Jasmine Andrade
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Courtesy of Nicole Jeter West
Sports Illustrated and Empower Onyx are putting the spotlight on the diverse journeys of Black women across sports—from the veteran athletes, to up-and-coming stars, coaches, executives and more—in the series, Elle-evate: 100 Influential Black Women in Sports.
Marketing powerhouse Nicole Jeter West didn’t take a typical path into sports business.
“My whole career has been a series of ‘never, ever would I have thought this would happen to me,’” the longtime executive says. “I am truly living a fantasy life.”
Though she now serves as the head of marketing and brand engagement for LA 2028 (LA28), the Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Jeter West says she just hoped to land a job in advertising when she began her career a couple of decades ago. As it turned out, she became a seasoned deal-maker at the young age of 22 and ultimately created a role she wanted to carry on with.
“I started straight out of college thinking I would come to New York and work for a major advertising agency,” she recalls. “I got offers from a few, but then I got another opportunity very serendipitously.”
On this particular day, Jeter West says, she had finished an interview with an agency and went to meet a friend who worked at the New York Knicks organization. “I was wearing my one blue suit, with my one striped shirt, and I was sitting there with my little leather padfolio with all my résumés in it, and someone from the Knicks saw me and said, ‘Hi, do you have time for one more interview?’ ”
That someone turned out to be the Knicks’ vice president of marketing at the time. “Ultimately he offered me a one-year trainee position,” she says, “which was really a glorified internship at Madison Square Garden.” But she accepted the role. Jeter West says the Knicks job was nothing like the full-time offers she’d received from the ad agencies: The pay was hourly, there were no benefits and they didn’t promise anything at the end of the year.
“I remember telling my parents, ‘I’m going to go work for the Knicks and live at…
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