Harrison Gaines

Harrison Burwell Gaines (born April 27, 1989) is an American former basketball player who is most notably the founder and chief executive officer of sports agency SLASH Sports & Entertainment. A native of Victorville, California, Gaines was a standout point guard at Serrano High School. He played college basketball with Penn before transferring to UC Riverside for his final two seasons. He later attended Thomas Jefferson School of Law.

Harrison Gaines
Born
Harrison Burwell Gaines[1]

(1989-04-27) April 27, 1989[1]
San Bernardino County, California, U.S.[1]
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Pennsylvania (B.A.)
University of California, Riverside
Thomas Jefferson School of Law (J.D.)
OccupationSports Agent
Years active2016–present

Early life

Gaines was born to Harry and Stephanie Gaines on April 27, 1989 and grew up in Victorville, California.[2] From a young age, he became interested in basketball, watching game tape of Michael Jordan at age three. In his childhood, his mother introduced him to acting and modeling, and he played a minor role in the 1999 film Michael Jordan: An American Hero as a young Jordan.[3]

High school career

Gaines attended Serrano High School in Phelan, California, where he played four years of varsity basketball as a point guard under head coach Mike Browning.[4] He became his team's leading scorer only as a freshman.[5] For his sophomore year, Gaines was promoted to team captain, a position he held until graduating.[2] During the season, he averaged 23.6 points and 5.2 assists per game, among the top in Southern California, and he featured in the Los Angeles Times column for his accomplishments.[4][6]

Prior to his junior year, Gaines was rated the second-best point guard in the region.[2] He recorded 18 points and 6 assists in a win over Sultana High School on January 11, 2006.[7] During the season, he broke the school record for most career points, finishing with 2,086 points by the end of his high school years.[2] On January 17, 2007, as a senior, Gaines scored 30 points and grabbed 7 rebounds to defeat Hesperia High School.[8] In his sophomore, junior, and senior seasons, he was named Mojave River League most valuable player, Daily Press Athlete of the Year, and first-team All-California Interscholastic Federation (CIF). He led Serrano to three straight league titles and a combined 48–9 record in his final two years.[2] Gaines also saw success academically, leaving high school with a 3.7 grade point average (GPA).[9]

US college sports recruiting information for high school athletes
Name Hometown High school / college Height Weight Commit date
Harrison Gaines
PG		 Victorville, California Serrano (CA) 6 ft 0.5 in (1.84 m) 180 lb (82 kg) Oct 10, 2006 
Recruiting star ratings: Scout: N/A   Rivals: N/A   247Sports:
Overall recruiting rankings:   247Sports: 432, 94 (PG), 44 (CA)
  • Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight.
  • In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale.

Sources:

  • "ESPN". ESPN.com. Retrieved November 26, 2017.
  • "2007 Team Ranking". Rivals.com. Retrieved November 26, 2017.

    College career

    Rated a three-star recruit by 247Sports.com coming out of high school, Gaines committed to play for the Penn Quakers on October 10, 2006. By the summer of 2007, he had enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania.[10] On November 20, 2007, Gaines recorded a season-high 12 assists to go with 9 points in a win over The Citadel.[11] He scored a season-best 19 points twice in games against Cornell on February 9, 2008 and March 7.[12] In his freshman season, Gaines averaged 6.7 points, 3.6 assists, 1.7 rebounds, and 0.7 steals per game, leading the Ivy League in assist-to-turnover ratio and earning Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors on two occasions.[2][13]

    In his second-year debut for the Quakers, the point guard posted 10 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists in a loss to North Carolina.[14] On February 27, 2009 against Yale, Gaines had a career-high 24 points, shooting 10-of-15 from the field.[15] As a sophomore, he averaged 9.9 points, 2.2 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 0.4 steals per game.[13] He finished second on the team in points and 14th in the Ivy League.[2] In March 2009, Gaines announced plans to transfer from Penn, later expressing dissatisfaction because they moved him to the shooting guard position.[9][16][17] He stated, "I need to attend a school where I have confidence in the basketball team's leaders."[16]

    Gaines began playing for the UC Riverside Highlanders starting in the 2010–11 season, after redshirting one year. However, his playing time decreased upon the arrival of Santa Clara transfer Robert Smith.[9] He made his UC Riverside debut on November 12, 2010 against UNLV, scoring 5 points in 20 minutes.[18] After playing only 15 games in his junior season, he was averaging 2.3 points, 1.1 rebounds, and 0.7 assists in 7.8 minutes per game.[13]

    As a senior for the Highlanders, in 13.3 minutes per game, Gaines averaged 3.8 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 1.3 assists.[13] He notched a career-high with his new team on November 27, 2011, contributing 13 points against Washington State.[2]

    Sports management
    "My specific role is handling all NBA representation with the Ball family and I stay in my lane as far as that nature. But I think for me, how I view athlete representation, it's about the player, it's about the client. And for me, it starts with basketball, everything starts with the game."

