Elmore’s Interests Special, but Are They Conflicting? : Business: Former player becomes agent for Miner, Williams while trying to remain a college basketball TV analyst.

As a sports agent, former NBA player Len Elmore is having what can only be described as a terrific rookie year.

President of Precept Sports, a Columbia, Md.-based company, Elmore has been hired to represent Harold Miner of USC and Walt Williams of Maryland, both of whom are expected to be among the top seven picks in the NBA draft.

Elmore will negotiate Miner’s first NBA contract as part of a team of advisers assembled by the former Trojan. Others on the team include Nike, Inc., which will serve as Miner’s representative for endorsement deals, and Leland Faust of San Francisco, who will manage Miner’s finances.

That Elmore, an All-American at Maryland in 1974, would get off to such a successful start in the agent business is not surprising, given the course his life has taken.

After a 10-year career in the NBA and old American Basketball Assn., he entered Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1987. He then spent three years as an assistant district attorney in New York before joining a Washington, D.C., law firm, where he remains as a partner.

Elmore believes his ability to acquire clients such as Miner and Williams is a sign that athletes are “thinking about more than ‘glitz’ in selecting an agent.

“They are thinking about where they want to be 10 years from now,” he said. “They are listening to someone who has been there.”

For some, however, Elmore’s emergence as an agent is a sign that athletes are listening to someone with a unique--perhaps unethical--advantage: He has a job as a network television analyst for college basketball games.

“I see a problem,” a Division I basketball coach, who asked not to be identified, said of Elmore’s roles as both an agent and TV commentator. “Here’s a man who ultimately controls the mike. Should he be wooing kids?”

Elmore has served as an analyst for CBS, working primarily NCAA tournament games, since 1989. He also has worked for Jefferson-Pilot Sports of Charlotte, N.C., on its broadcasts of Atlantic Coast Conference games since 1988. Last season, he did games for ESPN as well.

Elmore acknowledged that being both an agent and a TV commentator leaves him open to criticism--”a few knives in my back,” as he put it.

But he insisted that he can wear both hats without a conflict of interests, and he said he wants to continue his TV career.

“I like it. That’s why I don’t want to give it up,” he said. “There’s no better job in the world, although it’s not a job with a salary you can raise a family on. . . . Why should I give that up based on the back-stabbing notion that something improper is being done?”

Elmore said that all three of the companies for which he works as an announcer are aware of his work as an agent and have yet to make an issue of it.

Ted Shaker, executive producer for CBS Sports, declined to be interviewed for this story. Through a CBS spokesperson, Sandy Genelius, Shaker said he did not want to comment on Elmore’s status before meeting with him next week.

ESPN executives also declined to be interviewed. In a one-sentence statement issued through its public relations department, the network said: “This is a concern that we want to discuss with Len before we comment further.”

Jefferson-Pilot Sports also is evaluating Elmore’s status, according to Jimmy Rayburn, the company’s executive producer for ACC basketball.

ACC athletic directors, who have the final say on what announcers work the conference’s games, have indicated they might move to keep Elmore from appearing on the ACC broadcasts if Jefferson-Pilot doesn’t act first, Rayburn said.

“We haven’t gone to the wall with this, but there has been some concern shown by the ADs,” he said. “From where they sit, there’s not a certainty for a conflict (of interest), but a potential for one.

“You might have an announcer wooing a player (as a potential client). The announcer could, while working a game, build the player up. That’s something Len Elmore wouldn’t do. But you would have an appearance (of such a conflict).”

Said Gene Corrigan, ACC commissioner: “We knew Len was talking about getting into (the agent) business. Now we’ll have to take a look at that. I mean, he’d have access to players (as a TV announcer) that other agents wouldn’t have.”

The NCAA does not have veto power over the announcers working NCAA tournament games on CBS. However, the NCAA does, through its Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, have a consulting role in the network’s selection of tournament announcers.

Roy Kramer, Southeastern Conference commissioner, the committee’s chairman, said he would raise questions if Elmore remains among CBS’s NCAA tournament announcers.

“This has not been brought to my attention before,” Kramer said, “but, obviously, there’s a concern that someone would utilize the role (of TV commentator) to enhance his position as an agent. I think that’s something that would concern the committee.”

Elmore did not work any games involving USC or Maryland last season.

He did, however, work two NCAA tournament games on CBS involving Ohio State, an assignment that put him in the position of commenting on the air about Buckeye junior Jim Jackson, whom he had solicited for his agency.

“I did send Jim a couple of letters, really just to give him my ideas if he had any thoughts about (making himself available for the NBA draft), because I got a tip that he might be thinking of coming out,” Elmore said. “This was back in the middle of the season.

“Not to proselytize, but what I tried to do was educate him about the importance of Afro-American representation and where he would stand as a future leader in his community, that type of thing.”

Elmore said his pitch to Jackson was made known to Ohio State Coach Randy Ayers, who, according to Elmore, approved.

Ayers did not respond to a request for an interview.

Jackson ultimately made himself available for the draft, but did not choose Elmore to be his agent.

“Last year, if you listen to my tapes, you’ll see that I lauded Jackson because he’s a great player,” Elmore said. “To say that I wouldn’t be completely candid (because of his work as an agent) . . . well, let’s put that in perspective. Let’s look at some other areas where (TV commentators) aren’t candid.

“Dick Vitale. He hypes coaches and friends and gets jobs for people. If you’re going to talk about me getting players to (sign) with me, look at Digger Phelps. He works for the Bush administration. Does that mean that this year, an election year, he was trying to get players to endorse the president? And Billy (Packer), shilling for a sponsor (Oldsmobile) of NCAA basketball. Will he be completely candid about the NCAA?

“There are so many conflicts out there that my perceived conflict is almost laughable.”

As for the notion that his TV work would give him special access to prospective clients, Elmore said: “The producers who have been with me when I’ve talked to players and coaches, they realize that I’m all business, and that I never veer off the subject of that particular game or season. I don’t talk about my company. . . .

“Actually, (TV work) limits me (as an agent) more than it helps me, because, whereas some (agents) can see three or four games a week and meet three or four kids and their coaches, my time is constrained.”

Rayburn of Jefferson-Pilot Sports, for one, believes Elmore will be a great agent.

“Len is what that business needs, a role model,” he said. “The NBA. Harvard Law School. That’s pretty strong stuff. He’s an honest man with a lot of integrity.”

But is there room for an agent, even an honest one, doing TV commentary on college basketball games?

Rayburn chose his words carefully.

“I like Len. He has done a good job for us. But anyone can objectively see that there’s potential (for trouble) here.”