David Falk
David B. Falk is an American sports agent who primarily works with basketball players in the National Basketball Association. He 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 NBA player agent. During the peak years of his 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. Falk 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 US$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 nine players in 2012; in the prime of his sports agent career in the 1990s he represented as many as 40 players at a time.
Personal life
Falk was born to a middle-class Jewish family on Long Island, New York the second of three children. His father never finished high school and owned two butcher shops on Long Island, while his mother, Pearl, had two master's degrees, spoke six languages, and worked as an interpreter in World War II for Nelson Rockefeller in Latin American affairs.Falk said that his mother, a teacher and inspirational force, was "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."
Pearl Falk was an avid New York Knicks fan, a fact which influenced David's career decision upon his career path. Longtime childhood friend and colleague, Attorney Reid Kahn, remembers David proclaiming that he wanted to represent professional athletes in the fourth grade.
Another high school friend noted that David Falk was not good enough to make any of the teams at Douglas MacArthur High School in Levittown, New York, but that he was an ardent sports fan who frequently watched baseball games at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York. Falk graduated from Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York in 1972, with a degree in economics and subsequently, George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. where he earned a J.D. degree with honors in 1975.
While in law school, his parents separated. Falk maintained minimal contact with his father, but remained very close with his mother until her death in 1988. He lives in Rockville, Maryland with his wife, Rhonda. Rhonda served as an undergraduate admissions counselor for George Washington University for five years. For 10 years she worked as a production manager for a software company in Rockville and later moved into the software publishing division and managed the distribution and sales of software through international resellers around the world. She serves on the board of directors of the Country Club at Woodmore. They have two daughters, Daina, a graduate of Duke University, and Jocelyn a graduate of Syracuse University. Falk was nicknamed The Bird of Prey by former Washington Post sportswriter Tony Kornheiser. Falk was portrayed by actor Chris Messina in the 2023 film Air.
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 and 1981, and negotiated the first million-dollar NBA shoe deal for James Worthy in 1982.
ProServ had an inside track with 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 that 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 great deal for him: the Nike shoe deal. At the start of the 80s, only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had a six-figure shoe deal for $100,000, 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 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. Jordan's relationship with Nike is often considered the most successful sports endorsement relationship in history.
Marketing Michael Jordan
Falk 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 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 together in a feature film, and then sold the concept to Warner Bros. in 1993. The ensuing film, Space Jam, was executive produced by Falk and released in 1996. Perhaps most importantly, Falk "set a precedent by 'opting out' Jordan from the league's licensing program, in effect reclaiming Jordan's image for his own use."A lot of people don't like David, but he's the best at what he does", Jordan told USA Today last year. "What he does is get underneath your skin, whoever he's negotiating with, because he figures out what your objectives are, your angles. He understands the market; he understands the players. He's a brash, arrogant, egotistical, aggressive negotiator, which is good, because when you have someone represent you, you want him to do that. Marketing-wise, he's great. He's the one who came up with the concept of 'Air Jordan.'"
Due partly to Falk's tenacity and partly to Michael Jordan's own professional success and personal magnetism, Jordan became "indisputably the most powerful and effective endorser of products in American history,... the business of hawking products more lucrative than playing the game." Jordan's success was such that he turned down $300 million worth of endorsement deals in the space of four months in 1998.