Arn Tellem
Arn Tellem | |
---|---|
Born | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | February 21, 1954
Alma mater | Haverford College University of Michigan |
Occupation(s) | Sports team executive, sports agent |
Spouse | Nancy Tellem (1979–present) |
Children | Michael, Matty, Eric |
Arn Herschel Tellem
Background
Tellem was born to a Jewish family[20] and is a native of Philadelphia.[21] His mother named him after a brave knight in the Prince Valiant comic strip.[22][1] He grew up on the Main Line[23] and became a sports junkie at age eight by playing APBA Baseball, a mail-order board game. Years later, for luck on his wedding night, he propped his treasured 1938 Hank Greenberg APBA card on the nightstand next to the conjugal bed.[24] At 12, he found career inspiration from legendary Temple University basketball coach Harry Litwack, who answered a question -- "What's your favorite food?"—that young Arn had phoned in to a local radio station.[1]
He graduated from
In 1989, he launched his own sports agency, Tellem and Associates. In 1999, SFX Entertainment purchased the agency and later named Tellem chief executive of SFX Sports.
Tellem is certified as an agent by the
Career as sports agent
As a player agent, Tellem negotiated numerous high-profile contracts for NBA and MLB players. He oversaw WMG's athlete representation businesses and was involved in the strategic direction of the company.[30]
In 2006,
Baseball
In 1981, Tellem signed his first athlete, pitcher
In December 2011, hedge-fund manager
Basketball
In 1996, Tellem made his mark as an NBA agent by circumventing that year's pro draft to maneuver 18-year-old Kobe Bryant to the Los Angeles Lakers. "Basically, I kept teams from picking Kobe by not giving their coaches access to him," Tellem told Sports Illustrated in 2003. "I knew teams would be reluctant to take a chance on a high schooler without first talking to him and working him out."[1] From 2000 to 2001, he represented 14 of the NBA's first-round draft picks and worked for 13% of the players in the league—42, in all.[1] His basketball roster included Bryant, Reggie Miller, Baron Davis, McGrady, O'Neal and Brent Barry. As of the 2006 NBA draft, Tellem's firm had represented the most first-round draft picks of any sports marketing and management company for seven straight years.[32] Tellem and his team repped four lottery selections and six first-round picks overall. At the 2008 draft, they had six lottery picks and seven of the first 15 players selected, including Russell Westbrook, Danilo Gallinari and Derrick Rose, the No. 1 overall pick.[42] Tellem negotiated contracts of four years and $60 million for Ben Wallace; and maximum salary deals of five years and $67.4 million for Joe Johnson; six years and $86.4 million for Gasol; seven years and $126 million for O'Neal; four years and $50 million for Antawn Jamison; five years and $87.8 million for Brandon Roy; five years and $65 million for LaMarcus Aldridge; five years and $60 million for Al Horford; and seven years and $93 million for McGrady.[43] In 2009, Gasol reupped with the Lakers for three years and $57 million;[44] a year later Tellem hammered out Johnson's six-year, $123.6 million extension with the Atlanta Hawks;[45] and, in 2011, Rose agreed to a new five-year, $94.8 million deal with the Chicago Bulls.[46] When Tellem's client Anthony Davis was picked first overall in the 2012 NBA Draft, the onetime University of Kentucky power forward became the first player selected by an NBA team to play in a full-length season since a 10-year collective bargaining agreement was ratified by the NBA Board of Governors in December 2011.[47]
On April 29, 2013, his NBA client Jason Collins became the first active male in one of the four major North American team sports to announce he was gay.[5]
On July 12, 2013, Tellem became part-owner of Israel's Hapoel Jerusalem B.C. basketball team.[48] He sold his interest in the franchise in 2016.
