Arn Tellem competed as hard as anyone during his 34-year career as a powerful basketball and baseball agent, an agency head and a vocal union advocate.
Last week, after it was announced that Tellem would leave Wasserman Media Group to take a job as vice chairman of Palace Sports & Entertainment, his former competitors as well as others praised him as a pioneer who left a mark on the agent business.
“In every industry, there is always someone who sets the bar for success,” CAA Sports co-head Howard Nuchow said. “Throughout his career, Arn Tellem has not just set the bar for the athlete representation business, he raised it.”
Tellem could be almost warm and fuzzy when he wanted to be, but he drew the hardest of lines when defending his clients, his agency and his principles. Even agents who said privately that they didn’t like him would grudgingly admit that they respected him. People who knew him were almost wistful about the news he was leaving the agent side and were eager to talk, a somewhat unusual reaction in the hard-nosed agent business.
Rival NBA agent Bill Duffy, president of BDA Sports, said he had as much admiration for Tellem as any agent he has ever met. Not only was Tellem an effective agent for his own players, but he helped all NBA players by bringing agents together during times of labor strife, Duffy said.
“When it came to unifying agents, I mean agents who really cannot stand each other, Arn was always there as a kind of an elder statesman,” Duffy said. “We all had to come together when it came to collective bargaining or the rights of all the players. I think he really understood that and he took it very seriously.”
Don Fehr, the NHL Players’ Association executive director who also ran the MLB Players Association for 25 years, called Tellem “thoughtful, considerate, deliberate and intelligent,” who always had his players’ best interests as his primary goal.
“He was a very vigorous and effective advocate for the players he represented,” Fehr said. “I consider the times I have had to work with him very constructive, and I think that he was one of those individuals representing players who always worked in sync with the union. And a partnership between players associations and agents is always good.”
Jeff Schwartz, president of Excel Sports Management and an NBA agent, said, “Arn was a major presence in the industry and was committed to working hard for his clients. Despite the hypercompetitive nature of our business, we have always maintained a good relationship, and I look forward to working with him on the other side of the table.”
Tellem declined an interview last week, but he wrote in an article for Sports Illustrated that in his new job as vice chairman of Palace Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Detroit Pistons, he has the opportunity to help the community in Michigan, where he went to law school. He also wrote that it was time to “pass the baton” to agents he hired and trained at Wasserman.
Adam Katz and Joel Wolfe will head up the baseball practice. B.J. Armstrong, Thad Foucher and Darren Matsubara will head basketball.
Tellem is not officially leaving Wasserman, where he has worked since 2006, until early August, but he has already communicated to the National Basketball Players Association that he will not be involved in negotiating player contracts in the interim, NBPA Executive Director Michele Roberts said.
Roberts, who was elected to her position last summer, said she did not know Tellem well. But she added, “I do know he is a passionate advocate for players’ rights.”
The news of Tellem’s move, announced June 5, surprised many in the industry, but not all.
“People asked me, am I surprised he made the move,” said David Falk, a rival NBA agent who has known Tellem for 30 years. “I’m not. I think the business can wear you down at certain points. I think he has accomplished all he could in this business.”
Falk knows Tellem as well as anyone. Tellem started his career as an attorney at law firm Manatt Phelps in the 1980s, where he worked as outside counsel for the Los Angeles Clippers, while at the same time working as an agent representing baseball players. Falk met Tellem when he was representing the Clippers.
Later, Tellem became an NBA agent and they competed against each other in the 1980s and 1990s for clients, with each setting record player deals.
In 1999, Falk, who was then CEO of SFX Sports, bought Tellem’s business, Arn Tellem & Associates. Tellem later became CEO of SFX Sports when Falk left in 2001. Tellem joined Wasserman in 2006. Through it all, Falk and Tellem remained friends, Falk said.
“I have always felt he is a terrific agent, a very caring person, a very passionate person,” Falk said. “He built a really strong business in two different sports — which is really hard.”
