most NBA players, he has used an agent to negotiate on his behalf and handle the much of his business and charitable affairs. Unlike most NBA players, he did not grow up with the United States professional sports anesthetic of league, team, and agent dominance over the business and financial affairs of the player. He is from Melbourne Australia. And unlike many employees, he grew up inclined to challenge traditional authority figures, leading at one point to his dismissal from a high school in his junior year. But there are various types of intelligence. Academia does not have exclusive jurisdiction over business savvy, though Bogut was a business major while at University of Utah. At 27 years old, Bogut has now been in and out of the NBA, with injuries as a contributing factor over the past eight years. The recent NBA lockout gave him time to consider the business of being an NBA player. And perhaps the injuries unwittingly enhanced his sense of how fleeting the career can be. So during that break in physical action, his mind took center stage. Bogut started developing a plan to buy into his agent’s management company, One Management Group & Consulting (OMGC).
If that arrangement is successful, he can reverse the financial relationship, i.e. instead of the agent deriving significant income from him, he can derive income from the agent. More specifically, Bogut could then utilize his current $13 million salary to buy into the sports management business and use his current goodwill and market value to lure other players into the agency. In fact, all those services his agent, Bruce Kaider provides in managing his affairs, he can now profit as the agent for others, unless there is an agreement to the contrary. So during the very short period in which he has player income and intangible assets, he should generate additional revenue streams beyond his physical on-court performance.
And while his salary is individual income to him on which he must pay state and federal income tax, he can still have the for-profit business that generates deductions, and can still develop his own foundations with expenses and charitable contributions that can ultimately reduce his tax liability. Instead of his agent receiving all revenue generated from setting up his business and charitable affairs, Bogut can take a share of the profits derived from his own labor as a player.
More importantly, by leveraging his current influence among NBA players, he potentially can negotiate an agreement where he makes money from existing firm clients, new clients brought in by others, as well as the clients he personally brought to the firm.
And most importantly, once his playing career is over, his own agency can be his landing spot for a second career – a career that could have more long term stability, still high income, and still involving the game he loves, albeit from the sports management perspective. And as a part-owner, I suspect there is an understanding as to how he will be tutored so that he too can be an agent of others. Even while he plays professionally, he can learn how to do more for himself, essentially paying himself instead of others to manage more of his own affairs.
That self-help and empowerment over one’s own career is what I call the New Age Athlete. Bogut is positioning himself to learn as much about his own intellectual property rights as those who currently control them. I also suspect this is not an aberration but a future trend, as players become increasingly sophisticated in the business in which they perform.
If you want to comment on Andrew's efforts or want to assist with his current charitable ventures, acces his official website at http://www.andrewbogut.com/
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