Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line reported on Friday that the Hawks owner Tony Ressler was highly intrigued by the possibility of adding an “established” player agent to run Atlanta’s front office.
With that in mind, CAA’s Austin Brown has emerged as a candidate for a “top executive role” with the Hawks, sources tell Grant Afseth of RG.org.
Brown, the co-head of CAA’s basketball division, is one of the most powerful agents in the NBA. The Evanston, Illinois native played college basketball at DePauw in Indiana before becoming an investment banker with J.P Morgan and then attending law school, he said in an interview in 2022 (YouTube link).
As Afseth writes, Brown’s client list includes Hawks guards Trae Young and Caris LeVert. He also represents Donovan Mitchell, Jaren Jackson Jr., OG Anunoby, and Myles Turner in addition to several other noteworthy current and former players, per RealGM.
Brown’s name has popped up in the past when teams have made front office changes — he was previously linked to the Knicks and Bulls back in 2020. Fischer also reported a couple years ago that Brown remained an agent to keep an eye on for future front office openings.
The Hawks are looking for a new president of basketball operations after firing former general manager Landry Fields. Assistant GM Onsi Saleh was promoted to interim GM and is currently running Atlanta’s day-to-day basketball operations, but is expected to work under the new hire.
The list of guys they’re looking at is pretty bad & this guy fits that group well. If the last guy I’d want is Danny Ferry then Trae Young’s agent would be right up there with him in the top3. Is Brent Barry to expensive or something? Id much rather him than anyone I’ve heard mentioned yet.
More than anything I’d love for us to bring in Chris Paul to be any combination of backup pg/head coach/team Prez.