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Eastern Washington University Basketball

Former Eastern Washington basketball star Alvin Snow enjoys life as sports agent

Alvin Snow, now an agent at Worldwide Sports Management, led the Eastern Washington Eagles to their first NCAA Tournament berth in 2004. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)

Not that long ago, Alvin Snow helped make some basketball history at Eastern Washington.

Now he’s an agent, trying to help other basketball players make their dreams come true.

Or as Snow puts it, “It’s a blessing to be a blessing.”

Given a choice, Snow would probably still be playing. After leading the Eagles to their first NCAA Tournament berth in 2004, he played on 13 teams in nine seasons before a torn Achilles ended his career at the age of 33.

That too may have been a blessing, although Snow didn’t know it at the time.

“I was already 19 years into (playing),” said Snow, who was playing in Kosovo at the time. “The grind of it was becoming harder and the days were harder than they were fun.”

Snow wasn’t about to replace one grind with another.

“No nine-to-five job for me,” he said.

Seeing “nothing but opportunity ahead of me,” Snow said he considered everything from firefighting to sales before reconnecting with his former agent, Justin Haynes.

Now they’re partners at Worldwide Sports Management, a 14-year-old firm that represents players from around the world.

One of the latest is former Eastern star Jacob Wiley, who this year signed a two-way contract with the Brooklyn Nets. Wiley’s image graces the home page of the company’s website.

“He’s doing great,” says Snow, sounding like a proud father at the age of 36.

Then again, Snow helped lay the foundation for success at Eastern, where he played from 2000-4.

The Eagles’ first Division I All-American, he helped Eastern to its first appearances in the NCAAs and the NIT. During that span, Eastern was a conference-best 41-17 in Big Sky Conference play and never finished worse than second.

The Big Sky MVP in 2004, he was the first Eagle to lead the team in scoring, rebounding and assists in the same season.

Still chasing his dream, Snow played the next decade in the Continental Basketball Association, the NBA Developmental League and nine countries: Iceland, Israel, Cyprus, Germany, Turkey (in 2007 and for seconds in 2012), Poland, Slovenia and Ukraine.

Having seen it all, Snow is eager to pass on the experience to his clients. He has 16 of them, including former Montana stars Martin Breunig, Kareem Jamar and Jordan Gregory.

As a former Big Sky player, Snow can relate to their uphill struggles.

“I tell them that there are no life rafts, that no one is going to save you – you have to do it yourself,” Snow said.

All the same, Snow tries to make himself available during the offseason.

“Most agents are hiding,” Snow said. “The one thing I do that’s different is I spend every single day with my guys.”