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Tuesday, June 26
Promises, promises ... who said what?
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
The NBA office finally caught on to the worst-kept secret in the draft when it invited Kedrick Brown to New York for Wednesday night's festivities.
Booking Brown as one of the 14 players to attend the draft in person ensures what Brown's representation and the majority of NBA executives have said privately for weeks:
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Brown has a promise.
A promise that he'll be drafted in the lottery. And barring any last-minute shockers, the numbers verify what most suspect. All but one of the players in The Theater at Madison Square Garden will be selected in the 13-player lottery.
Brown's guaranteed spot in the draft? It's expected to be Boston at No. 11. But it's no surprise the Celtics have denied any guarantees and Portland, which could wind up with the Okaloosa-Walton (Fla.) Community College forward via a trade, won't talk about the draft.
But despite not working out for a single team this spring, nor attending the Chicago pre-draft camp, Arn Tellem's agency SFX assures Brown's place in the draft is secure.
How is this possible? A promise has been made, according to Tellem.
"Kedrick isn't working out for anyone," Tellem said. "We made that decision. Some players don't need to if teams have done their homework and have made a commitment. In those cases workouts might not be necessary. It's always done on a case-by-case basis."
As Tellem likes to say, Brown hasn't been in the Witness Protection Program, but rather the "Tellem Protection Program."
Tellem, whose umbrella SFX agency also represents expected lottery picks and New York attendees Kwame Brown, Eddy Curry, Eddie Griffin, Joe Johnson and Vladimir Radmanovic, is up front about guaranteed draft picks.
"We probably have one to two commitments a year," Tellem said. "It's easier to control the higher picks because the pool is smaller. It happens. It doesn't happen often, but it has been my experience that commitments have been able to be banked on like it was with Kobe Bryant (a Tellem client)."
Brown is an obvious example. It's hard to believe that he would not work out for a team, be invited to New York and not have an assurance that he would be taken in the lottery, let alone the first round. He was a steal when LSU signed him to a letter of intent this past fall, and would have been an impact player in the SEC. But he wasn't a household name. The 6-foot-7 JC all-American forward is a face-the-basket forward who one scout said could actually play some shooting guard.
"He has a promise in the lottery," said one Eastern Conference scout. "He's got to. But it's odd for a junior college player."
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If you make a promise to an SFX basketball guy and it doesn't occur, you're asking for trouble. ... We've got a great track record and we're true to our word. We're fair but tough negotiators and if there is a promise we expect a commitment. ” |
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— David Bauman, SFX agent who handles mostly foreign players |
Maybe, but only because it hasn't been done in the past.
Guarantees do occur with high school seniors (see: Bryant) and definitely with foreign players. Lon Babby, the agent for Duke's Shane Battier, said he got a guarantee from Sacramento in the 2000 draft for his client Hidayet Turkoglu at No. 16. He said he wouldn't have brought Turkoglu over from Turkey if Sacramento Kings general manager Geoff Petrie didn't tell him that he would take Turkoglu if he were available.
"That's the only time I have secured a promise," Babby said. "We had to make a financial decision like (agent) Herb Rudoy did (with keeping F.C. Barcelona's Pau Gasol in the draft). But how do you make a promise in this draft? You don't know who is going to fall to you. What if you could get Shane Battier or Kwame Brown? Agents have an inflated view of their role in this thing."
SFX is one of the few agencies that is open about promises being made. Babby said he doesn't think agents can use a guarantee as leverage. Rudoy said he doesn't believe in guarantees for a specific team. But the threats are real, especially when it comes time for free agents.
"If you make a promise to an SFX basketball guy and it doesn't occur, you're asking for trouble," said David Bauman, who handles mostly foreign players for SFX like Radmanovic and Real Madrid's Raul Lopez. "We've got a great track record and we're true to our word. We're fair but tough negotiators and if there is a promise we expect a commitment. Some teams don't deal with agents on this issue. Some teams just won't do it."
NBA teams are adamant that they don't agree to promises, even though to a team they agree that the practice occurs.
"I don't understand how any team could do that and maintain credibility," said Dennis Lindsey, Houston's director of player personnel. "You can't box yourself in. Last year, they were looking for a guarantee for Mike Miller from us at No. 9, but what if Darius Miles had been available? Rudy T (Tomjanovich) won't do it."
One Eastern Conference director of scouting said it makes no sense to "tip your hand," or get into a situation where an agent controls the picks.
"It's not a good business decision, because there is so much uncertainty," said Larry Harris, Milwaukee's director of player personnel. "It's such an inexact science. You don't want to get into a promise with free agency and set a precedent that could affect your team for a long, long time."
Harris was politically correct when he said he didn't know of any teams that made promises. But that's simply not the case when speaking with other teams' front office personnel.
"Teams that have multiple picks in the first round will do it," said one prominent East Coast scout. "You're in a win-win situation and you've got nothing to lose. It's not an uncommon practice. But I've never heard of a player, who wasn't a No. 1 (overall) and wasn't a foreigner, being a guaranteed lottery pick."
And that's what is amazing about Brown. He has been shielded from the NBA draft attention all month, yet still figures to be chosen ahead of players scouts and general mangers have watched all month.
"What makes this even more rare is that here is a guy who some people said was a late first-round draft pick," Detroit scout Walt Perrin said. "I don't know what can be done about it. But is that as high as Kedrick can go? If he's slotted for 10 or 11, why not have him work out for one of the teams above in case they might want him?"
The answer is Brown could have had a subpar workout. The risk isn't worth it, and if a promise can be had, then the agent wouldn't be doing his client justice if he turned down a guarantee.
Brown isn't going to New York to be embarrassed. The NBA simply wouldn't have asked for his RSVP if he weren't on an NBA team's guest list. The league isn't about to have another scene like Rashard Lewis crying in the green room in 1998.
Besides, SFX represents the majority of the players in the lottery. Tellem said he feels fortunate to have that kind of quality players. "You always feel better knowing what will happen," he said.
"There is power in numbers and it gives us a tremendous sense of what is going on," he added."
Especially when a promise has been made.
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
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