ISLA MANAGEMENT founder Simon Gebrelul vividly remembers being in the Philippines for the 2016 Canadian national team\u2019s Olympic qualifiers, joining the three week trip as Tristan Thompson\u2019s longtime manager and close friend. It was in Manila where Simon met current style icon and frontrunner for NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was then just a 16-year-old playing for Hamilton Heights Christian Academy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two have built a big brother, little brother type of bond ever since Simon invited Shai to his nightly dinners with Tristan out in the Philippines. \u201cWe immediately connected over laughter,\u201d Simon says. Fast forward nearly 10 years, and Simon and Shai still share that same brotherhood, only now in a more official capacity, as ISLA MANAGEMENT represents the All-Star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen Shai got drafted to the NBA, we had already started ISLA on the music side. As both of our careers progressed, we organically found an amazing way for our businesses to intersect,\u201d Simon says. \u201cAnd the rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alongside his partner EK, Simon founded ISLA MANAGEMENT in 2018. It is one of the few companies that operates in the music and basketball industries simultaneously. ISLA doesn\u2019t recruit its clients. The relationships, both working and personal, materialize naturally, from discovering R&B artist Giveon to representing Boi-1da, OZ, Jahaan Sweet and more. Shai brings yet another multidimensional layer to the company\u2019s roster of hitmakers. And Simon knows this is just the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat excites me most is knowing this is the tip of the iceberg for Shai. He is honestly just getting started,\u201d Simon says. \u201cI don\u2019t see a boundary or limit to where Shai can take it. Maybe I\u2019m being biased, but I believe he can be one of the greatest ever, on and off the court.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photo credit Jim Poorten. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ISLA MANAGEMENT founder Simon Gebrelul vividly remembers being in the Philippines for the 2016 Canadian national team\u2019s Olympic qualifiers, joining the three week trip as Tristan Thompson\u2019s longtime manager and close friend. It was in Manila where Simon met current style icon and frontrunner for NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was then just a 16-year-old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":448,"featured_media":827107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65344],"tags":[62525,65372],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-827098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slam-254","tag-feature-1","tag-simon-gebrelul"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/448"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827098"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":827142,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827098\/revisions\/827142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827098"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=827098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}