David Falk
Encyclopedia
David B. Falk is an American sports agent
who primarily works with basketball players in the National Basketball Association
. Falk began his career representing professional tennis players for Donald Dell
's ProServ
and is best known for representing sports icon Michael Jordan
for the entirety of Jordan's career. Besides Jordan, Falk has represented more than 100 other NBA players, and is generally considered to be the most influential player agent the NBA has seen. During the peak years of Falk's career in the 1990s, he was often considered the second-most powerful person in the NBA behind Commissioner David Stern
, and in 2000 he had at least one client on all but two NBA teams. He was listed among the "100 Most Powerful People in Sports" for 12 straight years from 1990 to 2001 by The Sporting News
, and was also named one of the Top 50 Marketers in the United States by Advertising Age
in 1995.
Falk negotiated the then-highest contracts in NBA history for Patrick Ewing
and Danny Ferry
. He also negotiated professional sports' first $100 million contract for Alonzo Mourning
as part of an unprecedented free agency period, during which his company, FAME, changed the entire salary structure of the NBA, negotiating more than $400 million in contracts for its free agent
clients in a six-day period.
In January 2007, Falk re-launched FAME, and today serves as its founder and CEO. He represented only 7 players in 2007, a far cry from the prime of his sports agent career in the 1990s, when he represented as many as 40 players at a time.
Falk was born to a middle-class
Jewish family in Long Island
, New York
, the second of three children. Falk's father had never finished high school and owned two butcher
shops on Long Island, while his mother, Pearl Falk, had two master's degree
s, spoke six languages, and had worked as an interpreter
in World War II for Nelson Rockefeller
in Latin American affairs. Falk described his mother, a teacher and inspirational force as "a perfectionist", and called her "the biggest influence in my life", the one who drove him to achieve great heights.
Falk's mother was an avid New York Knicks
fan, a fact which influenced Falk's career decision upon his career path. Longtime childhood friend and colleague, Attorney Reid Kahn, remembers Falk proclaiming that he wanted to represent professional athletes in the fourth grade. Another high school friend noted that Falk was not good enough to make any of the teams at Douglas MacArthur High School (Levittown, New York), but that he was an ardent sports fan who frequently watched baseball
games at Shea Stadium
.
He graduated Syracuse University
in 1972, with a degree in economics, and subsequently, George Washington University Law School, where he earned a J.D.
with honors in 1975.
During his law school years, his parents separated, maintaining minimal contact with his father, but remaining very close with his mother until her death in 1988.
Falk lives in Rockville, Maryland
with his wife, Rhonda (Frank). The Falks have two daughters, Daina,(born 1983) an honors graduate of Duke University
, and an accomplished Beverly Hills photographer, and Jocelyn (born 1988), a dean's list student majoring in television and communication at Syracuse University
. As a young wife, Rhonda was an undergraduate admissions counselor for The George Washington University. She spent five years there recruiting students from the New England
area as well as from the Caribbean. For 10 years she worked for STSC, a software company in Rockville, Maryland, as a production manager. She moved into the software publishing division and managed the distribution and sales of software through international resellers around the world. She also serves on the board of directors
of Woodmont Country Club.
After many attempts to establish contact with agents Bob Woolf of Boston
and Larry Fleisher, Falk turned to ProServ
's Donald Dell
in 1974. Falk attempted to get Dell on the phone for "six or seven weeks." Finally, annoyed at Dell's seeming unavailability, Falk called Dell's office "about 17 times in a three-hour period" until Dell took his call. When Dell informed him that ProServ was not hiring, Falk offered to work for free. Dell consented to take on Falk as an unpaid intern
while he was attending law school, finally offering him a full-time job starting at $13,000 after his graduation from George Washington University Law School in 1975.
Dell was a former pro tennis
player and primarily represented tennis players, so he allowed Falk to handle a large portion of ProServ's NBA
dealings. Falk proved to be a capable agent and negotiator, as he signed the #1 NBA Draft
picks in 1976
(John Lucas
) and 1981
(Mark Aguirre
), and negotiated the first million-dollar NBA shoe deal for James Worthy
in 1982.
ProServ
had an inside track with the North Carolina
after they successfully represented a number of N.C. basketball
alumni, including Tom LaGarde
, Phil Ford, Dudley Bradley
, and James Worthy
. In 1984, the same year Michael Jordan
entered the NBA Draft
, Frank Craighill and Lee Fentress, two of Dell's ProServ partners, left to start a competing firm, Advantage International. Dell and Falk signed #3 pick Jordan, while Craighill and Fentress signed Sam Perkins
.
The Nike shoe deal, considered the most successful sports endorsement relationship in history by many,coined the "Air Jordan
" brand name. At the start of the 80s, only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
had a six-figure shoe deal for $100,000 (with Adidas
), and Nike was a small player next to companies like Converse, which had virtually owned the market on basketball shoes
through the 1970s. After James Worthy
signed an 8-year, $1.2 million endorsement deal with New Balance
in 1982, also negotiated by Falk, Falk decided to make large demands to shoe companies for Jordan's services, including his own shoe line and a royalty.
coach Dean Smith
, and off the court, he wore Adidas
. Jordan had never worn or even seen a Nike shoe before the company contacted him.
Nike's initial offer was $250,000, his own shoe line, and a percentage of the revenues. Jordan already had a standing offer from Adidas for $500,000, and Falk demanded that Nike match the figure in addition to the revenue percentage. Nike came back with an offer of $500,000 and a smaller cut. Falk agreed.
The deal was all the more significant because it was considered difficult to market African-American players in 1984, especially in a team sport
like basketball. In fact, Nike
insisted on several "outs" in its initial contract with Jordan: the shoe line could be dropped if certain sales figures were not met, or if Jordan failed to make the NBA All-Star Game in his first three years. The shoe line was expected to earn $3 million for Nike in about three to four years. As it turned out, the Air Jordan
sneaker earned Nike $130 million in 1985 alone, making their $500,000 contract with Jordan one of the great bargains of all time, a precursor to Jordan's more lucrative deals with Nike, including a 1997 deal for $30 million.
ideas. He allowed Nike to establish Jordan's primary image, then began splitting it up among other advertisers
, including Coca-Cola
, Chevrolet
, Gatorade
, McDonald's
, Ball Park Franks
, Wilson Sporting Goods
, Rayovac
, Wheaties
, Hanes
, and MCI
. Falk's ideas stretched to all areas of the marketplace, including a fragrance
(called simply "Michael Jordan") made by the Beverly Hills
designer
Bijan
, which was cited as the best-marketed product of 1996 by the American Marketing Association
. Falk even came up with the idea of teaming Bugs Bunny
and Jordan together in a feature film, and then sold the concept to Warner Bros.
in 1993. The ensuing film, Space Jam
, was executive produced by Falk and released in 1996. Perhaps most importantly, Falk "set a precedent by 'opting out' Jordan from the league's licensing
program, in effect reclaiming Jordan's image for his own use." Jordan himself was very grateful for his agent's remarkable negotiating and marketing abilities, even with Falk's penchant for making powerful enemies along the way.
Due partly to Falk's tenacity and partly to Michael Jordan's own professional success and personal magnetism, Jordan became "indisputably the most powerful and effective endorser of products in American history, ... (making) the business of hawking products more lucrative than playing the game." Jordan's success was such that he turned down $300 million worth of endorsement
deals in the space of 4 months in 1998.
and Donald Dell
to establish his own company, Falk Associates Management Enterprises (FAME).
In the split, a messy professional divorce, Falk brought all of his considerable client list with him, but agreed to provide Dell with 50% of fees for Dell's former clients and 17.5% of Falk's income for new contracts. Dell "sought arbitration to enforce the agreement, claiming that Falk 'unilaterally' had rewritten clients' third-party contracts to reduce fees to Dell."
Falk and partners
Curtis Polk and Mike Higgins soon propelled FAME to the top of the NBA player representation business. At its peak, the company consisted of about 25 people and represented 45 players. During FAME's 7-year existence, it represented "an unprecedented 6 first-round draft picks in the NBA, negotiated over $400 million in contracts for its free-agent clients, and negotiated four of the five largest contracts in team sports history." Just prior to the company's sale in 1998, the contracts of Falk's players totaled almost $800 million.
In 1998, Falk sold FAME to the entertainment group SFX for $100 million, while remaining the group's president. In the space of a year, SFX bought 14 private sports representation companies for a combined $1.5 billion and consolidated
them into SFX Sports Group in 1999, naming Falk as Chairman
. Ironically, one of the companies SFX acquired was ProServ
, and Falk found himself in charge of the company that he had left on such bitter terms.
During his Chairmanship at SFX Sports Group from 1999 to 2001, "Falk oversaw the acquisition of a dozen sports agencies that enabled SFX to represent approximately 20 percent of MLB and NBA players." Largely due to the work of Falk and fellow agent Arn Tellem
, the umbrella SFX Sports Group represented 78 NBA players in contract negotiations in 2000, and came to represent approximately one-third of NBA players in 2002.
. The lockout originally occurred when the players wanted a soft salary cap
, while the owners wanted a hard salary cap. Falk led a rebellion on the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) by establishing a dissident
faction of 16 players and a number of agents (including players Michael Jordan
, Patrick Ewing
, Alonzo Mourning
, Reggie Miller
, and fellow agents Marc Fleisher and Arn Tellem
) that began advocating for NBPA decertification
. The goal was to strip NBA management of antitrust protection, making the salary cap and other forms of collective bargaining
violations of antitrust laws, win a settlement in court, and then immediately re-form the Players' Union
. NBA Commissioner David Stern
criticized Falk's involvement in the negotiations, saying that he was "trashing his own clients." Kenny Gattison, the Charlotte Hornets' player representative, went so far as to blame the entire lockout on Falk.
