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Ex-Magic Guard Michael Carter-Williams Has Blunt Advice for Young Athletes
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- Ex-Magic Guard Michael Carter-Williams Has Blunt Advice for Young Athletes
It was recently announced that former Orlando Magic guard and the 2014 Rookie of the Year, Michael Carter-Williams , is joining Brunswick Sports Management as the new Head of Basketball. The Sports Management company was founded almost three years ago by sports executive Julian Aiken.
The Firm functions as a business management and marketing company, assisting athletes with brand development and financial success, and according to brunswicksportsmanagement.com , represents 30-plus athletes across the NFL, NBA, and MLB.
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While speaking with Scoop B.com , Julian Aiken emphasized that he wants to make an impact and grow in the basketball space, and that Carter-Williams will help young players develop.
"We want to make sure that we're still making a really large impact and focusing on growing the basketball side of things," Aiken tells ScoopB.com. "So, Michael will be heading up our entire basketball division, continuing to help manage guys there and mentor guys there."
Carter-Williams Goes From Starter, To Bench, To Mentor
In a post on his LinkedIn page, Carter-Wiliams spoke of his background as the best player on the team and later on, spending time on the bench with the Magic.
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He believes the range of his experiences allows him to relate to any player sitting in front of him, which is crucial given that's who you want to represent you in Name, Image, and Likeness negotiations as an athlete in today's environment.
"After a career of being the one with an agent, now I'm repping athletes too," wrote Carter . "I've watched enough guys try to keep their name, their money, and their career in three separate boxes, and it never works as well as when it's all running through the same hands."
Carter was a first-round draft pick, chosen 11th overall, in the 2013 NBA draft by the Philadelphia 76ers
. He played for the Syracuse Orange in college and was the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2014.
"I've been in probably every position possible, best player on the team to the guy who never takes his warmups off, and every one of those is hard in a different way. So, whoever's sitting across from me, I've been him," said Carter-Williams.
Carter-Williams, along with Daniel Sung, Calvin Anderson, and Bert Zevzavadjian, are the co-founders of the company Athletes Pen, which turns athletic credibility into business capital. They manage their clients' LinkedIn pages end-to-end, and provide profile optimization, weekly ghostwritten thought-leadership posts, and strategic networking.
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Athlete pen also connects you with the sponsors, investors, and partners who matter, all without you touching a keyboard, according to the website .
More NBA:
Carter-Williams Offers Candid Advice After Teaming Up With Julian Aiken
Michael Carter-Williams has one big piece of advice for young athletes looking to make the leap to the national stage:
"Own your name before anybody else gets the chance to define it, because that's what's still there on the nights the minutes aren't."
For those unfamiliar with Julian Aiken, he grew up around basketball and the NBA. His uncle Bob "Bobby" McCann was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in 1987 in the second round with the 32nd overall pick.
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The former five-year veteran played for teams such as Dallas Mavericks , Detroit Pistons , Minnesota Timberwolves , Washington Bullets , and Toronto Raptors . So, that means he spent a lot of time as a kid on planes, in the locker room, and watching the game at its highest level — well before learning the ins and outs on the business side of things.
Related: Kings sign Ben Simmons as former top draft pick returns to NBA
Aiken attended Assumption College (now Assumption University) in Worcester, Massachusetts, and played college basketball there, according to Boadroom .
According to his LinkedIn profile , Aiken graduated from Assumption College in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Finance and Business Administration and Management.
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He spent ten-plus years in the tech world before transitioning into sports management.
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This story was originally published by Lindys Sports on Sep 9, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA section. Add Lindys Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
