David Falk—back in the news

It’s been an interesting month so far for David Falk.

The once super agent represented Michael Jordan for the entirety of his career, and rose to prominence after splitting (quite contentiously) from ProServ and Donald Dell in 1992 in order to establish his own company, Falk Associates Management Enterprises (FAME), which he sold to the entertainment conglomerate SFX for $150 million in 1998. Falk soon became Chairman of the SFX Sports Group from 1999–2001, where he spearheaded and oversaw a massive acquisition of talent that enabled SFX Sports Group to represent approximately 20 percent of MLB, and by 2002 roughly one-third of the NBA. In truth though, Falk and company probably bit off more than they could chew. Tempers flared and certain egos had a tough time getting along.

But that’s in the past. Falk turns 58 this year and has long been “semi-retired,” having left his position as Chairman of SFX in 2001 in order to spend more time with his family. But even “retirement” has its hectic periods, it seems. This week, one of Falk’s few remaining, current NBA clients, Mike Bibby, was traded from Sacramento to the Atlanta Hawks for Shelden Williams and the expiring contracts of Tyronn Lue, Anthony Johnson and Lorenzen Wright, as well as a 2008 second-round draft pick.

Another client, L.A. Clippers point guard Sam Cassell, continues to feverishly try and accelerate a potential buyout of $6.15 million and the final year of his contract so that he can join the Boston Celtics and good friend Kevin Garnett. But while NBA sources have confirmed that Falk has spoken to Clippers owner Donald Sterling about a buyout, Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy insisted as of last Tuesday that “there is no Sam situation.”

Finally, Keith Van Horn has kind of been “semi-retired” as well. However, the Dallas Mavericks still hold Van Horn’s rights because he never submitted official retirement papers to the league office since he last played in 2005-06. Van Horn now finds himself as the linchpin in the latest effort to get Jason Kidd to Dallas, but there are murmurings that he is “no lock to fall in line with the business of getting paid to take a physical.” Said Falk, per an interview with Dave D’Allesandro of The Star Ledger, “[Keith] wants some quiet time to reflect on it. And that’s what he should be doing. He’ll make a decision, but it’s not going to be ‘maybe,’ or 70-30. Either he’ll do it or he won’t do it. And we’ll all know in the next 48 to 72 hours.”

So maybe all of this action has re-whet David Falk’s appetite to get back in the game full time? Falk did raise eyebrows when he seemingly popped out of nowhere and signed Georgetown’s Jeff Green in the ’07 Draft, so maybe a full-fledged “comeback” is in order? Hey, even MJ had trouble retiring.