MASTER REPPER
Cherry Hill's Rose has blossomed into one of the NBA's top agents
By
MARK KRAM
IT WAS a 5-hour trip to Springfield, Mass., that day in 2001 and Leon Rose
did not get off his cell phone. Going to the Basketball Hall of Fame
induction ceremony of Temple coach John Chaney, Rose talked the entire
trip with clients. In the car with him were his young son, Sam, and his
former high school basketball coach at Cherry Hill East, John Valore, who
remembers he was intrigued how Rose hopped from one matter to another.
One player asked him to arrange tickets for his family in another
city.
Someone else urgently needed a suit.
Others called just to check in.
Or he called them, updating them on the latest news concerning the
latest
deal. Or just calling to see how they were.
"He is on the phone 24 hours a day," Valore says. "What else can you
say
but that he loves what he does."
Except that he apparently is very skilled at it. In the span of the
last
few years, Rose has emerged as one of the NBA's top agents, with superstar
clients who include the Sixers' Allen Iverson and the Cavaliers' LeBron
James. Along with taking care of the finer points of contract
negotiations, he is on call 24-7 to aid in whatever way he can. He says
that "this is just the nature of the job." Currently, he represents a
dozen NBA players, which he calls a manageable number that allows him to
have a personal relationship with his clients.
"Just like a client is selecting me to represent them, I would hope
that
what I am about reflects who they are," says Rose. "I look for that in a
player. So in a sense we represent each other."
Success did not come overnight for Leon Rose. It only seems that way,
given the stature of the clients with whom he is now aligned. But the
truth is, it took him years to get to where he is today, during which
there were more than a few disappointments. For close to 10 years, he
built up his business the way his dad, attorney Zev Rose, had advised him
when he was just starting out as a lawyer: Take care of the clients you
have, and others will follow.
"He used to say to me, 'Look, build your foundation. Become a good
lawyer.
As you do a good job, the word will spread,' " says Rose, seated in his
Cherry Hill office. "I had been a young lawyer then and had been
frustrated at times, with regard to being able to get new business... But
the bottom line is, there is no substitute for experience. Everything
takes times."
By becoming a sports agent, Rose wed the two passions of his life
outside
of his wife and two children: basketball and law. At Cherry Hill East
under Valore, he had been a player whom the coach remembers had to work
very hard to break into the starting lineup his junior year. Rose was a
point guard, and Valore remembers he had a complete understanding of the
game. But beyond that, Valore says he was the type of young man who "you
would want your own son to be." He was so impressed with him that he asked
the young teenager to be the godfather to his son.
"Even then, you could see that he had special qualities," says Valore.
"He
had leadership skills, the love of competition and well... just the way he
looked at himself as a person. I just saw something unique in Leon, and I
knew that he would be able to set the type of example I would want my own
child to follow. And he has not disappointed."
Good enough to play at Dickinson College, Rose had early inclinations
to
become a coach. Coaches such as Valore and others had had an immense
influence on him. Under them he had come to understand the value of hard
work, discipline, perseverance, preparation and execution. "I learned what
it takes to go up against people who are better than you," Rose says. "I
probably had average ability, but I took what I had and got the maximum
out of it." Rose admired the men who helped shape his life and could think
of no better way to spend it than following in their footsteps.
But Zev Rose urged him to take a broader view of his future. Concerned
that Leon would be able to earn a dependable living as a coach, Zev says
he told his son: "Get your law degree and then you can apply for any
coaching job, if you want." Leon attended Temple Law School and during his
off hours worked as an assistant under Valore at Cherry Hill East. Upon
his graduation in 1986, he began trying cases for the Camden County
Prosecutor's Office, a job that sharpened many of the negotiating skills
he uses today.
"I recommend it to anyone who wants to be a litigator," says Leon
Rose,
who assisted coach Pony Wilson at Rutgers University-Camden during this
period. "There is no other place where you can start out as an attorney
and learn how to try a case. Every day, you are in court. You really learn
how to think on your feet and negotiate. I learned a lot of invaluable
lessons that served me well - first as a litigator and then as a sports
agent."
