Darren Rovell got David Falk to talk trash about one time boss, Donald Dell. Rovell hypothesized that Falk was talking about Dell. After speaking to Dell in person last year, I will second that opinion. Here is what Falk recently had to say to Darren:
“A guy who has been in the sports business for 40 years, and was basically cryogenically frozen, resurfaced last year, and we both competed for the same player this year. The player eventually went with me, but three days after this player told this agent he selected me, this agent told him, ‘You’ve made a terrible mistake. David is a really bad person. I’m here for you if you change your mind.’”
“The joke is that this was a person I once worked for and later he worked for me. Then I find out from this player that this agent told him that he did Michael Jordan’s first Nike deal. That’s ridiculous. That’s like Pluto saying he invented the Polio vaccine that everyone knows was invented by Jonas Salk. So I told this player, ‘All you have to do is call Michael and he’ll tell you David did the deal.'”
“The truth is that person wasn’t even sitting in the room when we did the deal. He was totally uninvolved. But that’s the state of the business. It’s despicable that this agent would be stupid enough to say he negotiated Michael Jordan’s Nike deal. And it’s unethical and illegal to solicit a client after the kid said he had decided on another agent. He should be decertified for that.”
Dell became the first tennis agent ever in 1970 – approximately 40 years ago. Last year, he picked up Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer…definitely resurfacing. I imagine that the player that selected Dell this year is Gary Forbes. The two have always fought about who should take credit for the Michael Jordan deals. Still want to be an agent, right?
2 replies on “Falk Downs Dell”
Another example of what today’s industry is about.
This business is definitely getting out of hand. The integrity is definitely lost. But I still want to be part of it because I feel like some people can do things the right way. I respect Falk for speaking out about the sitaution. it shouldn’t be about who has the most money. If I were an athlete I would not sign with whoever threw the most money at me. I would sign with whatever agent had my best interest at heart.
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