Money Players

The Basketball Underground

A couple days ago, the Los Angeles Times did a lengthy investigative piece basketball prodigy Renardo Sidney. It was yet another story on the ills of big-time basketball. Yawn. I don't want to comment specifically on the allegations yet. I will say this: The Sidneys are a close, loving family. Are they perfect? Perhaps not, but it's not fair to judge them harshly without knowing all the facts. Let's also not forget, the Sidneys did not create the well-established underground marketplace for basketball players. Maybe this is solid, investigative reporting. On the other hand, how credible is a piece that incorrectly says that Renardo, Sr. is Renardo's stepson, when he is, in fact, Jr's biological father? The Times did correct the mistake after the fact.

As Shaq famously said, "Biological don't matter." However, it does feed into some unfortunate stereotypes about race and parenting. (Also, it is worth nothing that common sense could have answered the question: Ask yourself, how many stepsons are named after their stepfathers?)

Beyond insinuations that UCLA and USC backed off because they were uncomfortable with some things, people do have axes to grind in this business and butts to cover. I definitely would like to believe UCLA and everyone associated with this fine institution is above reproach, but I am also not delusional. (Disclaimer: My in laws graduated from UCLA and my wife graduated from UCLA law school.)

I don't blame the Times and Lance Pugmire for wanting to try to make sense of this upside-down, bizzaro world. But, he and a lot of others fail or do not want to recognize that the business of "amateur" basketball is by driven market demand, legitimate or otherwise.

Check out my latest Basketball Times article, which is on the basketball underground. In the article, I include one of my favorite all-time quotes on recruiting. Former UCLA assistant coach Jack Hirsch, whose family reportedly made a fortune in pornography. Comparing porn to college basketball, Hirsh told Sports Illustrated in 1984, “(The porno business) is infinitely cleaner than recruiting.”

The Basketball Underground [requires PDF]

Another must-read: Pat Forde's article about the "The Five People You Meet in Recruiting Hell." I greatly appreciate anytime a writer can work in the "biggest whore" Jerry Tarkanian ever met AND Bill Saum in the same article.

--Marc Isenberg

NCAA panel votes to screw athletes yet again

Last year, I wrote a Basketball Column opposing a proposal initiated by the Atlantic Coast Conference to drastically shorten the time period underclassmen basketball players would be given to test their NBA market value.

According to USA Today's Steve Wieberg, "An NCAA panel voted Monday to compress the time frame, giving non-seniors who enter the draft until May 8 to decide whether to keep their names in the pool or resume their college careers. That's more than a month earlier than the NBA's mid-June withdrawal deadline...The NCAA had given them until 30 days after the draft — until late July — to declare their intent to return to school." Of course, the NCAA membership spins this as a positive, suggesting this is actually in the student-athlete's best interest, allowing "underclassmen who pull out of the draft more time to refocus on academics and lessen 'the potential for outside individuals to have a negative influence.'"

I have no problem trying to rid the basketball world of outside negative influences, but first we need to agree on who exactly these negative influences are. Is it someone, maybe an agent, who offers information contrary to the college coach? It's easy to heap blame on agents when a kid turns pro, then falls in draft. But, that is an oversimplification of how these decisions get made. In fact, unless your Derrick Rose, Mike Beasley, K-Love or Blake Griffin, there is risk associated with either decision.

The Hoops Whisperer

Wall Street Journal recently stepped up its sports coverage, which is especially great since most newspapers are cutting back and more than a few are folding.

Today, WSJ has a great feature on Idan Ravin, a former attorney-turned-hoops-whisperer. His methods are unconventional:

Mr. Ravin's goal is to create so much chaos and stress on a player during workouts that the physical game becomes less cerebral and more automatic. He uses a combination of humbling psychological tactics and exhausting, unorthodox and sometimes spontaneous drills. He's been known to fire tennis balls at players while they're dribbling or make them stare straight ahead while dribbling two balls in each hand in uneven rhythms and walking from side to side.

