Agent Mark Stevens is in the news again. Back in 2006 he was compared to Drew Rosenhaus when he and another high profile client, Ron Artest, were in a strikingly similar situation. Well he seems to be attempting to follow the same playbook in his most recent attempt to get Stephen Jackson traded out of Golden State.

After publicly stating a desire to be traded back in August and some initial backlash with coach Don Nelson resulting in Jackson being absolved of his duties as captain, things have seemed to quiet down in Golden State. Jackson has been playing without incident and has put up numbers in line with his career averages. Jackson even had a 15 assist night just a few days ago. Golden State is said to have been in talks with up to 10 teams with interest in Jackson and has been attempting to weigh offers and find a reasonable trade. It seemed as if an amiable end is possible after this falling out.

Then Jackson’s agent, Mark Stevens, decided to publicly insult Coach Don Nelson in an obvious effort to speed up the process of getting his client traded. Whether or not Stephen Jackson had known Stevens was going to publicly insult his coach, we will never know, but this seems all too familiar territory for Stevens and seems to be a well thought out plan (or not so well thought out depending on your point of view). Could this be Stevens’ way of speeding up the trade process, while attempting to deflect some of the blame from Jackson, who already has character issues and a bit of a troubled history in the league?

Where I take issue with the strategy is that now GMs are not only concerned with dealing for a player who is going to publicly bad mouth them or the team, they are going to be dealing for a player whose agent will publicly bad mouth the organization. That is certainly not the type of thing an agent would like to develop a reputation for. Maintaining a positive dialogue with the organization would certainly increase the odds of a mutually beneficial resolution. Stevens’ strategy may result in Golden State choosing to eliminate the headache and the contract by trading Jackson for little in return, which could result in Jackson ending up with another non-contender…which is why he originally wanted out of GS.

It remains to be seen how the whole situation will play out; however, the bigger question is when, if ever, as an agent, is it beneficial to make inflammatory comments about a client’s coach, team or management? While this may be the strategy that some choose to use, in the long run respectable, private negotiations seem to be the best avenue for accomplishing the goals of all parties involved. We have seen many a case in which an unhappy player and agent try to force their way out of a situation, but they very seldom work out positively for all sides.

*Note: Ron Artest is no longer represented by Mark Stevens and Stevens does not have any other NBA clients.

Cuba is known for producing remarkable talent on the diamond.  Its players are followed by every single MLB organization, and many agents dream about getting their hands on the next Cuban-born prospect.  Recently, the baseball world has been caught up with what team Cuba’s most recent defector, Aroldis Chapman, will sign with.  Chapman is just the newest Cuban player to clog the headlines, but in the past, many others have been in the spotlight, and unfortunately, so have their agents.

Representing Cuban defectors is risky business.  Gustavo “Gus” Dominguez, co-founder of California-based Total Sports International Inc., was handed a five-year prison term in April 2008 for smuggling prospects out of Cuba.  Juan Ignacio Hernández Nodar, was a Miami-based sports agent who received a fifteen-year sentence for the same thing: helping Cuban players defect from the island.  Nodar was recently released one-and-a half -years earlier than the full length of the sentence.  You can thank Nodar for being able to watch Orlando “El Duque” Hernández over the years.

The U.S. and Cuban governments tried to make examples out of Gus and Nodar, and for a long time, we have heard little about Cuban baseball defections.  It makes me wonder how closely government officials have been monitoring Aroldis Chapman’s defection.  I assume that his agents were especially careful in the way they managed his affairs.  One would hope so based on the penalties handed down to guys like Dominguez and Nodar.

Baseball

• Some interesting ideas include: increase scholarships, bring back the one-time transfer rule, make a switch to wooden bats, and push the MLB Draft to after the CWS [College baseball still needs major changes].
• Big ATL agents (France – football and Abbott – baseball) will be in attendance [First Ever Brian McCann Celebrity Softball Game Set for 11/13].
• Quite a line from Boras: “If stem-cell research were around, you’d want to tap into that gene pool.” [Scott Boras is making pitch for Johnny Damon's free agency this winter]
• The Arizona Fall League has produced a lot of very successful Major League players [Scout's Diary: AFL Still A Great Secret].

Football

• Surprised that Antonio Gates is not in the top 10 paid TEs? [Under the Cap: Top Ten Tight Ends]
• I also hate the uniforms, but glad to see that NFL execs are taking a peek at the talent [Don't discount the UFL].
• Josh Morgan seems to be taking the news pretty well [Report: Crabtree likely to start for 49ers].

