Recruiting

July 28, 2009

Crossing the packet line

Pete Thamel reports that college basketball coaches are getting gouged by summer basketball tournament organizers who charge hundreds of dollars for a packet that lists player names, numbers and contact info. But at least a few in college coaching are willing to draw a moral, or more probable, financial line in basketball. I applaud coaches like Kevin Stallings (Vanderbilt) and James Jones (Yale) for expressing their opinions, even if they are a bit over the top. Coach Jones called this a "crazy racket...It’s extortion."

Continue reading "Crossing the packet line" »

Posted at 01:37 PM in AAU, economy, Recruiting | | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

December 14, 2008

The sheepy business of basketball

Magic_sheep
The Tampa Tribune writes another one of those "cynical" articles about the alleged sleazy business of big-time basketball. There's a lot of finger pointing, as usual, and rationalizing.

In my many years examining the issues facing or plaguing basketball (depending on how your moral compass is calibrated), I've met all the good and bad actors in this business. As I try to point out, things are not always what they seem. Unfortunately, it's increasingly difficult to tell the wolves in sheep's clothing from the sheeps who come dressed as they are. Since we're using analogies to explain this world, there is no better truth-teller in all of college sports than Saint Joseph's basketball coach Phil Martelli:

"I had an opening on my staff last year and three different guys called me about it. They all said the same thing: 'If you hire me, I can deliver this guy high school player to your program.' Frankly, it made my skin crawl. Not to make an analogy that's a huge over-exaggeration, but hasn't slavery ended?"

Actually, slavery has been outlawed, but the enterprise of "owning" people still, unfortunately, occurs. Another good guy, Virginia Tech basketball coach Seth Greenberg, understands recruiting:

"The player is the center of the universe. You've got to draw a circle around that player and then touch everyone in that circle. If you don't touch the right person, you're going to be eliminated."

College sports is big business. That's not necessarily bad, especially if everyone could just be honest about this commercial enterprise, rather dressing it up as a sheep. Baaaahhh.

Related Money Players/Animal Planet post: It's the horse, not the jockey

--Marc Isenberg

Posted at 02:24 PM in AAU, Amateurism, Recruiting | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 28, 2008

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 .

  • 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 , written by our own Marc Isenberg.

Posted at 09:36 PM in AAU, Agents, Finances, Links, Money, NBA, NCAA sports, Recruiting, Tonic | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 18, 2008

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 , written by our own Marc Isenberg.

Posted at 08:57 AM in AAU, Agents, Amateurism, Capitalism, Coaching, Fraud, Going pro, High school, Links, Money, NBA, NCAA sports, Recruiting | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

August 01, 2008

When your son absolutely, positively has to sign with Memphis

University of Memphis self-reported a potential NCAA recruiting violation: Dave Bronczek, president of FedEx and a school booster, did a fast-talking phone pitch to a FedEx colleague who happens to be the mother of Abdul Gaddy, a star point guard from Tacoma, Wash.

Under NCAA rules, boosters are prohibited from having any contact with recruits or their parents. Of course the NCAA's Rulesapooloza contemplates just about every possible activity that could provide a school with a potential recruiting advantage.

Rule 13.1.3.5.1 in the NCAA Division I Manual states:

"Representatives of an institution's athletics interests are prohibited from making telephonic communications with a prospective student-athlete or the prospective student-athlete's relatives or legal guardians."

The rules violation was first reported by FOXSports.com's Jeff Goodman. It's not clear from Jeff's article whether he is reporting that the NCAA is investigating Memphis or whether he uncovered this possible NCAA violation, which led to Memphis self-reporting.

I do not condone anyone violating NCAA rules, but I also think these types of allegations are a big waste of time and money. Who cares whether one phone call was made by an influential booster? I think even NCAA staffers would concede chasing after these kinds of cases serves little purpose.

Last year UCLA had to explain why John Wooden meeting with Kevin Love was not an NCAA rules violation. (Answer: Coach Wooden is still an employee of UCLA athletic department, not a representative of UCLA's athletic interests.) It's just more paperwork and time spent responding to these inquiries. But the NCAA is only enforcing the rules voted on by its members, as they like say.

Here's two possible ways to interpret this situation
Sinister view
Bronczek will use his position as FedEx head honcho to pressure his employee to make her son play for his Tigers. Oh and since this booster already has the mother on the payroll, this could be "pay for play." Not only is Bronczek the head of a FedEx, but the company is also one of Memphis Athletics' biggest corporate sponsors. Think of the possibilities. Enlightened view
On the Dave Bliss Scale of College Athletic Evilness, this should hardly register. The president calling a long-time employee shows he's a good, caring boss. End of story, let's hope.
--Marc Isenberg

Update: I e-mailed Jeff Goodman to find out how this went down. He said, "I uncovered it and then they self-reported it." Disappointing. Do you think Abdul Gaddy's mother would have ever spoken to Goodman had she known that this conversation would result in an NCAA investigation? Once the phone conversation was reported on FoxSports.com (Goodman also phoned Memphis AD R.C. Johnson for comment), Memphis had no choice but to report this. If I was a high school recruit or parent, I would be very careful when talking to the media about private phone conversations. Even innocent comments can be twisted into alleged NCAA violations. It may be one in a million that the president of a large company also employs a mother of a top high basketball recruit coveted by the school he is a booster at. While Goodman believes this case is governed by Rule 13.1.3.5.1, I think common sense should prevail: Mr. Bronczek ought to be able to communicate with an employee.

