Renardo Sidney Loses Agent

Originally, I was to post an interview with Renardo Sidney in this space today.  However, I received a call yesterday afternoon from his agent, Johnny Foster, with some surprising news.  “I have parted ways with Renardo,” said Foster.  “I terminated our agreement today.”  While it is something that happens with some frequency in player-agent relationships, this is Renardo Sidney, so chances are there was more to the story.

With plenty of blemishes on a very short career, Sidney had found an agent willing to take a chance on him, but at a cost.  “I had signed two great kids, Truck Bryant and Julian Mavunga, but with the amount of attention and work that Renardo needed, I had to give them up,” said Foster.

While I didn’t go into specific instances with Foster about what caused him to terminate the agreement, he did give a brief summary of Sidney’s time with him.  Not finishing team workouts (which I saw at the New Jersey Combine), having to cancel team workouts, not wanting to put in the work he needed to regularly; Sidney allegedly did all this within the last month, and I was able to confirm with others involved in his training that this is accurate.

I had spoken to Sidney on Saturday, so the final straw came within the last 48 hours.  So why not run the interview?  A large part of interviewing people is based on trust.  I trust that the answers they have given me to my questions are truthful and accurate.  They trust me to quote them correctly, and not mislead them in any way with my questions.  If I go ahead and print quotes from a player, agent, team executive, or anyone else that may not be true, I look foolish when the opposite is confirmed.  Even though I am quoting exactly what I have been told, it does no good to put information out there that is not accurate.  Of course, if you read 99% of the draft rumors out there, this is the case; people feel a need to print whatever they are told, whether it makes sense or not.  Looking back at my interview with Sidney this past weekend, I didn’t feel at this time that I could go ahead and print it.  If I speak to him in the near future, I will try to iron out some issues I have with the answers and possibly print it.

Back to the original point, Foster is no longer representing Sidney, and I have to wonder if any agent is going to take him on any time soon.  I am rooting for Sidney to put the past behind him, and I had thought he still had a shot at the NBA in the future.  Hopefully, I will be able to reach Sidney soon to hear what he has to say.