Despite considerable support, decertification was defeated by a vote of the Players' Union, 226–134. But even though Falk did not manage to decertify the NBPA, his influence helped to lead to the abandonement of a luxury tax
on salaries, and ultimately led to a deal that increased the players' portion of NBA revenues from 52% to 57%, as well as the salary structure that saw Michael Jordan make $33 million for the 1998 season
alone. Some argued that the concessions Falk gained from the owners through his role in the 1995 lockout were the primary cause of another lockout that occurred just three seasons later.
, Falk was often described as the "invisible hand" that guided union negotiations. The NBPA President during the lockout, Patrick Ewing
, was a client of Falk's. Falk was also the agent of "nearly half" of the union's 19-member negotiating committee, including Alonzo Mourning
, Juwan Howard
, and Dikembe Mutombo
. Though his presence in negotiations was already assumed, Falk publicly stated in an October 31, 1998 New York Times article that he would "roll up his sleeves and exert as much influence as he (could) behind the scenes,... (planning) to take a more proactive role in ending the lockout."
Shortly after his statements in the Times article, Falk and Arn Tellem
, who together represented more than 70 of the NBA's 400 players, organized a charity
exhibition game
, with part of the proceeds going to financially pinched NBA players. The rosters had a number of Falk clients, and some saw the game as a threat by Falk "to create a new league through a partnership with the entertainment giant SFX, which [had] recently purchased Falk's company for $150 million." The game was played on December 19, 1998 in the Atlantic City Convention Center
, featuring 16 All-Stars and drawing a crowd of about 6,000 people. Falk and the other organizers had originally planned to give 90% of the proceeds to NBA players, but public criticism caused them to instead give almost all of the $1 million to national and local charities
.
Meanwhile, Falk was being criticized on multiple fronts for his role in lockout negotiations. NBA Commissioner David Stern
accused Falk and Arn Tellem
specifically of "holding the deal hostage" to reap benefits for their high-end clients. Fellow player agent Harold MacDonald disparaged what he saw as Falk's excessive influence on the union's president, Patrick Ewing
:
Isiah Thomas
, who was President of the Players' Union from 1988 to 1994, blasted Falk by saying that "he's been trying to take over the union for years," and many saw Falk as the controlling influence in the union's negotiations. Falk's involvement in the 1998 lockout also led to Mike Lupica
famously dubbing Falk "Rasputin off the bench" in a New York Daily News
article, "the rare person who could make a writer root for a sports owner." The lockout finally ended just 29 hours before the cancellation of the entire NBA season after the players overwhelmingly ratified the latest deal put forward, 179-5.
its centerpiece, made him one of the primary movers and shakers in the NBA, able to leverage
teams into agreeing to his terms on contracts and trades. Some speculated that Falk engineered as many as one of every five NBA trades during the height of his power, and he was often considered the second-most powerful man in basketball behind NBA Commissioner David Stern
. In The Sporting News list of the "100 Most Powerful People in Sports", Falk was listed no lower than #32 for 10 straight years from 1991 to 2000, peaking at #14 from 1998 to 1999.
A 1999 deal in which Falk forced the Minnesota Timberwolves
to trade Stephon Marbury
gives a good indication of how Falk used his power. Falk threatened the Timberwolves by telling them that Marbury would walk away in free agency
at the end of the season if he was not traded, as well as suggesting that he would dump his stable of free agents into the lap of Chicago Bulls
GM Jerry Krause
if Marbury was not moved. As the Minnesota Timberwolves
started looking around for possible trade scenarios, Falk even went so far as to veto a trade that would have brought Kerry Kittles
(another Falk client) to Minnesota for Marbury, claiming that Kittles had no interest in playing for Minnesota. The Timberwolves were eventually forced to send Marbury to New Jersey
in a three-team trade. Minnesota's General Manager, Kevin McHale
, was greatly embittered about the trade, and has been quoted as saying that "If a nuclear bomb dropped on earth, two things would survive: roaches and David Falk."
A second trade which resulted from Falk's influence was the 2000 mega-deal which moved Knicks
All-Star
center
Patrick Ewing
to the Seattle SuperSonics
in a four-team trade involving 12 players and 5 draft picks. Falk apparently made threats to the Knicks that he would move Glen Rice
to the Miami Heat
if they did not consent to trade Ewing, who supposedly wanted out of New York.
Falk was frequently blasted for making use of threats and side-deals to move his clients around and maximize their earnings, but he remained unapologetic, arguing that he was simply looking after the best interests of his clients.
, other NBA agents had begun acknowledging that Falk generally negotiated the contracts that defined the market for the year, and set the standard by which other agents were judged. By the end of the 1995 NBA lockout, Falk controlled enough top players that he was seen as "dictat(ing) the structure and the economics of the entire league," so much so that during one six-day period in the summer of 1996, he negotiated six contracts—for Jordan, Alonzo Mourning
, Juwan Howard
, Kenny Anderson
, Dikembe Mutombo
and Lee Mayberry
—worth more than $335 million. Since Falk usually earned 4% of player contracts, which is the maximum amount allowed by the Players' Union, he made roughly $13 million for these 6 deals alone. He was so successful at negotiating contracts that in 1998, just before he sold FAME to SFX Entertainment, the contracts of Falk's players totaled just under $800 million.
Falk also earned as much as 20% of player endorsement
deals and off-court income, and with Michael Jordan
's endorsement deals alone soaring to over $40 million annually in the mid-90s, Falk counted his yearly income in the tens of millions. He also negotiated notable shoe endorsements for James Worthy
, Boomer Esiason
(the first NFL player to endorse the Reebok
Pump) and Allen Iverson
, making more money than all but a few of his most successful clients.
Falk was not well-liked around the league, with even NBA executives acknowledging that they felt he held a disproprotionate amount of power. As the negotiator behind four of the five largest contracts in team sports history and the pre-eminent agent in the NBA, Falk was a contributor to the spike in player salaries that saw the average NBA contract rise from $330,000 in 1984, the year Jordan was signed, to $4.5 million in 2001
, when he stepped down as Chairman of SFX Sports Group. Falk himself scoffed at the venom that was frequently directed his way.
tickets to see Michael Jordan
, Jordan himself should get a large proportion of the benefit.
As David Halberstam
put it in his book Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made,
established The David B. Falk Center for Sport Management, an annex to the Carrier Dome, to better prepare graduates to enter the sports industry, and student-athletes to manage realities of professional sports through life-skills training, in its College of Human Ecology. The Falk Center's inaugural event was a panel discussion on issues in contemporary sports at Madison Square Garden
in New York City. The Falks' $5 million contribution reflects their lifelong commitment to excellence and integrity in the sports industry. He is chair of the university's Sport Management Advisory Board.
On June 22, 2009, it was announced that Rick Burton was named the David B. Falk Distinguished Professor of Sport Management and will begin his position on August 20, teaching courses in international sport, sport communications and sport marketing while pursuing scholarly work, research and other academic initiatives in the Department of Sport Management. Burton was the first executive director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon
's Lundquist College of Business, chief marketing officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee and commissioner of the National Basketball League
in Sydney, Australia.
On March 24, 2011 it was announced that Falk had made a pledge of an additional $15 million, to Syracuse University and "The David B. Falk Center for Sports Management".
of Sapphire Brands; a founding investor in private aviation company, Marquis Jet and Golf GCX Partners; and a founder and principal in Relevad Media Group, a digital alternative advertising company. Falk is a frequent guest lecturer at universities across the country, including Harvard, Yale
, and Duke
, and serves on the George Washington University National Law Center's advisory board.
, which teamed Jordan with a number of Looney Tunes
characters, Michael Jordan to the Max
, the critically acclaimed large-format feature, and the Emmy Award
-winning On Hallowed Ground, a documentary on the history of the Rucker Park Basketball League.
Sports agent
A sports agent procures and negotiates employment and endorsement contracts for an athlete.In return, the sports agent generally receives between 4 and 10% of the athlete's playing contract, and 10 to 20% of the athlete's endorsement contract, though these figures vary...
who primarily works with basketball players in the National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
. Falk began his career representing professional tennis players for Donald Dell
Donald Dell
Donald Dell is an attorney and was a professional tennis player, U.S. Davis Cup captain, and administrator. Dell was one of the first professional sports agents, having represented professional tennis players Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Jimmy Connors, and Ivan Lendl during pro tennis' golden age...
's ProServ
ProServ
Professional Services Inc., was one of the first sports management firms. Initially focused on tennis, the company would grow to become among the world's largest sports marketing, athlete management, event production, and TV companies....
and is best known for representing sports icon Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
for the entirety of Jordan's career. Besides Jordan, Falk has represented more than 100 other NBA players, and is generally considered to be the most influential player agent the NBA has seen. During the peak years of Falk's career in the 1990s, he was often considered the second-most powerful person in the NBA behind Commissioner David Stern
David Stern
David Joel Stern is the commissioner of the National Basketball Association. He started with the Association in 1966 as an outside counsel, joined the NBA in 1978 as General Counsel, and became the league's Executive Vice President in 1980. He became Commissioner in 1984 succeeding Larry O'Brien...
, and in 2000 he had at least one client on all but two NBA teams. He was listed among the "100 Most Powerful People in Sports" for 12 straight years from 1990 to 2001 by The Sporting News
The Sporting News
Sporting News is an American-based sports magazine. It was established in 1886, and it became the dominant American publication covering baseball — so much so that it acquired the nickname "The Bible of Baseball"...
, and was also named one of the Top 50 Marketers in the United States by Advertising Age
Advertising Age
Advertising Age is a magazine, delivering news, analysis and data on marketing and media. The magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930...
in 1995.
