Ramon Sessions Is An Agent Now. How Will He Stand Out?

Ramon Sessions received a call during the 2019 offseason that he believed was his opportunity to get back into the NBA. He had missed the entire 2018-19 season after spending 11 years in the league, but he had not stopped working out, believing that his career was not yet over. When a contact from the National Basketball Players Association reached out to him with news that New Orleans Pelicans new boss David Griffin wanted to talk, Sessions thought it was about a roster spot.

A conversation with Mark Bartelstein, his agent, made clear this was about something else. When Sessions got on the phone with Griffin and heard him out, he responded with surprise. Griffin was interested in having Sessions join his front office. At 33, Sessions’ NBA career was over; he joined New Orleans as its new director of basketball operations.

The job, Sessions said, was about helping players with everything else in their lives other than basketball. It was also a time for Sessions to consider what he wanted to do with his life. This new role was unexpected, so he needed to also think about what came after it. Coaching, he thought, was not for him. Eventually, neither was the front office.

This spring, Sessions became an NBA agent. He becomes, by his count, the third former player currently working as an NBPA-certified agent. It is the latest stage for a player who was barely expected to even hang on in the NBA after he was chosen 56th by the Bucks in 2007.

This decision, Sessions said, came as an outgrowth of his many interests during his playing days, when he was an active member of the union.

“I just felt like ‘Man, why not?'” he said. “It just made too much sense. I always was intrigued my whole career — being a union guy — wanting to know how a contract worked. Just wanted another challenge. Me doing this is no different than me being picked 56.”

Sessions is now the founder and CEO of On Time Agency. It is a boutique company, he says, that will eventually grow to four employees. He is completely self-funding this endeavor, he says, without any outside capital or investors that are sometimes the prelude to a new player representation firm. Former players becoming agents remains rare; while Jermaine O’Neal and Tracy McGrady started their own agency two years ago, neither is NBPA certified.

Sessions has two clients already. He is representing Jordan Walsh, a top-20 recruit in the class of 2022 committed to Arkansas, on his NIL contracts and Pelicans guard Kira Lewis Jr. on marketing deals.

His pitch to prospective clients, he says, is simple.

“A former player but also a player that was part of the union, that worked in a front office, so there’s not much I haven’t seen to guide these young men and to becoming professionals on and off the court,” Sessions said. “We’re talking basketball but it’s more than basketball. I’m just the living proof because I did it of that on and off the court, from community stuff to starting and not starting, to getting traded, to working in a front office. My resume is pretty much what I feel like these guys are going to go through.”

He adds, “My job doesn’t stop if you play six years or play 16 years, we still got work to do. People don’t understand you come into this business not knowing how it works and you leave not knowing how life works outside of it because you’re so focused on basketball.”

Sessions did not have any bad experiences with an agent as a player. This career choice is not a response to any sour moments. He was represented by Bartelstein, Chubby Wells and Jared Karnes during his 11 NBA seasons and speaks fondly of all three.

Instead, he wants to impart the wisdom he learned during his playing career to the next generation of players he hopes to represent. Sessions said he is hoping to be an agent that doesn’t get fired, as rare as that may be in that industry.

Walsh signed with Sessions because he wanted an agent with NBA experience. They first met a few years ago when Sessions got to know Walsh’s uncle. He then set up Walsh, who has Alopecia, with Charlie Villanueva, who does as well. The two soon built a relationship, and so did Sessions and Walsh.

“It’s easy to trust him,” Walsh said. “Plus, he’s been to the places I want to be at.”

Walsh is already being projected as a possible 2023 first-round pick, which would give a quick boost to Sessions and his agency. He knows that he will not be for everybody and is already embracing the mantra of quality over quantity in his work.

“I’m excited for the journey,” Sessions said. “My fear of not helping the next generation is greater than my fear of failing in this next chapter.”

by Mike Vorkunov