As Agent for Change, Falk Left His Mark Over Summer

Summertime, and the living ain’t so easy anymore.

Laker General Manager Mitch Kupchak made plans to go to Hawaii in September, assuming the wheeling and dealing would be over, only to find it had barely begun. Kupchak was the tall guy in the flowered shirt with the four-figure cell phone bill.

Coach Phil Jackson had knee surgery, so all he got to do was rehab while he read about the Portland Trail Blazers signing power forwards.

The Trail Blazers, of course, were the ones who lost that 15-point fourth-quarter lead in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals and probably cried themselves to sleep for months.

Then there was super-agent (ask him) David Falk, who worked all summer on multi-team deals to relieve as many of his embattled clients as he could in one stroke, finally hitting pay dirt with the trade that moved Glen Rice to the New York Knicks and Patrick Ewing to the Seattle SuperSonics.

Not content to sit back and count his commissions--let’s see, 4% of Rice’s $36-million deal is $1.4 million--Falk then blasted the Lakers for lying to him about a long-term deal for Rice and failing to “maintain the value of a star player.”

One thing you have to say for Falk, he never hides his motives, however self-centered. After years of brokering Michael Jordan, he may have succumbed to Entourage Fantasy, wherein the courtier decides he’s royalty too.

Unfortunately, the bulletproof Jordan retired and the rest of Falk’s client list is more fallible.

Because the Lakers aren’t in the star-enhancement biz, especially with their third-best player, and because they won a title, that would seem to settle the malfeasance charge.

Promoting Rice’s career wasn’t their job, but Falk’s (and Rice’s and Rice’s wife’s). The Lakers thought enough of Rice to trade Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell, but it was a mistake for all concerned, including Falk.

As usual, Falk was working on his own agenda too, when he helped broker the deal with the Charlotte Hornets. Falk had no Lakers and was keen to ally himself with them for future deals with more clients. Effusive when the trade went down, he called Jerry West “the Michael Jordan of the GMs.”

The Laker story--and the way it was reported for years, without demurral by Falk--was that they refused to commit to a maximum $14-million-a-year contract, promising, instead, to take care of Rice if things worked out.

In case you didn’t notice, things didn’t.

The Lakers busted out in the second round of the 1999 playoffs and, hardly blown away by what they had seen of Rice, invoked their option to bring him back for one year at $7 million. Rice was unhappy, to say the least, obliging West to fly to Miami to see him. Still, Falk made no public protest.

Then the Lakers won a title, with Rice posting one of his worst seasons and his wife ripping Jackson, which didn’t change anything, since it had been obvious for months Rice was out of here.

Of course, Falk’s complaint about being lied to was another achievement in chutzpah, since it seems clear Falk, himself, said something promising to the Chicago Bulls before pulling the plug at the last moment.

The Bulls were so confident they had an agreement, they dumped Matt Maloney, Chris Anstey and Hersey Hawkins to make room for Rice. Given all his flight information, they sent a man to the airport to get him and scheduled a physical, after which they planned a news conference.

Rice wasn’t on the plane. Bull General Manager Jerry Krause called Falk but Falk didn’t call back, perhaps despairing of being heard over Krause’s screaming.

Krause then announced the Bulls had no interest in Rice, not that Rice and Falk cared. They were in New York, preparing for a new career.

Good luck, Glen/David. It was brief but memorable.

FACES AND FIGURES

Here’s a surprise: Jerome Moiso, who left UCLA after two years, “looks lost” in the Boston Celtics’ camp, says Coach Rick Pitino. “He’s a very talented young man,” Pitino adds. “I don’t know when it’ll come, but I know it’ll come because Jerome’s got great talent. He’s not like an Antoine Walker where he really knows the game inside out and outside in.” Not to panic, but it isn’t good when they say you don’t know the game as well as Antoine Walker. . . . Don’t look for that Dikembe Mutombo-to-New York deal soon. Marcus Camby, whom the Knicks were offering, has a sore knee, having spent little time working out (he says he was upset by trade rumors), and is sitting out practices. Said Coach Jeff Van Gundy, making no secret of his displeasure: “To me, it’s all about Marcus’ health. If Marcus can have a career-best year in games played--and his career high is 63--I think he’ll have a great year.” . . . Oh, and Latrell Sprewell has doubts about a lineup with him, Rice and Allan Houston, saying the Knicks will either be “unstoppable,” or “crushed on the boards” and have “a bunch of other problems.” . . . Aside from that, the optimism roars on unabated in the Knicks’ camp.

Rookie New Jersey Net Coach Byron Scott, who came up under Pat Riley, not that he always enjoyed it, is turning out to be a taskmaster in his first camp too. “I think a lot of guys look at me and say, ‘Byron’s a very nice guy,’ ” Scott said. “This is my job. This is my livelihood. This is what I’ve been geared to do. I’m not the nicest guy in the world when the doors are closed and practice starts and you’re not doing what I ask you to do.” . . . You know how good a job Jackson must have done when Riley, once his archrival, goes out of his way to lavish praise on him. “I think Jackson had a lot to do with what happened with the Lakers,” Riley says. “They were right from Day One. They were absolutely right. It’s not a coincidence that Shaquille O’Neal had his greatest year ever. It’s not a coincidence that Kobe Bryant all of a sudden came out of whatever . . . to a level of greatness. Nobody thought of them as a great team, but greatness was achieved at the end because of how they came together and grew and accepted and went through it.”

Will the last Indiana Pacer veteran to leave turn out the lights, the party’s over: Reggie Miller is bummed at losing teammates Mark Jackson (signed with the Toronto Raptors), Dale Davis (traded to Portland) and Rik Smits (retired). “If they wanted Mark back, Mark would have been here,” Miller said. “Listening to Donnie [Walsh, team president] before all this went on, he said he wanted to bring everyone back. Obviously, that wasn’t the case.” . . . Responded new Coach Isiah Thomas: “In Detroit, [Mark] Aguirre took less money to play. I took less money to play. [Joe] Dumars took less money. [Bill] Laimbeer took less money. They [Pacer management] tried to keep everyone together. Everyone should understand that. People left on their own free will. They gave up on the chase. I’ll ask our young players, when we commit to one another, not to give up on the chase.” . . . OK, how long do you think it will take Miller to tire of Thomas’ Detroit stories?

Start your stopwatches: With a new owner and little prospect of making the playoffs, Denver Nugget Coach/General Manager Dan Issel is on borrowed time. In a public vote of no confidence, the new boss, Wal-Mart son-in-law Stan Kroenke, says he’ll evaluate Issel during, not after, the season so the Nuggets’ first losing streak may be Issel’s last.

Detroit center Mikki Moore keeps pet snakes, even after losing his first when he joined the team in 1999. Living in a hotel in Auburn Hills, Mich., with the team about to go on the road, Moore brought the snake to the arena but left it in his car because, “I couldn’t very well walk into the arena with my snake right before a game. So I left it in my car--and it froze to death. Hey, it was my snake or my job, you know? The snake had to go.” . . . Now known to teammates as Snake, Moore has two boa constrictors and three alligators.