Arn Tellem is going into the Philadelphia Jewish Hall of Fame on May 28--which, let’s face it, isn’t such a big deal for a famous Los Angeles-based super-agent married to a former president of CBS whose sons think nothing of chatting up Bob Dylan and Bono at the Wooden Awards dinner.
On the other hand, Tellem is not only passsionately Jewish but Philadelphian, making this a special experience.
“I love Philadelphia,” he says. “Wherever I’ve lived, I’ve worn my feelings for Philadelphia on my sleeve. I can still summon my Philadelphia attitude in business when I need it.”
Bulldog that he is at 5-8, Tellem once got into an argument with 6-7 Charlotte Hornet GM Allan Bristow, who grabbed him by the throat and put him up against a door.
"Bristow told the press that we'd had a 'heated, eye-to-eye discussion,' " Tellem would tell Sports Illustrated’s Franz Lidz, a boyhood friend on Philadelphia's Main Line. "That's true but he lifted me a foot off the floor to conduct it."
Tellem is passionate about anything he does. Things he’s not inclined to do, he barely does at all, like talk to press people who call constantly but are only infrequently accommodated.
When I was the Los Angeles Times’ NBA writer, he didn’t answer so many calls, I thought it was personal. When an NBA player argued with him in a meeting about decertifying the union in 1995, I dropped the quote into the next two stories I wrote, just to get his attention.
We finally met in person at the local site where players voted. Arn told me he was getting threats from my two little stories.
After that, we somehow became friendly. He gave me his cell and was forever after straightforward and true--proving that if he knows you, he knows you and if he doesn’t, he doesn’t.
Arn (right), on the case with Hideki Matsui. (AP Photo)
The NBA players voted not to decertify, it turned out. It was the first act in a challenge in which David Falk and Tellem martialed their creme de la creme clients to challenge Commissioner David Stern's continuing effort to contain costs, and, agents. Stern wound up locking the players out and coming within a hair of cancelling the 1998-99 season.
Stern ultimately got his way, not that it inconvenienced the agents unduly. Falk and Tellem kept on signing players to deals worth tens, and, ultimately, hundreds of millions of dollars and taking 4%.
With Falk, whose client list started with Michael Jordan, less of a presence, Tellem is the game's biggest agent, repping stars like Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge and Derrick Rose. All told, Tellem has negotiated almost $967 million worth of NBA contracts.
A kingmaker’s kingmaker, Tellem has become the San Antonio Spurs of the agents, respected more than hated. Golden State GM Bob Myers, newly named Executive of the Year, was one of his agents. His young workout coach, Neil Olshey found DeAndre Jordan and landed Chris Paul as Clipper GM, then turned around the south-bound Trail Blazers.
If agents tend to specialize by sport, Tellem did another $500 million or so worth of business in baseball for a client list that included Jason Giambi, Nomar Garciaparra, Yu Darvish, Chase Utley Mike Mussina, Albert Belle, Hideki Matsui and Hideo Nomo.
At 61, Tellem is rich enough to kick back, but wholly disinclined to do so. He was part of one of the groups bidding for the Dodgers. He owns an Israeli basketball team, Jerusalem Hapoel. Going beyond sports, he and his wife, Nancy, are on the board of Seeds of Peace, a summer camp bringing together children from Israel and countries throughout the Middle East.
Lidz is going into the Hall of Fame alongside Tellem whom he profiled in the closest thing SI has ever done to Yiddish theater. In the piece, Oakland GM Bill Beane says Tellem “combines the intelligence and steadfastness of Alan Dershowitz with the neurotic behavior of Woody Allen."
Or as Brent Barry put it: "The one thing Arn brings to the table is a little decency. In a sea of great white sharks, he's a gefilte fish."
Now Tellem will now be an officially Jewish Hall of Fame gefilte fish in Philadelphia. Enjoy.
