David Falk: Extend Season Into July

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

                                     November 5, 1998


                           Falk suggests extending season to July
    
                                        by Phil Jasner
                                   Daily News Sports Writer
    
                       Salaries lost during a lockout gone forever?
                       Ticket sales and arena revenues lost never to be
                       recouped?
     
                       Not necessarily, says David Falk, the agent for
                       Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Dikembe Mutombo
                       and other players on the executive committee of
                       the National Basketball Players Association.

                       The NBA season, which had been scheduled to
                       start two days ago, has been canceled through at
                       least the first week of next month. When
                       commissioner David Stern announced last week
                       that all games through Nov. 30 had been wiped
                       off the books, he also said that as each
                       additional week passes, another week's worth of
                       games also would be erased.

                       To this point, that has cost the players more
                       than $200 million in salaries, and the owners an
                       untabulated total in revenue. Falk, though,
                       suggested a way that might help both sides once
                       a settlement is reached in the labor dispute.

                       This was before Stern yesterday charged that
                       agents representing high-salaried players were
                       attempting to kill any chance of the union
                       accepting what the owners have put on the table.

                       "There's no reason the season can't be
                       extended," said Falk, whose company also
                       represents 76ers guards Allen Iverson and Larry
                       Hughes. "They can probably get all of it back by
                       playing into July."

                       At the same time, agent Arn Tellem called
                       Stern's charges against the agents "absolutely
                       ludicrous and without any factual basis."

                       "The union is running the negotiations,
                       listening to the players and following their
                       directions," Tellem said. "The agents are being
                       used as a convenient scapegoat. The NBA should
                       be more concerned about coming up with a
                       meaningful proposal than running a PR campaign.
                       A deal will get done when Stern wants it to get
                       done, and not a second before . . .

                       "In a time of unprecedented prosperity for the
                       teams, when they've doubled their TV revenue,
                       the players should not be going backward. Billy
                       Hunter [ the executive director of the union ]
                       is in control, not David Falk, not Arn Tellem or
                       anyone else. Billy will do what he thinks is
                       best."

                       Falk, who publicly supports Hunter, said he
                       believed revenue-sharing by the owners could go
                       a long way toward accomplishing a solution.

                       He also said allowing veterans to negotiate
                       Larry Bird exception contracts while they have
                       time remaining on their existing deals would
                       hold down salaries because players are almost
                       always looking for security above everything
                       else. Many megadeals, he said, are created when
                       those players become free agents, able to
                       entertain offers from any team in the league.

                       The Bird clause was created to allow teams to
                       retain their own free agents at any price
                       regardless of their status within the salary
                       cap.

                       Falk insisted that Jordan and Ewing, the
                       president of the union, have not become mere
                       mouthpieces for his wishes.

                       "There seems to be this belief that they're my
                       spokespersons, that I'm manipulating them," Falk
                       said. "I'm advising them, but they make
                       decisions for themselves.

                       "It amazes me that Stern has lawyers around him,
                       as every successful businessman does, but as
                       soon as an athlete does that, there's a
                       suggestion that he's being manipulated."

                       In a meeting in New York last week, Jordan told
                       Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin that, if he
                       couldn't afford to pay the escalating salaries
                       of the players, he should sell the team.

                       "What happens," Falk said, "when an owner goes
                       to a city and says he doesn't have enough luxury
                       boxes or suites and that if he doesn't get more
                       he's going to leave? If the city says it's sorry
                       but it can't do more, the owner says 'see ya.'
                       It's called free enterprise. These are
                       for-profit organizations, but in this situation,
                       the owners are trying to force the players to
                       not be able to get paid their market value."

    
                              ©1998 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.