Two years of prosecutorial work led him into private practice,
initially
with a large Philadelphia firm. He then joined the Cherry Hill firm where
his dad is a real estate attorney. But it was not until he got a chance to
help former La Salle University star Lionel Simmons with his contract that
a career as a sports agent occurred to Rose. "Lionel was going for his
second contract with the Sacramento Kings, and his uncle asked me to get
involved," says Rose. "And through that experience, I said to myself,
'Wow, this is the perfect type of job for me.' "
But he had no idea then how to get started. John Chaney provided him
with
some valuable advice, but as Rose says now: "Being a practicing lawyer, I
was not a recruiter... and had no desire to get involved in that whole
aspect of it." He uses the word "naive" to describe himself then. While he
is not specific regarding what happened, he says he had "a few very
disappointing experiences early on that serve me well." Rose adds,
"[Because of] those negative experiences I pulled back in my desire to
represent players."
Ironically, clients then began coming to him. Former Temple star Rick
Brunson called in 1995 and asked for help. Brunson had not been drafted by
the NBA that spring, and was not getting his phone calls returned from his
agent. Rose told Brunson: "No promises," but assured him that he would do
what he could on his behalf. Brunson was invited to the Sixers' camp, was
the final player cut and ended up going to Australia to play. Rose has
been with him ever since. Brunson has worn the jersey of seven NBA teams
since 1997-98 and is with Seattle this year, playing for the first time
under a guaranteed contract.
Brunson says he does not introduce Rose, 44, as his agent. "I
introduce
him as my friend," Brunson says. "He has been more of a mentor to me. In
some ways even a coach. He is always reminding me what I have to work on.
I remember one day I was working out at Cherry Hill East at 7 a.m. and he
was out there rebounding for me. How many agents would do that for their
client?"
Brunson adds that in some ways, their two careers have paralleled. "In
the
beginning we both had trouble getting established," he says. "But now I
have a guaranteed contract and look how far he has come."
One client has since led to another, just as his dad told him years
before
it would. Through his Brunson connection, he hooked up with 7-footer Chris
Anstey, who became a first-round draft pick of Portland in 1997 out or
Australia. He then began representing other Australian players with NBA or
European ability, and soon found himself flying to Australia three or four
times a year. He says he was happy with what he called that little niche.
But then, former Temple stars Eddie Jones and Aaron McKie also hired him.
With Anstey and Brunson in the NBA by then, Rose suddenly found himself
representing four players in the league.
"Suddenly, you are established," Rose says. "It was like one player at
a
time, slowly building up. It was more through networking and referrals."
Word spread. By working with McKie, it led him to Iverson, whom Rose
says
he got to know on a personal level before Iverson asked him to be his
agent. The Pistons' Richard Hamilton also hired him. Rose had a connection
with the Cavaliers because of his work with former Camden High School star
Dajuan Wagner, who was drafted by Cleveland in the 2002 draft. And just
this summer he was hired by LeBron James, whom Rose says he has known
since high school. Brunson is not surprised that Rose has done so well.
"The players in the league talk to each other," Brunson says. "They
know.
What it comes down to is one word: honesty."
Leon Rose considers himself a coach in some ways, only in a different
way
than he might have anticipated years ago. With the NBA getting younger and
younger, he finds himself in the position of having to guide young men
into what has become a corporate world.
"They are stepping into big business," he says. "And that is a huge
step
for a young person to take. They are stepping out of their comfort zone,
going to a new city, perhaps competing for minutes."
So he surrounds younger players with a support team, people whose job
it
is to allow the player to focus solely on playing. Having played himself,
he conveys an empathy to what they are going through, be it an injury or
some other problem that might be weighing on them. They know Leon is just
a phone call away, and that he is not just someone with a calculator.
Because, as he says, "I would hope my players know I care about them."
