Former NBA star Zach Randolph had only two agents represent him over his 17 seasons in the NBA, and he parted ways with the first after his rookie season. On his Out The Mud Podcast, Randolph revealed he missed out on $500,000 because Mike Harrison failed to inform him about a weight clause in his contract.
“I ain’t never told the story why I switched my agent,” Randolph said. “I had a weight clause. I’m the 19th pick, right? So the money is slotted already. But you get an extra percentage, you get the extra when you come in to rookie camp back then. On your contract, you’ll get an extra 4% or whatever, something like that. And mine was like a half a million or something like that.
“And I had a weight clause,” Randolph continued. “I had to be 250 pounds to get the money to get the 500,000. And I didn’t know this. And I came in over. Mine was like a 251.”
Randolph had grown up in poverty in Marion, Indiana. Getting to the NBA wasn’t just about fulfilling his lifelong dream, but it was also about pulling his family out of poverty.
The Portland Trail Blazers had selected Randolph with the No. 19 pick in the 2001 NBA Draft. He needed all the money he could get at that time, but missed out on $500,000 because of Harrison’s negligence.
Randolph only found out about this when agent Raymond Brothers was making his case to represent him a year later.
“When my agent, when he was recruiting me, and he told me that you missed this money for the one pound,” Randolph said.
Randolph unsurprisingly hired Brothers after this. His new agent even had that weight clause eventually removed. Randolph has a lot of love for Brothers today, but not for Harrison, as you’d imagine.
“My agent was named Mike Harrison,” Randolph said. “… I’m like, ‘Bro, come on. How the f***? I need that, bro.’… And I was with Raymond. And it was a blessing to get Raymond. He held a young brother down. I went through a lot of stuff in the league… Raymond stuck by my side every single step of the way.”
Randolph’s story is just yet another example of why it’s crucial for a player to hire the right agent. We had Charles Barkley share how his first agent cheated him out of $100 million. While Harrison here wasn’t cheating Randolph or stealing from him, his negligence cost his client.
Brothers would do a pretty good job of representing Randolph in the years that followed. According to Spotrac, he made about $196 million in salaries in the NBA. That’s a whole lot of money.
Randolph did his part on the court, too, of course. He won Most Improved Player in 2004, and made two All-Star and one All-NBA team. He wasn’t a superstar, but was one of the better power forwards in the NBA in the 2000s and the early 2010s.
Randolph retired in 2019 after suiting up for the Trail Blazers, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, and Sacramento Kings. He averaged 16.6 points, 9.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 0.7 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game in his career.
