QB Dak Prescott, and its President of Team Sports, David Mulugheta, is the top-ranked NFL delegate on Forbes’ 2025 Most Powerful Sports Agents list.
Now the business is doing item it’s never done before: launching a complete basketball division, adding industry veterans John Noonan and Brandon James to build out an NBA and NIL practice. Mulugheta said alongside Entrepreneur concerning why this was the ideal period to create the move.
Dan Bova: How lengthy have you been alongside Athletes First?
David Mulugheta: I did an internship correct before I started, summer or fountain of ’08. So, 18 years.