Falk negotiated the then-highest contracts in NBA history for Patrick Ewing
Patrick Ewing
Patrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. is a Jamaican-American retired Hall of Fame basketball player and current assistant coach for the National Basketball Association's Orlando Magic. He played most of his career with the NBA's New York Knicks as their starting center and played briefly with the Seattle...
and Danny Ferry
Danny Ferry
Daniel John Willard "Danny" Ferry is a retired American professional basketball player and the Vice President of Basketball Operations for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association...
. He also negotiated professional sports' first $100 million contract for Alonzo Mourning
Alonzo Mourning
Alonzo Harding Mourning, Jr. is a former American professional basketball player, who played most of his 15-year NBA career for the Miami Heat....
as part of an unprecedented free agency period, during which his company, FAME, changed the entire salary structure of the NBA, negotiating more than $400 million in contracts for its free agent
Free agent
In professional sports, a free agent is a player whose contract with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise....
clients in a six-day period.
In January 2007, Falk re-launched FAME, and today serves as its founder and CEO. He represented only 7 players in 2007, a far cry from the prime of his sports agent career in the 1990s, when he represented as many as 40 players at a time.
Personal life
American middle class
The American middle class is a social class in the United States. While the concept is typically ambiguous in popular opinion and common language use, contemporary social scientists have put forward several, more or less congruent, theories on the American middle class...
Jewish family in Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, the second of three children. Falk's father had never finished high school and owned two butcher
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...
shops on Long Island, while his mother, Pearl Falk, had two master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
s, spoke six languages, and had worked as an interpreter
Interpreting
Language interpretation is the facilitating of oral or sign-language communication, either simultaneously or consecutively, between users of different languages...
in World War II for Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
in Latin American affairs. Falk described his mother, a teacher and inspirational force as "a perfectionist", and called her "the biggest influence in my life", the one who drove him to achieve great heights.
"Nothing was really ever good enough. I brought home my college board scores—I think I got just under 1,400 the first time. She was crushed. She didn't understand how I could do so poorly. I think that I share a lot of those qualities. She used to have an expression that I would say is the guiding principle of my life: Always shoot for the stars and never settle for second best."
Falk's mother was an avid New York Knicks
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
fan, a fact which influenced Falk's career decision upon his career path. Longtime childhood friend and colleague, Attorney Reid Kahn, remembers Falk proclaiming that he wanted to represent professional athletes in the fourth grade. Another high school friend noted that Falk was not good enough to make any of the teams at Douglas MacArthur High School (Levittown, New York), but that he was an ardent sports fan who frequently watched baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
games at Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium
William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium or just Shea , was a stadium in the New York City borough of Queens, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. It was the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets from 1964 to 2008...
.
He graduated Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
in 1972, with a degree in economics, and subsequently, George Washington University Law School, where he earned a J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
with honors in 1975.
During his law school years, his parents separated, maintaining minimal contact with his father, but remaining very close with his mother until her death in 1988.
Falk lives in Rockville, Maryland
Rockville, Maryland
Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a major incorporated city in the central part of Montgomery County and forms part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The 2010 U.S...
with his wife, Rhonda (Frank). The Falks have two daughters, Daina,(born 1983) an honors graduate of Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
, and an accomplished Beverly Hills photographer, and Jocelyn (born 1988), a dean's list student majoring in television and communication at Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
. As a young wife, Rhonda was an undergraduate admissions counselor for The George Washington University. She spent five years there recruiting students from the New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
area as well as from the Caribbean. For 10 years she worked for STSC, a software company in Rockville, Maryland, as a production manager. She moved into the software publishing division and managed the distribution and sales of software through international resellers around the world. She also serves on the board of directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
of Woodmont Country Club.
ProServ and signing of Michael Jordan
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
and Larry Fleisher, Falk turned to ProServ
ProServ
Professional Services Inc., was one of the first sports management firms. Initially focused on tennis, the company would grow to become among the world's largest sports marketing, athlete management, event production, and TV companies....
's Donald Dell
Donald Dell
Donald Dell is an attorney and was a professional tennis player, U.S. Davis Cup captain, and administrator. Dell was one of the first professional sports agents, having represented professional tennis players Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Jimmy Connors, and Ivan Lendl during pro tennis' golden age...
in 1974. Falk attempted to get Dell on the phone for "six or seven weeks." Finally, annoyed at Dell's seeming unavailability, Falk called Dell's office "about 17 times in a three-hour period" until Dell took his call. When Dell informed him that ProServ was not hiring, Falk offered to work for free. Dell consented to take on Falk as an unpaid intern
Intern
Internship is a system of onthejob training for white-collar jobs, similar to an apprenticeship. Interns are usually college or university students, but they can also be high school students or post graduate adults seeking skills for a new career. They may also be as young as middle school or in...
while he was attending law school, finally offering him a full-time job starting at $13,000 after his graduation from George Washington University Law School in 1975.
Dell was a former pro tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
player and primarily represented tennis players, so he allowed Falk to handle a large portion of ProServ's NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
dealings. Falk proved to be a capable agent and negotiator, as he signed the #1 NBA Draft
NBA Draft
The NBA Draft is an annual event in which the thirty teams from the National Basketball Association can draft players who are eligible and wish to join the league. These players are usually amateur U.S. college basketball players, but international players are also eligible to be drafted...
picks in 1976
1976 NBA Draft
The 1976 NBA Draft was the 30th annual draft of the National Basketball Association . The draft was held on June 8, 1976 before the 1976–77 season. In this draft, 18 NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players...
(John Lucas
John Lucas II
John Harding Lucas II is a retired American professional basketball player and a current assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers.-Basketball playing career and substance abuse:...
) and 1981
1981 NBA Draft
The 1981 NBA Draft was the 35th annual draft of the National Basketball Association . The draft was held on June 9, 1981, before the 1981–82 season. The draft was broadcast in the United States on the USA Network. In this draft, 23 NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball...
(Mark Aguirre
Mark Aguirre
Mark Anthony Aguirre is a retired American basketball player in the National Basketball Association. Aguirre played from 1981–1994 and won two championships with the Detroit Pistons after being sent to Detroit from the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Adrian Dantley...
), and negotiated the first million-dollar NBA shoe deal for James Worthy
James Worthy
James Ager Worthy is a retired Hall of Fame American college and professional basketball player. Named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, "Big Game James" was a seven-time NBA All-Star and three-time NBA champion...
in 1982.
ProServ
ProServ
Professional Services Inc., was one of the first sports management firms. Initially focused on tennis, the company would grow to become among the world's largest sports marketing, athlete management, event production, and TV companies....
had an inside track with the North Carolina
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
after they successfully represented a number of N.C. basketball
North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball
The North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball program is the intercollegiate men's basketball of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is considered one of the most successful programs in NCAA history...
alumni, including Tom LaGarde
Tom LaGarde
Thomas Joseph LaGarde is a retired American basketball player who played in the NBA from 1977 to 1985. After playing collegiately at the University of North Carolina, LaGarde was selected 9th overall in the first round of the 1977 NBA Draft by the Denver Nuggets.At 6'10" and 220 lb, LaGarde...
, Phil Ford, Dudley Bradley
Dudley Bradley
Dudley Leroy Bradley is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA.Bradley played collegiately at the University of North Carolina and was selected 13th overall in the 1979 NBA Draft by the Indiana Pacers...
, and James Worthy
James Worthy
James Ager Worthy is a retired Hall of Fame American college and professional basketball player. Named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, "Big Game James" was a seven-time NBA All-Star and three-time NBA champion...
. In 1984, the same year Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
entered the NBA Draft
NBA Draft
The NBA Draft is an annual event in which the thirty teams from the National Basketball Association can draft players who are eligible and wish to join the league. These players are usually amateur U.S. college basketball players, but international players are also eligible to be drafted...
, Frank Craighill and Lee Fentress, two of Dell's ProServ partners, left to start a competing firm, Advantage International. Dell and Falk signed #3 pick Jordan, while Craighill and Fentress signed Sam Perkins
Sam Perkins
Samuel Perkins is a retired American professional basketball player, also known by the nicknames "Sleepy Sam" and "Big Smooth." He attended Samuel J. Tilden High School, Shaker High School and the University of North Carolina, where he was a teammate of Michael Jordan...
.
Nike shoe deal: "Air Jordan"
After signing Jordan, Falk quickly made the first major deal with Nike, Inc.Nike, Inc.
Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...
The Nike shoe deal, considered the most successful sports endorsement relationship in history by many,coined the "Air Jordan
Air Jordan
Air Jordan, also known simply as Jordans, are a brand of shoes and athletic apparel produced by Nike originally designed for and endorsed by NBA Hall of Famer and Six Time NBA Champion Michael Jordan. The Air Jordan line is now sold by the Jordan Brand subsidiary of Nike...
" brand name. At the start of the 80s, only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a retired American professional basketball player. He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points. During his career with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969 to 1989, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season...
had a six-figure shoe deal for $100,000 (with Adidas
Adidas
Adidas AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company , and Rockport...
), and Nike was a small player next to companies like Converse, which had virtually owned the market on basketball shoes
Athletic shoe
Athletic shoe is a generic name for the footwear primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise but in recent years has come to be used for casual everyday activities....
through the 1970s. After James Worthy
James Worthy
James Ager Worthy is a retired Hall of Fame American college and professional basketball player. Named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, "Big Game James" was a seven-time NBA All-Star and three-time NBA champion...
signed an 8-year, $1.2 million endorsement deal with New Balance
New Balance
New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. , best known as simply New Balance, is a footwear manufacturer based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America. It was founded in 1906 as the New Balance Arch Support Company...
in 1982, also negotiated by Falk, Falk decided to make large demands to shoe companies for Jordan's services, including his own shoe line and a royalty.
