Jordan's agent has bold advice for the NBPA

Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

The first thing that pops out at NBA agent David Falk's Washington, D.C. office is a giant image of Michael Jordan on the wall.

Of course it is. Without Michael Jordan, there is no David Falk. Conversely, without David Falk — marketing wizard — there is no Michael Jordan Inc.

Falk has been one of the most influential agents the NBA has ever seen. He once had a stable of the league's highest-paid and top players as clients that included Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Danny Ferry, John Stockton, Dikembe Mutombo, Alonzo Mourning, Dominque Wilkens.

During that time – in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s – many considered him the second most-powerful man in basketball behind NBA Commissioner David Stern.

It's different today. By his choice at this stage of his career, Falk has a small list of clients who he calls high-character guys. Elton Brand is the lone holdover from the tail end of his glory days followed by younger players Greg Monroe, Evan Turner, Roy Hibbert, Toney Douglas, Jared Sullinger, Gary Neal and Austin Rivers. It's just $29.8 million in salaries this season – less than the $33.1 million Jordan made 1997-98.

It's no longer about the money. He has that. It's about staying involved with the game that has made him millions.

Falk, who was and is often accused, at least by National Basketball Players Association officials, of interfering when he shouldn't, sat down with USA TODAY Sports to discuss the state of the players union and which direction it should go.

This interview was conducted before the NBPA fired Billy Hunter on Saturday as its executive director. Falk said he does not want the job, even if it was offered.

"I want to make this perfectly clear," Falk said. "I'm not in any way, shape or form campaigning for the job. If you offered me a billion dollars a year to do the job, I have no interest in doing it."

Q: What should the background and qualifications of next union leader look like?

Falk: Now that you have labor peace for the next 8½ years the question is: What's the job description of the person they need to hire? If you believe the person's not going to be doing a collective bargaining agreement for a very a long period of time and you understand that under the structure of the current agreement where the players share the revenues 50-50, I think the single most important issue is a person who's got the vision and the talent to work with the league to grow the league from roughly $5 billion to $10 billion.

So when I hear some of the names being bandied about – former agents or former players – that's not remotely what the players need right now. The players need almost a corporate executive who got hired to increase the sales of a company – who can come in and work with the league to exploit new income streams, whether it's in digital media or whatever, new technology.

What about CBA issues though that crop up during labor peace? Don't you want a CBA expert?

Falk: You also need a lawyer. I really think you need two different people.

Q: What is the short history of the NBPA that got us from there to where we are today?

Falk: From '64 to '88, it was very small and it was basically just Larry Fleisher. He had a secretary. You'd go his office and it was just Larry and his secretary.

Larry brought a series of anti-trust lawsuits against the league and won them all. The settlements created most of the foundation of the modern-day rules. Never lost a single battle with the league.

He agreed to put the cap in in '82. Didn't have to. Probably had the power not to put the cap in. But he had the vision to understand that if six of the 17 teams go bankrupt because you're not willing to negotiate with the league, you're losing jobs. In a union, the No. 1 ... if you think about what unions are in America -- my parents were both union members -- the purpose of the union is to protect workers' security and promote their wages, hours and terms of employment.

Q: When was the union at its strongest?

Falk: I'd say it was the strongest between 1976 and 1988 – when they won the Oscar Robertson case and set the stage for what we have today for free agency and player movement. And the star players, they were all actively involved.

Obviously, prior to 1982 there was no cap. In a way, the cap creates a disparity between the interests of the top players and the interests of the lesser players, if you will.

You brought up stars. What was the state of the NBPA when stars, such as Patrick Ewing, were active in the union in the 1990s?

Falk: I would say, and I don't want to say this too strong because of our personal relationship being so poor. Isiah Thomas was the president and was very outspoken. I think that his philosophy undercut the very essence of what a union is. A union is taking disparate parts and unifying them to have collective strength. I think his philosophy set the agents against the union. Because he had such poor representation and never made what a player of his caliber should have made, he was very anti-agent.

His leadership started a course where the agents started to become disaffected with the union if you will. He drove a wedge between the agents and the union, between the rich players and the lesser players. He undermined the base accord that a union should have solidarity.

The union started to become weakened, I think, at that point. Obviously following Fleisher, a Marvin Miller type in basketball, one of the key leaders, it's a hard act to follow. I don't they've ever tried to reach out to someone with that kind of skill set, who was a negotiator, who could deal with Stern and who Stern respected.

