Re: Dave D'Alessandro: An agent who sounds like the owner's best friend

["Witch Craft" <witchcraft1998@hotmail.com>]

>Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 04:16:22 -0600 (MDT)
>Reply-to: The Sporting News <sports-mail@sportsmail.sportingnews.com>
>From: The Sporting News <sports-mail@sportsmail.sportingnews.com>
>To: "Dave D'Alessandro Mailing List" 
<sportingnews-dalessandro-list-ns@sportsmail.sportingnews.com>
>Subject: Dave D'Alessandro: An agent who sounds like the owner's best 
friend

He is being scorned as an unscrupulous agent -- which, of course, sounds 
=
like a title issued by the Department of Redundancy Department. He is 
als=
o being called a self-serrving opportunist, a loose cannon, and, as one 
p=
eer describes him, "a litigious nutcase." Those are the printable terms. 
=
But no matter what you call Steve Woods, he is clearly a rare breed: an 
a=
gent who sounds like the NBA owner's best friend.=20

<P>Woods is a guy who the Players Association would rather you not hear 
f=
rom or about. But if just half of what he's been saying over the last 
few=
 weeks is true, the players are in worse shape than anyone thought.

<P>The Atlanta-based lawyer, who represents such players as Kevin Willis 
=
and Willie Burton, filed a grievance with the NLRB last week, accusing 
th=
e union of mismanaging the collective bargaining negotiations with the 
le=
ague. And while his charges may lack merit, they do illustrate the fine 
l=
ine union leadership must walk as a representative body.=20

<P>Woods' primary contention is that players haven't been sufficiently 
ed=
ucated by the union as to the risk of a long-term lockout, and that the 
u=
nion hasn't made it clear that lost wages are gone forever. He also 
sugge=
sts that executive director Billy Hunter, his army of attorneys, and 
note=
d Falkians Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning aren't qualified to match 
wi=
ts with the likes of David Stern.

<P>"They overpromised the players, and now their sole focus is to 
deliver=
 the undeliverable," said Woods, referring specifically to the $85 
millio=
n in salaries lost after the league canceled the first two weeks of the 
s=
eason. "The players are under the impression they'll get that back. I 
bel=
ieve that's irresponsible, because unless something crazy happens (to 
end=
 the lockout), they don't get that back."

<P>Woods, who made it clear that he is making the charge as an 
individual=
 and not as a representative of Willis or Burton, added, "I don't think 
P=
atrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning are equipped to make a $10 billion 
deal.=
 . . I don't want to be on the bus going over the cliff with Patrick 
Ewin=
g and Alonzo Mourning driving it." And if it's suggested that he's 
underm=
ining the union's position in the negotiation, he said, "How can you 
hurt=
 something that is already derailed?"=20

<P>Naturally, the union is doing its best to discredit Woods, who seems 
t=
o be ignoring a fact of life: There has to be some deception on the part 
=
of Hunter, whose constituency is just too broad, too diffuse, too 
fragile=
 for him to tell all of the truth all of the time -- despite his 
contenti=
on that this is the most well-informed group of players in history.

<P>Said union spokesman Dan Wasserman, "The charge is hardly worth 
dignif=
ying with a response, and is totally without merit." Wasserman added 
that=
 union officials spoke with Willis prior to Woods making the charge, and 
=
that Willis professed to not speaking with his agent, didn't know the 
age=
nt was going to take this action, and did not agree with his assessment 
o=
f the negotiation.

<P>Moreover, nothing some wing nut says can affect their solidarity.

<P>"You hear that all the time from the players, that they are unified," 
=
countered Woods. "What does that mean? The problem you find is that the 
p=
layers don't know what it (the labor struggle) is about. Very few of 
them=
 have actually read the proposals.

<P>"It's like this abstract concept: `Oh, isn't it good that we're 
unifie=
d.' But they don't understand that it's an interesting concept, but what 
=
are you unified over? You can be unified while you're in a bus and 
somebo=
dy drives you over a cliff, but that doesn't mean that you're right. It 
d=
oesn't mean that you're fundamentally right, and that's the big flaw I 
se=
e in this whole deal."

<P>He added that the dispute is not so much about money, but about power 
=
and control. Players think they have the economic leverage to take more 
p=
ower and control. When you look at most of the other labor disputes (in 
o=
ther sports), they have been about compensation. But this dispute is 
more=
 about who should control the league. The problem is that the players 
are=
 not acting like equity partners in the league. Instead, they're acting 
l=
ike disgruntled employees."

<P>One high-powered agent who doesn't mind condemning Woods for the 
recor=
d is Bill Strickland, who was in the running for union director before 
Hu=
nter got the job two years ago and makes it clear that Woods speaks for 
n=
o one but himself.

<P>"There should be room for all opinions and discussion," Strickland 
sai=
d, "and in the Agent Advisory Committee meetings we raise ideas and 
conce=
pts that Billy to his credit listens to. But for Woods to suggest that 
th=
ey have been misled, and that the union doesn't know what it's unified 
fo=
r, is ludicrous."

<P>Meanwhile, players will assemble in Las Vegas to discuss the issues 
in=
 a meeting on Thursday. If they are going to show any signs of 
fracturing=
, it will start here. Some agents other than Woods predict a great deal 
o=
f the conversation about players missing paychecks in order to protect 
th=
e superstar's Larry Bird rights. Said one, "Only a handful of players 
are=
 going to get those $100 million contracts (through the Bird exception). 
=
So there's definitely going to be some divisiveness."

All along, the owners had been waiting for player solidarity to show s=
ome cracks. Little did they know they'd receive some help in the 
matter.=20




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