The subject of basketball trainers is more interesting today with all the talk on agents, NCAA rules and college coaches. As financial incentives increase among all the participants (players, coaches, agents) coupled with a more intertwined market among high school, college and pro basketball, it is reasonable for top players to seek the best trainers, and vice versa. The market forces kick in and everyone does what is in their enlightened self-interest. Coaches desperately want top players. Players want to fulfill their hoop dreams. Agents want clients. How can everyone get what they want? Hopefully within the rules, but that is probably not a compelling enough force to stop this activity. There absolutely may be some sinister motives involved, but I hardly blame high school or college players for wanting to get the best training possible.

Yes, this may be an extra benefit in the NCAA's eyes, although it does appear that many college coaches are in on the joke. And as much we want to pile on UConn's Jim Calhoun, he is surely not the only coach to figure out how to play this game.

--Marc Isenberg

UPDATE: Mike DeCourcy, my college hoops Yoda, emails: "Foolish NCAA rules are at fault for the presence of the trainer in the picture. If college coaches could work with their players in the offseason, especially the summer, trainers would serve no purpose. I understand that might be coming soon, but it'll be several years too late."

Calhoun says what?

I am big on "innocent until proven guilty," but UConn basketball coach Jim Calhoun did not help himself in the court of public opinion at Wednesday's press conference. Listen to what he said, with phenomenal commentary by radio Bomani Jones. Coach Calhoun makes millions to coach basketball, not to communicate with the media. But he certainly has taken an odd approach lately at press conferences. To Calhoun's discredit, he now has the dubious distinction of the two worst press conference performances by any coach this year...heck, this millennium.

Last month, Calhoun showed a total lack of grace under fire when he was asked about his huge salary amid a state budget crisis. (He also demonstrated he has no clue about finance when he tried to pass revenue off as income.)

I said this in my earlier post on the subject, but it bears repeating: Yes, these are very serious allegations against the UConn basketball program, but whatever NCAA violations may have occurred is, in my opinion, secondary. I am most pissed at the fact that Calhoun and staff stayed in such close contact with Nochimson after he friggin stole from Rip Hamilton, one of UConn's all-time great players. Completely reprehensible. Seriously, Nochimson was not suited to be an NBA agent, a group that collectively does not have the most stellar reputation, but UConn saw fit to use him to help recruit a star player. What does that say about the world of college recruiting?

Ian O'Connor wrote an excellent article on Calhoun's latest press conference. Definitely worth reading the entire article, but this passage cuts to the heart of this serious matter:

"So the dynamic of your garden-variety Division I scandal has been flipped upside down. The old passion play of agent corrupting athlete, with poor ol’ coach in the role of naive victim, no longer carries the day in the theater of major college sports. Now the average coach isn’t so gullible or innocent. He’s become a business partner of the agent, an enabler chasing his own pot of gold."

Sports Illustrated's Seth Davis broke the story that the NCAA is looking into the allegations. He writes:

"A member of the NCAA's agents and amateurism staff contacted an official at the University of Connecticut on Wednesday morning to request that the university investigate allegations...an NCAA source told SI.com on Wednesday night. The source, who requested anonymity because the NCAA cannot officially comment about ongoing investigations..."

Let's get this straight: The NCAA wants an investigation launched into whether the UConn basketball broke NCAA rules. How do we know this? Because an NCAA employee didn't follow NCAA rules. In the grand scheme, this is hardly news since it is obvious that the NCAA would investigate such a serious allegation. Still, the NCAA should be concerned that an NCAA staff member did not follow protocol when it comes to protecting the integrity of a serious investigation. BTW--Seth Davis did not exactly make this anonymous source a big mystery since there are only three or four people who work in the NCAA's agent, gambling and amateur (AGA) department. Wonder if the NCAA would ever investigate its investigators?

Related: Education Is Still The Answer/SportsAgentBlog.com

UConn-ed

Another day, another Yahoo! Sports investigative report into the sleazy business of college recruiting. Journalists Dan Wetzel, a friend, and Adrian Wojnarowski are among the best in the business of following and documenting many of the alleged transgressions that take place in this business.

As I did with Reggie Bush and OJ Mayo, I think it's important to defend the players, who really have no idea about the backroom dealing that often takes place among AAU coaches, family members, agents, runners and college coaches.