Players sometimes don't recognize that when you hire someone to represent you and walk into a room with a billionaire owner and the owner doesn't respect you, you're going to make a lot less money than if he does respect you.

When I sold my business, I hired Goldman Sachs and ended up having Hank Paulson get involved. His stature made me a lot more money. … I didn't expect he was going to hang out with me a lot. Having him involved at all was extremely impactful.

That's why I go back to today. It's critical that players understand that in 2013 and looking forward for the next six to eight years, what do they need to improve their lot.

Why do stars need to be more involved? The union will say Chris Paul is on the executive committee and stars are involved behind the scenes.

Falk: You wouldn't want to be playing in championship game with LeBron (James) or Kobe (Bryant) behind the scenes. You want them front and center in crunch time.

Billy as the report made very clear didn't want a lot of dissent, a lot of challenge. He didn't want a LeBron or Kobe challenging his authority or direction, so I don't think he reached out to those players to become more involved.

Q: Recently, LeBron James said he could make more money if there were no maximum an individual player can make.

Falk; I told LeBron that at dinner. I went to dinner with his friend (and new agent) Rich Paul when I was in Miami visiting Juwan (Howard). I'm a big fan of LeBron's. I said, 'Get more involved. They're stealing your money under the rules' and he's come to realize that.

The vast majority of players who make up the union are not stars. The group is the majority and has prospered. Why would they want to see LeBron make $35 million and the rest of the 11 guys on the team make considerably less than they do now?

Those are the kinds of things you have to look at. How do you maximize the benefits for the majority of the players?

Q: What is your message to those star players or other agents who have stars?

Falk: I told my clients, even before Billy started, that because of uneasiness between the union and the agents, because of the animosity between the union and the agents, I can't come to the meetings. It's like sitting down with Michael Jordan and Nike and find out how we can sell more shoes or sit down with Li Ning and Evan Turner right now and say, 'What's the plan for next year.' The union doesn't allow the agents to sit down. The only way to be effective is the players whose lives are being affected by the decisions have to become more involved and vocal so they have a say.

I encouraged all my clients in the '90s – all of them to get involved at levels. Of course, in the unsophisticated world that we live, everyone tried to attack me for "hijacking the union." Then like now, I had no interest in running the union. I have never had interest in running the union. That's not my goal. All I wanted to do is say to my players, 'If I can't be there in person and listen with my own ears to what's being proposed and give you advice, then you have to get involved and we have to have an open dialogue.' If you're seeking my counsel, I need to know what's being discussed.

Q: The hallmark of Billy Hunter's tenure is that he has created a strong middle class and lower class. The union has to answer to more rank and file than stars, right?

Falk: That's one of Billy's legacies – that he accepted a max so that he could allow the middle players to earn way more money and the bigger players to earn less money. The problem with that arrangement is that it's not conducive to the growth of the game. Fans don't come to see the 13th guy on the team or even the ninth. This is a star-driven league.

You watched the Super Bowl. While Kelly Rowland is a very accomplished singer, when you have Destiny's Child, everyone's coming to see Beyonce. When you had the Supreme's in my day, people came to see Diana Ross.

The union has an inherent conflict, and it's becoming more pronounced. Before there was a salary cap in '82 and '83, you couldn't say that if LeBron made X somebody is going to make less because there was no cap. You could pay whatever you wanted to as long as you're willing.

When you have a cap, there's an inherent conflict between between the interests of guys like LeBron and guys who want to have a higher minimum.

One of the ways to address that in the current economic state is to decide: do you want to cut back salaries for every guy in the league or do you reduce the rosters to 13. Cut off 60 jobs. ... I'm not advocating that. That's a tradeoff.

What do you think of the job Billy has done?

Falk: I think Billy's credentials, his skill set, is the wrong skill set for the job. From 1996, when he started, until today, he's had three agreements in 17 years. His principal job has been to grow the revenues but he doesn't it's appropriate for him to sit down on a weekly basis with David Stern because it looks like he's too cushy with the league. That's by his admission, he feels it's inappropriate to be seen by the players as being too close to David Stern. That's absurd.

Why does the union need someone who meets with the commissioner on a regular basis?

Falk: I enjoy sitting down with owners and getting to know them because when you have to negotiate with them, the better you know each other, the more effective you're going to be.

I don't think any player of mine is afraid that if meet with Jerry Reinsdorf, then when the time comes for Michael Jordan to get $30 million, I'm going to say, 'Let's take five million less because I'm buddies with Jerry.' Michael knows that. Jerry knows that. It doesn't interfere with the ability to have a good relationship.

