WALDNER: Kupchak gets to watch the fun this time
- July 6, 2010
What really is going on in the Hunt for LeBron James?
So many NBA owners, general managers and coaches - plus all the marketing people they can muster - have made their bids for the services of James, the noted free agent.
All are so optimistic. And confident.
The truth?
It's nervous time. All are very, very, very nervous.
Let's turn to Mitch Kupchak, general manager of the back-to-back NBA champion Lakers. He is not involved in this cattle call because the Lakers lack salary cap space.
"Is it kind of nice not to have to get in the middle?" Kupchak was asked.
"Very nice," he said.
Very, very, very nice.
"We've been in the middle several times," he said.
Was that the hint of a smile on his face?
"It's great to be on the outside looking in," he said.
You know he was thinking back to 1996 when Jerry West led the charge for the Lakers during protracted negotiations leading to landing Shaquille O'Neal. West's anxiety level was off the charts that summer.
Kupchak has had his own summers of anxiety, courtesy of Kobe Bryant.
So what is his reaction, sitting in his office at Lakers headquarters in El Segundo, to the James telethon?
"It's compelling," he said. "It really is."
Also a little silly with reporters doing their voice-over presentations as SUVs with NBA executives have arrived for and departed from meetings with James.
But Kupchak is too polite to tweak the TV people, or the radio people, or the print people who have said so much and actually told us so little about what really is going on with James.
"You've got the NBA Channel on (and) ESPN," he said. "The bottom line (the crawl at the bottom of your television screen) is going. You're always watching. You're talking to other GMs trying to figure out what's going to take place with the meetings."
How about that, the NBA people speculate and even gossip like everyone else.
"I think it's compelling TV," Kupchak said again.
Compelling TV if you are directly involved in the business of professional basketball. Otherwise watching talking heads go on and on endlessly with so very little real information at their disposal is painful.
A safe assumption is that Chris Talbott is among those who are riveted to the tube.
Talbott was a Rolling Hills High ball boy back in the day when his older brother, Sean, was an athlete there.
The school had become Peninsula High when he arrived to play baseball, basketball and water polo as a freshman and sophomore, which was before his family moved and he transferred to Woodbridge High in Irvine. He continued playing basketball in college as an all-conference guard at Cal State Hayward, now Cal State East Bay.
Talbott's interest in James spins out of his position with Wasserman Media Group, which represents NBA and baseball players along with being the leading representative of action sports stars.
He is director of athlete marketing management for the Wasserman group. This gives him a unique perspective as he views the Hunt for James.
Talbott spoke at the South Bay Athletic Club, a very informal local luncheon group, late last year. One of the questions he answered involved the group of James' friends who run James' marketing operation.
"They're cool," he said.
Take this as a professional endorsement. They've learned the business and are doing a solid job for James.
However, Talbott also said, almost casually, "They're not breaking any new ground."
This observation prompted a thought about Nike, the mammoth sportswear and equipment company, and the relationship it has with James.
Nike has a big-time marketing operation. A good guess is the Nike marketing people are constantly looking over the shoulders of the James marketing people. To be clear, this is not information from a person not authorized to speak on the record. It just is a new entry in the speculation department.
So you have to wonder what really is going on behind the scenes right now. What role might Nike and chairman Phil Knight be playing ever so quietly as James makes his decision as to which NBA team he will honor with his presence next season?