History

Court Side was incorporated in 1997 by Dejan Vidicki, Jan Lugtenburg, and the late Harry Kip. Prior to that time, all three had been individual agents who were competing with each other.

This joining of forces coincided with the so-called “Bosman Rule”, a law case that forced European countries to open up their leagues to players from other countries within the European Union. Up to that time each country had a restriction on the number of import players. Since Court Side represented a large number of European players, the company immediately established itself as a dominant factor in European basketball.

In 2004 former 1st round NBA draft pick Geert Hammink became a shareholder of Court Side. In 2010 Xavier Severin joined the team as well.

In addition to the four owners more and more agents from across the world joined Court Side until it became a network of co-operating agents. It was the first of its kind in the entire world.

Many more innovations and achievements followed. Below are just a few milestones in Court Side’s history:

• The first international network of co-operating agents in the world.
• The first agency in the world with its own website and intranet.
• The first agency in the world that organized international annual Exposure Camps.
• Stakeholder and member of the FIBA agent advisory board. This board played an instrumental part in implementing the BAT (Basketball Arbitral Tribunal) as well as drafting the rules and regulations regarding the FIBA agent certification process.
• One of the longest-standing and most experienced agencies in this business.
• Court Side evolved from a network of co-operating agents to an organization which employs our agents. Very few agencies in the world operate this way. When they do, they employ less than a small fraction of the employees Court Side does.