It’s always tricky trying to tell somebody what to do with their money. It reminds me of a line from an unreleased Kanye West track, “How you gonna talk about the way I spend my money? Everybody say it with me now: It’s my money.” There’s something paternalistic about telling a self-made millionaire what’s best for them.
Dwight Howard, LeBron James, And The Changing Politics Of Sports Business
And yet, sometimes the decisions are just so baffling, it begs for our input. Particularly when we’re talking about the NBA, the history of forays into finance is fraught with cautionary tales. Trusting the wrong people, burning through $100 million dollars on the way to bankruptcy, paternity suits, lawsuits, and promises to friends and family that end up bleeding these guys dry.
To play devil’s advocate to the paternalism arugment: If there’s one demographic with enough anecdotal evidence to justify a little oversight from the peanut gallery, it’s the NBA.
So when news leaked this weekend that Dwight Howard has decided to leave Goodwin Sports, naturally, a few eyebrows were raised. Not because we don't trust Dwight's judgment, but because we do. He's as gregarious as anyone in the NBA, and generally looked upon as one of the league's true statesmen. We care what happens to Dwight Howard.
And there's precedent here. A few years ago, LeBron James eschewed the same Goodwin Sports management team that Dwight Howard spurned this weekend. How's that working out? Tom Ziller at Fanhouse has a look at what's become of James' financial growth:
...Since leaving Goodwin in late 2005, LeBron has inked deals with ... Microsoft (a short-lived, low-impact partnership most NBA fans never saw), State Farm insurance, Cub Cadet lawnmowers and McDonald’s, the last of which was reportedly in the works before James left Goodwin. LeBron also recently reupped his Nike deal, with CNBC’s Darren Rovell reporting that it was likely for less per annum than the original 2003 deal negotiated by Goodwin.
In other words, for all the talk of a branding LeBron as a “Global Icon,” his growth as a spokesman has leveled off over the past few years. Is that a coincidence, or a case study?
It depends on your perspective, I guess.
Obviously, the agents have a convincing case. Aaron Goodwin negotiated a $100 million deal with Nike while LeBron was in high school, to say nothing of his work landing Dwight Howard deals with Vitamin Water, McDonalds, Adidas, T-Mobile, and more. If LeBron’s the most marketable athlete in the NBA, Dwight Howard’s probably the most marketed. And that’s all Goodwin Sports.
Some of the statements from Nate Jones—a Goodwin Sports employee and former basketball writer, himself—have been equally convincing:
When one of my rich friends parents that I grew up with went to hire an attorney or a accountant does he say "put my boy on"? ... Does he hire his friend with no background to be his lawyer or accountant? Or does his lawyer pay his friend so he can rep him?
LeBron and Dwight are about as magnetic as personalities get in sports, and obviously attractive for any sports marketing firm in the world. And yet... For them, professional representation isn’t good enough. They’d rather trust amateurs...
...And that makes people nervous. Then they start talking like this is somehow a tragic miscalculation for the individuals involved, and an indication of a business field gone wild.
CNBC’s Darren Rovell provides his two cents on the changing landscape:
In the 1996 movie [Jerry Maguire], which is still the fifth highest grossing sports movie of all time, Jerry was constantly fighting to keep his client Rod Tidwell. But those fights were against the rest of the agent world. Today? Sure, there’s client stealing going on. But there are also the athlete's friends and relatives who get into the business and convince a star that it makes sense to go in another direction.
Witness the defection of LeBron James from his agent Aaron Goodwin years ago and Dwight Howard’s defection from Goodwin this week. On the outside, Goodwin did everything for these guys — signed blue chip brands at what seemed to be max dollars. But he couldn’t hold on against the pressure from the friends of James and Howard.
But to get back to my original point, the way this whole discussion's being cast is disturbing.
It's one thing to worry when we see players burning through money, or supporting kids all across the country. But neither of these guys is Allen Iverson or Antoine Walker. Dwight Howard's marketing venture with his friends may not be the best business decision, but really, who cares? These are athletes with enough financial security to take a risk. It's sign of evolving dreams, not eroding logic.
There's something to be said for an athlete—or anyone—exerting his independence and going out on his own with the people he trusts most. And yeah, people will call that naive or foolish, and say that when you consider the situation objectively, it's a significant risk for Dwight Howard to leave the billion dollar marketing firm that made him a superstar. And that's obvious. But guys, it's not an objective decision.
These players have earned the luxury of making decisions with their heart, no different than any number of millionaires from other fields.And let's not pretend Dwight's risking financial ruin.
Whatever LeBron James may have sacrificed in endorsement money, he's still among the highest paid athletes in the world. Just this year, he's released a highly-circulated autobiography with Buzz Bissinger, a critically-acclaimed documentary, and continued to build charities in Akron that have infused that city with new life. The guy's not exactly floundering without Aaron Goodwin.
And Dwight Howard will be just fine, too. Is it the best decision in the world? Not necessarily, but it's his decision. "Everybody say it with me now: It's my money." We can sneer or snicker or shake our fists at these supposed rubes, but at the end of the day, they're the ones with tens and hundreds of millions of dollars. If it fails, they're still adults with millions of dollars. They'll be okay.
After years of hard work, they're living their dreams in front of our eyes. Distinguishing themselves from their peers, taking control of their own destiny, and working within the system to improve the people around them.
So, wait. Do we only cheer when that happens on the court?
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