The NCAA, college programs and coaches can shift the blame to the agents, but ultimately it takes two take to tango. What's so damning in this investigation is the volume of calls between the agent and the UConn coaching staff. According to Yahoo!, there were "1,565 phone and text communications with Nochimson, including 16 from head coach Jim Calhoun." Wow. Can you imagine what Kelvin Sampson is thinking today?

The problem of funneling players among summer program, college basketball and then back to the agents is nothing new. It is heightened with the NBA age restriction and the embracing of one-(or even two)-and-done. This is what happens when the NCAA and its members attempt to maintain an outdated facade of amateurism, while EVERYTHING about basketball AT ALL LEVELS has been commercialized...whether we want to admit it or not. The current allegation involves Josh Nochimson, the agent who allegedly ripped off former UCONN player and current NBA star Richard "Rip" Hamilton of more than $1 million. There's no explicit fiduciary duty for college coaches to protect their players from unsavory characters, but I would like to believe that college coaches are the players' "in loco parentis." After all, that's what coach recruiters promise to mothers and fathers every day. Nochimson was a former UCONN student basketball manager, so there's added intrigue: His role appears to be essentially babysitting on behalf of UCONN and making sure Miles was delivered to his alma mater. In return, Nochimson would be well positioned when Miles went pro. 

There should be a some responsibility to protect current UCONN players from a guy who stole big money from a former player. Nice notion, of course, but the insatiable appetite coaches coaches have for elite players is often too great to resist. According to the Yahoo report:

“[Nochimson] admitted to stealing,” Hamilton said. “He cried … I always remember my agent saying, ‘Rip, don’t put your hands on him because he’ll be able to sue you. [Nochimson] was doing everything off of me. He looks like a high roller. It’s hard for a kid because you may not have anything and you see this guy.”

Did the experience of Rip Hamilton cause UCONN hoops to end its association with Nochimson? Not in this upside down world. Here's the conclusion to the Yahoo! story:

Hamilton’s discovery didn’t stop UConn’s contact with Nochimson. The phone calls and text messages went on well past Miles’ expulsion. Even now, Moore is unwilling to disavow his old student-manager saying that they still haven’t discussed the charges that he stole from Hamilton. “I consider him a friend and a very loyal, trusting person,” Moore said.

As an aside, my high school plays a periphery role. From the Yahoo! story: "Nate Pomeday remembered Nochimson arriving unannounced with Miles at his gymnasium in Lake Forest, Ill. Nochimson had discussed using Pomeday’s school at the time, Lake Forest Academy, as a place to enroll other basketball players. Pomeday said he never worked out Miles." Nice that an agent wants to turn LFA into a basketball factory.

The biggest whore Jerry Tarkanian ever met

[Cartoon by Sebastian Conley, exclusively for Money Players. All rights reserved.]

Another day, another allegation that sports agents, AAU coaches and the devil are all the same. Pat Barrett, a longtime coach on the summer basketball circuit, is, again, involved. Shocking. Yahoo! Sports alleges that Barrett accepted a $250,000 donation from Ceruzzi Sports in return for access to his best NBA prospect, Kevin Love.

The NCAA is apparently concerned about the role AAU coaches play in the recruiting and agent game:

“College coaches were now standing side by side with agents at AAU tournaments and high school games. ‘In the parking lots and at the concessions stands and in the hotel rooms’ is where the NCAA’s Newman Baker said agents linger.”

Agents, AAU coaches and college coaches standing side by side. One big happy, dysfunctional basketball cesspool. The NCAA rulebook prohibits agents from doing anything like paying money to players or to their surrogates. But, amazingly, it allows colleges coaches to pay for direct access to top players. Thankfully, it prohibits college coaches from raising money on behalf of AAU programs, although that did not stop one former coach from requesting IN WRITING that his boosters donate to a program to help with his program's recruitment. Remember, AAU coaches have value to not just sports agents, but also to college coaches who also covet their top players. AAU programs are funding their tax-exempt programs with donations from agents, financial advisers and, I'm guessing, wealthy boosters. "Sleazy" agents donate all this money for a lousy 4% of the bump on an NBA rookie contract plus 20% of endorsement deals, which in this economy is 20% of nada. If you do a back-of-the-napkin calculation, it is easy to see that a great player is far more valuable to a college coach than any sleazy or even reputable agent. Just ask noted sports economist Andrew Zimbalist, who wrote in The Wall Street Journal about the flawed salary structure for college coaches:

