04-28-2010, 06:57 PM
Who are they? What do they do? Why do they do it? How is it all linked with college recruits? After doing some research myself I wanted to find out the links for myself and then you decide if you believe Lebron contacted Marques Teague or not. I put together this piece....
Creative Artists Agency (CAA) is a prominent entertainment and sports agency headquartered in Los Angeles CA. CAA represents A-list and emerging stars in movies, television, music, and sports. It's clients include Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Lebron James, Peyton Manning, Will Ferrel..to name a few. Since 1975 their main clients were actors and were employed by the William Morris Agency. With its stable full of actors and about $90 million in annual bookings the agency bloomed in the late 1980s.By the mid-1990s, CAA had 550 employees, about 1400 of Hollywood's top talent, and $150 million in revenue
Richard Lovett took reigns of the agency in the 2000's and their new direction included a new strategy - sports.
Excerpt from wikipedia: USA today said, "In little more than one rim-rattling year, Creative Artists Agency--longtime superpower of actors, directors, writers, musicians and entertainment/corporate deal-making--has built CAA Sports from concept to colossus."
CAA even has top coaches and managers in their corner. Marty Schottenheimer from the NFL, Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat and John Calipari from the University of Kentucky.
http://sports.caa.com/coaches.aspx
The agency representing more than three dozen emerging and All-Star NBA players clients include the 2009 NBA MVP, three #1 overall draft selections, 18 first-round Draft picks, two Rookies of the Year, and three of the five starters on the 2008 gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team.
But perhaps their biggest alliance came in 1993 with Nike: A spokesman for Nike said the agreement would greatly expand the role played by its sports marketing department, broadening its work beyond just products, and athletic endorsers, associated with Nike
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01...ml?pagewanted=1
CAA has a team of agents who offer clients opportunities in licensing, video games, music, motion pictures and television.
CAA helped arrange the deal that brought international soccer megastar David Beckham to Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy. It also represents multi-time world champion boxer Oscar De La Hoya and action sports icon Tony Hawk.
CAA Sports prides itself on offering its clients a full spectrum of services. News releases announcing a signing have noted that CAA Sports clients "will enjoy the extensive resources of the entire agency, from film, television, music, licensing and endorsements to marketing, speakers, broadcasting, philanthropy and video games."
"They are multitasking," Lebron James says of CAA. "They're not just in the sports world, they are into movies and a lot of other ventures, so at the end of the day it's going to be great. CAA is going to definitely impact my marketing, impact my business and impact a lot of things we do."
CAA Sports' Hollywood cachet has helped it rocket up in terms of high-profile stars â and high-profile agents, who have joined CAA and brought existing clients. (So far CAA has concentrated on men's team sports, so it has no women among its athlete clientele.) James moved to CAA in February 2004 when his agent, Leon Rose, whose clients also include Iverson and fellow NBA star Richard Hamilton, switched over from a law firm.
Sources--and not just a few of them--have said that for more than a year Leon Rose does very little to recruit the vast majority of his clients. That work, is done largely by William Wesley, in exchange for a handsome percentage of the fees. (And, as recruiting players is apparently much more difficult and time-consuming than representing them in negotiations where most of the terms are fixed, a handsome share to the recruiter is probably appropriate.) Rose has dealings with clients at the high school basketball level preparing for the NBA like his client OJ Mayo. Once the one and done rule came into affect with the NBA agents have been using creative ways to lure the top talents to their agencies.
â Wesley, who is affectionately called "World Wide Wes," is the underground power broker. He is credited for steering LeBron James to Leon Rose and for influencing not only where top flight prospects attend college, but also where they ultimately sign at the next level. Wesley is said to have a mountain of resources and is the deal maker at the grassroots level. "World Wide Wes" is the guy who makes things happen.
Brice Miller of Complete Sports Management is a bit more critical of CAA. The vast resources of CAA Sports, along with its Hollywood cachet, make it impossible for smaller agents such as himself to compete, he says, particularly among star players with dreams of taking their careers beyond the playing field.
Miller adds, "You can be the greatest agent in the world, but if you can't get clients because of the type of competition CAA brings, you will never be able to really prove your worth. ⦠This becomes hard to do when companies like CAA can swoop in and steal a lot of clients because of their resources and Hollywood flair."
"CAA is just bringing a lot of resources and other media/entertainment assets to their clients," he says. "In terms of fundamental necessities that a player needs from an agent, they are not doing anything else a good agent can't do."
It's clear everyone in the CAA -including it's clients are pitchmen for the company and it's clear when high school recruits or foreign stars hear about the enormity of cash they can rake in it's almost inevitable Wesley, Rose and James will prevail especially when it comes to a one and done NBA prospect in college. Rose and Wesley were named in the top 55 most influential people in basketball.
http://www.hoopsworld.com/2010...nBasketball.asp
Lebron James has branched off with his own marketing partner (LMMR) where he states they seek partners not clients.
http://www.lrmrmarketing.com/
Their company approach is simple: Lrmr believes in relationships. Our approach allows us to create synergies across all of our clients and properties, providing an intelligent, resource sharing focus that drives the most amount of success everyone involved. Whether brands are interested in seeding product to top talent or talent looking for unique expressions of their own iconic personalities through brands we allow for an open and unrestriced dialogue. Creativity is born through communication.
