Aug. 15--It was March 2013, and Michael Jordan's longtime agent, David Falk, had just been offered $26 million for the basketball legend to endorse a line of headphones.
"Does $26 million sound like $100 million?" Falk says he snapped at Marvin Jemal, the New York businessman who'd made what Falk considered an insulting offer. "It doesn't to me -- call me back when you have $100 million!"
Falk, the NBA mega-agent who represented Jordan from 1984 to 1999 and continues to act as his adviser, brought his brash, confident style to Chicago's federal courthouse Friday, taking the stand in the third day of what's expected to be a weeklong trial of Jordan's lawsuit against the defunct supermarket chain Dominick's.
Dominick's has already been found liable for using Jordan's name without permission in a 2009 advertisement in a special edition of Sports Illustrated. Jurors must now decide how much Dominick's owner, Safeway, will pay Jordan for the gaffe.
In the courtroom, Falk, 65, reduced Jordan to laughter at several points in his testimony as he loudly ridiculed the Dominick's ad and bragged about the unparalleled value of Jordan's brand. Though the headphone deal did not go forward, Falk testified that he managed to extract a promise of cash and equity worth around $200 million from Jemal.
He described Jordan as "the best-known celebrity in the world." And in one aside that seemed to particularly tickle Jordan, Falk said that Jordan's Nike sub-brand was worth more "than the entire Under Armour" brand.
Jordan has maximized the value of that brand over the last 31 years by carefully selecting a small number of "all-American" brands and forcing them to sign multiyear contracts worth more than $10 million, said Falk.
"There's certain things in life where you have to buy the whole enchilada," he testified. "With Michael, it's all or nothing!"
Signing a deal for a single print ad with Dominick's would have run counter to that strategy and would have been "the dumbest thing he could do," said Falk.
Under cross-examination, the combative Falk clashed repeatedly with Dominick's attorney Stephen Rosenfeld, who forced Falk to concede that Jemal was later revealed to have had money problems and was jailed for fraud.
But Falk gave as good as he got. After Rosenfeld told the judge that he was done cross-examining Falk, only to return and ask another 15 minutes' worth of questions, Falk asked him, "How did you forget all these questions?"
As Falk earlier told the jury: "When you talk for Michael Jordan, you're dealing from a position of strength."
Jordan is expected to take the stand Monday.
kjanssen@tribpub.com
