Greg Jackson's Hoop Dreams
If the expression "We are what we do" is true, then Minnesota Timberwolves/Lynx general counsel Greg Jackson is one honest guy. At 6 feet 4 inches, with a well-Bic-ed dome and modern, stylish glasses, Jackson surely resembles what could be considered the "NBA Look."
Yet for Jackson, Bling is not the Thing. And that aversion to the lights of NBA Showtime explains why the mild-mannered attorney meshes so well with the teams' unassuming parent company, the Taylor Corp. in Mankato, says the company's namesake, Wolves billionaire owner Glen Taylor, with whom Jackson has worked for more than 20 years.
And while his work serving Taylor Corp. as chief administrative officer, vice president, general counsel and secretary no doubt takes up the wealth of Jackson's time, it is his duties with the Wolves-most notably working with player contracts and salary cap issues-that often put those specs to the test.
"The least-recognized legal matter of managing an NBA team is the salary cap issue," Jackson says of the byzantine rules and regulations governing a team's payroll. "The NBA's luxury tax becomes a huge issue-managing to those numbers. And those rules are very intricate. In fact, the league's staff has half-a-dozen or more attorneys who focus the bulk of their time on helping us navigate those rules. The whole collective bargaining agreement is really built around the rules that go into salary cap and luxury tax. And there's a significant amount of time that goes into building spreadsheets to show the monetary effect of the application of all those rules.
"I spend the rest of my time focusing on high-end player contracts," Jackson continues. "The NBA is really efficient in the way they build their form agreements. For a rookie coming in-it's literally fill in the blanks and have the contract signed. For the six-through-12 players on your bench, it's usually the same. It's the first six or seven players on your roster that get complicated in negotiations."
And although Jackson defers the player-agent portion of these negotiations to Wolves' General Manager Jim Stack, the attorney is no stranger to the foundations of such dealings.
"Team says Player is worth X," Jackson explains, "and Agent says Player is worth Y. And the difference is usually that the agent wants to assume that everything goes well, and the team assumes that only half goes well. ... The creativity in NBA contracts is really about bridging the gap, and unfortunately there always seems to be a team out there who is willing to pay Y."
Just as he's candid about noting his own limitations as a baller ("I rode the bench," Jackson says of his on-court career at tiny Pillsbury College, a National Christian College Athletic Association school in Owatonna), it's evident that the sports-savvy attorney is well-versed on the present-day Wolves' woes (the team finished tied with the third-worst record in the league last season).
"The love of the game can encourage you to make bad deals," he says.
Kevin Warren Finds His Sweet Spot with the Vikes
A Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. screensaver. An Alan Page jersey framed on the wall. The leviathan and ever-growing Minnesota Vikings' "Code of Conduct" folder. Family photos. A color snapshot of legendary coach Dick Vermeil, signed, "Thank you for helping me lift the Lombardi Trophy. You are a very special person and I will always be in debt to you." All of this, and much more, adorns the office of Vikings vice president of legal affairs and chief administrative officer Kevin Warren. And somehow, despite the endless motion and mayhem of this Winter Park workplace, these confines-like the man behind the desk-all seem so very orderly, and composed.
Except one item.
"That's me and Orlando Pace," Warren says, pointing to the elevated photo of himself and the future Hall-of-Famer, holding the Lombardi Trophy won by St. Louis 10 years ago. Both men are doused in bubbly, their faces locked in elation. To fully understand and appreciate Warren's nostalgia, one must conduct an instant replay of the attorney's journey through a life in sports.
He comes from an athletic family. His father played pro football for the All-American Football Conference's Brooklyn Dodgers in the mid-1940s, and Warren's own playing career found the spotlight in hoops in 1982, when the Tempe, Ariz., native helped the University of Pennsylvania basketball team win an Ivy League title. He later transferred to Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, where he became a two-time NAIA Academic All-American and 1,000-plus point scorer at Grand Canyon University.
