Today we’d like to introduce you to Daveed Cohen.
Hi Daveed, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
My journey to becoming an NBA Agent and helping professional athletes across multiple sports build their brands on and off the court results from over a decade’s significant work experience spanning various industries. But the true beginning of my journey started with a love of basketball, whether attending NBA games at the young age of 8, being gifted my first Allen Iverson jersey by my father in 1996, or attending legendary Coach Morgan Wootten’s DeMatha hoop camps every summer. One thing was for certain; basketball was my first love.
My first break into the sports industry started at Impact Basketball in Las Vegas, working for world-renowned trainer Joe Abunassar. At the time, Las Vegas was the mecca of basketball during the NBA offseason, and all current and future pros trained with Joe at Impact. Joe ran a first-class organization, and the relationships and experiences I gained while working at Impact were invaluable. My role focused on Player Development on-court, and I got the opportunity to work with Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince, Al Harrington, Ty Lue, Kawhi Leonard, Rudy Gay, and Kyle Lowry, Isaiah Thomas, and many more. Watching these guys spend hours and hours in the gym gave me a front-row seat to see what it took to become a champion and an all-time great.
Following my time at Impact, I headed to a fast-paced tech startup founded in San Francisco called Yelp. The company was scaling quickly, opening up a new office in Scottsdale, AZ, and hiring for several sales roles. Although I was one of the first employees, my role was cold calling local businesses and trying to sell them advertising packages. Long story short, I was promoted within 1 year to Yelp’s National Sales Team, we took the company public, and my career trajectory changed forever (in a positive direction). Over the next decade, I secured millions of dollars in Ad revenue via strategic partnerships with brands like Nike, Saks5th, 7-11, ExxonMobil, Petco, Chili’s, Dave & Buster’s, Krispy Kreme, and Caesar’s Ent. As I continued to secure larger and larger brand partnerships, my Rolodex grew, but I was never truly satisfied. That said, Yelp was always great about encouraging us to follow our passion outside of work which led me back to basketball – signing up to take the NBPA Player Agent certification test in New York.
Passing the NBPA Agent test was the first step in officially becoming an agent and being able to represent players from a contract standpoint. Before flying out to NYC and taking the test, I studied on and off again for roughly 6 months but ended up passing the test on my first go around.
A few months after passing the test, I was in Dallas for a business trip and was introduced to the Co-Founder & CEO of Young Money APAA Sports, Adie von Gontard. Although the agency was in a great place given its roster of 50+ NBA and NFL clients, they were still in hyper-growth mode and looking to expand. Adie was very clear on his vision; he was looking for a partner to secure endorsement deals and equity brand partnerships for YMAPAA’s current roster of clients and recruit, sign, and represent new NBA players. And that is what we did. Within the first few months, I had secured multiple 6 figure endorsement deals for different athletes on the roster and, more importantly, recruited and signed my first potential NBA Draft pick.
Basketball has always been more than just a sport to me. It’s shown me the world, helped build relationships, educated me, been an outlet, and ultimately made my dreams come true. Selected a long story short, my first ever client in the NBA Draft within my first year, and we’ve since gone on to sign multiple players over the years.
I look forward to continuing to make an impact within the sports industry, helping my clients build generational wealth, and assisting others in making their dreams come true.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Although being an NBA Agent is rewarding and sounds sexy based on how the lifestyle has been portrayed in movies and TV shows, it’s certainly an uphill battle and a less traveled road. I’d liken it to a maze or game of chess, where you constantly have to think 5 steps ahead and prepare on the fly. For me, the main struggle in breaking into the agency business was that there is no real blueprint on how to do so, and very few people within the industry are truly willing to help. After passing the test, I reached out to 50+ agents, with 10 responding, 5 willing to talk, and ultimately only 1 willing to mentor me.
From a macro standpoint, the biggest struggle for an NBA Agent is that the odds are immediately stacked against you. For context, there are approximately 800 NBPA Certified Agents, yet only 450 NBA Players on active rosters. The numbers get even smaller, especially when considering the NBA Draft. There are only 60 picks in the NBA Draft which means as an agent (based on the above number), you have roughly a 7.5% chance of having a drafted player. Remember that many agents have multiple drafts picks in a given year, so that number decreases again.
This career is very rewarding, but I think it’s also important to educate aspiring agents on the harsh reality of the industry.
As you know, we’re big fans of Young Money APAA Sports. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about the brand?
Young Money APAA Sports is an industry leader, continually adapting to the ever-changing agency representation game. We were the first to represent multiple athletes in the WNBA and Women’s Softball and the first agency to have a female agent represent a Top 5 NFL draft pick – we represent only the top athletes, artists, and game changers worldwide. We have negotiated over $1 Billion in contracts to date. We go beyond the typical agency contact focus – our objective is to create a family legacy and generational wealth for our clients. As a full-service agency, we empower our clients to develop a brand, give back philanthropically, and ultimately become role models. Success. Loyalty. Family. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PLAYERS.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
“The harder you work, the luckier you get.” – Gary Player.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.youngmoneyapaasports.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daveed.cohen
Image Credits
Lani Tons: Lanez Photo