"We decided to stretch the envelope", Falk said. "Instead of calling up the companies and asking them how much they would pay Michael Jordan, we called them up and asked them to make a presentation and explain what they could do to promote him. Needless to say, this got a lot of quizzical replies."Unbeknownst to Falk and Jordan, Nike had decided to target Jordan as their player of the future. Jordan himself was initially reticent; throughout college he had worn Converse because of the company's endorsement deal with Tar Heels
North Carolina Tar Heels
The North Carolina Tar Heels are the athletic teams for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to individuals from the state of North Carolina, the Tar Heel State...
coach Dean Smith
Dean Smith
Dean Edwards Smith is a retired American head coach of men's college basketball. Originally from Emporia, Kansas, Smith has been called a “coaching legend” by the Basketball Hall of Fame. Smith is best known for his successful 36-year coaching tenure at the University of North Carolina at Chapel...
, and off the court, he wore Adidas
Adidas
Adidas AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company , and Rockport...
. Jordan had never worn or even seen a Nike shoe before the company contacted him.
Nike's initial offer was $250,000, his own shoe line, and a percentage of the revenues. Jordan already had a standing offer from Adidas for $500,000, and Falk demanded that Nike match the figure in addition to the revenue percentage. Nike came back with an offer of $500,000 and a smaller cut. Falk agreed.
"David Falk elected to take more guaranteed money and less revenue percentage", said (Nike Scout) Sonny Vaccaro. "So out of the chute he lost himself a lot of money. But in retrospect, it really amounted to nothing. It wasn't a big-time bidding war. Probably the most determining thing was Adidas wasn't going to offer him a lot of money. It was the first time that the athlete was going to share in the royalties of the shoe. That was the gamble."
The deal was all the more significant because it was considered difficult to market African-American players in 1984, especially in a team sport
Team sport
A team sport includes any sport which involves players working together towards a shared objective. A team sport is an activity in which a group of individuals, on the same team, work together to accomplish an ultimate goal which is usually to win. This can be done in a number of ways such as...
like basketball. In fact, Nike
Nike, Inc.
Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...
insisted on several "outs" in its initial contract with Jordan: the shoe line could be dropped if certain sales figures were not met, or if Jordan failed to make the NBA All-Star Game in his first three years. The shoe line was expected to earn $3 million for Nike in about three to four years. As it turned out, the Air Jordan
Air Jordan
Air Jordan, also known simply as Jordans, are a brand of shoes and athletic apparel produced by Nike originally designed for and endorsed by NBA Hall of Famer and Six Time NBA Champion Michael Jordan. The Air Jordan line is now sold by the Jordan Brand subsidiary of Nike...
sneaker earned Nike $130 million in 1985 alone, making their $500,000 contract with Jordan one of the great bargains of all time, a precursor to Jordan's more lucrative deals with Nike, including a 1997 deal for $30 million.
Marketing Michael Jordan
Falk soon proved himself to be a capable agent with many innovative marketingMarketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
ideas. He allowed Nike to establish Jordan's primary image, then began splitting it up among other advertisers
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
, including Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
, Chevrolet
Chevrolet
Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...
, Gatorade
Gatorade
Gatorade is a brand of sports-themed food and beverage products, built around its signature product: a line of sports drinks. Gatorade is currently manufactured by PepsiCo, distributed in over 80 countries...
, McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
, Ball Park Franks
Ball Park Franks
Ball Park Franks is the name of a brand of hot dogs made by Sara Lee.It currently comes in the following varieties:* Original Meat Franks* Original Beef Franks* Bun Size Meat Franks* Bun Size Beef Franks* Turkey Franks* Angus Beef FranksSlogan:...
, Wilson Sporting Goods
Wilson Sporting Goods
The Wilson Sporting Goods Company is a sports equipment manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois, and currently is a foreign subsidiary of the Finnish company Amer Sports....
, Rayovac
Rayovac
Rayovac is a brand of batteries owned by Spectrum Brands of Madison, Wisconsin, United States.- History :...
, Wheaties
Wheaties
Wheaties is a brand of General Mills breakfast cereal. It is well known for featuring prominent athletes on the exterior of the package, and has become a major cultural icon...
, Hanes
Hanes
Hanes and Hanes Her Way are brands of apparel currently owned by the HanesBrands, Inc Corporation...
, and MCI
MCI Communications
MCI Communications Corp. was an American telecommunications company that was instrumental in legal and regulatory changes that led to the breakup of the AT&T monopoly of American telephony and ushered in the competitive long-distance telephone industry. It was headquartered in Washington,...
. Falk's ideas stretched to all areas of the marketplace, including a fragrance
Perfume
Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and/or aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, animals, objects, and living spaces "a pleasant scent"...
(called simply "Michael Jordan") made by the Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
designer
Fashion design
Fashion design is the art of the application of design and aesthetics or natural beauty to clothing and accessories. Fashion design is influenced by cultural and social latitudes, and has varied over time and place. Fashion designers work in a number of ways in designing clothing and accessories....
Bijan
Bijan (designer)
Bijan Pakzad , generally known simply as bijan ,was an Iranian designer of menswear and fragrances.- Personal history :...
, which was cited as the best-marketed product of 1996 by the American Marketing Association
American Marketing Association
The American Marketing Association is a professional association for marketers. As of 2008 it had approximately 40,000 members. There are 76 professional chapters and 250 collegiate chapters across the United States....
. Falk even came up with the idea of teaming Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
and Jordan together in a feature film, and then sold the concept to Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
in 1993. The ensuing film, Space Jam
Space Jam
Aside from Jordan, a number of NBA players and coaches appeared in the film. Larry Bird portrays a friend of Jordan who joins him for a game of golf. When the Monstars steal the NBA players' talent, they invade a game between the Phoenix Suns and the New York Knicks, causing the Knicks' Patrick...
, was executive produced by Falk and released in 1996. Perhaps most importantly, Falk "set a precedent by 'opting out' Jordan from the league's licensing
License
The verb license or grant licence means to give permission. The noun license or licence refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.A license may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement...
program, in effect reclaiming Jordan's image for his own use." Jordan himself was very grateful for his agent's remarkable negotiating and marketing abilities, even with Falk's penchant for making powerful enemies along the way.
"A lot of people don't like David, but he's the best at what he does", Jordan told USA Today last year. "What he does is get underneath your skin, whoever he's negotiating with, because he figures out what your objectives are, your angles. He understands the market; he understands the players. He's a brash, arrogant, egotistical, aggressive negotiator, which is good, because when you have someone represent you, you want him to do that. Marketing-wise, he's great. He's the one who came up with the concept of 'Air Jordan.'"
Due partly to Falk's tenacity and partly to Michael Jordan's own professional success and personal magnetism, Jordan became "indisputably the most powerful and effective endorser of products in American history, ... (making) the business of hawking products more lucrative than playing the game." Jordan's success was such that he turned down $300 million worth of endorsement
Testimonial
In promotion and of advertising, a testimonial or show consists of a written or spoken statement, sometimes from a person figure, sometimes from a private citizen, extolling the virtue of some product. The term "testimonial" most commonly applies to the sales-pitches attributed to ordinary...
deals in the space of 4 months in 1998.
ProServ split, establishment and sale of FAME
In 1992, after great early success, Falk considered himself underpaid and underappreciated. He split with ProServProServ
Professional Services Inc., was one of the first sports management firms. Initially focused on tennis, the company would grow to become among the world's largest sports marketing, athlete management, event production, and TV companies....
and Donald Dell
Donald Dell
Donald Dell is an attorney and was a professional tennis player, U.S. Davis Cup captain, and administrator. Dell was one of the first professional sports agents, having represented professional tennis players Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Jimmy Connors, and Ivan Lendl during pro tennis' golden age...
to establish his own company, Falk Associates Management Enterprises (FAME).
"I paid more in taxes this year (1996) than I earned in 17 years working for Donald Dell", Falk said with some lingering bitterness. "I'm all for loyalty, but that has to be a two-way street."
In the split, a messy professional divorce, Falk brought all of his considerable client list with him, but agreed to provide Dell with 50% of fees for Dell's former clients and 17.5% of Falk's income for new contracts. Dell "sought arbitration to enforce the agreement, claiming that Falk 'unilaterally' had rewritten clients' third-party contracts to reduce fees to Dell."
Falk and partners
Partnership
A partnership is an arrangement where parties agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests.Since humans are social beings, partnerships between individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments, and varied combinations thereof, have always been and remain commonplace...
Curtis Polk and Mike Higgins soon propelled FAME to the top of the NBA player representation business. At its peak, the company consisted of about 25 people and represented 45 players. During FAME's 7-year existence, it represented "an unprecedented 6 first-round draft picks in the NBA, negotiated over $400 million in contracts for its free-agent clients, and negotiated four of the five largest contracts in team sports history." Just prior to the company's sale in 1998, the contracts of Falk's players totaled almost $800 million.
In 1998, Falk sold FAME to the entertainment group SFX for $100 million, while remaining the group's president. In the space of a year, SFX bought 14 private sports representation companies for a combined $1.5 billion and consolidated
Consolidation (business)
Consolidation or amalgamation is the act of merging many things into one. In business, it often refers to the mergers and acquisitions of many smaller companies into much larger ones. In the context of financial accounting, consolidation refers to the aggregation of financial statements of a group...
them into SFX Sports Group in 1999, naming Falk as Chairman
Chair (official)
The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is typically elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chairman presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an...
. Ironically, one of the companies SFX acquired was ProServ
ProServ
Professional Services Inc., was one of the first sports management firms. Initially focused on tennis, the company would grow to become among the world's largest sports marketing, athlete management, event production, and TV companies....
