It’s a big deal for a sports agent to have a client named an All-Star.
Jade-Li English has five in this weekend’s WNBA All-Star Game.
A’ja Wilson is one of the captains and will play with her Las Vegas Aces teammates Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young. Jewell Loyd is on the Seattle Storm and Allisha Gray is on the Atlanta Dream. Each has found success in their own way. Gray is making her All-Star debut in her first season with a new team. Wilson, a two-time MVP, is making her fourth appearance and was given a shoutout from LeBron James at the ESPYs on Wednesday after winning Best WNBA Player.
“[Wilson] is one of the best players in the world, if not the best player in the world,” English told USA TODAY Sports, “so I thought it was great he used his platform to shout her out.”
English didn’t initially envision her career path leading to becoming a basketball agent, but was always around the sport. Her father is Denver Nuggets Hall of Famer Alex English and her aunts played professionally overseas. After witnessing the need for representation for women, especially Black women, she has now become one of the most influential agents in the game.
“It was always ingrained in me, honestly,” she said of women’s basketball being in her DNA.
Storytelling has also been a constant in her journey. English worked in PR at Roc Nation – where she connected with Skylar Diggins-Smith – and had a publication called Nothing But Net with her brother that covered the culture of the game.
After building her roster through organic connections, English joined Rich Paul’s Klutch Sports in February of 2022 to serve as head of the women’s basketball division. The company is also home to Nicole Lynn, who serves as president of football and brokered Jalen Hurts’ historic contract.
“I just want to shoutout our wonderful women of Klutch and the agency for giving women the respect they deserve and the attention they deserve,” she said.
USA TODAY Sports chatted with English ahead of the WNBA All-Star Game. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What does it mean to you to have five clients in the WNBA All-Star Game this weekend?
It means a lot, actually. It’s not something that was in the forefront of my mind when I was working and looking to recruit the players that I have. It was moreso on a character level of who they are as people and they also happen to be amazing basketball players, amazing women and really just in the prime of their careers. Some at the beginning, some at the middle, some closer to the end, but just really firing on all cylinders. It’s really, it’s an honor honestly.
How are you able to create that family environment with your clients and emphasize working with people rather than talent?
For me at least, that’s the job. It’s a relationship-driven business for me and I talk to my clients very frequently all day for the most part. Definitely in the group chat, but also just really getting to know what’s important to them and that helps me do my job and that helps me help them show up however they want to. If you’re doing that authentically, then you have no choice but to become close.
Even though you didn’t necessarily want to become a sports agent initially, can you talk about what ultimately led you to that?
It was really just kind of seeing, working closely with the players and behind the scenes. And honestly, I’m sure most industries, there was a lot of gatekeeping. And eventually just came to a point of like, “If I want to have control and have all the information and do my job the best that I possibly can, I’m going to need to get certified.”
There are definitely the parts about being an agent that were not necessarily something that I wanted to be a part of as far as who I am. I’m not really a person who is underhanded, there’s that part of being an agent, which I wanted no parts of. I honestly wanted no parts of recruiting either, but at the end of the day, I figured it out and also figured out that you don’t have to.
You can still be a very good agent and have great clients and be good at what you do and not have to subscribe to what others might subscribe to. Then there’s the part of it where just seeing how women were being treated and the lack of just equity, the lack of representation, especially even being a Black woman.
Why is it important for Klutch Sports to have a specific division for women?
“It’s so we can really focus and make sure that they are getting everything that they need when it comes to doing this job and that they get the attention that they deserve. I think that’s the biggest and most important part when it comes to storytelling, when it comes to helping them build their brands, helping them be good players on and off the court. I think it’s important to make sure that there was a specificity in that and there’s different nuances to working with women as well, obviously, so that also makes it important to have a women’s division.”
A key word I picked up was ‘storytelling.’ I know you worked in PR and you and your brother had a basketball publication. How does your journey through storytelling continue through your work as an agent?
It was back in the day before content really became king. I think we had a mindset of like just knowing and having grown up in the game and knowing the players on and off the court and behind the scenes and just how culture-driven and what culture movers they are. It was important to kind of start telling those stories and talking about that. And that there is a thing called basketball culture, which has now grown into so much more. But it was years ago before everyone’s literally doing what we were doing now. So it’s not necessarily like a new idea or anything, but back then, we literally had a show called “Legends Lounge” way before (NBA Alumni’s) “Legends Lounge” and we would talk to legends and they would tell stories about back in the day when they used to smoke cigarettes in the locker room, just things like that when things were different. To secure those behind the scenes stories — and obviously times have changed and to even hear them talk about how they view the game now and all of those things too — is just important. And then talking to shoe heads and whatnot. Everything that encompassed basketball culture is what we tried to do. And then we had to get real jobs.
What did you learn from your father, Alex English?
Woo, I mean a lot, honestly. He obviously introduced me to the game, but he also has two sisters who also played basketball. They played overseas before there was ever a WNBA, so I’ve always had a respect for women’s basketball as well. So even when the WNBA first launched and whatnot, we were going to games back then and watching Dawn Staley play and Cynthia Cooper and even the Women of Troy, the Cheryl Millers and the McGee Twins, so it was always ingrained in me, honestly. There was never really a difference between men’s and women’s basketball. It was moreso a difference because women had to go overseas. And then obviously, that’s changing a little bit with the WNBA, but he’s always been an advocate. He was on the WNBPA Board of Advocates as well. And with my mother, both of them were very instrumental in making sure that we as their children, the way that we approached our life in general. We were always aware of our privilege, but also aware of giving back and also aware of societal inequities. And to just be purposeful people in everything that we did.
