Athletes First Expands into Basketball: Launching NBA and NIL Division

For 25 years, Athletes First has established itself as a powerhouse in sports management. Founded in 2001, the firm represents some of the NFL’s biggest stars, including Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. David Mulugheta, the firm’s President of Team Sports, is ranked as the top NFL agent on Forbes’ 2025 Most Powerful Sports Agents list. 

Now, the agency is expanding into uncharted territory by launching a comprehensive basketball division. To lead the initiative, Athletes First has brought on industry veterans John Noonan and Brandon James to build out an NBA and Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) practice. Mulugheta recently spoke with Entrepreneur to discuss why the timing was perfect for this strategic expansion.

Dan Bova: How long have you been with Athletes First?
David Mulugheta: I joined as an intern in the summer or spring of 2008, so I’ve been here for 18 years.

What was your focus when you first started?
My main goal was figuring out how to secure a full-time position. As an intern, my days were filled with administrative tasks—printing, binding packages, ordering lunch, and picking up dry cleaning. I did whatever was asked of me, but I was also actively trying to figure out how to make myself indispensable to the company.

Athletes First is highly regarded in football. What made this the right time to launch a basketball division?
We’ve always intended to diversify our business. We believe we are at the forefront of football representation, and we have a premier coaching practice representing NFL coaches, front office executives, and college coaches. Additionally, one of our agents, Scott Gaffield, already represents college basketball coaches, which introduced us to broadcasting a few years ago. As we continued to diversify, basketball naturally made sense, but we had to find the right people whose values aligned with ours. Culture is incredibly important to us. We’ve had previous opportunities to start a basketball division, but it never felt right until now. That’s why we felt this was the perfect time.

For those unfamiliar with sports management, what does a day-to-day look like for your team?
There isn’t really a typical day-to-day, which is the exciting part of this business. We deal with people, not commodities, so every day is a new adventure. Parts of the year are focused on contract extensions and free agency, while a lot of the year is dedicated to recruiting new clients. With the rise of NIL, we’ve added an entirely new dimension to our work, engaging with younger and younger athletes. It’s incredible to watch them evolve from high school players figuring things out, to college athletes, and hopefully to the NFL, NBA, or WNBA. Witnessing their transition into young adults, parents, and business entrepreneurs is truly rewarding.

How does working with a young prospect differ from representing an established professional?
When I first entered the business, we couldn’t even contact student athletes until three years after they graduated from high school. Now, we can sign athletes when they are essentially children if we see potential in them. A 20- or 21-year-old turning professional brings a different level of maturity. Today, we are talking about kids who are 15, 16, or 17 years old. For us, that means working much more closely with families—parents and guardians—because these kids are so young. The rewarding part is engaging with them at an earlier age so they can build good habits early on: taking care of their bodies, learning how to conduct themselves as professionals, and understanding financial literacy. Many of our current professional clients tell us, “Man, if I had only known this when I was fifteen.” Now, we actually get to teach those lessons to kids who are fifteen. Financially, it’s also about building good habits long before they reach the NFL or NBA and start earning substantial money. It’s like a practice run for how money works, how to spend it, and how taxes function. They now have a much longer runway to understand financial responsibility, which will be massive for their long-term well-being.

How does the current NBA landscape compare to a couple of years ago in terms of opportunities?
I don’t think the same barriers to entry exist anymore, especially with NIL and the ability to recruit athletes much earlier. You can build relationships with families and prospects at a much earlier stage. While football is massive and highly profitable in America, the NBA is a global brand with a different business model. We are excited about it because the barrier to entry has changed significantly, allowing us to demonstrate our value to families much earlier in their careers.

How do you translate your success in football into launching a new vertical like basketball?
The baseline for what it means to be a good representative—whether in football, basketball, or baseball—is fundamentally the same. Our goal is to make our athletes’ lives as easy as possible off the field or court and to maximize the hard work, sweat, tears, and sacrifice it took for them to reach this level. The sport itself doesn’t dictate success; it’s how we operate, how we treat our clients, and the positions we put them in. We aren’t entering a lane we don’t understand. This is simply a different vertical of the same business we’ve always been in—it’s just a new application.

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