Now the NBA, like with most major professional sports leagues, must wait to see how the global pandemic will affect the completion of the NBA season, the future of the sport and the fate of its players.įor Alex Saratsis, this uncertainty has meant having difficult conversations with his all-star clients. He can have as many endorsements as he wants, he can have a tremendous amount of off-court interests and partnerships - but his main focus is to be the best basketball player he can be.”īefore the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the suspension of the 2019-2020 basketball season, the NBA had just held its flagship All-Star Game in Chicago and was gearing up for another spectacular postseason and looking forward to an offseason in which its MVP contender Giannis Antetokounmpo was expected to sign the biggest contract in league history. Giannis told me several years ago the reason why he’s so determined is because he remembers what it was like to be on the streets in Sepolia, selling things to survive. “He came from an environment where, if he didn’t sell goods on the street, he couldn’t feed his family. What makes the Greek phenom Antetokounmpo so exceptional - aside from his talent, measurements (6-foot-11 with a 7-foot-3 wingspan and 12-inch hands) and skill level, says Saratsis, is that “he is one of the hungriest and most driven people I have ever met in my life. “I really like guys who have something to prove and who are humble and hungry and work hard.” I try to find guys whose priority is basketball, guys who want to be better,” Saratsis says. ![]() “When I go out and look at different clients that we’d like to add to our practice, I don’t always look at who’s the most talented or who’s the most marketable. When he’s not stateside, working out of Octagon’s Chicago office, Saratsis is scouring the world for the next great international prospect. The fact that Alex is comfortable in multiple cultures, thinks of himself as a citizen of the world and can relate to people through his own background by extrapolating the similarities is, I think, very rare in this industry.” “That village, especially in basketball, has become a global village. “It really does take a village to represent a top athlete well,” says Phil de Picciotto, founder and president of Octagon Worldwide. “Once I joined the agency, however, there was almost a mandate from the NBA to continue to grow and expand its international business.” “The company began focusing on international players in the decade before I was hired in 2009,” says Saratsis. Saratsis’ skills have helped turn Octagon into an international basketball leader. That modesty downplays an intercontinental upbringing and a foundational Northwestern education that readied him to represent one of the greatest international athletes to ever grace the NBA. “Honestly, to a certain degree, it was just right place, right time, right nationality,” he says. July’s NBA offseason will improbably orbit two Greek nationals, both born in Athens - the connection that sparked Saratsis’ fortuitous representation. ![]() Should Saratsis and Antetokounmpo decline the deal, they would signal that such a revelatory talent would be open to departing Milwaukee and reaching free agency in 2021, possibly shifting the balance of the NBA for the next decade before these new roaring ’20s truly begin. This summer Saratsis’ top client, Milwaukee Bucks superstar and reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, faces a potential contract extension that could make him the highest-paid player in league history. Giannis Antetokounmpo, left, and Alex Saratsis. With a pugilist’s intensity, Saratsis is ready to fight for each of his clients. After his wife, Amanda Muhs Saratsis ’02, an assistant professor of neurological surgery and biochemistry and molecular genetics at the Feinberg School of Medicine, departs for another day of pediatric neurosurgery at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Saratsis feeds Beckett, 6, and Eva, 3, and sends them off to school.įinally, another day as perhaps the world’s premier international sports player agent, directing Octagon Worldwide’s global basketball operations, begins in earnest. His thoughts turn to the day’s itinerary. “I feel like I have to get into it,” Saratsis says. An amateur fighter with almost nine years of experience in muay thai, he finds that the intensity and focus of kickboxing prepare him for the day ahead. ![]() workout hitting mitts with his trainer, Alex Saratsis ’02 is completely soaked in sweat. ![]() Saratsis recently updated us on Giannis Antetokounmpo and the impact of the crisis on the NBA and Saratis’ clients.Īfter a 4:30 a.m. Editor’s Note: We interviewed Alex Saratsis for this story before the coronavirus outbreak.
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