Agents Still Wooing Top Prep Stars

MILWAUKEE, March 25 -- Alice Knox doesn't bother to answer the phone anymore if she sees an unfamiliar number pop up on the caller ID. It's probably just another agent calling to tout the basketball abilities of her son, Brandon Jennings, and that they'll be watching him closely once he begins playing for the University of Arizona next season.

Jennings says he doesn't know anything about agents. The 6-foot-1 point guard says he lets his mom deal with that sort of thing. What he does know is that there will be a lot of suits in the stands Wednesday night at Bradley Center watching him and his teammates compete in the McDonald's High School All-American Game.

"I've heard there's going to be a lot of agents here," Jennings said while munching on a deli sandwich. "I don't talk to agents, personally. I still got a year of college left. I have to prove myself on that level before I start thinking about agents."

As it has for the past 31 years, the McDonald's High School All-American Game showcases the top prep basketball talent from across the nation. It used to be that not all the players on the East Team and West Team rosters would go on to college. Players such as Boston's Kevin Garnett, Cleveland's LeBron James, Washington's DeShawn Stevenson and Orlando's Dwight Howard made the McDonald's game one of their final stops before the NBA draft.

Players now have to be 19 years old to enter the draft, meaning most prep stars have to play at the collegiate level for at least one season.

The NBA's new standard has become known as the "One and Done" rule, and though it has restored some talent in the college game, it has done little to deter agents from becoming familiar with potential future clients.

"We want to find out how [the players] are going to be in certain situations," said Bill Duffy, president of BDA Sports Management. "We're a year ahead of the process. Kids who you are probably going to approach a year from now, you want to have a feel for what they do and how the conduct themselves. It's a pretty good education."

Duffy, who represents NBA players such as Steve Nash, Carmelo Anthony and Yao Ming, said as many as three or four representatives from his agency will be in attendance at Wednesday night's game, himself included.

According to Duffy, most agents already have had third-party contact with prospective clients who are still in high school. They know an uncle or a coach or a cousin of the player they're targeting. Duffy said rather than trying to schmooze their way into the good graces of a particular player's family, agents use events such as the McDonald's game or the April 13 Capital Classic in College Park to observe how a player handles the spotlight and all the comes with it.

One player representative with several well-known NBA clients said agents are likely to spend at least part of the McDonald's game milling about the arena's concourse, hoping to run into players' parents, even if just to say hello.

Players such as Malcolm Lee understand the game -- not just the one they play on the court but also the one agents play off it. Lee, a 6-4 guard who has signed with UCLA, said his AAU team's coach, Elvert "Kool-Aid" Perry, already has begun fielding phone calls from agents.

Lee said there is no added pressure playing in front of agents. He understands they are just gathering information for what could be a significant investment on their part.

But several of the McDonald's all-Americans acknowledged it is difficult, at times, to ignore the attention they receive from agents and their representatives. Michael Dunigan, a 6-10 center who has signed with Oregon, said players are sometimes left to assume who's an agent and who's not. "People in the gym can be connected to anybody," he said. Agents hope to make the right decision when buying in early, but that requires compiling information that sometimes can be found only in upper Midwest cities on brisk March nights.

"Showing up to watch a prospect play is certainly a factor athletes and their families consider before making their decisions," said Jim Tanner, a partner at Williams & Connolly in Washington who represents such recent NBA draft picks as Josh Childress, Marvin Williams and Brandan Wright.

Lee said agents at the McDonald's game are "trying to get their name into the mix." When asked whether such ploys would be a factor in his eventual decision to hire representation, Lee sat back in his chair and cocked his head toward the ceiling.

"It could be," he said. "It's not like it's 100 percent I'm gonna go with them, but it could be."