On June 5, 2015, Tellem resigned from WMG and joined the front office of Palace Sports & Entertainment.[2] At the time, he ranked first among NBA player agents in players repped (42), All-Stars (12), maxed-out contracts (six) and clients' salaries ($324,980,992).[49]
Personal life
Tellem is married to
The fictional agent Arliss Michaels of the
Accolades
In 2008, Tellem was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.[52]
In 2015, he was elected to the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.[53]
In 2018, he was elected to the Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.[54]
In 2021, he was named the 2022 Mackinac Policy Conference Chairman by the Detroit Regional Chamber.[55]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Franz Lidz, "The Arn Of The Deal: Employing a mix of integrity and absurdity, ARN TELLEM is the strangest of beasts: a powerful sports agent you can actually like", Sports Illustrated, May 27, 2003
- ^ a b c Arn Tellem, "Why I'm Making The Jump From Sports Agent To Front Office" Sports Illustrated. June 5, 2015
- ^ Darren Heitner "Wasserman Media Group Seems to be Making a Strong Push to Retain Arn Tellem", Sports Agent Blog, July 3, 2012
- Huffington Post
- ^ a b Arn Tellem, "Jason Collins: An Inspiration On and Off the Court", Sports Illustrated, April 29, 2013
- ^ Arn Tellem, "Pro and Con of Permitting Teenage Pros in N.B.A.: THE AGENT; Proposed Age Limit Is Hollow Altruism", The New York Times, May 13, 2001
- ^ Arn Tellem, "Seeking Heroes, Finding Humans", The New York Times, April 3, 2005
- ^ Arn Tellem, "When a Players Union Doesn't Help the Players", The New York Times, May 7, 2011
- ^ Arn Tellem, "Turn One-and-Done Into None-and-Done", The New York Times, June 28, 2014
- ^ Arn Tellem, "D-League Deconstruction: The Necessary Plan to fix the NBA's Farm System", Grantland, March 11, 2015
- ^ Arn Tellem, "I went toe-to-toe with David Stern, the NBA's greatest champion", Detroit Free Press, January 21, 2020
- ^ Arn Tellem, "Arn Tellem, Kobe Bryant and the mission that delivered him to the L.A. Lakers", Detroit Free Press, February 24, 2020
- ^ Arn Tellem, "Tellem: It's Time For Us To Go To Work, Like The 2004 Pistons", Detroit Free Press, October 24, 2020
- ^ Arn Tellem, "Detroit Pistons' Arn Tellem: Let's do what we can to fill Little Caesars Arena again", Detroit Free Press, December 22, 2020
- ^ Arn Tellem, "Arn Tellem: This is what makes Detroit Pistons' Ben Wallace a no-brainer Hall of Famer", Detroit Free Press, April 11, 2021
- ^ Arn Tellem, "Pistons exec to Michigan lawmakers: Restricting voting rights will cost state | Opinion", Detroit Free Press, April 12, 2021
- ^ Arn Tellem, "Guest Column: ‘Winning Time’ Is “Campy, Mean-Spirited Fiction”", The Hollywood Reporter, March 18, 2022
- ^ Arn Tellem, "Tellem's take: Matsui a special person", The Japan Times, January 23, 2013
- ^ Arn Tellem, "Opinion: Role of businesses, sports are changing during polarizing times", The Detroit News, May 30, 2022
- Forbes.
- ^ a b Steve Rushin "There AND Back", Sports Illustrated, August 11, 2014
- Huffington Post, January 22, 2010
- Philadelphia Magazine, May 17, 2015
- ^ Franz Lidz, "Apba Is The Name, Baseball Is The Game, And Obsession Is The Result", Sports Illustrated, December 8, 1980
- Sports Business Journal, March 22, 2004
- ^ David Whitford, "The King of the Sports Deal" Archived May 22, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Fortune, June 2, 2010
- ^ David Greenberg, "Power Player", Los Angeles Business Journal, July 1, 2002
- Sports Business Journal, January 27, 2006
- Huffington Post, December 23, 2009
- ^ Wasserman Media Group company website
- St. Louis Business Journal, August 15, 2006
- ^ a b c Dave Golokhov, "Top 10: Sports Agents", AskMen June 29, 2008
- Sports Business Journal, August 18, 2008
- ^ "The 12 Best Sports Agents In The World" Business Insider, November 29, 2010
- ^ "The World's Most Powerful Sports Agents" Forbes, September 24, 2013
- ^ Franz Lidz, "Making A Most Important Pitch", Sports Illustrated, February 1, 1982
- ^ Franz Lidz, "Richest of the Rich", Sports Illustrated, December 11, 1989
- ^ Elliott Kalb, Mark Weinstein, "The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All Time", 2009
- ^ David Waldstein, "Yu Darvish Signs With the Rangers", The New York Times, January 18, 2012
- ^ Bill Shaikin, "Hedge-fund executive Steven Cohen is bidding for the Dodgers", Los Angeles Times, December 27, 2011
- ^ Adam Rubin, "Mets minority owner loses Dodgers bid", ESPN, March 28, 2012
- ^ Nikki Finke, "Casey Wasserman's Slam Dunk at NBA Draft", Deadline Hollywood, June 26, 2008
- ^ "HoopsHype client list". Archived from the original on May 28, 2007. Retrieved May 24, 2007.
- ^ Marc Stein, "Gasol's extension worth $57 million", ESPN, December 23, 2009
- ^ "Agent: Johnson to stay in Atlanta", ESPN, July 6, 2010
- ^ "Source: New deal for Derrick Rose" Archived January 8, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, ESPN, December 21, 2011
- ^ Darren Heitner, "Anthony Davis Will Not Become The Richest Rookie In The NBA", Forbes, June 27, 2012
- ^ Alyson Shontell, "Startup Stud Ori Allon And Knicks Star Amare Stoudemire Buy Israel Basketball Team", Business Insider, July 13, 2013
- ^ "Basketball Agent Rankings", USA Today, June 5, 2015
- ^ Natalie Jarvey, "Nancy Tellem Out at Microsoft as Xbox Entertainment Studios Shuts Down", The Hollywood Reporter, October 29, 2014
- ^ Franz Lidz, "Here Comes Little Matsui", Sports Illustrated, December 1, 2003
- ^ "Arn Tellem", May 2008 - So Cal Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
- ^ Joe Santoliquito "Franz Lidz And Arn Tellem Head Jewish Sports Hall Of Fame Class", 05.27.15 - CBS Sports
- ^ Kurt Nagl "Arn Tellem, Ken Daniels among inductees tonight to Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame", 10.19.18 - Crain's Detroit Business
- ^ "Detroit Regional Chamber Announces Arn Tellem As The 2022 Mackinac Policy Conference Chairman", 06.16.21 - Detroit Regional Chamber