Kyrie Irving’s decision to keep business in the family is paying off in a big way.
According to reports, his agent, who is also his stepmom is the first and only Black woman agent in the NBA.
“We’ve built trust and consistency,” Riley Irving shared in a 2022 Sports Illustrated interview. “I don’t want Kyrie to come back two years from now saying ‘I signed this really bad deal and it didn’t make sense,’ because he didn’t understand it, or it was just about a money grab. That’s something that we’re really being intentional about, especially in the things that we look to align ourselves with.”
Riley Irving reportedly helped broker a three-year, $126 million contract for her stepson’s return to the Dallas Mavericks, one of the more lucrative deals in the league.
“We planned to take the meetings but decided that Dallas would be our place,” Shetellia told CBS Sports, per a report by Bill Reiter.
Riley Irving joins a small ilk of Black women agents in major sports leagues.
According to Zippia, the most common ethnicity among sports agents is White, which makes up 68.6% of all sports agents. Additionally, women make up just 23% of U.S. NFL agents, and of that, only 10.4% are Black (men or women).