Money Players

Let bygones eventually become bygones

Just found out the NBA will honor former NBA star Spencer Haywood during All-Star Weekend in Dallas. 

While Mr. Haywood had some great seasons on the court, his greatest contribution to NBA players was in the court. Mr. Haywood entered the League after sophomore season. Back then you didn't "declare" for the NBA Draft. You stayed in school for four years. Mr. Haywood sued the NBA over the fundamental right to be employed as a professional basketball player. And won. This is a big deal, especially to me. Not only did I feature Mr. Haywood in my book, Money Players, but I also dedicated the book to Mr. Haywood (and to Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Henry Aaron, Curt Flood and Marvin Miller). Here's what I wrote in Money Players: Youths take to the courts

I want to thank Spencer Haywood…for leading the way. Without Spencer Haywood there would be no Bill Willoughby, Darryl Dawkins, Moses Malone or myself. —Kevin Garnett, after being named 2003-04 NBA MVP In addition to suppressing wages though the reserve clause, owners united to control the minimum age at which players could enter their leagues. That way, the NBA and NFL could take advantage of a free farm system—college sports—without fear of any team undercutting the system by drafting a player below the minimum age. Spencer Haywood left the University of Detroit in 1969 after two seasons. At the time, the NBA had a strict policy against drafting or signing a player until he was four years out of high school. Haywood played one season for the Denver Rockets of the ABA, was named MVP, then was signed by the Seattle SuperSonics. The NBA sued Haywood and Sonics owner Sam Schulman to keep Haywood out of the league. At his first NBA game, lawyers served Haywood with an injunction ordering him to leave the arena. The public-address announcer reportedly said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we have an illegal player on the floor.” Haywood endured racial slurs from fans. Even other NBA players turned their backs on him, thinking that by entering the league too young he had not played by the rules.

The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that because Haywood was the only wage earner capable of taking care of his family, and therefore a “hardship case,” he should be permitted to earn a living in the NBA. Haywood’s case paved the way for young players to declare themselves eligible for the NBA Draft, even right out of high school.

--Marc Isenberg

Kwedit Kwazy Kids

There's a new company that helps kids learn about money get hooked on credit. It's called Kwedit.

Kwedit "allows you to make payments at a local store such as a 7-Eleven, by mailing cash, or by asking a friend or relative to pay on your behalf using a convenient service called Pass the Duck...[It is] an amazing new way to get goods now in exchange for Promises to pay for them later."

The best part of all: The company bypasses one of the most insidious forces conspiring against capitalizing on youth: Parents. Corporate America, unite!

Reminds me of the strategy of every local drug dealer: "The first hit is on us."

The New York Times has a fascinating article on the fledging company that targets little fledglings, "Buy Now, Pay Later (Maybe With Your Allowance)." Article reads like a far-fetched piece from The Onion circa 2000. This time, it's for real.

Now an eighth grader, on her own, can use a Kwedit Promise to buy a virtual 40-pound bag of Purina Puppy Chow. The chow exists only as a photograph of a Purina package, but FooPets instructs its users that the care and feeding of the digital pets they’ve adopted should be regarded as a serious matter. “Your FooPet is a real creature that lives online,” the company’s Web site says. It’s ontological nonsense, but the money that is paid for the pixels is certainly real. (The big bag of virtual puppy chow costs $3. For parents with deep pockets, a “rustic bungalow” is $333.) Systems like these — known in the industry as nurturing games — are built to require regular investments of time and, for fullest enjoyment, money.

It's probably all harmless fun...until the Kwedit Kollectors start calling.

--Marc Isenberg

Former MLB player Doug Glanville on The Life of pro athletes

The New York Times ran a fascinating piece by former MLB player Doug Glanville on the often bizarre world of professional athletes. Pro athletes are human and fallible. Certainly, this does not excuse any poor, immoral and even illegal behavior. If we've learned anything recently it's that sex, money and fame are not-so-strange bedfellows. But athletes' lives are more complicated than the typical generalizations and stereotypes we often read about. What's great about Glanville's piece is he writes with the wonderment of a Penn grad, clearly not destined nor prepared for The Life. Not that anyone is truly prepared to deal with millions of dollars, hanger-oners, readily available women and lots of newfound friends...all by their early 20's.