Posted at 12:34 AM in NCAA sports, Recruiting | | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

June 16, 2008

Selling hoop dreams to minors


Snakeoilsales

College basketball and the NCAA are talking about stopping the practice of coaches offering scholarships to 8th graders. NCAA prez Myles Brand depicts this practice as "untoward." The problems are many: Most 14-year old boys can't make up their mind which way to part their hair, let alone what college to attend. Like a lot of things in college athletics, the elders have the upper hand. The scholarship offer is contingent on many one-sided factors, including the fulfillment of ridiculously high expectations, the coach still being the coach, qualifying academically and no embarrassing character flaws.

Reggie Minton, National Association of Basketball Coaches associate executive director (and one of the really good guys in all of sports) makes the case to the Lexington Herald-Leader against this practice:

“Do [these 14-year olds] have enough knowledge to make such a decision? Two or three years from now, when it's time to enter (college), are they the same prospect and same person you thought they were four years earlier?"

The next step for the NABC? According to Reggie, “We'll probably ask our coaches to refrain from it. If that doesn't cut the mustard, we'll go to the next step: (NCAA) legislation.” Ordinarily I have a gag reflex at the thought of more NCAA rules so let's hope that coaches can self regulate.

And to the broader topic frequently discussed on the Money Players blog: What's more wrong: a college coach who sells an 8th grade phenom-on-training-wheels a college scholarship or a sports agent who sells a career in the NBA? The simple answer is that both are selling powerful hoop dreams. And in defense of sports agents, it's far easier to predict an NBA career (or not) of an 18, 19- year old than a college career of a 14-year old.

I'll close with a line from the movie Shaft: "We all on the hustle. I sell broads and dope and numbers. You sell crap and blue sky. It's all the same game." And you know these runners, recruiters and agents don't want to get out-hustled.

--Marc Isenberg

Posted at 08:46 AM in Agents, Recruiting | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 13, 2008

It's the horse, not the jockey


Jockey


















ESPN's Andy Katz reports that K-State gave assistant basketball coach Dalonte Hill a $420,000 a year deal. Hill was one of Michael Beasley's AAU coaches for DC Assault and is responsible for bringing Beasley to K-State..

Apparently this deal makes Hill the highest-paid paid assistant coach in all of college basketball. ESPN's Andy Katz described Hill's deal as "stunning" and "whopping" and points out that the basketball community is "beffuddled." Cue the ole Casablanca standby, including the far more instructive part where Captain Renault proves that commerce (shocking) prevails over moral outrage:

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here! [a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: Oh, thank you very much.

Let's look at Hill's deal rationally. K-State's athletic director Bob Krause seems to have an excellent grasp of the economics of college basketball:

"A youngster like Michael Beasley is a once-in-a-lifetime [player]. We have youngsters in the queue, and Dalonte and the entire staff is a big part of that. We're looking at a long-term investment. You can throw money at stuff but that's not the point. You're making an investment to keep the momentum going."

Success in college sports is pretty simple. Bring in the best available players and give them good coaching. In the era of "one and done" the premium is on recruiting. No doubt "x and o's" coaching matters, but it's more important to devote resources to recruiting activities. If athletic departments are investing in private jets to make it easier for head coaches to recruit, why not invest in assistant coaches who have deep relationships with top recruits? In the final analysis paying an assistant coach $420k reflects the marketplace for those at the top of the player procurement game.

Curious thought: What's the difference between an AAU coach, a runner, a college recruiter, and an agent? The skills seem very interchangeable and, in fact, I know several who have worked their way up the career ladder -- or down, depending on how you view this whole business.

--Marc Isenberg

Posted at 09:38 AM in AAU, One and done, Recruiting | | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

May 02, 2008

The bad business of basketball

Darren Rovell interviews sports agent David Falk, who offers some interesting comments about what he (and definitely others) think is wrong with basketball. While I don't like to deal in rumor and innuendo on this blog (not that there's anything wrong with that Buzz Bissinger), I think this is worthy of further discussion. A few snippets (definitely read the entire interview, which also talks about Falk's $5 million donation to Syracuse to start a sports management program):

Darren: How hard is it to be an agent these days?

Falk: It's easier these days because the role of agents is being diminished every year as the leagues continue to pass rules that dramatically restrict what agents can do. In the NBA, they have the rookie scale and the max deals, so they are capping salaries on the front and back end so at every turn you lose your ability to be an entrepreneurial dealmaker. I'm not angry about it. It is what it is. But it just goes to show you the nature of the leagues and their relative strength against their unions.

