ESPN's "Outside The Lines" last night was titled,
"Peddling the Pros: Agent$ and Athletes." The one-hour
special opened with a look at agent DREW ROSENHAUS' bid to
represent RB EDGERRIN JAMES and former FL State G TERRELL
BAKER's search for representation. ESPN's Dan LeBatard then
examined the influence of PERCY "MASTER P" MILLER and the
impact of No Limit Sports on the marketplace. No Limit's
LELAND HARDY, on whether the NFL is "scared" of No Limit
Sports: "No. But I think the agent community is deathly
afraid of us. I think the football community is eager to
have us. We bring new, fresh enthusiasm to the business."
More Hardy, on why he feels other agencies are afraid of No
Limit: "Well, I think that finally the agent community at
large realizes that we have arrived. We, I mean from two
perspectives. We, No Limit, the company, but also the
larger 'we.' We being those from the community of hip-hop
that have long, for almost a decade, talked about what I
call the 'messiah factor.' That eventually one from among
us, a messiah of hip-hop, someone who could easily galvanize
the attention of all the young audience of prospective
professional basketball players and others, would realize
their ability to harness the power of their celebrity toward
attracting prospective athlete/clients."
THE NBA: ESPN's Shelley Smith examined whether agents
are still necessary in the wake of the new NBA CBA. Celtics
F ANTOINE WALKER, on his new contract, which was handled by
DAVID FALK, who agreed to do it for free and waive the
standard 4% fee: "I told him, 'What are we going to do about
the 4%? Because it's obvious I'm not going to give you 4%
and I can do this myself.' And if they would have chose not
to do anything about it, then obviously I would have left."
Falk client KEITH VAN HORN, asked if he would stick with
Falk for his next contract, after Falk waived the standard
4% fee on his first deal: "I haven't really discussed it
with David at this point. But I think he does a great job
and I think I owe him that for all that he's done for me."
Attorney LON BABBY, who has negotiated contracts for seven
NBA players and charges clients on an hourly fee rather than
a percentage fee: "The fundamental essence of it is that I
believe that it's the player that creates the value, it's
not his representative, and so the player ought not to share
that value with somebody who comes in and just performs a
service. ... We can't imagine sending a corporate executive
a bill for four percent of his employment contract. That
would be preposterous." ESPN's Bob Ley examined IMG's
marketing plans for the Browns No. 1 pick TIM COUCH, and
noted that IMG closed "the deal with Couch with a
personalized marketing plan designed to produce millions in
primarily regional endorsements." IMG's PETER JOHNSON is in
talks with Nike about an endorsement deal with Couch, and
Couch wore a Nike hat during his interview (ESPN, 4/20).