After his playing career, Warren flexed his intellectual muscles at Notre Dame Law School, where he earned his J.D. in 1990. He then immersed himself in the world of sports law while working for an Overland Park, Kan., firm that specialized in representing universities charged with NCAA violations. In 1991, while teaching a class at Notre Dame, Warren began a friendship with All-American D-lineman Chris Zorich, and in 1992 he opened up his own sports agency in Kansas City, with Zorich as his first client.
He also signed now-legendary Chiefs offensive lineman Will Shields. And it was these K.C. connections, along with his representation of other NFL players, that in 1997 afforded Warren the chance to interview for a legal/front-office opportunity with new St. Louis Rams head coach Dick Vermeil, the emotional NFL legend whose well-documented "burnout" with the Philadelphia Eagles in the early 1980s took him from the sidelines to the announcing booth.
"It was the worst two years of my life, but also the best two years of my life," Warren says of closing down his own practice, commuting from his home in K.C. to St. Louis, and starting with the Rams. "I [lived] away from my family, but it was also an unbelievable experience. It allowed me to grow spiritually, and allowed me to really learn the business of football. I lived in a hotel right near Rams Park, where I'd be from sun-up until very late into the night. Coach Vermeil [encouraged me to] sit in on all of the coaches' meetings, all of the film sessions and personnel meetings. Those two years were probably the equivalent to eight years of knowledge."
Warren gets emotional as he talks about his biggest sports influence.
"Coach Vermeil, he gave me my break," he says. "He hired me when he didn't have to in '97 when I was a sports agent. And a lot of people will hire someone, but then restrict them. He did not. He hired me, and then he truly empowered me to be the best-not only worker-but the best person I could be. And when I made mistakes, instead of telling me, 'You're on your own,' he has that great ability to pull you closer when he knows you need him the most. I consider him more than a friend. He's part of my family. To this day, he's the first person I call for advice and counsel."
And the calls have come Warren's way as well. Following his experience in St. Louis, he spent the 2001-2002 seasons serving as senior VP of business operations/general counsel with the Detroit Lions before Matt Millen took charge of the office. After a stint working at Greenberg Traurig in Arizona, Warren returned to the league with Minnesota's new ownership in 2005.
Today, there is nary a legal issue associated with the club that doesn't pass Warren's desk. "Anything that has legal implications or ramifications comes here," he says as he thumbs through a typed and organized to-do list encompassing at least 40 pages. "Sponsorship contracts, medical doctor arrangements, television contracts, legal documents associated with the stadium issue, employment agreements-there's a wide range of duties," he says. He is also involved in many nonlegal areas, including day-to-day operations/administration, strategic planning, HR and special projects.
The competitive Warren keeps it all flowing, farming out work to such firms as Faegre & Benson; Leonard, Street and Deinard; Lockridge Grindal Nauen; Ogletree Deakins; Littler Mendelson; and Fulbright & Jaworski.
"One of the things my parents stressed to all the kids in our family was to really find your passion," he says. "My dad would always say, 'Find your sweet spot.'"
With one championship ring, Kevin Warren has space for nine more "sweet spots." L&P
What the Twins and Wild Do
Neither the Minnesota Wild nor the Minnesota Twins employs a full-time general counsel, as both clubs farm out their legal work locally.
"There are a variety of different firms that the Pohlad family of businesses-including the Twins-have relationships with," explains Twins President Dave St. Peter.
"A lot of our contract work-as it relates to sponsorships as well as media contracts-has historically fallen to an attorney or two at Briggs and Morgan," St. Peter continues. "From a litigation perspective, we have traditionally utilized Dorsey & Whitney. We also have engaged in ballpark-related agreements-both at the legislature as well as now-with Kaplan, Strangis and Kaplan.
"And Ralph Strangis is certainly a longtime attorney in this town with a tremendous reputation," St. Peter concludes. "He had originally been brought in by the Pohlads several years ago to begin a process toward selling the team. There was a time when it didn't look like the ballpark was going to happen and the Pohlads were very frustrated by the lack of progress-there was a general feeling of hopelessness. Ralph was engaged to begin that process to sell. I think it's now somewhat ironic that Ralph and his associates ended up playing an important role in helping us get the ballpark built." —J.S.
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