I had a good relationship with David Stern, but when the time came in the '90s to go to battle, I never had a problem going to battle because that was my job. And that's his job. But I think most of the time, when you look at the structure of basketball, players are 50-50 partners, the No. 1 goal of everyone is to make the business bigger.

The only way the players are going to make more money at 50-50 is to grow the revenue.

How do you grow the pot?

Falk: Explore every area. Do we need more international play? How do we deal with digital rights? They're nascent. They're going to explode. How do they monetize social media? Should the NBA put signage on uniforms? There's hundreds of millions of dollars and there's things that no one has thought of that will come into play. It's Moore's Law. The pace of innovation is doubling every few years. That's why the person who has that job doesn't need to be a person who's a fighter. It needs to be a person who can grow the business together, representing the players' 50%. That person needs to meet with commissioner often and map out a strategy to make the company, which is NBA, Inc., bigger. When it gets bigger, every player and every owner will make more money.

With NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver taking over for David Stern basically a year from now, is this the right time for a new NBPA executive director, regardless of the situation surrounding Billy Hunter?

Falk: Whoever has been the head of the union since 1983 needed to be David Stern's partner. I told that to Billy the very first day he took the job. I said, 'Your principle job is to be David Stern's partner and figure out a way to create an environment where everyone is successful.' If the union doesn't work with the league and the owners aren't financially successful, they're either going to reduce the amount of jobs or they're going to shut it down, which they did twice. The shutdown costs the players, my guess is a billion dollars ballpark, in the two lockouts. If you go back and ask, 'Was it worth what we fought for and what we obtained for to lose 1.2 billions? No way, players will never make that money up.'

I thought the players were ill-advised. That's why I recommended decertification in 1994. You knew you were headed into a lockout and I don't think players in short career can afford to lose that kind of money, unless at the end of the lockout, which is so fantastic, which it wasn't. We got maximums on the stars and a league wide-cap on 57% of revenues.

Because we do have a fresh start, there's a very good chance the players are going to decide to make a change at the top. David Stern has decided to step down after a long and illustrious career. There's going to be a new commissioner. It is a good time to have a new era of good feeling between the players and the league. With a long-term agreement in place, the players should look at this as an opportunity to grow the revenues, and everyone will do better.

Do the players need a tough guy who can deal with the league the next time it's time to collectively bargain?

Falk: A person who is confident in what they can do … I'll give you an example. Kobe Bryant's a nice, low-key guy. When he puts his uniform on and goes on the court, he's a killer. LeBron James off the court – a low-key, fun guy. When he puts his uniform on and he's trying to win that championship to fulfill his destiny, he's a killer. No one accuses LeBron of not being a good player because when he's off the court with his buddies, that's he's sociable. He doesn't have to have an adversarial relationship with Micky Arison to get paid because he's LeBron James, he's the best player in the league. He's got all the power.

A confident person isn't afraid of being tough when you need to be tough and being soft when you don't need to be tough. Billy, from day one, tried to portray to the players that he was going to fight David Stern every step of the way. It reminds me of Congress right now. That's why we can't get anything done.

I've never been portrayed as a wallflower. But I have a good relationship with most of the owners out of mutual respect. When crunch time comes, I'm not afraid of rolling up my sleeves and doing what needs to be done. That's what I get paid for. When you're not in that environment, you don't need to be so insecure that you can't socialize or you can't cooperate.

How does the union find its next leader?

Before I start looking for that person, the first thing is, the players need to sit down and have a skull session. 'Let's figure out what we need.' It's like a team sitting down with the owner, the coaches, the general manager, what do we need? They need to look at where we are in 2013 and go forward and say, 'Based on labor peace we're going to have for most of the next eight years, what it is that we need that will maximize the benefits for our players.' Before they start thinking about who they're going to hire, how you can hire someone if you don't know what the qualifications are. What are the needs for the union at this time?

Then, they probably need to hire a professional search firm to help them identify candidates who fit that criteria.

Players, in general, have been apathetic about union matters, especially during labor peace. Do you have confidence they can execute that?

That's the responsibility of their agents to say, 'We're all going to live and die under the environment that you create.' Let's create a good environment. Let's build a good foundation.

If you're going to criticize Billy for not being transparent with the union, the last thing you want to do is be a hypocrite and start, sub rosa, submitting names to people. If people are qualified, there should be a process. There's no rush to hire a replacement tomorrow. There's no pending no major event that requires a permanent person now. They need to slow down, take their time and ensure that we have the right person.