Most recently James' top potential partner is none other than John Wall from the University of Kentucky.LeBron James' LRMR marketing firm is reportedly about to partner with Kentucky star John Wall. James didn't abandon his roots with CAA by any means. He used it as leverage for his own marketing company to get the top college basketball recruits.
James befriended Wall at his All-American camp as a high school senior, traveled to campus to watch him play and even enlisted rapper Drake to entice Wall to LRMR, Jamesâ marketing company.
James will go back again and again for Kentuckyâs stars. Rival agents gasped when close associate, William Wesley, walked into a Wildcat game with rapper Drake. As one said, âHow the **** can I compete with that?â
Adrian Wojnarowski writes for Yahoo! Sports:
James befriended Wall at his All-American camp as a high school senior, traveled to campus to watch him play and even enlisted rapper Drake to woo Wall to LRMR, Jamesâ fledgling marketing company.
Now, multiple NBA, agent and sneaker industry sources say Wall is close to partnering with the firm. As the projected No. 1 pick in the 2010 NBA draft, perhaps the most-hyped pro prospect since James himself, Wall will have his marketing and endorsements guided with the perks of a partnership with the globeâs biggest basketball star.
Jamesâ childhood friend, Maverick Carter, is the CEO of LRMR and responsible for running his management company. Carterâs had a consistent presence with Wallâs AAU coach and surrogate, Brian Clifton, for months, and Clifton offered nothing to dispute the word of sources who say James and Wall are going into business together
"Yeah, I have a relationship with him," James said. "A really good relationship. With not only John, but his family. We talk all the time."James met Wall a couple of years ago at the LeBron James Skills Academy in Akron, which is a star showcase that Nike runs at University of Akron every July. Not only is it a prime recruiting ground for the nation's top collegiate programs, but it's a golden meet-and-greet for James, who has been developing personal relationships with stars in the making by the gross
james is close to kentucky coach john calipari as well. windhorst quoted james:
"Coach Cal is family; it's a big family that we have and we're going to stick with each other," James said. "Where ever Cal is, for the most part, I'm going to try to show my support to him. He's a great coach and a great friend. It's good that we can have that kind of relationship."
Creative Artists Agency (CAA) is a prominent entertainment and sports agency headquartered in Los Angeles CA. CAA represents A-list and emerging stars in movies, television, music, and sports. It's clients include Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Lebron James, Peyton Manning, Will Ferrel..to name a few. Since 1975 their main clients were actors and were employed by the William Morris Agency. With its stable full of actors and about $90 million in annual bookings the agency bloomed in the late 1980s.By the mid-1990s, CAA had 550 employees, about 1400 of Hollywood's top talent, and $150 million in revenue
Richard Lovett took reigns of the agency in the 2000's and their new direction included a new strategy - sports.
Excerpt from wikipedia: USA today said, "In little more than one rim-rattling year, Creative Artists Agency--longtime superpower of actors, directors, writers, musicians and entertainment/corporate deal-making--has built CAA Sports from concept to colossus."
CAA even has top coaches and managers in their corner. Marty Schottenheimer from the NFL, Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat and John Calipari from the University of Kentucky.
http://sports.caa.com/coaches.aspx
The agency representing more than three dozen emerging and All-Star NBA players clients include the 2009 NBA MVP, three #1 overall draft selections, 18 first-round Draft picks, two Rookies of the Year, and three of the five starters on the 2008 gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team.
But perhaps their biggest alliance came in 1993 with Nike: A spokesman for Nike said the agreement would greatly expand the role played by its sports marketing department, broadening its work beyond just products, and athletic endorsers, associated with Nike
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01...ml?pagewanted=1
CAA has a team of agents who offer clients opportunities in licensing, video games, music, motion pictures and television.
CAA helped arrange the deal that brought international soccer megastar David Beckham to Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy. It also represents multi-time world champion boxer Oscar De La Hoya and action sports icon Tony Hawk.
CAA Sports prides itself on offering its clients a full spectrum of services. News releases announcing a signing have noted that CAA Sports clients "will enjoy the extensive resources of the entire agency, from film, television, music, licensing and endorsements to marketing, speakers, broadcasting, philanthropy and video games."
"They are multitasking," Lebron James says of CAA. "They're not just in the sports world, they are into movies and a lot of other ventures, so at the end of the day it's going to be great. CAA is going to definitely impact my marketing, impact my business and impact a lot of things we do."
