To be honest when Richard K. Avery contacted me to do a story on ProSportsCareers.com, a new sport agency based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, I was a bit hesitant.

Why?

It is of my own free time, free will and financial undertaking.

Same may be noted of my promoting the sport from the grassroots to the NBA, be it in media, coaching, organising, etc cetera.

Secondly, it was always an honour to assist athletes.

Assist them into landing scholarships be it by editing and sending a VHS tape out on their behalf, many a time without them even knowing, or putting in a good word for them with a contact.

Why do this? One should not have to ask.

It is better to give then receive.

So you see where the dilemma is in promoting someone who may benefit financially off another’s athletic success.

And Richard is not the first or the last agent to contact Frozen Hoops for a story or link to their bizz.

But then learning more about Richard K. Avery and his company ProSportsCareers.com, it was noted that certain things came to the top.

In bold it read: Please note that there is never a fee for our services until such time as a client signs a professional contract that we have negotiated."

I liked that.

Richard had to have a deal on the table and was not about to rip someone off.

Plus he has been a basketball coach.

And when you are a coach, you have to have a passion for the sport.

For him to make a living you have to make a living.

So with no further adieu, here is a Question and Answer session with Richard on the life of a sports agent.

Then I stumbled into a career counseling and employment agency business for athletes who were still actively competing in their sport.

My company called Pro-Group Consulting Inc. started and through my friendship with Howard Kelsey, who at the time was Ken Shields right hand man at U of Victoria.

We were able to help out a lot student-athletes and coaches at the university find jobs so they could continue to train and compete at a high level.

As well as finding some coaches part time jobs to supplement their coaching salaries.

The only problem was that we became pretty successful and the sports governing bodies stepped in and started to provide the services we were already providing but they had a huge advantage over us and they could provide the services with a larger wallet than my own.

It was during my work with this company that I was introduced to Art Breeze a hockey agent from Calgary by Al Paterson who was the General Manager of the Victoria Cougars of the Western Hockey League at the time.

After some discussion I was offered a position with Art’s company Pro-Rep Entertainment Consulting Group Inc. as their Player Representative in British Columbia and USA Pacific Northwest.

That is how I became an agent, totally by accident.

I left Pro Rep about five years later and started my own agency in Victoria because I wanted to start representing athletes in other sports.

Pacific Sports Management Ltd. was formed and lasted until around 2000 when for health and personal reasons, the company folded and I went to sort out my life.

During that time I went to Australia and coached a team in the Australian Basketball Association in Adelaide and it was there where I got refueled to get back into the sports representation business.

I had the good fortune to meet and make friends with Lindsay Gaze and my passion for basketball revitalized.

When I returned to Canada I took some computer courses as I realized that any agency I would restart would have to live on the Internet.

That brought me to June of 2004 where I started getting my website ready to launch and sent out messages to my former associates in the business and in September of 2004 ProSportsCareers.com was born and it took off so quickly and almost exclusively the athlete’s contacting me were basketball players and it soon became apparent that I wasn’t going to have time for any other sports so I have decided to be a basketball only sports agency.

Of these clients less than 10 of them are Canadian. That is where I hope being seen on your website will help me become better know in Canada as I would be really happy to help Canadian players get jobs overseas and in North America.

My certification as a NBA agent is pending and will likely know by the time you have this article written.

I didn’t plan on getting certified at this time but I had some players who have had NBA interest approached me to represent them so I had to get certified. I will know by the end of the months how many players I will have in camps but it could be as many as three.

Marlon London out of Kansas and DePaul, Anwar Coleman from Virginia Union University and Gabe Inglis of Bridgeport have all got considerable attention and we will be making announcements soon on where and if they will be in NBA camps.

The business can be very cut throat but for the most part my experiences have been great. It is nothing like what the movies and TV shows would have you believe. It is a lot less glamorous than that. From time to time you will run into an agent who tries to steal your players but it has been my experience that those guys don’t last very long.

You also have to make yourself available to your clients and decision-makers at all times. I believe you also have to be very direct and honest with your client and that sometimes means telling them that they are not going to make it any further and as hard as that can be at times I think it is important. I always tell clients, "be careful of the people who always tell you what you want to hear."

So there you have it the spoken word by Richard K. Avery.