Leon Rose, an Agent, Is Expected to Be the Next Knicks President

The franchise surely hopes that Rose’s connections with players will change that. Dolan decided he wanted to move quickly and hire a player agent rather than pursue an established team builder like Masai Ujiri, the Toronto Raptors’ team president, one of Dolan’s long desired targets.

Rose is not the only agent who has been a target for a basketball operations job in recent years. Rob Pelinka, the Los Angeles Lakers’ general manager and vice president for basketball operations, once represented Kobe Bryant. Bob Myers, the Golden State Warriors’ general manager and president for basketball operations, was also an agent before joining the franchise, although he was able to spend a season learning from his predecessor Larry Riley first. Arn Tellem was one of the most powerful agents in the industry. He was named vice chairman of the Detroit Pistons in 2015 and is a minority owner of the team.

There are less successful examples, as well, such as Lon Babby, who was team president of the Phoenix Suns from 2010 to 2015.

Rose, a native of Cherry Hill, N.J., played basketball at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa. He initially set out to be a coach but attended law school at Temple University as a fallback, graduating in 1986. One of his first jobs was as an assistant prosecutor in the Camden County, N.J. prosecutor’s office, during which he also was an assistant coach at Rutgers-Camden. Soon he joined his father’s firm in Philadelphia and dived into sports management.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/sports/basketball/leon-rose-knicks-president.html?emc=rss&partner=rss