A SPECIAL REPORT : Kareem’s Financial Crisis : Tom Collins Wanted to Present Himself as Honest Alternative

It is a speech he first gave while working out of borrowed space in a friend’s law office but it remained the same even after he had become agent and business manager for some of the highest-paid stars in the National Basketball Assn.

“There’s absolutely no reason for me to be your business manager,” Thomas M. Collins would tell prospective clients.

“I have no background. My dad was not a multi-millionaire. But I have enough wisdom to get you the best people to work for you.”

Tom Collins had little to sell but his integrity. The son of a Colorado minister, Collins’ only experience in the world of finance was what he had gained in an entry-level position at Dun and Bradstreet, the business information service. He left that job, he said, after reading an article about Earl (Bird) Averitt, the former NBA player who had signed a multi-million-dollar contract, only to wind up bankrupt two years later.

Collins decided that he would present an honest alternative to unscrupulous operatives eager to prey on gullible athletes. He vowed that his clients would be safe from the kind of fate suffered by Bird Averitt.

“I wouldn’t solicit athletes, or go to All-Star games,” Collins has told associates. “I let God bring clients to me.”

That was 14 years ago. In the years since, Collins has represented such athletes as Bill Toomey, the Olympian and his first client; Bill Sharman, former Boston Celtic star who is now president of the Lakers; boxer George Foreman, and basketball stars Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ralph Sampson and Alex English.

Now, however, Collins, 40, stands accused in a financial mess that is costing his professional athlete-clients millions of dollars in failed investments, and threatens to wipe out his own earnings. Abdul-Jabbar, the brightest star in Collins’ personal firmament, has filed a $59-million lawsuit against his former business manager, charging him with mismanagement, negligence and fraud.

The idealistic young man who liked to think of himself as the father figure in his “family” of clients is now being painted in the lawsuit as a con man who used the fortunes of his unsuspecting clientele, exploiting their famous names and credit leverage to enrich himself.

Others say that Collins was not dishonest but that the financial empire he was trying to set up demanded far more expertise than he had.

Collins’ record as a contract negotiator, however, can hardly be questioned. He negotiated a $2-million contract for Abdul-Jabbar with the Lakers, a four-year, $4.42-million deal for Sampson with the Houston Rockets, and most recently, a two-year $3.2-million contract from the Milwaukee Bucks for Terry Cummings, who retained Collins as a negotiator even after discovering investment losses running into seven figures.

A year ago last fall, Collins also helped negotiate a 5-year, $2.7-million contract for Clipper guard Norm Nixon, getting an offer sheet from the Seattle SuperSonics before the Clippers matched it. Collins also swung lucrative deals with shoe companies for many of his clients.

“My dealings with Collins couldn’t have been on a more higher grade fashion,” said Charlie Thomas, owner of the Houston Rockets.

Said Cubie Seegobin, a sales representative for Puma and a close friend of Sampson: “I had, and still have, a lot of respect for Tom. He’s a genuinely good person. I still talk to Tom now and then.”

Like Collins, Cummings is a born-again Christian--in fact, he’s a Pentecostal minister--and they have remained close friends. Frequently, Collins has called Cummings and his wife, Vonnie, and asked them to pray with him. Cummings has, on at least one occasion, accompanied Collins and his wife, Nancy, to services of the World Impact Church, an inner-city Los Angeles ministry the Collinses have supported financially.

Earlier this season, when Cummings was here with the Bucks, he wrote a check for $5,000 to Collins, who had just sold his Encino home.

“I knew he had been stripped of everything,” Cummings said. “I wanted to give him something. He’s got a wife and three kids. It was my way of letting him know how much I appreciate him.

” . . . If I lost everything in the world, I would not lose his friendship.”

In the nine months since Abdul-Jabbar filed suit against him, Collins has maintained public silence. But what has hurt him the most, he has told associates, is that Cummings has been the only one of his former clients to attest publicly to his honesty.

The only time he has flashed real anger, those associates say, is when one of the banks involved in the litigation cut off the account in which he deposits money to support church-related endeavors. It caused several checks to bounce.

As Collins tells it, he was introduced to Abdul-Jabbar at a L.A. tennis club more than 10 years ago by Lucius Allen, a client who was also a former teammate of the Laker center, first at UCLA, then later with the Milwaukee Bucks. Abdul-Jabbar, who recently had been traded from Milwaukee, was looking for a place to live.

Collins lent his assistance, then did other work for Abdul-Jabbar, who at the time was represented by Bob Owens, a New York attorney of international repute. When Owens died of a brain tumor, Collins took over Abdul-Jabbar’s affairs. He has said that Owens had hand-picked him and expressed those wishes to his wife.

Although Abdul-Jabbar is Muslim, Collins sometimes suggested that Abdul-Jabbar seek counsel in the Bible. Associates tell of the time Collins called Abdul-Jabbar into his office to discuss the allegedly excessive spending habits of Abdul-Jabbar’s then-girlfriend, Cheryl Pistono.

Collins, who kept a large Bible in his office, showed Abdul-Jabbar passages in the Old Testament that he thought might apply. Collins has said that his fondest wish for Abdul-Jabbar “is for him to know the same Savior I do.”

Collins considered Abdul-Jabbar a close friend. But since Abdul-Jabbar filed suit last summer, Collins has said, the men have not had contact.

“I tried to call him once, but he told me his lawyers said he couldn’t talk,” Collins told associates.

With the exception of Cummings, most of the communication between Collins and his former clients has been through the courts. But one person who has kept the channels open is Sara Sampson, mother of Ralph.

“Tom’s a real nice guy, and I still think he’s a real nice guy,” she said from her home in Harrisonburg, Va. “These things happen. I don’t know how they happen, but I still like Tom and Nancy.

“There’s not hard feelings with us. He calls to check on how Ralph’s knee is doing. (Sampson had surgery on his left knee in February.)

“If Tom came to Virginia now, he would be welcome in my house.”