CAA Sports' Hollywood cachet has helped it rocket up in terms of high-profile stars â and high-profile agents, who have joined CAA and brought existing clients. (So far CAA has concentrated on men's team sports, so it has no women among its athlete clientele.) James moved to CAA in February 2004 when his agent, Leon Rose, whose clients also include Iverson and fellow NBA star Richard Hamilton, switched over from a law firm.
Sources--and not just a few of them--have said that for more than a year Leon Rose does very little to recruit the vast majority of his clients. That work, is done largely by William Wesley, in exchange for a handsome percentage of the fees. (And, as recruiting players is apparently much more difficult and time-consuming than representing them in negotiations where most of the terms are fixed, a handsome share to the recruiter is probably appropriate.) Rose has dealings with clients at the high school basketball level preparing for the NBA like his client OJ Mayo. Once the one and done rule came into affect with the NBA agents have been using creative ways to lure the top talents to their agencies.
â Wesley, who is affectionately called "World Wide Wes," is the underground power broker. He is credited for steering LeBron James to Leon Rose and for influencing not only where top flight prospects attend college, but also where they ultimately sign at the next level. Wesley is said to have a mountain of resources and is the deal maker at the grassroots level. "World Wide Wes" is the guy who makes things happen.
Brice Miller of Complete Sports Management is a bit more critical of CAA. The vast resources of CAA Sports, along with its Hollywood cachet, make it impossible for smaller agents such as himself to compete, he says, particularly among star players with dreams of taking their careers beyond the playing field.
Miller adds, "You can be the greatest agent in the world, but if you can't get clients because of the type of competition CAA brings, you will never be able to really prove your worth. ⦠This becomes hard to do when companies like CAA can swoop in and steal a lot of clients because of their resources and Hollywood flair."
"CAA is just bringing a lot of resources and other media/entertainment assets to their clients," he says. "In terms of fundamental necessities that a player needs from an agent, they are not doing anything else a good agent can't do."
It's clear everyone in the CAA -including it's clients are pitchmen for the company and it's clear when high school recruits or foreign stars hear about the enormity of cash they can rake in it's almost inevitable Wesley, Rose and James will prevail especially when it comes to a one and done NBA prospect in college. Rose and Wesley were named in the top 55 most influential people in basketball.
http://www.hoopsworld.com/2010...nBasketball.asp
Lebron James has branched off with his own marketing partner (LMMR) where he states they seek partners not clients.
http://www.lrmrmarketing.com/
Their company approach is simple: Lrmr believes in relationships. Our approach allows us to create synergies across all of our clients and properties, providing an intelligent, resource sharing focus that drives the most amount of success everyone involved. Whether brands are interested in seeding product to top talent or talent looking for unique expressions of their own iconic personalities through brands we allow for an open and unrestriced dialogue. Creativity is born through communication.
Most recently James' top potential partner is none other than John Wall from the University of Kentucky.LeBron James' LRMR marketing firm is reportedly about to partner with Kentucky star John Wall. James didn't abandon his roots with CAA by any means. He used it as leverage for his own marketing company to get the top college basketball recruits.
James befriended Wall at his All-American camp as a high school senior, traveled to campus to watch him play and even enlisted rapper Drake to entice Wall to LRMR, Jamesâ marketing company.
James will go back again and again for Kentuckyâs stars. Rival agents gasped when close associate, William Wesley, walked into a Wildcat game with rapper Drake. As one said, âHow the **** can I compete with that?â
Adrian Wojnarowski writes for Yahoo! Sports:
James befriended Wall at his All-American camp as a high school senior, traveled to campus to watch him play and even enlisted rapper Drake to woo Wall to LRMR, Jamesâ fledgling marketing company.
Now, multiple NBA, agent and sneaker industry sources say Wall is close to partnering with the firm. As the projected No. 1 pick in the 2010 NBA draft, perhaps the most-hyped pro prospect since James himself, Wall will have his marketing and endorsements guided with the perks of a partnership with the globeâs biggest basketball star.
Jamesâ childhood friend, Maverick Carter, is the CEO of LRMR and responsible for running his management company. Carterâs had a consistent presence with Wallâs AAU coach and surrogate, Brian Clifton, for months, and Clifton offered nothing to dispute the word of sources who say James and Wall are going into business together
"Yeah, I have a relationship with him," James said. "A really good relationship. With not only John, but his family. We talk all the time."James met Wall a couple of years ago at the LeBron James Skills Academy in Akron, which is a star showcase that Nike runs at University of Akron every July. Not only is it a prime recruiting ground for the nation's top collegiate programs, but it's a golden meet-and-greet for James, who has been developing personal relationships with stars in the making by the gross
james is close to kentucky coach john calipari as well. windhorst quoted james:
"Coach Cal is family; it's a big family that we have and we're going to stick with each other," James said. "Where ever Cal is, for the most part, I'm going to try to show my support to him. He's a great coach and a great friend. It's good that we can have that kind of relationship."