Read the entire column, but here's Doug's payoff pitch:

Soon after being drafted, I realized something profound: a lot of the work required to make it takes place off the field, and involves how you manage your life. I witnessed a few of my minor league counterparts blow their opportunities in part because they were trying to live the life before they had the life, burning the candle at both ends every night. If it wasn’t for Phoenix’s early club curfew, there’s no telling when players would have come home. In an athlete’s environment, money can be its own pollutant; you can become desensitized to the significance of what it can buy.

Elite athletes do need to consider these issues prior to being thrust into the limelight. It can be done. 

Step one: Read my book, Money Players.

This is also the reason Ryan Nece, former NFL player, and I are launching INsight Business Advisors early next year. The goal of INsight is to "help elite college and professional athletes compete successfully in business, finance and life, and to help them achieve the knowledge necessary to do so." More on INsight in future posts.

--Marc Isenberg

NCAA's subtraction by addition

From my most-recent BT column:

Talk is heating up to expand the NCAA Tournament from 65 teams to 96. The concept is simple: Milk more money from the NCAA Tournament and, at the same time, sell the public on the notion that this is good for fans and, more importantly, its student-athletes. Sure, this will generate additional revenue for the NCAA and its members. In the short run. In the long run, one of the most valuable sports properties will be cheapened by flooding the market with mediocrity. The NCAA might want to study Econ101: Scarcity is gold. Literally. Intense product demand coupled with limited supply is a proven business model. Great Moments in Capitalism are sprinkled with examples: Cabbage Patch Kids, American Girl dolls, iPhones. More instructive is the housing market. When the market is tight and demand is high, boom. When the reverse is true, bust. Walt Disney once said: “Always leave them wanting more.” Ironic that ESPN, a Disney company, is the network most likely to offer the most billions for the expanded tourney. Stephen Colbert once famously said, “The NCAA basketball tournament has everything I like: corporate sponsorship, unpaid labor and blind partisan allegiance.” This might be scathingly funny, but there’s a deeper understanding into what makes the NCAA Tournament so successful. At what point will fans tune out? Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski told ESPN.com: “If we expand it, you get rid of the end-of-season tournaments, and I’d rather have the end-of-season tournaments. It’s a celebration of each conference. I don’t think we need to expand at all. To keep expanding it would dilute what we already have, and what we have is a great product right now.” The Sporting News’ senior college-basketball writer Mike DeCourcy was surprised that Notre Dame coach Mike Brey supports expansion: “Taken to its logical conclusion, Brey’s argument that more kids should get an opportunity to compete in the NCAA Tournament would tear down the walls between intercollegiate athletics and intramurals. Why should Luke Harangody get the experience of playing college basketball and Mike DeCourcy does not? Because Harangody is better at it? Absolutely.” Will Leitch, editor emeritus at Deadspin, sees this as fait accompli: “(Expansion) would be terrible, terrible, terrible. But you watch: They’re gonna try it. Never underestimate the NCAA’s capacity to make the wrong decision, every time.” Here’s hoping it’s a new day at the NCAA.

To enjoy more Basketball Times, check out www.basketballtimes.com and subscribe!

