Welcome to my Journey!

Hey everyone,

I'm new to this blog thing but I thought I would give it a try! My main purpose in writing this is to share my experiences from start to finish of playing basketball professionally overseas. This may help anyone else who wants to play and follow that path in the future, it can share what life is like for an American in another country, or it may be just for my family who won't get to speak to me as much. Anyways, let me give you a little background of where I am at now. First of all, my name is Nick Kohs (I think I forgot to mention that) and I am a man with a great family, great girlfriend (Kiley), and great friends. I am also a senior basketball player (and student I guess) at Christian Brothers University (NCAA D2). Don't bother trying to figure out what school that is because you probably won't unless you A.) Live in Memphis, TN; B) Go to school at CBU; or C) Already have heard about CBU from someone else who goes there and you wondered about it then to get no answers. Well, it is a really tiny school, but it does have a pretty good basketball team that reached the Elite 8 in the 2008-2009 season. I fortunately, got to play on that great team as the center (I'm 6'8" by the way) and was very successful individually as well. I was a Gulf South Conference Player of the Year and a South Region Player of the Year as well as being named a 1st Team All American. That is actually all well and dandy while you are in college, but this is where the story really starts that I want to share. Now, I'm trying to play professionally. You might say, "Hey you had a good career from the sounds of it what is the problem?" Well, the problem is I got those awards playing at a D2 school! Duh! You've never heard of it, so nobody else has! Anyways, I am going a little overboard, I have been contacted by many agents at home and overseas, but deciding which agent to trust is no easy thing. They all tell me a lot of good things and a lot of different things, some say I could and should play in the NBDL, while others say overseas is the place for me. Now me being a realistic guy knows to weed out anyone who is pushing the NBDL, because the only reason to go there would be if there is a realistic chance of being called up to the NBA! And I am a 6'8" white guy who played NCAA 2, so realistically my chances of the NBA are zero! I'm not saying they aren't better than 90% of the world but I don't match up so well with the small percentage that is currently in the NBA. Ok so I'm a little off topic. Pretty much right now I have a decision to make and maybe you can all give me some advice. The question is do I sign with an agent now, or wait around for an agent to get me a job offer and then sign with them. Now the upside of signing with an agent now is that the bigger agencies expect you to sign with them before they work for you, but this also means they don't have to work as hard after they have you, plus they usually have a lot of players so they have less time for you. These big agencies do have the big reputation and the most contacts, but if you sign early and they don't get you a good deal, you are left with nowhere to go and no options. Ok, the other side of the coin is not signing and dealing with smaller agents, but hardworking agents that are going to call you back right away and treat you like family. They may have less contacts and get you less money but they service you harder. Now, the downside of doing this is the fact that yes you may make less money and also if you wait around and nobody finds you a good job while you work with many agents then you are really stuck because they could move on whenever they want and leave you with nothing. Also, when teams get game tapes from more than one agent it can hurt your credibility and you can look disloyal which is never good in business. So, what do you think? Thanks for making my first post a successful one!

Nick Kohs"terized"

PS. I put some highlight tapes on youtube using Windows Movie Maker, tell me what you think, I am trying to get it right I am going to keep trying to make better ones! But, you can see how I play! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhuPCPNU7Uc