, and Falk found himself in charge of the company that he had left on such bitter terms.
During his Chairmanship at SFX Sports Group from 1999 to 2001, "Falk oversaw the acquisition of a dozen sports agencies that enabled SFX to represent approximately 20 percent of MLB and NBA players." Largely due to the work of Falk and fellow agent Arn Tellem
Arn Tellem
Arn H. Tellem is a sports agent notable for his representation of basketball and baseball players. He is the principal of WMG Management, a part of the Wasserman Media Group headed by Casey Wasserman. Since 2009 he has written a weekly sports column for The Huffington Post...
, the umbrella SFX Sports Group represented 78 NBA players in contract negotiations in 2000, and came to represent approximately one-third of NBA players in 2002.
1995 NBA lockout
Falk was one of the key figures in the 1995 NBA lockoutLockout (industry)
A lockout is a work stoppage in which an employer prevents employees from working. This is different from a strike, in which employees refuse to work.- Causes :...
. The lockout originally occurred when the players wanted a soft salary cap
Salary cap
In professional sports, a salary cap is a cartel agreement between teams that places a limit on the amount of money that can be spent on player salaries. The limit exists as a per-player limit or a total limit for the team's roster, or both...
, while the owners wanted a hard salary cap. Falk led a rebellion on the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) by establishing a dissident
Dissident
A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....
faction of 16 players and a number of agents (including players Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
, Patrick Ewing
Patrick Ewing
Patrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. is a Jamaican-American retired Hall of Fame basketball player and current assistant coach for the National Basketball Association's Orlando Magic. He played most of his career with the NBA's New York Knicks as their starting center and played briefly with the Seattle...
, Alonzo Mourning
Alonzo Mourning
Alonzo Harding Mourning, Jr. is a former American professional basketball player, who played most of his 15-year NBA career for the Miami Heat....
, Reggie Miller
Reggie Miller
Reginald Wayne "Reggie" Miller is a retired American professional basketball player who played his entire 18-year National Basketball Association career with the Indiana Pacers...
, and fellow agents Marc Fleisher and Arn Tellem
Arn Tellem
Arn H. Tellem is a sports agent notable for his representation of basketball and baseball players. He is the principal of WMG Management, a part of the Wasserman Media Group headed by Casey Wasserman. Since 2009 he has written a weekly sports column for The Huffington Post...
) that began advocating for NBPA decertification
Professional certification
Professional certification, trade certification, or professional designation, often called simply certification or qualification, is a designation earned by a person to assure qualification to perform a job or task...
. The goal was to strip NBA management of antitrust protection, making the salary cap and other forms of collective bargaining
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions...
violations of antitrust laws, win a settlement in court, and then immediately re-form the Players' Union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
. NBA Commissioner David Stern
David Stern
David Joel Stern is the commissioner of the National Basketball Association. He started with the Association in 1966 as an outside counsel, joined the NBA in 1978 as General Counsel, and became the league's Executive Vice President in 1980. He became Commissioner in 1984 succeeding Larry O'Brien...
criticized Falk's involvement in the negotiations, saying that he was "trashing his own clients." Kenny Gattison, the Charlotte Hornets' player representative, went so far as to blame the entire lockout on Falk.
"I think this whole thing has been manufactured by David Falk", Gattison told The Charlotte Observer Friday night. "The guys he used to initiate the decertification drive aren't concerned with the union and the everyday little guy. These guys have been in the league 10 or 11 years and have yet to voice an opinion about what's going on. Then all of a sudden David Falk doesn't like what's going on."
Luxury tax (sports)
A luxury tax in professional sports is a surcharge put on the aggregate payroll of a team to the extent to which it exceeds a predetermined guideline level set by the league...
on salaries, and ultimately led to a deal that increased the players' portion of NBA revenues from 52% to 57%, as well as the salary structure that saw Michael Jordan make $33 million for the 1998 season
1997-98 NBA season
The 1997–98 NBA season was the 52nd season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Chicago Bulls winning their third straight championship and sixth in the last eight years, beating the Utah Jazz 4 games to 2 in the 1998 NBA Finals...
alone. Some argued that the concessions Falk gained from the owners through his role in the 1995 lockout were the primary cause of another lockout that occurred just three seasons later.
1998–99 NBA lockout
During the 1998–99 lockout1998–99 NBA lockout
The 1998–99 NBA lockout was the third lockout in the history of the National Basketball Association . It lasted from July 1, 1998 to January 20, 1999, and forced the 1998–99 season to be shortened to 50 games per team and that season's All-Star Game to be canceled...
, Falk was often described as the "invisible hand" that guided union negotiations. The NBPA President during the lockout, Patrick Ewing
Patrick Ewing
Patrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. is a Jamaican-American retired Hall of Fame basketball player and current assistant coach for the National Basketball Association's Orlando Magic. He played most of his career with the NBA's New York Knicks as their starting center and played briefly with the Seattle...
, was a client of Falk's. Falk was also the agent of "nearly half" of the union's 19-member negotiating committee, including Alonzo Mourning
Alonzo Mourning
Alonzo Harding Mourning, Jr. is a former American professional basketball player, who played most of his 15-year NBA career for the Miami Heat....
, Juwan Howard
Juwan Howard
Juwan Antonio Howard is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association . The Heat were his eighth different NBA team. He was drafted fifth overall in the 1994 NBA Draft by the Washington Bullets...
, and Dikembe Mutombo
Dikembe Mutombo
Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo , commonly referred to as Dikembe Mutombo, is a retired Congolese American professional basketball player who last played for the Houston Rockets of the NBA...
. Though his presence in negotiations was already assumed, Falk publicly stated in an October 31, 1998 New York Times article that he would "roll up his sleeves and exert as much influence as he (could) behind the scenes,... (planning) to take a more proactive role in ending the lockout."
Shortly after his statements in the Times article, Falk and Arn Tellem
Arn Tellem
Arn H. Tellem is a sports agent notable for his representation of basketball and baseball players. He is the principal of WMG Management, a part of the Wasserman Media Group headed by Casey Wasserman. Since 2009 he has written a weekly sports column for The Huffington Post...
, who together represented more than 70 of the NBA's 400 players, organized a charity
Charity (practice)
The practice of charity means the voluntary giving of help to those in need who are not related to the giver.- Etymology :The word "charity" entered the English language through the Old French word "charité" which was derived from the Latin "caritas".Originally in Latin the word caritas meant...
exhibition game
Exhibition game
An exhibition game is a sporting event in which there is no competitive value of any significant kind to any competitor regardless of the outcome of the competition...
, with part of the proceeds going to financially pinched NBA players. The rosters had a number of Falk clients, and some saw the game as a threat by Falk "to create a new league through a partnership with the entertainment giant SFX, which [had] recently purchased Falk's company for $150 million." The game was played on December 19, 1998 in the Atlantic City Convention Center
Atlantic City Convention Center
The Atlantic City Convention Center is a large convention center located in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Opened in 1997, the center includes of showroom space, 5 exhibit halls, 45 meeting rooms with of space, a garage with 1,400 parking spaces, and an adjacent Sheraton hotel.-History:The Center was...
, featuring 16 All-Stars and drawing a crowd of about 6,000 people. Falk and the other organizers had originally planned to give 90% of the proceeds to NBA players, but public criticism caused them to instead give almost all of the $1 million to national and local charities
Charitable organization
A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...
.
Meanwhile, Falk was being criticized on multiple fronts for his role in lockout negotiations. NBA Commissioner David Stern
David Stern
David Joel Stern is the commissioner of the National Basketball Association. He started with the Association in 1966 as an outside counsel, joined the NBA in 1978 as General Counsel, and became the league's Executive Vice President in 1980. He became Commissioner in 1984 succeeding Larry O'Brien...
accused Falk and Arn Tellem
Arn Tellem
Arn H. Tellem is a sports agent notable for his representation of basketball and baseball players. He is the principal of WMG Management, a part of the Wasserman Media Group headed by Casey Wasserman. Since 2009 he has written a weekly sports column for The Huffington Post...
specifically of "holding the deal hostage" to reap benefits for their high-end clients. Fellow player agent Harold MacDonald disparaged what he saw as Falk's excessive influence on the union's president, Patrick Ewing
Patrick Ewing
Patrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. is a Jamaican-American retired Hall of Fame basketball player and current assistant coach for the National Basketball Association's Orlando Magic. He played most of his career with the NBA's New York Knicks as their starting center and played briefly with the Seattle...
:
"Every time I see Patrick say something, it's almost like watching the Energizer bunny", said the agent Harold MacDonald, who represents Derrick Coleman and Terry Mills. "I'm just waiting for Falk to put in another battery, and off Patrick goes again. Hardly any influence? Give me a break."
Isiah Thomas
Isiah Thomas
Isiah Lord Thomas III , nicknamed "Zeke",is the men's basketball coach for the FIU Golden Panthers, and a retired American professional basketball player who played point guard for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association from 1981 until 1994. He led the "Bad Boys" to the NBA...
, who was President of the Players' Union from 1988 to 1994, blasted Falk by saying that "he's been trying to take over the union for years," and many saw Falk as the controlling influence in the union's negotiations. Falk's involvement in the 1998 lockout also led to Mike Lupica
Mike Lupica
Michael Lupica is an American newspaper columnist, best known for his provocative commentary on sports in the New York Daily News and his appearances on ESPN.-Biography:...
famously dubbing Falk "Rasputin off the bench" in a New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
article, "the rare person who could make a writer root for a sports owner." The lockout finally ended just 29 hours before the cancellation of the entire NBA season after the players overwhelmingly ratified the latest deal put forward, 179-5.