Jennings’ foreign concept now leading to big Bucks

Basketball Times
December 2009

The basketball world is buzzing about Brandon Jennings and his spectacular NBA debut. Fifty-five points in his eighth career game. Only Wilt, Earl the Pearl and Rick Barry scored more points as a rookie. It’s even more fascinating given his nontraditional path to the NBA, which cast him as a lightning rod for everything that is either right or wrong with basketball in the United States. Several writers ripped Brandon for his decision and everything he supposedly represented. Others (me included) applauded Brandon’s decision and thought Brandon would be well served going to Italy. I thought he would be a good NBA player, but no one thought he’d be this good, this soon. Jennings already is one of the most fascinating guys to enter the League since probably LeBron James debuted in 2003. Jennings’ journey to the NBA also serves as a great study in punditry and talent evaluation. When Jennings decided to go to Europe rather than go the traditional collegiate route, several pundits offered their thoughts. Ordinarily, these predictions would be quickly forgotten. How easy would have been to indict the American-to-Europe approach had Brandon flopped? Philip Tetlock, a Stanford research psychologist, recently wrote “Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know?,” a book that examines the business of predictions. He looked at 82,361 predictions by 284 experts. Are some people, perhaps because of intelligence and education, better able to see the future? The book’s conclusion: A resounding no. “The best predictor, in a backward sort of way, was fame: the more feted by the media, the worse a pundit’s accuracy.” But pundits have a platform to say whatever they want, typically without much notice if they happen to be wrong. When Brandon signed with Lottomatica Roma, basketball analyst and lawyer Len Elmore said Jennings “is neither a pioneer blazing a trail for other young men to follow nor a hero” and wrote him off as “simply another impressionable young man, susceptible to the hawkers and hangers-on who tell him what he wants to hear instead of what he needs to hear.” I am friends with Jennings’ alleged “hawkers and hangers-on” who filled his head with ... really good ideas. Even respected Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim was unkind, saying “(Jennings is) only doing it because he’s desperate … I’m not even sure he’ll be that wanted in Europe. He’s a thin, little guard, and European basketball is pretty good these days. It’s not like he’s going to go over there and be a star.” One pundit who got it right was ESPN’s Doug Gottlieb. He offered up a Nostradamus-like prediction, circa July 2008: “In the long run, (Brandon) might end up a lower-rated NBA prospect but a better player and more well-rounded, grounded person.” Spot on. Let’s look at the 2009 NBA draft and why Jennings might have slipped to the Milwaukee Bucks, who selected him with the 10th pick. Clarence Gaines, the former Chicago Bulls scout and son of legendary college basketball coach Clarence “Big House” Gaines, is my go-to guy for even-handed basketball analysis. Here’s a sampling of what he said: “Brandon Jennings appears to be the steal of the 2009 NBA draft. The question is why? When you’re in the draft room, it’s a lot different than analyzing it from afar and especially after the NBA season has started. “Brandon’s off to a great start, but it’s still very early in his NBA career. After reading several articles and talking to a lot of people about Jennings, it’s obvious that NBA decision makers did not really understand this kid. He’s tougher, more determined and works harder than many believed. He’s also more talented – he’s a better shooter and a better scorer than scouts thought. “But when it came down to drafting Brandon Jennings, there were some missing pieces in the evaluation process. ESPN’s Chad Ford wrote about poor workouts for teams and red flags on psychological evaluations. A lot of people underestimated Brandon Jennings as a basketball player and as a person. That’s what makes the evaluation process and the NBA draft so fascinating. A GM, not Jerry Krause, once told me that you have to separate basketball character from personal character. I used to confuse the two. The more time you can spend with a player, the better. “We’re looking to uncover information to improve the odds of making the best pick possible. But it will always be huge leap from to go from college or from Europe to the NBA. “Brandon was a high-risk pick. He didn’t put up numbers. There wasn’t much footage. There wasn’t much, if any, real hype. All he was doing was getting better. I wonder how many NBA teams scouted him in Italy. In the future, there’s no doubt NBA teams will devote more resources to scouting players who follow Brandon Jennings’s path.” Drafting players out of college is not easy. Drafting them out of Europe is even more difficult. Earlier this year, Malcolm Gladwell wrote a fascinating piece in the New Yorker on predicting successful NFL quarterbacks based on their college performance. Gladwell’s thesis: ”The problem with picking quarterbacks is that (a college quarterback’s) performance can’t be predicted. The job he’s being groomed for is so particular and specialized that there is no way to know who will succeed at it and who won’t. In fact, (there is) no connection between where a quarterback was taken in the draft – that is, how highly he was rated on the basis of his college performance – and how well he played in the pros.” NBA talent is probably easier to identify than NFL talent, but it’s far from an exact science, as we’ve learned with Jennings and so many players throughout basketball history. In the end, we can debate the failures in the system that led Jennings to being drafted 10th by the Milwaukee Bucks. But, things happen for a reason. And it’s not where Jennings starts. It’s where he finishes. Just ask NBA stars such as Paul Pierce, Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash, who were drafted 10, 13, 15, respectively. And if money matters (and it should), the NBA is about the second contract, not the first. As fans, we can all enjoy Jennings’s fantastic journey.

To enjoy more Basketball Times, check out www.basketballtimes.com and subscribe!

