Our Chicago Bulls find themselves on a quest for not only fresh front office leadership, but now a new head coach, to boot. Thankfully, it seems like they’re narrowing down their candidates to supplant AKME and hopefully restore the struggling franchise’s good name.
Six names of top contenders were leaked by ESPN’s Shams Charania (an insider Michael Reinsdorf specifically cited as being among the most reliable) on Monday. Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times suggested that at least three other, unnamed options are candidates.
We’ve previously deep-dived on three other mentioned contenders, in Minnesota Timberwolves general manager Matt Lloyd, Detroit Pistons senior vice president Dennis Lindsey, and Atlanta Hawks senior VP Bryson Graham.
While it sounds like, generally, ownership is looking into people with prior front office experience, the team seems to also be circling back on a top player agent who (shocker) hails from Chicago: Austin Brown, co-head of CAA’s basketball division.
Austin Brown: The Hits
© Kelley L Cox-Imagn ImagesAustin Brown stands as a unique case among the known contenders. He doesn’t exactly have transactional hits and misses the way that the others might. So we’ll focus on some of the big-ticket signings.
Shlomo Sprung of Boardroom reports that Brown grew up in Evanston and played college basketball at Indiana’s DePauw University. He then worked as a Wall Street investment banker with JP Morgan, then wound up at law school at Washington & Lee University. Friends playing abroad began leaning on him for legal advice, prompting him to eventually explore the representation side.
Brown and CAA colleague Aaron Mintz represent Hall of Famers Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony; All-Stars Zion Williamson, Jaren Jackson Jr., Donovan Mitchell, and Trae Young; All-Defensive Team New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby; likely Rookie of the Year Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg; and one-time All-Star Dallas point guard D’Angelo Russell.
All these players have earned considerable bags over the course of their careers — maximizing client value represents a big “hit” for their representation.
Russell, in particular, has been wildly overpaid for years. Again, that is a credit to Brown and Mintz. He even inked a two-season, $11.7 million deal in free agency with the Mavericks last summer, but immediately burned through head coach Jason Kidd’s goodwill and was eventually banished from the roster. When that deal wraps up, he’ll have made a whopping $186.8 million throughout his career.
What Could the Chicago Bulls Expect from Austin Brown?
@ Kevin Jairaj-Imagn ImagesAs Charania observes, Brown has been making a name for himself early, having been ranked on both Forbes’ 2015 30 Under 30 list and Sport Business Journal’s 2020 Forty Under 40 tally.
Sources have informed Charania that Chicago even offered Brown its general manager role beneath Arturas Karnisovas in 2020 but ultimately declined. Marc Eversley eventually booked the gig.
The leap from representation to the front office may be unorthodox, but it’s been done successfully in recent years.
Former Golden State Warriors president Bob Myers helped construct the team that made six NBA Finals, winning four, around incumbent star Stephen Curry. Kobe Bryant agent-turned-Los Angeles Lakers president Rob Pelinka brought L.A. its 2020 championship. Former CAA agent-turned-New York Knicks president Leon Rose has helped rehabilitate that storied club’s reputation since taking over in 2020. New York is now a perpetual playoff squad, and last year made its first Eastern Conference Finals in a quarter-century.
Myers, by the way, is something of an NBA free agent himself.
Agents who’ve developed good relationships with the league’s top stars are often leaned on to poach those stars in free agency or at least get meetings. Several of Brown’s top clients are marquee names who could help boost Chicago’s immediate ceiling.
Reps’ transaction records can get a bit shaky. Pelinka and Rose have both occasionally surrendered far too much money or far too many assets in their dealmaking over the years. Still, both boast more hits than misses in that respect — and a lot of their trades and signings were predicated on prior relationships (paging Nico Harrison).
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