July 28, 2009

Marketing Michael and Negotiating for Patrick

David Falk provides great detail on how “Air Jordan” came about with Nike. It turns out that Michael Jordan was an Adidas man, and initially had little interest in Nike. Falk’s approach to Nike was not how much they were willing to spend on Michael, but how much they were willing to spend to promote his branded products. Falk was looking to promote Jordan through “outside the box” thinking, unlike anything that had been done before. Needless to say that, 25 years later Nike, Jordan and Falk are still benefiting from their outside “the box” thinking.

Patrick Ewing, presented a different challenge to David Falk. First, Ewing had considered forgoing his senior year of eligibility at Georgetown. Falk argued for Patrick to return for his senior year, which could result in an even better shot at being the first pick in the 1985 draft. Of course, Ewing returned for his senior year, and later became the fist pick of the 1985 NBA draft. We won’t go into the details of Falk’s negotiation with the New York Knicks, but it is a great lesson on the use of leverage, understanding your market, and creating a new market with the same “outside the box” thinking.

Though the book has many different themes for the young Sports Lawyer to consider, one that stands out is “Sacrifice short term benefits for long term success.”. Falk points out that many of the NBA contracts done by other agents tied a player up for far too long in order to say that such and such a player received x number of dollars. Then, two or three year later, the contract is outdated and the player is not happy. Falk points this out in many cases starting with Magic Johnson, Chris Webber, Glenn Robinson, and even to some extent Michael Jordan’s first contract. Falk pats himself on the back for getting Juwan Howard a great entry level contract that allowed Howard to very quickly sign a more lucrative second NBA contract.

Falk is not bashful about criticizing other agents, owners, and the brass at the NBA Players Association. By the same token, he is quick to praise owners who “get it” and understand how both parties can win by signing a superstar player to a deal that benefits both parties.

Tomorrow - Recruiting wars, and the way it is today.

Okay, enough about Michael Vick and the Commissioner already! If you have to have more on that story, you could go to this link:  http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/9859346/Goodell-conditionally-reinstates-Vick-to-NFL