[College coaches] are making almost as much as NBA coaches, even though their teams' revenues generally are below one-tenth those in [the NBA]. The trick, of course, is that the players aren't allowed to be paid, so the coaches, in essence, get the value produced by their recruits. It doesn't hurt that college sports benefit from state subsidies and federal tax exemptions, and that they have no stockholders looking for quarterly profits.

Unfortunately, my friend Jason Williams, who worked for Ceruzzi Sports and former NBPA director Charles Grantham, was allegedly the point person recruiting Kevin. In the Yahoo! article, Kevin cuts right to the (motorcycle) chase: “If I was going with an agent, why would I ever go with a guy who, no offense, but he crashed a motorcycle into a tree? I’m not going to go with a guy that’s reckless.” Pat Barrett thrives in his world not just because some agents help fund his program, but also because college coaches kiss up to him. And provide free tickets. And give him access. And, wink, wink, encourage wealthy boosters to also contribute. My early analysis: Kevin and his family were used. Big time. Pat Barrett is a con artist, not on the scale of Bernie Madoff, but a bad dude, nonetheless. He conned Ceruzzi Sports by making them believe he “controlled” Kevin Love and that he could steer Love to chose Ceruzzi as his agents. And Barrett defrauded the Loves by going behind their back and capitalizing on an asset he did not own. My favorite judge of basketball character (or lack of) is Jerry Tarkanian. When he was coach at UNLV, Tark described Pat Barrett as "the biggest whore I ever met." I am sure Tark encountered lots of whores along the way, so this is quite a statement. (BTW—I am convinced Jerry Tarkanian is one of the most honest college basketball coaches of all time…honest about the dishonesty associated with basketball.) So much for Tark's spot-on character assassination. Twenty years later, a job recommendation by Pat Barrett is still apparently golden:

"If you are going to be the coach at USC, you better have a relationship with the coach of the Southern California All-Stars, Pat Barrett, who recommended [Rudy Hackett]. I hired him and I'm very glad we did.

Only in America. Only in the bizarro world of basketball, where the wolves don’t even have to bother to dress as sheep. --Marc Isenberg

Bankruptcy Tonic

A-Game Publishing is pleased to announce that Money Players: A Guide to Succeed in Sports, Business & Life for Current and Future Pro Athletes is now in its second printing. Boring advice like spend less, save more, invest conservatively not your style? Try Bankruptcy Tonic!!

Money Players Links

Money Players is all about being the best resource for the business of being a professional athlete. Here are some links from around the web that we think are must reads for any current or aspiring professional athlete and their families.

• Sports agent C. Lamont Smith talks to Sports Agent Blog’s Darren Heitner about his new venture, jocklife.com. According to Smith, “Jocklife.com is for athletes of all levels: high school, college, and professional. The whole gist of the Jocklife platform is to bring some balance and fairness to the coverage of athletes…give athletes the opportunity to define themselves. Today, athletes are really defined by the coverage they get and the stories written about them. Very few times do they have the opportunity to define themselves in an extended fashion.”
  
  
• Slam Magazine’s Lang Whitaker interviews NBA agents Lon Babby and Jim Tanner. Tanner and Babby are known in NBA circles for their fee structure (hourly rather than percentage based) that saves their clients a lot of money.  They also are known as the agents that negotiated Josh Childress’ ground breaking deal with Greek professional team Olimpiacos.
  
  
• A nice piece by SI’s Kevin Armstrong on top high school basketball player Jordan Hamilton and his tight knit family. Hamilton’s mother mentions his intentions to sign a National Letter of Intent in the near future. Hopefully, she understands both the positives and the negatives of such a move.
  
  
• According to reports, Stephon Marbury has just spent $45 million to purchase a new private jet. Stephon has made a lot of money throughout his career (approximately $150 million), but this could turn out to be a purchase Steph will regret. Stephon probably has plans to lease the plane out when he is not utilizing it, but Scottie Pippen tried to do the same thing, and that didn’t end well for him. Stephon might want to put down the Bankruptcy Tonic and pick up a copy of Money Players.
  