Facilitating NBA trades
Falk's client list, with Michael JordanMichael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
its centerpiece, made him one of the primary movers and shakers in the NBA, able to leverage
Leverage (negotiation)
In negotiation, leverage is the ability to influence the other side to move closer to one's negotiating position.Types of leverage include positive leverage, negative leverage, and normative leverage.-Normative Leverage:...
teams into agreeing to his terms on contracts and trades. Some speculated that Falk engineered as many as one of every five NBA trades during the height of his power, and he was often considered the second-most powerful man in basketball behind NBA Commissioner David Stern
David Stern
David Joel Stern is the commissioner of the National Basketball Association. He started with the Association in 1966 as an outside counsel, joined the NBA in 1978 as General Counsel, and became the league's Executive Vice President in 1980. He became Commissioner in 1984 succeeding Larry O'Brien...
. In The Sporting News list of the "100 Most Powerful People in Sports", Falk was listed no lower than #32 for 10 straight years from 1991 to 2000, peaking at #14 from 1998 to 1999.
"Falk has massive leverage", says the general manager of one N.B.A. team who didn't want his name used for fear of angering Falk. "If he just had Michael, he would be considered a marketing genius, which he is. But David represents so many players that he is a major force. He pretty much gets what he asks for."
Minnesota Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . Founded in 1989, the team is currently owned by Glen Taylor...
to trade Stephon Marbury
Stephon Marbury
Stephon Xavier Marbury is an American professional basketball player.The , point guard was selected out of the Georgia Institute of Technology by the Milwaukee Bucks with the 4th overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, but was traded shortly thereafter to the Minnesota Timberwolves.He was an NBA...
gives a good indication of how Falk used his power. Falk threatened the Timberwolves by telling them that Marbury would walk away in free agency
Free agent
In professional sports, a free agent is a player whose contract with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise....
at the end of the season if he was not traded, as well as suggesting that he would dump his stable of free agents into the lap of Chicago Bulls
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois, playing in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1966. They play their home games at the United Center...
GM Jerry Krause
Jerry Krause
Jerry Krause is a former professional basketball scout and general manager for, among other franchises, the Baltimore Bullets and, most notably, the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association. He is a two-time recipient of the NBA's Executive of the Year award.-Early career:Krause was...
if Marbury was not moved. As the Minnesota Timberwolves
Minnesota Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . Founded in 1989, the team is currently owned by Glen Taylor...
started looking around for possible trade scenarios, Falk even went so far as to veto a trade that would have brought Kerry Kittles
Kerry Kittles
Kerry Kittles is an American former professional basketball player who last played with the Los Angeles Clippers in the National Basketball Association in 2004-05. He was raised in New Orleans and attended St...
(another Falk client) to Minnesota for Marbury, claiming that Kittles had no interest in playing for Minnesota. The Timberwolves were eventually forced to send Marbury to New Jersey
New Jersey Nets
The New Jersey Nets are a professional basketball team based in Newark, New Jersey. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
in a three-team trade. Minnesota's General Manager, Kevin McHale
Kevin McHale
Kevin Edward McHale is a retired American professional basketball player and current head coach of the Houston Rockets. After his playing career, he worked for the Minnesota Timberwolves as the team's general manager and later its coach. He was fired as coach in June 2009...
, was greatly embittered about the trade, and has been quoted as saying that "If a nuclear bomb dropped on earth, two things would survive: roaches and David Falk."
A second trade which resulted from Falk's influence was the 2000 mega-deal which moved Knicks
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
All-Star
All-star game
An all-star game is an exhibition game played by the best players in their sports league, except in the circumstances of professional sports systems in which a democratic voting system is used...
center
Center (basketball)
The center, colloquially known as the five or the post, is one of the standard positions in a regulation basketball game. The center is normally the tallest player on the team, and often has a great deal of strength and body mass as well...
Patrick Ewing
Patrick Ewing
Patrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. is a Jamaican-American retired Hall of Fame basketball player and current assistant coach for the National Basketball Association's Orlando Magic. He played most of his career with the NBA's New York Knicks as their starting center and played briefly with the Seattle...
to the Seattle SuperSonics
Seattle SuperSonics
The Seattle SuperSonics were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle, Washington that played in the Pacific and Northwest Divisions of the National Basketball Association from 1967 until 2008. Following the 2007–08 season, the team relocated to Oklahoma City, and now plays as...
in a four-team trade involving 12 players and 5 draft picks. Falk apparently made threats to the Knicks that he would move Glen Rice
Glen Rice
Glen Anthony Rice is a retired American professional basketball player who played in the NBA. The 6'8" tall Rice was a three-time NBA All-Star guard/forward, ranking 11th in NBA history with 1,559 three-point field goals made during his 15-year career. As a player, Rice won an NCAA Men's Division...
to the Miami Heat
Miami Heat
The Miami Heat is a professional basketball team based in Miami, Florida, United States. The team is a member of the Southeast Division in the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association . They play their home games at American Airlines Arena in Downtown Miami...
if they did not consent to trade Ewing, who supposedly wanted out of New York.
Falk was frequently blasted for making use of threats and side-deals to move his clients around and maximize their earnings, but he remained unapologetic, arguing that he was simply looking after the best interests of his clients.
"That's called leverage", he said. "Every company in the world uses leverage whenever they engage in any negotiation. It's bad for the teams and good for the players. I work for the players."
Building wealth for clients and himself
No NBA agent was better than David Falk at negotiating huge pay-days for his clients, which also meant that no NBA agent made more money than Falk. As early as 1992, even before his departure from ProServProServ
Professional Services Inc., was one of the first sports management firms. Initially focused on tennis, the company would grow to become among the world's largest sports marketing, athlete management, event production, and TV companies....
, other NBA agents had begun acknowledging that Falk generally negotiated the contracts that defined the market for the year, and set the standard by which other agents were judged. By the end of the 1995 NBA lockout, Falk controlled enough top players that he was seen as "dictat(ing) the structure and the economics of the entire league," so much so that during one six-day period in the summer of 1996, he negotiated six contracts—for Jordan, Alonzo Mourning
Alonzo Mourning
Alonzo Harding Mourning, Jr. is a former American professional basketball player, who played most of his 15-year NBA career for the Miami Heat....
, Juwan Howard
Juwan Howard
Juwan Antonio Howard is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association . The Heat were his eighth different NBA team. He was drafted fifth overall in the 1994 NBA Draft by the Washington Bullets...
, Kenny Anderson
Kenny Anderson
Kenneth "Kenny" Anderson is a retired American basketball player. After a college career at Georgia Institute of Technology, he played point guard professionally from 1991 to 2006, mostly in the National Basketball Association....
, Dikembe Mutombo
Dikembe Mutombo
Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo , commonly referred to as Dikembe Mutombo, is a retired Congolese American professional basketball player who last played for the Houston Rockets of the NBA...
and Lee Mayberry
Lee Mayberry
Orva Lee Mayberry, Jr. is a retired American professional basketball player, spending seven seasons in the National Basketball Association.-Early career:...
—worth more than $335 million. Since Falk usually earned 4% of player contracts, which is the maximum amount allowed by the Players' Union, he made roughly $13 million for these 6 deals alone. He was so successful at negotiating contracts that in 1998, just before he sold FAME to SFX Entertainment, the contracts of Falk's players totaled just under $800 million.
Falk also earned as much as 20% of player endorsement
Testimonial
In promotion and of advertising, a testimonial or show consists of a written or spoken statement, sometimes from a person figure, sometimes from a private citizen, extolling the virtue of some product. The term "testimonial" most commonly applies to the sales-pitches attributed to ordinary...
deals and off-court income, and with Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
's endorsement deals alone soaring to over $40 million annually in the mid-90s, Falk counted his yearly income in the tens of millions. He also negotiated notable shoe endorsements for James Worthy
James Worthy
James Ager Worthy is a retired Hall of Fame American college and professional basketball player. Named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, "Big Game James" was a seven-time NBA All-Star and three-time NBA champion...
, Boomer Esiason
Boomer Esiason
Norman Julius "Boomer" Esiason is a former American football quarterback and current network color commentator. He played for the National Football League's Cincinnati Bengals, New York Jets, and Arizona Cardinals before working as an analyst for ABC and HBO...
(the first NFL player to endorse the Reebok
Reebok
Reebok International Limited, a subsidiary of the German sportswear company Adidas since 2005, is a producer of Athletic shoes, apparel, and accessories. The name comes from the Afrikaans spelling of rhebok, a type of African antelope or gazelle...
Pump) and Allen Iverson
Allen Iverson
Allen Ezail Iverson is an American professional basketball point guard and shooting guard. He was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers with the number one pick in the 1996 NBA Draft. He was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in the 1996–97 season...
, making more money than all but a few of his most successful clients.
Falk was not well-liked around the league, with even NBA executives acknowledging that they felt he held a disproprotionate amount of power. As the negotiator behind four of the five largest contracts in team sports history and the pre-eminent agent in the NBA, Falk was a contributor to the spike in player salaries that saw the average NBA contract rise from $330,000 in 1984, the year Jordan was signed, to $4.5 million in 2001
2001-02 NBA season
-Statistics leaders:-Yearly awards:*Most Valuable Player: Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs*Rookie of the Year: Pau Gasol, Memphis Grizzlies*Defensive Player of the Year: Ben Wallace, Detroit Pistons...
, when he stepped down as Chairman of SFX Sports Group. Falk himself scoffed at the venom that was frequently directed his way.
"There's always something to criticize -- I have too much power or too many clients. I scoff at that. Think about it: If you lived on a block with $300,000 houses and you sold yours for $2.5 million, your neighbors would thank you. But in my business they don't. That used to make me angry. Now I'm just amused."
