For a long time in the NBA, there was one man who was known to be the ‘Drew Rosenhaus of the NBA’. Arn Tellem is the agent for a big list of NBA stars past and present. His current representation includes Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose, Marc Gasol, Joe Johnson, LaMarcus Aldridge, Al Horford, Kris Humphries, Kendrick Perkins and many others. In the MLB his client list has included Yu Darvish, Hideo Nomo, Chase Utley, Hideki Matsui, Jason Giambi, Mike Mussina, Nomar Garciaparra among others.
The man who was key in Kobe Bryant going to the Los Angeles Lakers back in 1996 and a man who represented 14 of the NBA’s first-round draft picks and controlled 13% of the players in the league, 42 in total, from 2000-2001 is now set to leave the sports agency world and Wasserman Media Group to join the Detroit Pistons staff.
How this can effect future negotiations for the Pistons will remain to be seen and where his clients go from here will also not be known immediately but Tellem will be joining up with a team possibly ready to make some big splashes this offseason.
Following from Yahoo! Sports Adrian Wojnarowski.
Wasserman Media Group’s Arn Tellem, one of the most powerful and prominent player agents in the history of the NBA, is finalizing an agreement to become vice chairman of Palace Sports and Entertainment, the company that owns the Detroit Pistons, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Tellem will answer directly to billionaire owner Tom Gores, but will not become the ultimate authority on the Pistons’ basketball decisions, sources said. That responsibility will remain with president and coach Stan Van Gundy, who signed a five-year, $35 million deal a year ago.
Van Gundy and general manager Jeff Bower run the Pistons’ front office and basketball operations. With Gores spending most of his time running his Platinum Equity company, Tellem will largely become the Pistons’ ownership face in Michigan.
Tellem’s business savvy and stature within the NBA community is expected to be immensely impactful to the Pistons. Tellem’s deal with Gores could include an ownership stake, sources said.
Tellem is expected to transition out of Wasserman over the next few months, sources said.
Fellow NBA agent Austin Walton believes this is a good move for Tellem, but he and other agents might not feel the effect of him leaving the industry right away.
I think that’s the end goal for most agents. He’s been wildly successful as an agent for a very long time and this is a new challenge. We all look to be challenged in different ways and embrace those challenges and I think this is something new that Arn wanted to do to not only have a legacy as a great agent but maybe a great exec in the future. I’m not sure how it will affect me or other agents. I guess we will see the ripple effects in the coming weeks and months.
Tellem not only was a super agent for the NBA but he also had his hand in some big MLB contracts as well. The Wasserman Media Group website reports Tellem has negotiated some large contracts over the past 10 years.
Tellem has negotiated some of the most lucrative and high-profile contracts in National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball history, including over $3.5 billion in client contracts since 2008. During the 2004 and 2005 offseasons, Tellem’s SFX Sports team negotiated contracts worth nearly $750 million to his clients. In 2005, he was named to The Sporting News’ list of the “100 Most Powerful People in Sports” and listed as one of Sports Business Journal’s “50 Most Influential People in the Sports Business.”
