Creative Artists Agency (CAA) is agency representing some of the biggest names in sports, television, film, music, etc..... In their sports division, they represent Sidney Crosby, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo.
There was discussion on another forum relating to Stephen A Smith slandering Jeremy Lin on ESPN, and what has possibly led to Knicks not matching Jeremy Lin's offer sheet. One of posters posted this. It's great in-depth eye-opening reporting.
LINK HERE, and quote below
Here's what you need to know about Stephen A. Smith: Creative Artists Agency (CAA) has become a huge player very quickly in the representation of NBA players. This started with Lebron James, but now includes many if not most of the league's superstars along with lots of other smaller fish. You may have heard of William Wesley. He is a part of CAA.
CAA represents Carmelo Anthony, Mark Warkentien (advisor to Glenn Grunwald). The Knicks forced Woodson to switch to CAA before extending his contract. JR Smith is also represented by CAA.
MSG itself uses CAA to attract sponsorships. Eddy Curry and Renaldo Balkman were also repped by CAA, and Isiah Thomas has close ties to the agency.
Getting back to Steven A. Smith -- Smith knew a full week before anyone else had confirmation that Lebron was going to Miami. How did he know this? CAA of course. He traded his journalist soul (if he ever had one) in exchange for information about perhaps the biggest sports story of the millennium. In return, all he has to do is sell the angle that CAA wants him to sell.
CAA, of course, wants to grow the brand of its clients and to keep its clients happy. Before revising their statements, Smith and Melo seemed rather unhappy about sharing the spotlight with Lin, so that's one factor. Likewise, it doesn't behoove Anthony and therefore CAA to have Lin drawing all the popularity in NYC. Anthony, like Lebron, wants to be a legacy player, the kind of guy who still has his name on a shoe a decade after he's retired. That's the modern NBA goal -- to be the next Jordan, not necessarily on the basketball court (unless it's absolutely necessary), but definitely from a marketing standpoint.
Its a natural repercussion of media insanity. It makes everything seem about image, the game taking the backseat. Dwight Howard, for example, doesn't want to go to a contender. He wants to go somewhere he can build his brand. Carmelo could have picked lots of better teams if he wanted a championship, but NYC was a place you could have a marketing legacy.
My opinion, first of all, is that Dolan still believes that the acquisition of Carmelo Anthony was a steal, probably because CAA gave him the impression that it was only through his kindnesses to their agency (and not because NYC gave up a ton of assets) that he was able to acquire Anthony. JR Smith's cheap deals, too, were probably payback for Dolan's kindnesses to CAA. Who knows what level of under the table stuff there is going on between MSG and CAA.
So, when CAA's plans for Carmelo to be that Jordan level guy get threatened by Jeremy Lin, who has other representation, my guess is not too long after the gears were already turning to re-engineer the team so that Anthony could be front and center. First, it was D'Antoni, another guy not represented by CAA. His preferred style of play was A) Allowing Lin to thrive, and B) Preventing Melo from getting the requisite 28 PPG. As that plan was in danger of failure simply due to massive fan interest, Lin had to be removed from the equation entirely.
Again not realizing he was being played, Dolan accommodated CAA and let Lin go for nothing. So that's a big part of why all this has happened, and why the media, especially Stephen A (whose profile, thanks to CAA, is much bigger now) is slandering Lin and really has been slandering Lin ever since he broke out. Go look. You'll see he held out as long as he can with "flash in the pan" theories. You'll also see he called for D'Antoni's head before he was fired. here's a little love fest he gives for J.R. Smith. Here he already Knows MDA will be gone, and although he denies it, the headline and article's content clearly intends to portray D'Antoni as being at fault.
Topic: The inner workings of CAA (Read 6092 times)