Aaron Goodwin and His Important Role in Kai Sotto's Career

While Kai Sotto's upcoming stint in the National Basketball Association (NBA) G-League has been the talks of the local basketball community in the past few weeks, fans need to be reminded of something: as talented as Kai Sotto is, he needs someone who will manage the business side of his basketball career. That's where Aaron Goodwin comes into the picture.

Aaron Goodwin is first and foremost, an NBA player agent who handled some of the game's biggest stars such as LeBron James and Kevin Durant. It was through Goodwin that LeBron James was able to get his first endorsement deal with Nike. And add to the list of Goodwin's clients is NBA G-League President Shareef Abdul-Rahim whose working relationship with Goodwin goes back to the playing days of Abdul-Rahim. But what exactly does an NBA player agent do?

Let's start off by stating that being a sports agent, in general, is not a typical 9 to 5 job. 

Player agents are usually hired to handle business and legal deals on behalf of the athletes they are representing. But more importantly, player agents such as Aaron Goodwin are responsible for negotiating contracts and also, helping the players manage their finances. They are also the ones who would go and talk to coaches and team owners if there's an issue involving their clients that needs to be resolved. In that essence, a sports agent must be willing to do the extremes on top of being able to multitask as included in his list of responsibilities is also manage potential investments of the client and make sure that his client is also filing taxes on time.

It's important that an athlete, regardless if he's already an established superstar or, an up and coming rookie, to hire an agent because that player agent will serve as the connecting link between the athlete and his team's front office and make sure that the athlete is earning what the agent thinks the player deserves to earn among other things. 

For a highly-touted international prospect such as Kai Sotto, hiring an experienced NBA player agent such as Aaron Goodwin is a good start for his professional career. Aside from helping LeBron James landing a 90-million dollar deal with Nike a few years back, Goodwin also handled the likes of Dwight Howard, Gary Payton, Jason Kidd, DeMar DeRozan, and even Chris Webber, He was also ranked eighth on Sports Illustrated's list of Most Influential Minorities in Sports for 2004.

Kai Sotto's talent in the game will bring him closer to making it to the NBA but on the business side of things, it's up to Aaron Goodwin to make sure Sotto makes the right decisions. It will be a partnership that will help define Sotto's early success in his career.   

Photo is from ESPN