Sports Agents

• Former sports agent, Alonzo “Lon” Monk, was up to some shady business [Ex-Blagojevich aide pleads guilty to corruption].

I am a sports agent, but I am also a fan of my home teams.  That’s why, to this day, I have a problem with Nick Saban.  He bailed out on my Dolphins after he said there was no way that he was leaving.  I should have known not to trust him, since he did the same thing to LSU before leaving the Tigers for the Fins.  Anyway, Jimmy Sexton, a very popular and successful agent, is Saban’s agent.  He also represents many other high profile NFL coaches, NFL players, and a few baseball players.  His company is Athletic Resource Management, and his website is http://www.sextonsports.com/.

Sexton recently granted an interview to Kevin Scarbinsky of The Birmingham News.  Sexton says phrases like “they’re gonna take you out boots first in a pine box,” which is something that would never ever come out of my mouth.  I guess I have no hope recruiting clients in states like Alabama.  Lane Kiffin does not call Sexton, “sir”, and I am not surprised.  An interesting note is that Sexton represents two of Bobby Bowden’s assistant coaches.  Think he wants the University to push the old coach to retirement?  Sexton also has the pleasure of repping the head coach of the Dolphins and the Jets.  No bad blood between those two teams.

Wow, that was a long paragraph.  But after almost 2 1/2 years of law school, I can now confidently say that I will graduate with a better understanding of the best practices in representing talent, and that I will have an edge over my counterparts who never put in the 3 years to attain a J.D.  I did not write that statement with the intention of denigrating anyone’s intellectual capacity, and there are plenty of amazing sports agents who have had tremendous success in scrupulously representing their clients.  However, I do believe that there is a lot to gain by going to law school, especially in the realm of learning how to effectively negotiate (which really cannot be learned by just reading a book).

There are a lot more sports agents (A LOT MORE) than there are General Managers in their respective sports.  While not every agent has had the proper education necessary to effectively negotiate on behalf of his client, you better believe that every GM knows every trick in the book, whether it be from formal education or years and years of experience.  Mark Warkentien, VP of Basketball Operations for the Denver Nuggets, is one of those expert negotiators.  During Summer, he spent a week at Harvard Law School in order to enlarge his arsenal of negotiation tools, and shared some of his wisdom with Ian Thomsen of SI.  Some important points he talks about are:

• The need to know what your counterpart is going to say before you sit down at the negotiating table.
• Find points of agreement before starting the negotiation.
• Make your counterpart justify his interests and positions.
• Face-to-face negotiations beat phone/email/fax conversations.
• Showing emotion often does not help you in progressing your position.
• Be flexible in negotiations.
• Don’t talk down to your counterpart.
• Never use the word “but”.

I have learned all of those bullet points, minus the very last one.  However, it is definitely an interested point, and one that I may take into consideration when altering my own negotiating style.  This is how Warkentien describes Harvard Law School’s justification for scrapping the word “but” from negotiations:

“When you say, ‘I hear what you’re telling me, but …’ what you’re really saying is, ‘Go to hell.’ That word — ‘but’ — comes across as if everything the other guy has just said doesn’t matter.”

As a side note, I will be speaking at Barry University School of Law exactly a week from today.  If you are in Orlando, please join the discussion next Monday at 12 p.m.  Contact Thomas M. Schoendorf for more information.

Did you know that the popular basketball commentator, Len Elmore, went to law school at Harvard, served in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, and was once a sports agent?  As for the tail-end of that question, Len Elmore talks about being a sports agent, why he left the business, and much more about his life and thoughts on various issues in sports, in an amazing interview with BITTER LAWYER.

I was a sports agent for five years, beginning in 1992. The company I founded, Precept Sports and Entertainment, represented seven NBA first-round picks, several high draft picks in the NFL, an MLB player and several Olympic gold-medal winners.

Why did you quit working as an agent?

I left the agent business because the environment was becoming toxic to my ethics and scruples. I was not going to jeopardize my reputation and license by even being associated with the industry, let alone attempt to remain competitive by conducting my business as many of my competitors did.

Basketball

• 5 games in 3 continents, and a total of 40 sponsors. NBA office in India opening soon [NBA Int'l Games Reach New Levels With Record Number Of Sponsors].
• Casey Jacobson with a great look into the world of AAU basketball [(Too Much?) Power to Influence].
• Trading gym bags for backpacks [N.B.A. Players Make Their Way Back to College].
• The Chinese REALLY love them some Kobe Bryant [Kobe Bryant’s jersey still top seller in China; D Wade's moves up to fifth].