NCAA Manual needs 419 pages for what a few good words could do

Below is my November 2009 Basketball Times article. Reprinted with permission from Basketball Times. To subscribe to the print or online version, check out their website.

The NCAA Manual is 419 pages. On occasion, I’ve tried to wade through it. You can try to get though the impenetrable phraseology, but good luck making any clear sense. By contrast, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense totals just 48 pages and sets forth a well-reasoned, thoughtful argument for the American Revolution. Paine’s simple style still holds up today. “Time makes more converts than reason,” he wrote. Suitable for Twitter and applicable to the mess created by the NCAA Manual. The NCAA Manual illustrates just how much the membership distrusts each other. The bulk of NCAA Manual is an attempt to legislate ethical behavior. Recruiting, transfers, the number of pages allowed in media guides, phone calls, text messaging, on and on. There are rules – and there are ways around rules. So how did we go from the wonderful concept of amateur college athletics to today’s empire builders? To paraphrase Ernest Hemingway from The Sun Also Rises referring to actual, not figurative, bankruptcy: “Two ways. Gradually, and then suddenly.” The biggest problem is that NCAA rules are open to wide interpretation. There are four general guidelines on what constitutes an extra benefit, but it never precisely defines them (perhaps because they cannot be precisely defined). It’s like the judge who, when asked to define pornography, replied, “I can’t, but I know it when I see it.” From the sublime to the absolutely ridiculous: Article 3, Section 2, Subsection 5, Paragraph 6: “Reinstatement of Terminated Member.” Are we talking NCAA rules here or healthcare? Jay Bilas, ESPN analyst and attorney, illustrates the quagmire created by the NCAA Manual: “One basketball program I know uses an interesting system to determine what to do with regard to the NCAA’s archaic rules. When there is a question about an interpretation, three members of the staff separately call the NCAA for an answer. Invariably, there are three different interpretations provided by the NCAA, and the staff then chooses the interpretation it likes the best.” Hey, give this program credit for bothering to call. Let’s go from the NCAA Manual to the enforcement of these rules. The NCAA rightly points out, it is merely enforcing the rules set forth by its membership. When it comes to enforcement, Bilas paints a bleaker picture: “The NCAA enforcement system is badly flawed. There are no impartial decision-makers and no checks and balances. How does the NCAA determine its facts and make its findings? However they want, that is how. The NCAA has no burden of proof to meet … The NCAA is not bound by rules of evidence and can choose to believe or disbelieve any witness, no matter the lack of credibility of that witness.” In 1997, Mike Matthews, Pac-10 compliance director, penned something titled, “If the Almighty Ran the NCAA.” It is an imagined conversation between a frustrated compliance officer and God. Here’s some of what God allegedly told Mike: “First off, focus on the big issues. Not the little things. Quit worrying about that extra dollar in per diem that the rowing team accidentally got. Stop splitting up days in the recruiting calendar so that a dead period ends at noon. Trim down the definition of amateurism so it depends on pay for play and not pay for reputation … Give the coaches and schools the responsibility to make decisions and allow them to respond. Making rules usually creates loopholes and doesn’t close them. Write a limited number understandable rules that are easy to administrate. But swiftly and surely punish those who break them. Encourage them to try to do the right thing without passing another rule … Moses wanted to hide behind the rules. He wanted huge stone pillars with hundreds of commandments on them. Nope. Ten was all he got. And handheld tablets only.” In 2000, the NABC helped fund the Student Basketball Committee, a group of Division I basketball players, which hoped to create a stronger voice for college players. Shane Battier framed the problem, which clearly still exists today: “These issues have been on a lot of people’s minds for a long time. It came to a head last (1999-2000) season, with all the players being ruled ineligible because the NCAA determined they received ‘extra benefits,’ sometimes the result of tuition being paid for by someone other than their parents. The NCAA basically is saying, ‘You’re guilty until proven innocent.’ That’s not how a system that is supposed to be fair should work.” After a strong beginning capped by a news conference at the 2000 Final Four, the group quickly fizzled. It was supposedly an “extra benefit” for the NABC to pay travel expenses of these athletes. Really. Still, Battier offered a lot of common sense.