Darren: There's a reason that the business has a dirty reputation. What's your take on it?

Falk: Instead of evolving, the sports agent business has devolved. ...[W]e're dealing in a world where agents are splitting fees with AAU coaches all the time. And it's getting worse. I wanted to meet a college player who I really enjoyed watching this year. So I asked a friend of mine, who is a very powerful man in the game, to introduce me to him. And he said, "I'd like to help but I can't." And when I asked why. He said, "You are three years and $500,000 short."

Darren: How much are the players to blame in all of this?

Falk: They definitely play a part. I bumped into a player the other day and he said he was on his third agent in 10 years in the league. And this agent was calling him every day and I said to him, "Did you jump from high school into the league?" And he said, "Yeah." And I said, "You're 28 now. Why are you still acting like you're in high school? If you need someone to call you everyday you should have probably gone to college.
---------

If the basketball biz is so dirty, what can be done to improve?

Last month the NCAA and the NBA announced a partnership to address some of the corrupting influences associated with basketball. The NCAA and NBA have provided few details about exactly what they will do to improve the basketball culture. John Feinstein has his doubts [NBA, NCAA Plan to Make Plans].

My small -- but hopefully effective -- solution was to write Money Players, a book to help athletes (and their families) understand the business and ultimately make better financial decisions. Let me know what you think, either by posting a comment below or by .

--Marc Isenberg

Posted at 09:41 AM in Agents, NBA, Recruiting | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 05, 2008

High school recruit punk'd by "Jeff Tedford"

UPDATE: Hart wasn't punk'd, but was the one behind this bizarre tale. On the scale of 1 to Dave Bliss, this should hardly register. I feel bad for him.

As Ray Ratto writes: "And like so many teenagers' plans, it lacked sufficient consideration of the endgame."
-----------------------------------

Apparently a high school recruit was pranked by someone impersonating Cal coach Jeff Tedford.

Kevin Hart, a Nevada 2-way high star, announced his decision to attend Cal at a press conference attended by local media and "Jeff Tedford."

Kevin Hart explained his decision to sign with Cal to the media throngs:
"Coach Tedford and I talked a lot, and the fact that the head coach did most of the recruiting of me kind of gave me that real personal experience."

This is not funny. College scholarships are in limited supply. What if Hart called other schools that were actually recruiting him to inform them he was signing with Cal?

In the annals of recruiting, there have been many crazy, bizarre stories. One of my favorites: When Barry Switzer was the coach at Oklahoma, he desperately wanted to sign star running back Billy Sims. So he sent an assistant coach to Billy's hometown with instructions not to return without him. The assistant coach checked into a nearby hotel, but spent nearly all his time with Billy and his family. The assistant coach was finally able to return home -- and keep his job -- when, after 68 days, Billy signed.

The "recruitment" of Kevin Hart is flat-out the most bizarre story I've heard. The best rundown of the possible scenarios is on BearTerritory.net. Stay tuned!!

On a sidenote, I wonder if "Jeff Tedford" broke any NCAA rules.

Posted at 08:33 AM in NCAA sports, Recruiting | | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

November 16, 2007

Signing your life away

SI's Seth Davis writes a compelling case against college prospects signing the National Letter of Intent (NLI), wondering whether the contract, which binds player to school, is legally "unconscionable." The problem with the NLI is that it favors college programs far more than players. Provision No. 19 of the NLI states that players agree they are signing with the school, not the program, even if the actual recruiting often reflects the opposite.

Seth's conclusion: "[U]ntil improvements are made, and until the athletes are given a say in the letter's contents, my advice to recruits is, Don't sign. You can get yourself a better deal."

Refusing to sign would probably work for the very top recruits (guys like Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, OJ Mayo, Kevin Love, etc.). But I would not offer this advice in broad strokes. If recruiting is a game of musical chairs, signing the letter assures a recruit that he/she will have a home for at least one year . Of course, this is contingent on the recruit's admittance into school and avoiding certain bad behavior, both large loopholes in the school's favor.

From the coaches' perspective the NLI also allows them to view players as interchangeable commodities, playing recruits off against each other. A coach might say to three point guards he's recruiting, "I've offered scholarships to three guys. First one to sign gets the scholarship." Fear sure is an effective closing technique for college coaches often judged on their ability to recruit. In reality, most high school recruits don't have the leverage to dictate anything to college coaches. They're just thrilled to get a flimsy 1-year scholarship commitment. Now if every top blue chip recruit collectively refused to sign the agreement...then things could get interesting.

--Marc Isenberg

11/16 Update: Received this from a friend who works in college athletics: "Practically speaking, I have to believe most coaches will NOT offer only a grant-in-aid (GIA) without insisting on a signed NLI because it could be so destructive to them. They'll say 'if you want me to commit an athletic scholarship to you then we need you to sign the NLI so we know it works both ways.' So you might want to suggest that they ask FIRST whether a coach would mind issuing a GIA contract alone, but be ready to back off on that request."

Posted at 07:15 AM in Recruiting | | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

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