    —Gaines in an ESPN interview as Lonzo Ball's agent.[19]

    Shortly after leaving college, Gaines founded the sports agency SLASH Sports & Entertainment and became the agent to former NBA player Jamaal Franklin.[20][21] In April 2017, it was announced that he would be a part of the representation team for Lonzo Ball, who was projected to be a top pick at the 2017 NBA draft. He began working with Ball with a company created by the client's father LaVar Ball called Ball Sports Group.[20] Gaines had met the Ball family while attending Thomas Jefferson School of Law and was specifically picked for the job by LaVar.[19] After the news was released, he headlined in stories by ESPN and Sports Illustrated.[3][19] On December 7, LaMelo and LiAngelo Ball, brothers to Lonzo, also signed with Gaines, choosing to forgo college.[22] In the following weeks, after LiAngelo and LaMelo signed with the Lithuanian team Vytautas Prienai–Birštonas, Gaines featured in a piece for The New York Times.[23] Gaines also became an important member for Lonzo and his family during a family situation relating to Alan Foster, a former friend of his and a co-founder of the Big Baller Brand that was reportedly stealing money from the business and family.[24] He was then encouraged to take on more of an active role for Lonzo and his family in the upcoming future.[25]

    Clients
    Player Nationality Team
    Jamaal Franklin United States Sichuan Blue Whales
    Isaiah Austin United States Nanjing Monkey King

    References
    1. California Birth Index
    2. "Harrison Gaines". GoHighlanders.com. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
    3. Fischer, Jake (June 28, 2017). "Meet Lonzo Ball's Agent ... (No, It's Not LaVar)". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
    4. Sondheimer, Eric (December 13, 2005). "Hard Work Helps Gaines Reach a Turning Point". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
    5. "Selma boys get win over Serrano". Hanford Sentinel. January 6, 2004. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
    6. "2004-05 Southland Boys' Basketball Statistics". Los Angeles Times. January 12, 2005. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
    7. "Walker scores 30 in Fontana win". The San Bernardino Sun. January 11, 2006. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
    8. "Rialto tops Carter to set up showdown". The San Bernardino Sun. January 17, 2007. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
    9. Patton, Gregg (February 20, 2012). "Gaines knew Lin in saner days". The Press-Enterprise. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
    10. "Harrison Gaines". 247Sports.com. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
    11. "Citadel vs. Penn Box Score". RealGM. November 20, 2007. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
    12. "Harrison Gaines Game Logs". RealGM. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
    13. "Harrison Gaines Player Profile". RealGM. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
    14. "North Carolina vs. Penn Box Score". RealGM. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
    15. "Yale vs. Penn Box Score". RealGM. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
    16. Klitsman, Zach (March 11, 2009). "Harrison Gaines to transfer". The Daily Pennsylvanian. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
    17. Weitzman, Yosef (July 9, 2017). "Meet Harrison Gaines, the former Penn basketball player who is now Lonzo Ball's agent". The Daily Pennsylvanian. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
    18. "UC Riverside vs. UNLV Box Score". RealGM. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
    19. Haynes, Chris (July 15, 2017). "Q&A: Lonzo Ball's agent Harrison Gaines knows how to work with the Ball family". ESPN. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
    20. Mullen, Liz (April 26, 2017). "LaVar Ball: Young agent will be part of representation team". The Business Journals. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
    21. Bolch, Ben (April 7, 2017). "New sports agency poised to give Lonzo Ball a unique start in NBA". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
    22. Goodman, Jeff (December 7, 2017). "LaVar Ball: LiAngelo, LaMelo sign with agent, will play overseas". ESPN. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
    23. Keh, Andrew (December 21, 2017). "How This Lithuanian Outpost Lured LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball". The New York Times. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
    24. http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26323950/los-angeles-lakers-guard-lonzo-ball-severs-ties-big-baller-brand-co-owner-allegations-15-million-unaccounted-espn
    25. https://lonzowire.usatoday.com/2019/03/25/lonzo-ball-big-baller-brand-agent-harrison-gaines-alan-foster-lavar-ball/
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