Clio Sports Awards Summit

David Falk, the founder of FAME, has long been recognized as one of the sports industry’s leading figures and most talented innovators. During a 47-year career, he has represented many of the top players in NBA history and has negotiated record-breaking contracts for his clients, both on and off the court. His vision and ability to read the changing landscape helped to shape the evolution of the business of sports over the past 30 years.

He began his career representing professional athletes with ProServ in 1974, rising to Vice Chairman of the company. He left ProServ in 1992 and established Falk Associates Management Enterprises (FAME) to provide specialized and personal representation services to the company’s elite clientele of NBA superstars. During his career, Falk has represented more NBA first-round draft selections, lottery picks, Rookies-of-the-Year, and All-Stars than anyone else in the athlete management business, including 10 members of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Falk negotiated the highest contracts in NBA league history for Patrick Ewing (New York Knicks) in 1985 and Danny Ferry (Cleveland Cavaliers) in 1990 as rookies, before playing their first NBA game. He negotiated professional sports’ first $100 million contract in 1996 for Alonzo Mourning as part of an unprecedented free agency period in which FAME changed the entire salary structure of the NBA, negotiating over $400 million in contracts for its free agent clients in a six-day period. He negotiated Michael Jordan’s one-year $30 million contract in 1996, the highest salary in NBA history for the next 16 years!

Falk has also been credited as sports marketing’s leading innovator. In 1985, he negotiated Michael Jordan’s ground-breaking deal with Nike, which is the most successful endorsement relationship in history, and in the process coined the nickname “Air Jordan.” He also negotiated notable shoe endorsement contracts for James Worthy in 1982, Boomer Esiason (who became the first NFL player to endorse the Reebok “Pump”) in 1987, Allen Iverson with Reebok in 1996 and Evan Turner with Li-Ning in 2010.

In 1996, Falk crossed over into entertainment as he executive produced the Ivan Reitman/Warner Bros. feature Space Jam, Michael Jordan’s first film, teaming Jordan with the Looney Tunes in an intergalactic basketball showdown. In 2000, he executive produced Michael Jordan to the Max, the critically acclaimed large format feature on the NBA legend. Falk also served as Executive Producer of the Emmy-winning On Hallowed Ground, a documentary on the history of the Rucker Park Basketball League, which received a gold medal at the 2000 New York Film Festival, as well as One Love (2003) and Young Guns (2004). Falk currently is a principal in Bron Legacy, a producer of sports documentaries under the umbrella of highly acclaimed Bron Studios (Bombshell, Joker, Fences, The Defiant Ones).

In 1998, Falk sold FAME to SFX Entertainment, serving on SFX’s Board of Directors and in the Office of the Chairman. As Chairman of SFX Sports Group, Falk oversaw the acquisition of a dozen sports agencies that enabled SFX to represent approximately 20% of MLB and NBA players. Falk stepped down as Chairman in 2001. In 2007, Falk re-launched FAME as an ultra- boutique agency for a small but elite clientele.

Falk was ranked #2, behind NBA Commissioner David Stern in a Basketball Digest survey of the most influential people in basketball. He has been a perennial selection to The Sporting News’ “100 Most Powerful People in Sports.” In 1999, Advertising Age named Falk to their “Marketing 100” list of the country’s top 100 marketers. USA Today selected Falk as an “Ad/Marketing Powerbroker of 1996”.

Falk is an investor and strategic advisor to Consumable, a digital advertising company; Revolution, a cooking technology company; Ostendo, a leader in quantum photonics; and GOAL, a sports SPAC. In 2009, he released his first book, The Bald Truth.

A 1972 honors graduate of Syracuse University with a B.A. in Economics, the 70-year-old New York native received a J.D. with honors from the National Law Center at George Washington University in 1975. In 2010, a gift from Rhonda S. Falk ’74 and David B. Falk ’72 established the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics at Syracuse University. In 2015, a gift from the Falks established the Falk Academy of Management and Entrepreneurship at George Washington University Law School.

He is a member of the Board of Trustees for Syracuse University and the Board of Advisors for George Washington University’s National Law Center.

He and his wife, the former Rhonda Frank, live in Bethesda, Maryland, and have two daughters, Daina, and Jocelyn.