Kyrie Irving has officially joined the ranks of a sweeping trend taking the sports world by storm.
Reports show that his stepmother, Shetellia Riley Irving, is the first and only Black woman agent in the NBA.
“We’ve built trust and consistency,” Riley Irving said 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.”
According to reports, Riley Irving was key in brokering a three-year $126 million contract for her stepson’s return to the Dallas Mavericks, marking it one of the most profitable deals in the league.
“We planned to take the meetings but decided that Dallas would be our place,” Riley Irving told CBS Sports.
Riley Irving now joins the ranks of a growing group of Black women who are agents in major sports leagues, including Felicia Jones, the mother of Baltimore Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson. After becoming his agent, the Ravens approved a five-year $260 million contract with the 2019 MVP QB, which includes $185 million in guaranteed money. Jackson will rake in an average annual salary of $52 million. At the time of this writing, Jackson is the highest-paid player in the NFL after signing the new contract with the help of his mother.
Prior to the signing, it was confirmed that Nicole Lynn had become the first Black woman agent to represent a quarterback in the Super Bowl and made history after signing a $255 million contract for five seasons for star Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, who was approved a no-trade clause – a first for the Eagles franchise. The clause will prohibit the team from trading him without written permission from the player and their agent, and he will get $179.3 million guaranteed because of the contract.
“I’m so grateful that I get to have a front-row seat to experience the journey of [Hurts]” Lynn said in a video posted on Twitter. “This is just the beginning. Your name will be cemented in history for years to come.”
Lynn’s rise to the top of sports business and administration began when she decided she would take a shot in the dark and DM Hurts to request a meeting about his football career. The result would end up working in her favor.
