Basketball

• Agents want more tools in their toolboxes [Some agents believe recent NBA deals are diminishing their power].
• Mark Bartelstein says that the owners are being greedy, not the agents [Agent fires back at Stern over 'greed' comment].
• I say the answer is no [Would decertification kill current contracts?].
• Some agents were unaware of the NBPA’s decision to disclaim interest [Agents irked as NBA players say no].
• We may be seeing lots of lawsuits [Agents may sue league on behalf of locked out rookies].
• Early concessions by the NBPA could have damaged negotiations [Agent says NBA players did what they had to]

Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up (11/18/2011) from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Basketball

• Wasserman Media Group is part of the mix [Pistons' Brandon Knight wants to be healthy role model].
• I just like the fact that Glass is quoted saying, “”And as my ex-wives learned, I don’t go to court unless I know I’m going to win.” [Long-time agent Keith Glass urges NBA owners & players not to forget the fans].
• Does Stern treat the comment that he is “the master of spinning a story” as a compliment? [Top NBA agent Bartelstein blasts Stern for handling of lockout].
• Mark Bartelstein is really making the rounds [A Lot of Talk, but Few Stars Have Left the Country to Play].

Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up (10/14/2011) from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

At 8 p.m. EST on Tuesday, October 11, 2011, ESPN will premier The Dotted Line, a documentary about sports agents directed by Morgan Spurlock. ESPN provided a DVD screener of the documentary, which I had a chance to review over the weekend.

The documentary begins with Drew Rosenhaus, the most recognizable sports agent in the world, defending one of his clients.  But Rosenhaus is certainly not the focus of the show.  Instead, ESPN provides commentary from a plethora of current and former agents, NCAA personnel, and went through the recruiting process of a young, upcoming agent named Eugene Lee.  Other than a clip of former NFLPA Contract Advisor Josh Luchs taking the cameras with him to UCLA’s practice facility to show just how easy it is for agents to gain access to college athletes, I found the portions devoted to Lee and his company ETL Associates to be the best parts of the show.

The cameras followed Lee, who founded his company in 2003, through the process of recruiting players at West Virginia, University of South Florida, and Notre Dame.  He thought he would leave his meeting with the WVU player and have a signed representation agreement in hand.  Lee ended up finding out from the WVU player’s high school coach that the player would be signing with a different agent.  Lee signed the USF player and celebrated with his co-workers, only to receive a termination letter from that player six weeks later.  Lee also signed the Notre Dame player, who went undrafted, but eventually was picked up by the Chicago Bears.  The show provided great insight on the highs and lows of recruiting for the smaller, boutique firms.  Eugene Lee spent a lot of time and money on recruiting and representing fringe players, and ended up losing out on signing one, was terminated by another, but worked his tail off for the third, who got picked up by a team after Lee put in even more hard work.  The question is, how does someone like Lee actually make money?

Another segment of the show was devoted to baseball agent Peter Greenberg.  Greenberg became one of the biggest
agents in baseball by focusing on recruiting and representing Venezuelan players.  ESPN’s documentary displayed just how powerful Greenberg’s name is in baseball circles in Venezuela.  Players hope to have a chance to sign with Greenberg.  Typically, it is the other way around, with agents praying that they can sign top talent.  The fact that Greenberg negotiated a huge contract for Johan Santana certainly helped the agent establish his solid reputation.

And then there was a segment on agent scandals. Quite a bit of attention was paid to Josh Luchs, who was recently a fabulous guest speaker in the Sport Agency Management class that I teach at Indiana University.  Again, the part of the Luchs segment that stood out the most was when he drove his Mercedes right up to a UCLA locker room entrance and showed how easy it was to gain access to the players.

The documentary also included words of wisdom from Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports & Entertainment, who talked about the immense costs associated with providing training for clients, basketball agent David Falk, who talked about how trust is earned and that it is very difficult to succeed as an agent without cheating, and others.

Be sure to tune in to ESPN at 8:00 p.m. EST on October 11, 2011, and let me know what you think of the documentary.

ESPN’s “The Dotted Line” – A Documentary About Sports Agents from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

“There’s an inaccurate perception out there that there’s this group of agents — including myself — that have decided to quote-unquote blow up the union, or destroy the union, and nothing could be further from the truth.”

“Billy [Hunter] is in this position where he’s trying in good faith to get a deal done, but you can’t negotiate by yourself.”

“I have a duty to make sure I’m exploring everything I can in terms of helping bring this thing to a positive resolution. That’s my job. I’m going to do that, but I’ve always been doing it in concert with Billy and the players’ association.”

“The way this thing reads, it’s like there’s all this plotting going on. That’s just not true. The idea has never been to blow up the union.”

Mark Bartelstein On “Blowing Up The Union” from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

NBA owners and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) are certainly not sitting idle.  However, I still do not feel a strong sense of urgency from either side of the bargaining table.  That could soon change, as many prominent basketball agents are making it known that they wish to decertify the NBPA.