Let me know what you think. Post a comment or email me at marc.isenberg@gmail.com

--Marc Isenberg

Darren Rovell's strange column on Meb Keflezighi

CNBC's sports business expert Darren Rovell tripped when he wrote about Meb Keflezighi winning the New York Marathon, the first American to win the race since 1982, although Deadspin's Tommy Craggs points out that the winner that year, Alberto Salazar, was not birthed here either. Under the headline, "Marathon's Headline Win Is Empty," Rovell defines American-born: "If you move here at age 12, you aren't American-born." Ok, Keflezighi was not born in the USA, but does that matter? Other than in a Bruce Springsteen song and to those who want to be U.S. President. (Reminds of the old Shaq song, "Biological don't matter.") Keflezighi was born in Eritrea, but he was absolutely Made in the USA.

Rovell wrote, "Nothing against Keflezighi, but he's like a ringer who you hire to work a couple hours at your office so that you can win the executive softball league." Or Sam Malone hiring Kevin McHale as a bartender so that he can play on the Cheers team and beat the rival bar. That's a ringer.

Jordan the Hall inductee as competitive as Jordan the player

October 2009
Basketball Times

Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser. —Vince Lombardi

Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball player. Ever. He was – and still is – the greatest competitor in sports, in trash talking, in business, in just about whatever he does. That’s just how Michael is wired. By any measure, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2009 was extraordinary. It was headlined by Michael, but included David Robinson, John Stockton, Vivian Stringer and Jerry Sloan. They all gave beautifully sentimental induction speeches, setting a warm and appreciative tone. Then it was Michael’s turn.

Maccabiah Basketball Games

La Shana Tova! Since we're in the middle of the Jewish High Holy Days, I figured this would be an ideal time to post my column from last month's Basketball Times...

In July, I took my first trip to Israel for the 18th Maccabiah Games, which featured top Jewish collegiate and professional athletes from around the world.

On the subject of Jewish athletes, I must open with the obligatory joke from the movie, Airplane!:

Passenger: “Do you have any light reading?” Stewardess: “How about this leaflet, “Famous Jewish Sports Legends?” This exchange always gets a laugh. Yes, there is a perceived dearth of Jewish athletes, but it’s just like the movie title slash racial stereotype “White Men Can’t Jump.” There are plenty of white men who can jump and many Jewish sports legends. There are currently two Jews in the NBA, Jordan Farmar and Omri Casspi. Omri was a first-round pick of the Sacramento Kings and this Fall will become the first-ever Israeli-born NBA player. There’s also a record 14 Jewish baseball players in Major League Baseball.

The Maccabiah Games were founded in 1932 and are held every four years. The 18th Maccabiah Games included over 7,000 competitors from 65 countries. 30,000 spectators showed up for the Games’ opening ceremony. Basketball is a big deal in Israel. By my count, I saw four outdoor basketball courts in the very compact Old City of Jerusalem alone, the holiest real estate on earth. The basketball gods must be smiling! Bruce Pearl, head coach of the University of Tennessee, coached Team USA. This was an important goal for Pearl, who said, “For years, I sent tapes and letters to the Maccabiah’s basketball committee before they finally started considering me seriously. Then the members needed to assess that I was seriously committed, since July is height of recruiting season for college ball.”

As much as I was hoping to see great basketball competition, most of the USA games were blowouts. There were four fairly-evenly matched teams: USA, Argentina, Russia, and Israel. After that, there was a big dropoff in talent. USA’s opening-round game against Mexico: USA 112, Mexico 13. (Not sure if the 100-point rule was in effect.) I had hoped players like Duke’s Jon Sheyer and ASU’s Derek Glasser would participate. However, I cannot say I blame them for skipping the Games, even if my Jewish pride wanted them to be there. Just like the Olympics, as the worldwide Maccabiah competition gets better, it should attract better Jewish American players.

In the Gold medal game against Israel, USA was down 8 points to Israel with just 2:30 to go. Tied at the end of regulation, USA beat Israel 95-86 in overtime to win the gold medal.

