Date: Fri 22-Sep-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: KIMH

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

Harmon-On-Sports

Full Text:

Kim Harmon/On Sports - Agents Of Fortune

The National Basketball Association is back in business after the

still-certified players' union and the league owners ratified the new six-year

deal and if that isn't enough to make me happy (as visions of Anfernee

Hardaway and Shaquille O'Neal and Patrick Ewing spin around the parquet floor

of my cranium) then the fact that the player-agents got hammered big-time is

enough to make me delirious.

If you still don't understand what this NBA labor problem was all about, then

consider this: you almost missed out on an exciting 82-game season with all

the ramifications of its playoffs all because a group (a small group) of

player-agents who thought they had more power than they really did figured

they simply weren't getting rich enough.

The NBA owners and the players' union hashed out a six-year deal that would,

in effect, make everyone rich . . .  with the cap increasing, immediately, by

$8 million and by $15 million by the end of the contract.

BUT . . . the deal included a rookie salary cap and, whoa, if that didn't get

some agents into a spitting up their pate de fois gras.

What, no more $84 million contracts for players who can barely muster enough

desire to walk out onto the floor every night to play a game ? No more holding

out for rich contracts that throw the entire salary structure of the league

completely out of whack and make whining prima donnas out of players who could

otherwise be outstanding athletes?

What was the union thinking?

There were a few agents who didn't like the deal, who felt a cap on rookie

salaries was going to put a serious crimp in their greed, so they put up a few

of their high profile players - Patrick Ewing and Michael Jordan - to stand

for the cause of union decertification.

Do you think Ewing or Jordan really cared if the union was decertified? Ewing

is owed a balloon payment of $18 million this year by the New York Knicks and

the $6 million or so Jordan makes on the basketball court is only a fraction

of what he makes in endorsements and other deals.

Did they care?

No.

But their agents sure did. Oh, yeah. Think about that $84 million deal Chris

Webber signed with the Golden State Warriors when he popped out of Michigan as

a sophomore. If that thing went to term, then his agent stood to earn (and I

use that term very loosely, based on a general 15% charge) an average of $1

million a year - from one player alone - over the 12-year life of the

contract. Then there is the case of Ewing, whose agent stands to make

somewhere around $3 million this year alone.

When is enough enough?

So a few agents were willing to put the NBA season in jeopardy because the

money they were making wasn't going hand over fist fast enough, although they

will tell you they did it to protect the rookie players coming into the league

. . . as if a bunch of juniors and sophomores (who was the last really good

player to wait until his senior year to come out?) really need to make $50

million as soon as they turn in their history and science books.

It's sickening. Really. And the fact that the players (or their agents) didn't

mount a legal battle contesting the vote on decertification tells you exactly

how committed these dissidents were to the whole idea.

You can say greedy players and tyrannical owners have a lot to do with the

downfall of modern professional sports, but their agents sure deserve a whole

lotta blame.