When Shyra Johnson was in ninth grade, she remembers watching “First Take,” a weekly morning sports debate show with her dad, Teriel Johnson. He asked if she had ever thought about becoming a sports agent. Her cousin Tameria Johnson was already a basketball star in the family, and Teriel said that Shyra could represent her.
“Ever since that moment, I never looked back,” says Johnson, 22. Her hard work and determination paid off as she recently became one of the youngest sports agents in NBA history.
Growing up in Summerfield, Fla., Johnson played basketball, track and tennis and participated in cheer, while maintaining a 4.8 GPA in high school. She chose to attend Florida Atlantic University after receiving a full academic scholarship through the Kelly/Strul Emerging Scholars Program. This enabled her to graduate in 2021 debt-free and has opened many doors for her as she starts her career.
Johnson finished her bachelor’s degree in business management with a minor in business law in three years. She says that, while the Kelly/Strul program supported her financially, the experience with the donors of the program had a profound impact on her as well. “They have helped to nurture me into the woman I am today. I have held very close relationships with Aubrey Strul, as well as other donors including Cecilia Peters, Arthur Adler, Howard Boilen, and the list goes on,” she says.
After she earned the bachelor’s degree needed to satisfy the National Basketball Players Association’s requirement, Johnson studied the collective bargaining agreement — a 600-page law agreement between the NBA and the NBPA. She took their exam, passed and became certified.
Although she has already founded her own business — Team Empire Sports — where she is the CEO, Johnson is also earning a master’s degree, one of the requirements to be a professional sports agent for the NFL.
Johnson knows that she has worked diligently to get where she is and does not lose sight of the support she’s had along the way, namely sports agent Kelli Masters, who is one of her mentors and her mother, Vanessa Wall, who had her when she was just a teenager. “She did whatever it took for me to be where I am today,” Johnson says.
Johnson has already signed two clients for marketing projects. Physically signing the contracts were surreal moments for her. “It truly felt like a scene from a movie that I’ve held in my head for a long time.”