Arn Tellem (Wasserman Media Group), Bill Duffy (BDA Sports), Mark Bartlestein (Priority Sports), Dan Fegan (Lagardère Unlimited) and Jeff Schwartz (Excel Sports) have collectively had their names printed by many media outlets over the past week.  These gentlemen have decided that they are in favor of decertification of the players’ union, which would allow their clients to file antitrust lawsuits against the NBA.  As long as the NBPA exists as a certified union of NBA players, the players forfeit their right to sue for any antitrust claims.

Journalists have been quick to point out that the five aforementioned agents collectively represent roughly thirty percent of the active players who comprise the NBPA, which happens to be the percentage of players needed to sign a petition in favor of decertification prior to all players in the union voting on the matter.  Thereafter, a simple majority would effectively decertify the NBPA.

This discussion reminds me of an article written by NBA.com columnist David Aldridge on July 4, 2011, where he said,

Players are much more unified this time around than in ’99, in no small part because [Billy] Hunter has neutered the influence of powerful player agents like Arn Tellem, Mark Bartlestein and Bill Duffy, with an executive committee comprised mainly of middle-class players like Roger Mason, Jr. and Keyon Dooling.)

I wrote a reply, respectfully disagreeing with Aldridge’s assessment.

It is naive to think that the “middle-class players” will control negotiations on the players end, especially when a big problem with the current system is the large dollars that mid-level players are receiving.  The heavy hitting agents will be involved, whether or not they represent any players on the Executive Committee.

At this point in time, it seems as though the major agents are actively involved and will not be ceding control any time soon.  Whether this is a good thing for the NBA, in general, remains to be seen.

Agents In Control Of Collective Bargaining Negotiations For NBA Players from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

It has been a very eventful past couple of weeks for me.  Quite a bit of stuff is still pending; some I wish to keep confidential and other information I feel free to share.  I have accepted a new legal job, which will start in about a week and a half.  I have had an amazing year working at Koch Parafinczuk & Wolf, PA (KPW) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where I have grown tremendously as a litigator.  I am forever thankful for the opportunity that they gave me.  However, I have been offered a position to work directly with a prominent Entertainment/Intellectual Property attorney who has left his firm to start up a new venture from scratch.  It will be the two of us plus a couple of secretaries, and we will be largely focusing on Entertainment/Sports/Intellectual Property matters.  I will certainly provide more information over the next couple of weeks.  In the meantime, I am wrapping up some work at KPW and handling a lot of other matters that need to be taken care of.  Everyone is talking about this article that was written in The Atlantic this week.  I hope to get a chance to finally read it this weekend.  Here are some stories I missed over the past week:

Basketball

• Thoughts on Adam Silver attending the U.S. open with Casey Wasserman? [NBA players storm Vegas for all-pro 'lockout league,' union meeting].
• Arn Tellem, Bill Duffy, Mark Bartelstein, Jeff Schwartz, and Dan Fegan want the NBPA to decertify [Sources: Agents want union to decertify].
• How the NBA’s lawsuit may preclude decertification of the NBPA [GameTime: Labor Roundtable].

Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up (9/16/2011) from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Carl Landry of the New Orleans Hornets was formerly represented by Andrew “Buddy” Baker.  Baker had represented Landry for over four years, including the period leading up to Landry’s selection as the 1st pick of the 2nd round by the Seattle Sonics (now the Oklahoma City Thunder) in 2007.  Landry was immediately traded to the Houston Rockets.  At that time, Baker was with IM Sports Services (a branch of the large law firm Ice Miller).  Baker is now a part of Exclusive Sports Group (ESG), which represents basketball players, football players, and coaches.

Anyway, Carl Landry recently switched agents and signed with Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports & Entertainment.  Brad Ames of Priority Sports has confirmed the change.  Here is the odd thing about the switch – Carl’s younger brother Marcus Landry is still represented by Buddy Baker according to ESG’s basketball clients page.  Marcus Landry is currently under contract with BCM Gravelines in France.  It is unknown as to whether Marcus has plans to eventually join Carl as Priority Sports clients.

The change of agents was first reported by Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype.

Free agent forward Carl Landry is now represented by Mark Bartelstein, HoopsHype has learned.

August 23, 2011 12:00 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@hoopshype

HoopsHype.com

On To The Next One: Carl Landry from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Watch the entire Bartelstein interview below and leave your thoughts in our Comments section.

Mark Bartelstein Speaks About NFL Free Agent Deals from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Wojnarowski Tweeted that statement after Arn Tellem of Wasserman Media Group, Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports, and many other prominent basketball agents met with National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) Executive Director Billy Hunter on Friday to talk about the NBA lockout (which began on July 1, 2011), including the possibility of decertification of the union.