After returning home, Dan Grunfeld, former Stanford standout and current professional player, emailed me, “Competing in the Maccabiah games is an incredible honor. My father [Ernie Grunfeld] represented USA in the 1973 Maccabiah games, so it was great to share this experience with my parents and sister. The opportunity to represent my country is something all of us will always cherish.” Coach Pearl was equally ecstatic about the whole Maccabiah experience: “Winning the Gold medal was an important goal, which we were fortunate to achieve. But the Maccabiah Games goes beyond sports. Every member of our team will return to United States as better Jews, as better men and, one day, as better husbands and fathers. It doesn't get any better than that.” I take Coach Pearl’s comments to heart. I would not describe myself as a particularly religious Jew, although I hope my trip to Israel will strengthen my religious identity.

Baseball, Basketball and Matzah Balls

When I returned to the U.S., I read Baseball, Basketball and Matzah Balls: What Sports Can Teach Us About The Jewish Holidays...And Vice Versa by Rabbi Mitchell Smith. As my friend and mentor Richard Lapchick wrote, “You don’t have to be Jewish to love this book.” My favorite anecdote from the book: Chris Webber talking about a Jewish high school teammate he became friendly with. Chris was invited over to celebrate Chanukah, which later led to discussions with his friend and his family about religion, race and the different struggles of mankind—and how valuable it was to not just read about the Holocaust, but to talk to people personally affected. That’s what’s great about sports, especially basketball. Whatever deep divide exists in our world, sports tends to bring people together without regard for race, religion and or even politics. Well, maybe not in the stands, but definitely among those who play the game. (Baseball, Basketball and Matzah Balls is available on amazon.com.)

--Marc Isenberg

Honoring John Wooden

Photo credit: ASUCLA 

The following is from my most recent Basketball Times column, which ran in the August issue.

Not all is bad in college basketball. The Sporting News convened a blue-ribbon panel of experts to vote on the 50 greatest coaches of all time. These types of lists are subjective, but who cares, especially when the the runaway winner is, not surprisingly, John Wooden. Of the 118 sports experts assembled, 57 placed Wooden in the No. 1 slot.

I was fortunate to be invited to an intimate luncheon to mark the occasion. The gathering was held appropriately in the John Wooden Room at the Valley Inn, one of Wooden’s favorite hangouts. Mike DeCourcy served as Master of Ceremonies and did a great job introducing the esteemed group of speakers. UCLA coach Ben Howland and athletic director Dan Guerrero spoke glowingly about Wooden and his impact on the UCLA community. Former players Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Marques Johnson and Andy Hill each recounted poignant and funny memories. I was particularly moved by the story told by Johnson. He brought up the time Wooden demonstrated his competitive drive. Johnson was a freshman when Wooden saw him shooting pool at a campus hangout. Wooden walked up and demanded his pool cue. “Uh oh, I’m trouble,” thought Johnson. “Toothpick in his mouth, blue sweater, he leans over the pool table and proceeds to run off about seven or eight balls,” Johnson recalled. “Hands me the pool cue, walks out without saying a word.” That’s John Wooden. He may come across as a homespun Midwesterner, but don’t let his “goodness gracious sakes alive” act fool you: He has always been a tough, confident competitor. Wooden is 98 years old. He doesn’t get around like he used to, but he can still light up any room. Wooden spoke beautifully, as he always does. When he forgot his point, he recovered with great humor, as he always does: “At my age, your memory gets a little bad, your hearing gets a little bad and a lot of other things get worse.” His final lesson that day: “The most important things in the world are family and love,” he said. “The most important word in our language is ‘love.’ The word ‘hate’ we should remove from our vocabulary.” Words to live by.

Additional coverage The greatest coach ever leads by example by Andy Hill

An important piece. Best point: "John Wooden gained his immortality with the life lessons we will never forget. And as all the guests, including former players Mike Warren, Lucius Allen, Gary Cunningham, Jamaal Wilkes, Kenny Washington, Fred Goss and Ken Heitz said their farewells to Coach, there were no handshakes -- just hugs and kisses -- and Coach's now aging students telling their old teacher that they love him. After all, Coach may have left the word 'love' out of his pyramid, but his players got his message just the same."

The Best Ever Sporting News Mike DeCourcy on luncheon

Q & A with Coach Wooden Sporting News Steve Greenberg [Small world: I met Steve's father on Saturday. Turns out my mom and him are friends. They live in the same building in Chicago.]