Leon Rose forged a career as a top basketball agent the old-fashioned way: he worked tirelessly, fueled by bottomless ambition, and built something out of nothing. He started with one client — a backup guard named Rick Brunson, who spent three of his nine seasons occupying the last seat on the Knicks bench.
Early on, he made the acquaintance of William Wesley — known across the basketball universe as World Wide Wes. Together they assembled a star-dappled roster of stars — Allen Iverson, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, start there — and sold Rose’s practice to Creative Artists Agency in 2007, and under CAA’s flag Rose kept planting roots inside every patch of fertile basketball communities.