Baseball

• “This is the business we chose.” [Last Week].
• Dennis Gilbert’s chances at becoming a part owner of the Rangers may be increased due to his access to liquid cash [Notes from a press conference: Wrapping up the Texas Rangers 2009 wrap-up get together].

Entertainment

• Did you know that Arn Tellem (President at WMG), has a pretty powerful wife who works at CBS? [CBS' Nancy Tellem is in talks to step down from post].

Sports Agents

• SMWW may want to do a better job on its background checks in the future [ONLY IN AMERICA: From Corrupt SEIU Boss to Sports Agent].

Football

• Adrian Peterson’s next contract is going to shatter Larry Johnson’s current deal.  Poor Pierre Thomas…for now. [Under the Cap: Top Ten Running Backs].

Bradley R. Marshall was an attorney that had been accepted to practice law in the state of Washington.  He began his career as a sports agent, representing NBA players like Doug Christie, Clifford Robinson, James Edwards, Spencer Haywood, and Jason Terry (now represented by Dan Fegen at BEST).  Beyond serving as many athletes’ negotiator for their professional contracts, Marshall was also retained for his legal counsel in relation athletes’ problems with deceptive business partners and other opportunistic individuals.  Meanwhile, it seems like it was Marshall doing the deceptive acts and it looks as if the athletes should have hired someone to protect them against Marshall.

As reported by The Seattle Times, the Washington Supreme Court disbarred Marshall for numerous ethical and legal violations.  The State Bar Association had charged Marshall with twelve counts of violating the state’s Rules of Professional Conduct.

“These violations include demands for additional fees to continue a lawsuit that was paid for on a flat-fee basis, filing a lawsuit and a lien against a client who refused to pay him additional fees, a deceptive attempt to compel settlement, failure to obtain consent for a conflict of client interest, and other deceptive practices,” wrote Justice James Johnson. “These facts are accompanied by multiple aggravating factors, including prior discipline for similar conduct.”

A man who taught ethics and business law at Seattle Pacific University was found to have no ethics.  In his LinkedIN profile, Marshall wrote,

Bradley Marshall is committed to the highest standards of professionalism, and his personal ethics and dedication on behalf of his clients have earned him the respect and accolades of his peers, as well as community and government leaders.

The state of Washington disagrees.  Side note: Marshall’s website is no longer online.

The actual Washington Supreme Court decision is embedded below.

1. Become a more knowledgeable person by researching and studying the sports agent profession, while networking with established sports agents to adopt their best practices and learn about weak spots in the industry.
2. Open up the profession for everyone to see.  Allow others to follow my path to becoming a sports agent and expose the agents for the good things they do and the actions they take that can get them in trouble.

With the invention of Twitter, more agents have begun to open themselves up and display their personality and humility to a large audience.  Some agents have also taken up blogging.  A true pioneer is Jack Bechta, who recently started video blogging, also known as vlogging.  He put together two clips, under 10 minutes each, from Week 1 of the NFL season, where he made a stop in Pittsburgh and Cleveland.  Recently, he uploaded a 5 minute clip from Week 2 (this past weekend).  Bechta stayed at home Week 2, and was able to see one of his clients who came in to play the Chargers.

I have embedded all three videos below for your viewing pleasure.  Again, major kudos to Bechta for embracing social media and using it the right way.

In 1993, Gilbert was sharing headlines with Scott Boras in publications like Sports Illustrated.  He was able to achieve record breaking deals for clients whose names you have heard a few times before: Bobby Bonilla, Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds.  He also represented George Brett.

Beverly Hills Sports Council (BHSC) still exists today, and over a decade ago, Gilbert was the head honcho at the agency.  He started the company with Jeff Borris and Rick Thurman, who along with Danny Lozano and Dan Horwitz, are still in charge of BHSC today.  And Gilbert did not pay much attention to the draft.  He left that chore for Scott Boras to handle, a competitor of Gilbert’s, who was even loathed by owners back then, sixteen years ago.  Boras used and continues to use a claiming negotiating approach, while Gilbert was known by owners as someone who could create value for both sides in a cooperative style.

In 1999, Gilbert retired and put his sports agent hat in his closet.  Immediately, he took on his current role of special assistant to Jerry Reinsdorf.

In 2002, Gilbert funded a baseball field in South Central L.A. that cost $1.5 million to build (now the home to MLB’s RBI Youth Program).  That is pennies compared to what he will have to pay to own the rights of the much larger Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.