As we have seen with the NFL, decertification of the NBPA would prevent it from collectively bargaining with NBA owners.  The NBPA would have to eventually recertify before agreeing to a new collective bargaining agreement.  A major perceived benefit of decertifying is allowing the players to individually and/or collectively file lawsuits against the NBA under United States antitrust laws based on a claim of unlawfully restraining trade.  Collective bargaining under U.S. labor laws effectively prevents players from bringing any suits against the league under antitrust laws.

While it is no doubt that NBA agents want to force the NBA to negotiate for real, there may also be a more basic reason that agents are thinking about decertification – they may not like the idea of being a part of a union at all.  In May, Arn Tellem wrote an article published in the New York Times, which questioned whether players’ unions have outlived their purpose.  Specifically, Tellem believes that unions have shielded owners from the scrutiny of antitrust laws and effectively allowed collusion.  Tellem stated, “something is fundamentally wrong when the only effective weapon in a union’s arsenal is dissolution.”  Whether Tellem wanted to do so or not, he showed his cards by writing that statement – he thinks decertification (if not dissolution) is the only effective weapon.

Adrian Wojnarowski’s Tweet and subsequent article titled, NBA agents want union to decertify, reinforces Tellem’s and others agents’ determination to decertify the NBPA.  The quote from Wojnarowski’s article that absolutely sticks out to me is,

“Right now, it’s a respectful disagreement with [the agents] and Billy [Hunter], but it’s getting to a ‘[expletive]-you’ point.  We will blow this thing up.”

So much for David Aldridge’s belief that Billy Hunter has been able to neuter the influence of powerful player agents like Arn Tellem, Mark Bartelstein, and Bill Duffy.  As I wrote earlier this month and discussed on Brian Berger’s Sports Business Radio show, the fact that the NBPA’s executive committee is comprised of what Aldridge describes as “middle-class players” such as Roger Mason, Jr. and Keyon Dooling, should have absolutely no bearing on the influence of powerful agents in this labor battle.  In fact, Tellem and Bartelstein each represent one of the nine players on the committee.  Maybe players will prove to be much more unified this time around than in 1999, but it will have nothing to do with Billy Hunter’s neutering of powerful player agents.  If anything, it looks like the powerful player agents may neuter Hunter.

Powerful NBA Agents Seek Use Of Decertification Weapon from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Aldridge expects the start of the 2011/12 NBA season to be stalled until Christmas, which means that almost three full months of regular season games will be missed, along with all preseason games.  His assessment is based on a group of owners he believes are ready to test the strength of the players’ union, along with a union that has been appropriately prepared for a lengthy work stoppage.  I found the following line to be most interesting:

Players are much more unified this time around than in ’99, in no small part because [Billy] Hunter has neutered the influence of powerful player agents like Arn Tellem, Mark Bartlestein and Bill Duffy, with an executive committee comprised mainly of middle-class players like Roger Mason, Jr. and Keyon Dooling.)

Take a look at the National Basketball Players Association Executive Committee.  Of the nine players on the committee, only one (Chris Paul) is earning a salary that is among the top thirty in the NBA.  There is no disputing that the Committee is comprised of what Aldridge refers to as “middle-class players,” but does that really affect the influence of powerful agents like Tellem, Bartelstein, and Duffy?  Take a look at the nine players on the Executive Committee along with their agents of record.

• Derek Fisher – Rob Pelinka (Landmark Sports Agency)
• Keyon Dooling - Rob Pelinka (Landmark Sports Agency)
• James Jones – Joel Bell
• Matt Bonner – Kenny Grant (Championship Sports)
• Maurice Evans – Roger Montgomery
• Roger Mason – Mark Bartelstein (Priority Sports)
• Chris Paul – Leon Rose (Creative Artists Agency)
• Theo Ratliff – Joel Bell
• Etan Thomas – Arn Tellem (Wasserman Media Group)

Look whose names show up – the aforementioned Tellem and Bartelstein.  While Bill Duffy’s name is noticeably absent, heavy hitters like Leon Rose of CAA and Rob Pelinka of Landmark Sports Agency are present.  Thus, if we are going to base the influence of particular agents on whether they have clients on the Executive Committee, then I do not follow Aldridge’s thinking.  Furthermore, I cannot quite comprehend why Aldridge would think that the makeup of the Executive Committee would somehow affect agents and agencies’ role in negotiations.  The Executive Committee is an influential group, but is certainly not the only voice for the players (especially in a world with Twitter and Facebook).  If Hunter somehow “neutered the influence of powerful player agents” in some other fashion, I am all ears.

I would love for no games to be missed in the 2011/12 NBA season.  More realistic is a hope that the season gets started before January 1, 2012.  But it is naive to think that the “middle-class players” will control negotiations on the players end, especially when a big problem with the current system is the large dollars that mid-level players are receiving.  The heavy hitting agents will be involved, whether or not they represent any players on the Executive Committee.  You’re invited to the party too, Bill Duffy, even if Aldridge has not left a place card at the table for you.

Has Billy Hunter Neutered The Influence Of Powerful Player Agents? from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules