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2007 Day Nike Valentine

David B. Falk , Esquire (born 1950) is an American sports agent who primarily works with NBA players. Falk began his career representing professional tennis players for Donald Dell's ProServ and is best known for representing sports icon Michael Jordan for the entirety of Jordan's career. Besides Jordan, Falk has represented more than 100 other NBA players, and is generally considered to be the most influential player agent the NBA has seen. During the peak years of Falk's career in the 1990s, he was often considered the second-most powerful person in the NBA behind Commissioner David Stern, and in 2000 he had at least one client on all but two NBA teams. He was listed among the "100 Most Powerful People in Sports" for 12 straight years from 1990 to 2001 by The Sporting News , and was also named one of the Top 50 Marketers in the United States by Advertising Age in 1995.

Falk negotiated the then-highest contracts in NBA history for Patrick Ewing and Danny Ferry. He also negotiated professional sports' first $100 million contract for Alonzo Mourning as part of an unprecedented free agency period, during which his company, FAME, changed the entire salary structure of the NBA, negotiating more than $400 million in contracts for its free-agent clients in a six-day period.

In January 2007, Falk re-launched FAME, and today serves as its founder and CEO. He represented only 7 players in 2007, a far cry from the prime of his sports agent career in the 1990s, when he represented as many as 40 players at a time.

Personal life

Falk was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Long Island, New York, the second of three children. Falk's father had never finished high school and owned two butcher shops on Long Island, while his mother, Pearl Falk, had two master's degrees, spoke six languages, and had worked as an interpreter in World War II for Nelson Rockefeller in Latin American affairs. Falk described his mother, a teacher and inspirational force as "a perfectionist," and called her "the biggest influence in my life," the one who drove him to achieve great heights.

"Nothing was really ever good enough. I brought home my college board scores—I think I got just under 1,400 the first time. She was crushed. She didn't understand how I could do so poorly. I think that I share a lot of those qualities. She used to have an expression that I would say is the guiding principle of my life: Always shoot for the stars and never settle for second best."

Falk's mother was an avid New York Knicks fan, a fact which influenced Falk's career decision upon his career path. Longtime childhood friend and colleague, Attorney Reid Kahn, remembers Falk proclaiming that he wanted to represent professional athletes in the fourth grade. Another high school friend noted that Falk was not good enough to make any of the teams at Douglas MacArthur High School (Levittown, New York), but that he was an ardent sports fan who frequently watched baseball games at Shea Stadium.

He graduated Syracuse University in 1972, with a degree in economics, and subsequently,George Washington University Law School, where he earned a J.D. with honors in 1975.

During his law school years, his parents separated, maintaining minimal contact with his father, but remaining very close with his mother until her death in 1988.

Falk lives in Rockville, Maryland with his wife, Rhonda (Frank). The Falks have two daughters, Daina,(born 1983) an honors graduate of Duke University, and an accomplished Beverly Hills photographer, and Jocelyn (born 1988), a dean's list student majoring in television and communication at Syracuse University. As a young wife, Rhonda was an undergraduate admissions counselor for The George Washington University. She spent five years there recruiting students from the New England area as well as from the Caribbean. For 10 years she worked for STSC, a software company in Rockville, Md., as a production manager. She moved into the software publishing division and managed the distribution and sales of software through international resellers around the world. She also serves on the board of directors of Woodmont Country Club.

Sports marketing, promotions, and contracts

ProServ and signing of Michael Jordan

After many attempts to establish contact with agents Bob Woolf of Boston and Larry Fleisher, Falk turned to ProServ's Donald Dell in 1974. Falk attempted to get Dell on the phone for "six or seven weeks." Finally, annoyed at Dell's seeming unavailability, Falk called Dell's office "about 17 times in a three-hour period" until Dell took his call. When Dell informed him that ProServ was not hiring, Falk offered to work for free. Dell consented to take on Falk as an unpaid intern while he was attending law school, finally offering him a full-time job starting at $13,000 after his graduation from George Washington University Law School in 1975.

Dell was a former pro tennis player and primarily represented tennis players, so he allowed Falk to handle a large portion of ProServ's NBA dealings. Falk proved to be a capable agent and negotiator, as he signed the #1 NBA Draft picks in 1976 (John Lucas) and 1981 (Mark Aguirre), and negotiated the first million-dollar NBA shoe deal for James Worthy in 1982.

ProServ had an inside track with the North Carolina after they successfully represented a number of N.C. basketball alumni, including Tom LaGarde, Phil Ford, Dudley Bradley, and James Worthy. In 1984, the same year Michael Jordan entered the NBA Draft, Frank Craighill and Lee Fentress, two of Dell's ProServ partners, left to start a competing firm, Advantage International. Dell and Falk signed #3 pick Jordan, while Craighill and Fentress signed Sam Perkins.

Nike shoe deal: "Air Jordan"

After signing Jordan, Falk quickly made the first major deal with Nike, Inc. The Nike shoe deal, considered the most successful sports endorsement relationship in history by many,coined the "Air Jordan" brand name. At the start of the 80s, only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had a six-figure shoe deal for $100,000 (with Adidas), and Nike was a small player next to companies like Converse, which had virtually owned the market on basketball shoes through the 1970s. After James Worthy signed an 8-year, $1.2 million endorsement deal with New Balance in 1982, also negotiated by Falk, Falk decided to make large demands to shoe companies for Jordan's services, including his own shoe line and a royalty.

"We decided to stretch the envelope," Falk said. "Instead of calling up the companies and asking them how much they would pay Michael Jordan, we called them up and asked them to make a presentation and explain what they could do to promote him. Needless to say, this got a lot of quizzical replies."

Unbeknownst to Falk and Jordan, Nike had decided to target Jordan as their player of the future. Jordan himself was initially reticent; throughout college he had worn Converse because of the company's endorsement deal with Tar Heels coach Dean Smith, and off the court, he wore Adidas. Jordan had never worn or even seen a Nike shoe before the company contacted him.

Nike's initial offer was $250,000, his own shoe line, and a percentage of the revenues. Jordan already had a standing offer from Adidas for $500,000, and Falk demanded that Nike match the figure in addition to the revenue percentage. Nike came back with an offer of $500,000 and a smaller cut. Falk agreed.

"David Falk elected to take more guaranteed money and less revenue percentage," said (Nike Scout) Sonny Vaccaro. "So out of the chute he lost himself a lot of money. But in retrospect, it really amounted to nothing. It wasn't a big-time bidding war. Probably the most determining thing was Adidas wasn't going to offer him a lot of money. It was the first time that the athlete was going to share in the royalties of the shoe. That was the gamble."

The deal was all the more significant because it was considered difficult to market African-American players in 1984, especially in a team sport like basketball. In fact, Nike insisted on several "outs" in its initial contract with Jordan: the shoe line could be dropped if certain sales figures were not met, or if Jordan failed to make the NBA All-Star Game in his first three years. The shoe line was expected to earn $3 million for Nike in about three to four years. As it turned out, the Air Jordan sneaker earned Nike $130 million in 1985 alone, making their $500,000 contract with Jordan one of the great bargains of all time, a precursor to Jordan's more lucrative deals with Nike, including a 1997 deal for $30 million.

Marketing Michael Jordan

Falk soon proved himself to be a capable agent with many innovative marketing ideas. He allowed Nike to establish Jordan's primary image, then began splitting it up among other advertisers, including Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, Gatorade, McDonald's, Ball Park Franks, Wilson Sporting Goods, Rayovac, Wheaties, Hanes, and MCI. Falk's ideas stretched to all areas of the marketplace, including a fragrance (called simply "Michael Jordan") made by the Beverly Hills designer Bijan, which was cited as the best-marketed product of 1996 by the American Marketing Association. Falk even came up with the idea of teaming Bugs Bunny and Jordan

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