Professional legacy
Falk's enduring legacy can best be described as the NBA's new star-centered focus. Falk's idea was that since most people bought Chicago BullsChicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois, playing in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1966. They play their home games at the United Center...
tickets to see Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
, Jordan himself should get a large proportion of the benefit.
"Basketball is a hybrid between an individual and team sport", Falk is saying. "Very gifted players almost make a team by themselves. In that environment, a Michael Jordan, Alonzo Mourning, Juwan Howard, Shaquille O'Neal and Patrick Ewing bring in the fans. Fans come to watch them play primarily. They create marketing opportunities, new stadiums, luxury boxes, and they should be paid a disproportionate amount of money. The salary structure should be close to what it is in Hollywood, where Jim Carrey makes $16 million a film and the second star makes $2 million. That's what I believe as an economics major and as a neo-capitalist."
As David Halberstam
David Halberstam
David Halberstam was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and historian, known for his early work on the Vietnam War, his work on politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, and his later sports journalism.-Early life and education:Halberstam...
put it in his book Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made,
Michael Jordan and David Falk helped make each other, and each profited to a remarkable degree from their special collaboration. It is true that Michael Jordan was the person who in the end actually did the deeds, went on the court and hit the final jump shot again and again, but it is also true that David Falk helped revolutionize the process of representing a basketball player, going into a team sport and creating the idea of the individual player as a commercial superstar.
Personal legacy and philanthropy
On April 23, 2008, Syracuse UniversitySyracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
established The David B. Falk Center for Sport Management, an annex to the Carrier Dome, to better prepare graduates to enter the sports industry, and student-athletes to manage realities of professional sports through life-skills training, in its College of Human Ecology. The Falk Center's inaugural event was a panel discussion on issues in contemporary sports at Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
in New York City. The Falks' $5 million contribution reflects their lifelong commitment to excellence and integrity in the sports industry. He is chair of the university's Sport Management Advisory Board.
On June 22, 2009, it was announced that Rick Burton was named the David B. Falk Distinguished Professor of Sport Management and will begin his position on August 20, teaching courses in international sport, sport communications and sport marketing while pursuing scholarly work, research and other academic initiatives in the Department of Sport Management. Burton was the first executive director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon
University of Oregon
-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...
's Lundquist College of Business, chief marketing officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee and commissioner of the National Basketball League
National Basketball League (Australasia)
The National Basketball League, also known as the iiNet NBL Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in Australasia....
in Sydney, Australia.
On March 24, 2011 it was announced that Falk had made a pledge of an additional $15 million, to Syracuse University and "The David B. Falk Center for Sports Management".
"I have devoted my entire life's work to managing and mentoring professional athletes. The opportunity to create a center at Syracuse University dedicated to furthering the education of future leaders in the sports industry is very special for Rhonda and me, where we first met at Syracuse...The level of enthusiasm from the students is so rewarding, I sometimes wish I could do this full time It is one thing to give money; you write a check and you’re done. That has some impact, but to maintain a participatory involvement—that's what I enjoy the most. It educates me as well. And I hope that by endowing the center with my name—the name of a person who has lived his life in the field and now wants to give something back to it—I am doing more than trying to cement my name on the corner of a building. I hope my involvement at Syracuse will be a kind of living legacy that allows the center to stand alone as one of the top programs in the country, and also supports the overall reputation of the University", said Falk.
"David taught me so much about being a professional athlete and the whole business that surrounds it. He put me into a lot of situations that aided my personality, aided my position, in terms of where I saw myself within the business of basketball, and he cultivated it, he helped it grow... giving back is important to David and Rhonda because they care about the University. He loves Syracuse. Every time we talk, we talk about Syracuse and North Carolina. I think they're very caring people and what they're trying to do is set a good foundation and a basis for other people to follow", says NBA legend, Michael JordanMichael JordanMichael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
.
"David is the best in his knowledge of the sports business. He's a remarkable individual and a good friend. He has given me a lot of great advice. In this business, it's important to know what it's going to be like when you get out there. There are a lot of pitfalls, obstacles and road blocks that I think a program like this can help young people recognize", says former New York KnicksNew York KnicksThe New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
and Georgetown UniversityGeorgetown UniversityGeorgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
star Patrick EwingPatrick EwingPatrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. is a Jamaican-American retired Hall of Fame basketball player and current assistant coach for the National Basketball Association's Orlando Magic. He played most of his career with the NBA's New York Knicks as their starting center and played briefly with the Seattle...
, current assistant coach for the Orlando MagicOrlando MagicThe Orlando Magic is a professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. They play in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association and are currently coached by Stan Van Gundy...
and a Class of 2008 to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
"I think the single greatest lesson I've learned from David is communication. I think the ability to just be able to communicate, business-wise, has helped me grow. As a former student-athlete, I can see why it's important for the Falk Center to include curriculum to prepare students for the real world. That's what David preaches. Once you hit the real world, there are a lot of forces pulling at you, a lot of mistakes you can make, so to have that preparation in college is important", says Elton BrandElton BrandElton Tyron Brand is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association...
, forward for the Philadelphia 76ersPhiladelphia 76ersThe Philadelphia 76ers are a professional basketball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association . Originally known as the Syracuse Nationals, they are one of the oldest franchises in the NBA...
and former Duke UniversityDuke UniversityDuke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
All-American.
Other ventures
Falk is also on the board of directorsBoard of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
of Sapphire Brands; a founding investor in private aviation company, Marquis Jet and Golf GCX Partners; and a founder and principal in Relevad Media Group, a digital alternative advertising company. Falk is a frequent guest lecturer at universities across the country, including Harvard, Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
, and Duke
Duke
A duke or duchess is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy...
, and serves on the George Washington University National Law Center's advisory board.
"My mother was a teacher, and I think that's one reason that, amidst my deal-making skills, I have a very strong pedagogical bent", he says. "I really enjoy teaching, and believe it is one of the most important professions in our society."
Executive Producer
Falk executive produced a number of sports-related films, including Space JamSpace Jam
Aside from Jordan, a number of NBA players and coaches appeared in the film. Larry Bird portrays a friend of Jordan who joins him for a game of golf. When the Monstars steal the NBA players' talent, they invade a game between the Phoenix Suns and the New York Knicks, causing the Knicks' Patrick...
, which teamed Jordan with a number of Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
characters, Michael Jordan to the Max
Michael Jordan to the Max
Michael Jordan to the Max is an American documentary released in IMAX in 2000. The film is about the life and career of basketball player Michael Jordan, focusing mainly on him during the 1998 NBA Playoffs...
, the critically acclaimed large-format feature, and the Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
-winning On Hallowed Ground, a documentary on the history of the Rucker Park Basketball League.
The Bald Truth
In his first book, "The Bald Truth" released on February 3, 2009, Falk reveals the innovative business secrets that catapulted him to the top of his game.Partial client list
Falk's current NBA player clients are in bold, while his non-NBA player clients are in italics.
|
Pervis Ellison Pervis Ellison is a former college and professional NBA basketball player.Ellison was nicknamed "Never Nervous Pervis" for his play with the University of Louisville. At 6 ft 9 in and 242 lb, he started all four years as the center under coach Denny Crum... Patrick Ewing Patrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. is a Jamaican-American retired Hall of Fame basketball player and current assistant coach for the National Basketball Association's Orlando Magic. He played most of his career with the NBA's New York Knicks as their starting center and played briefly with the Seattle... Patrick Ewing, Jr. Patrick Aloysius Ewing, Jr. is an American professional basketball player for the NBA's New Orleans Hornets. He is the oldest son of retired NBA Hall of Famer and New York Knicks legend Patrick Ewing and Sharon Campbell... Boomer Esiason Norman Julius "Boomer" Esiason is a former American football quarterback and current network color commentator. He played for the National Football League's Cincinnati Bengals, New York Jets, and Arizona Cardinals before working as an analyst for ABC and HBO... Danny Ferry Daniel John Willard "Danny" Ferry is a retired American professional basketball player and the Vice President of Basketball Operations for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association... Sleepy Floyd Eric Augustus "Sleepy" Floyd is a retired American professional basketball player.A 6'3" guard, Floyd played competitively at Hunter Huss High School in Gastonia, and starred at Georgetown University before being drafted by the New Jersey Nets with the 13th pick of the 1982 NBA Draft... Adonal Foyle Adonal David Foyle is a retired Vincentian-American former professional basketball center. He was selected by the Golden State Warriors with the eighth overall selection of the 1997 NBA Draft. He played ten seasons with the team until the team bought out his contract on August 13, 2007. At the... Chris Gatling Chris Raymond Gatling is a retired American professional basketball player, having played for numerous NBA teams from 1991 to 2002... Willie Gault Willie James Gault is a former American football wide receiver and Olympic athlete. Gault played in the National Football League for 11 seasons for the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Raiders. He was a member of the Bears team that won Super Bowl XX, and was also a member of the U.S. Olympic team... Matt Geiger Matthew Allen "Matt" Geiger is a retired American professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association on the center position.