  
• The Wall Street Journal with a report on how budget cuts in college athletic departments could hurt the U.S. in future Olympics.
  
  
• Another article on Baylor hiring the former AAU coach of top recruit John Wall. We first told you about this story in a previous set of Money Players Links.

-Nate Jones

For more in-depth information on the business of being a professional athlete, purchase Money Players: A Guide to Success in Sports, Business & Life for Current and Future Pro Athletes, written by our own Marc Isenberg.

Andy Oliver v. NCAA and the "Restitution Rule"

I've previously wrote on the Andy Oliver case, "The unintended consequences of trying to protect athletes." Mr. Oliver's attorney used this article to support its position in the case Oliver v. NCAA. You have to like that the horrifying image of athletic department employees beating down an agent is now part of the case's historical record. It's a joke...that would never happen in our country, right?

Quick recap: On the night before Oklahoma State baseball player Andy Oliver was to pitch in an important NCAA regional tournament game, he was ruled ineligible for violating the NCAA's "no agent" rule, which basically prohibits NCAA athletes from retaining agents to represents their interests. The charges against Oliver came courtesy of his former advisor, Robert Baratta, who sent a scorched-earth letter to the NCAA. Rather than wait for his case to wend and wind its way through the NCAA judicial process, Oliver and his family decided on a more aggressive legal strategy: Sue OSU and the NCAA.

Money Players Links

Money Players is all about being the best resource for the business of being a professional athlete. Here are some links from around the web that we think are must reads for any current or aspiring professional athlete and their families.

• Sean Deveney reports on the National Basketball Players Association's high-growth entrepreneurship program. This summer the program offered NBA players four days of intense business classes and workshops at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, one of the nation's best business schools. This is something that any NBA Player with an interest in investing in or starting a business should get involved in. The gold in the article comes from, program director, Professor Steve Rogers: "Every single athlete is approached with get-rich ideas all the time," Rogers said. "But they don't have the tools to evaluate those ideas. Their focus is basketball. They should be saying no to these deals almost every time. At big venture capital firms, they will get 3,000 business plans per year, and they'll say yes to, maybe, eight of them. Of those eight, not all are going to work out. Sometimes a solid, legitimate business idea just doesn't work. What makes things harder for high-profile people like athletes is that a lot of the people who are offering them these deals are not legitimate. That's where this program is aimed to help."
  
  
• Speaking of athlete’s not being prepared to make sound business investments, Valley Wag composed a list of the worst athlete-backed internet startups of all time.
  
  
• Sam Smith gives us thoughts on the exodus of NBA players to Europe this summer. The comment section of the post is really pretty interesting.
  
  
• The Economist has a great special report on the globalization of sports.
  
  
• A lesson to be learned: Chose your agents and your business managers wisely. These are just accusations at this point, but $500K is a lot of money to lose.
  
  
• An outstanding breakdown by CBS Sportsline’s Gary Parrish on the quid pro quo aspect of college basketball recruiting. I would also recommend reading Parrish’s article on the Elite Camps.
  
  
• Sticking with the theme of Parrish’s article, Baylor hires the AAU coach of top recruit, John Wall, as their player development head.
  
  
• Tom Ziller of Fanhouse looks at the production of the 2004 NBA draft class last season versus the contract extensions they received. Just a hint: The order of salaries isn’t in step with who produces the most.
  
  
• Forbes has a cover story on the most powerful coach in sports: "[Saban] was given total control of the football program: recruiting, coaching, business administration and public relations. There are coaches at other universities who have similar salaries, like Charlie Weis at Notre Dame and Pete Carroll at the University of Southern California. But no coach, including those in the professional leagues, can match Saban's combination of money, control and influence. Saban, now entering his second year as the coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, is the most powerful coach in sports.”
  

--Nate Jones

For more in-depth information on the business of being a professional athlete, purchase Money Players: A Guide to Success in Sports, Business & Life for Current and Future Pro Athletes, written by our own Marc Isenberg.