-Collegiate career:... Armen Gilliam Armen Louis Gilliam nicknamed "The Hammer", was an American professional basketball player who played 13 years in the National Basketball Association from 1987–2000. He also played one season for the Pittsburgh Xplosion of the American Basketball Association... Jeff Green (basketball) Jeffrey Lynn Green is an American professional basketball player with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association. Green attended Georgetown University until following his junior year, when he entered the 2007 NBA Draft... Othella Harrington Othella Harrington is a retired American professional basketball player and current coach. After he finished his high school career at Murrah High School, he played in college at Georgetown University where he teamed with NBA superstar Allen Iverson... Roy Hibbert Roy Denzil Hibbert is an American professional basketball player for the Indiana Pacers of the NBA. He plays at the center position, and graduated from Georgetown University in 2008. He was drafted 17th overall in the 2008 NBA Draft by the Toronto Raptors and was immediately traded to the Pacers... Desmond Howard Desmond Kevin Howard is a former NFL wide receiver, punt returner, and kickoff returner.He played football for the University of Michigan from 1989–1991 and won the Heisman Trophy in 1991... Juwan Howard Juwan Antonio Howard is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association . The Heat were his eighth different NBA team. He was drafted fifth overall in the 1994 NBA Draft by the Washington Bullets... Bobby Hurley Robert Matthew 'Bobby' Hurley is an American former basketball player and currently an assistant coach at Wagner College.-Biography:... Allen Iverson Allen Ezail Iverson is an American professional basketball point guard and shooting guard. He was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers with the number one pick in the 1996 NBA Draft. He was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in the 1996–97 season... Michael Jackson (basketball) Michael Derek Jackson is a retired American professional basketball player who was selected by the New York Knicks in the 2nd round of the 1986 NBA Draft... Michael Jordan Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats... Arturas Karnišovas Artūras Karnišovas is a retired Lithuanian professional basketball player.... |
Jerome Kersey Jerome Kersey is a retired American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association for a number of teams, but most notably for the Portland Trail Blazers. He also has served in various coaching roles in the NBA. Kersey is currently a resident of Happy Valley, Oregon in... Kerry Kittles Kerry Kittles is an American former professional basketball player who last played with the Los Angeles Clippers in the National Basketball Association in 2004-05. He was raised in New Orleans and attended St... Mitch Kupchak Mitchell "Mitch" Kupchak is a retired American basketball player and current general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers since the 2000–01 NBA season after predecessor Jerry West moved to the Memphis Grizzlies organization.... Raef LaFrentz Raef Andrew LaFrentz is a retired American professional basketball power forward and center who played in the NBA from 1998 to 2009. Born and raised in Iowa, LaFrentz attended the University of Kansas and was drafted in 1998 by the Denver Nuggets... Tom LaGarde Thomas Joseph LaGarde is a retired American basketball player who played in the NBA from 1977 to 1985. After playing collegiately at the University of North Carolina, LaGarde was selected 9th overall in the first round of the 1977 NBA Draft by the Denver Nuggets.At 6'10" and 220 lb, LaGarde... Reggie Lewis Reggie Lewis was an American professional basketball player for the NBA's Boston Celtics from 1987 to 1993.-Early life:... James Lofton James David Lofton is a former American football player and coach. He is a former American football coach for the San Diego Chargers but is best known for his years in the National Football League as a wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers , Los Angeles Raiders , the Buffalo Bills... Maurice Lucas Maurice Lucas was an American professional basketball player. The first two years of his postcollegiate career were spent in the American Basketball Association with the Spirits of St. Louis and Kentucky Colonels... John Lucas II John Harding Lucas II is a retired American professional basketball player and a current assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers.-Basketball playing career and substance abuse:... Corey Maggette Corey Antoine Maggette is an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association, for the Charlotte Bobcats. He excelled at Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Illinois, where he was an All-American in basketball and also an Illinois high school state track finalist in long... Jeff Malone Jeffrey Nigel Malone is a retired American professional basketball player. He played college basketball at Mississippi State University, and is mostly known for his time with the Washington Bullets of the NBA, where he was an NBA All-Star twice, playing the shooting guard position... Moses Malone Moses Eugene Malone is a retired American Hall of Fame basketball player who starred in both the American Basketball Association and the National Basketball Association... Stephon Marbury Stephon Xavier Marbury is an American professional basketball player.The , point guard was selected out of the Georgia Institute of Technology by the Milwaukee Bucks with the 4th overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, but was traded shortly thereafter to the Minnesota Timberwolves.He was an NBA... Lee Mayberry Orva Lee Mayberry, Jr. is a retired American professional basketball player, spending seven seasons in the National Basketball Association.-Early career:... Gene Mayer Gene Mayer is a former tennis player from the United States who won fourteen singles titles during his career.Mayer was born in Flushing, Queens, New York. He grew up in Wayne, New Jersey, and played tennis at Wayne Valley High School, where he went unbeaten in his two years on the tennis team... Walter McCarty Walter Lee McCarty is an American former basketball player who played for the NBA's New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns, and the Los Angeles Clippers.... Rodney McCray (basketball) Rodney Earl McCray is a retired American basketball player. A 6'7" small forward, he spent ten seasons in the National Basketball Association, tallying 9,014 career points and 5,087 career rebounds.Rodney McCray attended the University of Louisville and was a key member of the Cardinals team... Roshown McLeod Roshown McLeod is a retired American professional basketball player who was selected by the Atlanta Hawks in the 1st round of the 1998 NBA Draft. A 6'8" small forward from St. John's University and Duke University, McLeod played in three NBA seasons from 1999 to 2001... Xavier McDaniel Xavier Maurice McDaniel , nicknamed the X-Man, is a retired American National Basketball Association player who, at 6 ft 7 in, played both small forward and power forward, and former head coach of the Riders Slamball team.-College:While at Wichita State, McDaniel was the first person to... Charles Thomas McMillen Charles Thomas "Tom" McMillen is a retired NBA professional basketball player, Rhodes Scholar, and Democratic U.S. Congressman who represented the 4th congressional district of Maryland from January 3, 1987 to January 3, 1993.-Basketball:Prior to entering politics, McMillen was a star basketball... |
Ron Mercer Ronald Eugene Mercer is a former American basketball player at the University of Kentucky who also had a career in the National Basketball Association; the last time he played was for the New Jersey Nets in 2005.-Basketball career:... Darius Miles Darius LaVar Miles is an American professional basketball player.The , small forward was selected directly out of high school by the Los Angeles Clippers with the 3rd overall pick in the 2000 NBA Draft... Greg Monroe Gregory Keith Monroe, Jr. is a professional basketball center for the Detroit Pistons. He was drafted by the Pistons in the 2010 NBA Draft with the 7th overall pick. In his freshman season at Georgetown University he was named Big East Rookie of the Year.-Early years:Monroe attended Helen Cox High... Alonzo Mourning Alonzo Harding Mourning, Jr. is a former American professional basketball player, who played most of his 15-year NBA career for the Miami Heat.... Dikembe Mutombo Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo , commonly referred to as Dikembe Mutombo, is a retired Congolese American professional basketball player who last played for the Houston Rockets of the NBA... Gary Neal Gary Neal is an American professional basketball guard for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association . Neal attended Aberdeen High School and Calvert Hall College High School in Maryland then played college basketball at La Salle University before tranfserring to Towson University... Ken Norman Kenneth Darnel Norman is an American former professional basketball player. Kenny was a standout forward for the Illinois Fighting Illini who was selected 19th overall by the Los Angeles Clippers of the 1987 NBA Draft... Mike O'Koren Mike O'Koren is a retired American professional basketball player, a former associate head coach of the Washington Wizards from 2005 to 2008, and a former assistant coach with the New Jersey Nets from 1999 to 2003. He was selected by the New Jersey Nets in the 1st round of the 1980 NBA Draft... Victor Page Victor Page is a basketball player who once played for the Georgetown University Hoyas and Sioux Falls Skyforce; he is also notorious for his troubles with self-control and with D.C. street life.-Early years:... John Paxson John MacBeth Paxson is a retired American basketball player. He is currently the VP of Basketball Operations of the National Basketball Association's Chicago Bulls.-High school career:... Vitaly Potapenko Vitaly Nikolaevich Potapenko is a Ukrainian former professional basketball player. He played college basketball at Wright State University and was selected 12th overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 1996 NBA Draft... Bryant Reeves Bryant Reeves is an American retired professional basketball player for the NBA's Vancouver Grizzlies... Frank Reich Frank Michael Reich, Jr. is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League for the Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, New York Jets, and the Detroit Lions. For a time, he had the distinction of having led his team to the biggest comeback victory ever in both the collegiate... Glen Rice Glen Anthony Rice is a retired American professional basketball player who played in the NBA. The 6'8" tall Rice was a three-time NBA All-Star guard/forward, ranking 11th in NBA history with 1,559 three-point field goals made during his 15-year career. As a player, Rice won an NCAA Men's Division... Quentin Richardson Quentin Richardson is an American professional basketball player who plays for the National Basketball Association's Orlando Magic... Mitch Richmond Mitchell James "Mitch" Richmond is a retired American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association. He played collegiately at Kansas State University. He was a 6-time NBA All-Star, a 5-time All-NBA Team member and a former NBA Rookie of the Year... Jalen Rose Jalen Anthony Rose is a retired American professional basketball player, who currently works as a sports analyst for the sports television network ESPN... Dennis Scott (basketball) Dennis Eugene Scott is an American former professional basketball player. A 6' 8" small forward from Georgia Tech, and the 1989–1990 ACC Men's Basketball Player of the Year, Scott was selected by the Orlando Magic with the fourth pick of the 1990 NBA Draft after being the leading scorer on a... Charles D. Smith Charles Daniel Smith is a retired American professional basketball player in the NBA.- College career :... 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At 6'5" , 200 lb , he played as a guard.... |
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External links
- "An interview with David Falk." Video interview from CharlieRose.com which took place on December 3, 1996.
- "Koolse.com Video Interview, Part 1." Falk talks about getting started in the sports representation business. February 19, 2007.
- "Koolse.com Video Interview, Part 2." Falk describes the process of creating his own company, FAME. February 19, 2007.
- "Koolse.com Video Interview, Part 3." Falk discusses his more recent ventures, including Pokeware.com. February 19, 2007.
- ESPN Radio, Falk discusses his professional milestones, April 1, 2009.
- "The Bald Truth", by David B. Falk, (excerpt) 384 pages ISBN 1-4165-8438-2 ISBN 978-1-4165-8438-4, February, 2009