DREW SHARP

Sharp: How super agent Arn Tellem found fulfillment in Detroit

Drew Sharp
Detroit Free Press Columnist
New Detroit Pistons vice chairman Arn Tellem talked about the Pistons on Thursday, September 10, 2015 at The Palace of Auburn Hills offices.

The epiphany hit Arn Tellem more than a year ago: There had to be something more to life.

The super agent had everything. Or at least it was easy thinking he had everything. Money. Power. Influence.

Tellem was one of sports’ king-makers. The lead character of the successful HBO series “Arliss” was loosely based on his career. He single-handedly altered the way NBA teams looked at 18-year-old draft prospects when, in the 1996 draft, he craftily steered a gangly teenager named Kobe Bryant to the Charlotte Hornets, who traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers a couple weeks later.

“At the end of the day,” Tellem said this week, “I was at an age where I had a great run and a great career. But I was at a stage of my life where I wanted more, something that could effectuate more change to a larger number of people. The great thing about the agent business was the one-on-one relationships. I was very proud advising them and trying to steer them into making the right decisions in their lives. But I was at the point in my life where I wanted a broader platform.”

One year after accepting Pistons owner Tom Gores’ offer to become vice-chairman of Palace Sports & Entertainment, Tellem says he has never been happier. He said he’s more connected to the greater Detroit community in his first 12 months here than he was in the more than 30 years he lived in Los Angeles.

There’s an allure to the southern California lifestyle, but the constant craving of celebrity breeds a climate of self-absorption, compromising any actual sense of community.

Arn Tellem presents Flint mayor Karen Weaver with a check from the Detroit Pistons to the city during a game at the Palace in February.

Tellem doesn’t hide his enthusiasm serving as Gores’ point man in increasing the Pistons’ community outreach.

“We have a responsibility to make a difference in our communities,” he said after dedicating a new outdoor basketball court this week at HAVEN, the Pontiac-based nonprofit domestic abuse center that offers shelter and counseling to sexual assault victims.

“This illustrates a cause that’s been kept silent for so many years. You see it as well as I do that domestic violence is a story that we see on the sports pages. We can help bring more attention to what needs to be done. And when a sports team gets involved in these important causes, it gets more attention and better highlights the cause.”

Tellem has become Gores’ Detroit liaison. He’s working with Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert in efforts to bring a Major League Soccer franchise to Detroit. And should the Pistons eventually join the Red Wings in the new Little Caesars Arena downtown, it will be Tellem who will negotiate the best deal possible for Gores.

“Nothing’s changed from when we last talked,” he said about any potential downtown move. “Our stance hasn’t changed. We’re keeping all our options open.”

The last year has liberated Tellem in his pursuit of a greater purpose.

Tellem took Pistons forward Tobias Harris with him this weekend for a pilgrimage to Portland, Maine, for the annual Seeds of Peace summer camp. Tellem, a Seeds of Peace board member, got the NBA involved in this project 15 years ago. He calls it a “peacebuilding mission” bringing together teenagers of various ethnicities from conflict regions of the world such as the Middle East and Eastern Europe and teaching them about their similarities.

The Seeds of Peace alums return to their native countries armed with a hopeful message that positive change can occur only when cultural factions understand there are productive alternatives to violence.

“Life is about taking different paths,” Tellem said, “with the hope that each new road taken leads you to something fulfilling. There’s nothing more fulfilling than becoming part of a community and sharing a vision as to how to best help that community.”

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Contact Drew Sharp: dsharp@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @drewsharp. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/drew-sharp/.

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Meet Arn Tellem

Who: Vice chairman of Palace Sports & Entertainment.

Age: 62.

Formerly: Agent, Wasserman Media Group.

College: Haverford College, law school at Michigan.

Previous NBA experience: Executive vice president and general counsel for the Los Angeles Clippers in 1982-88.

Honors: In 2005, he was named to The Sporting News’ list of the “100 Most Powerful People in Sports” and SportsBusiness Journal’s “50 Most Influential People in the Sports Business.”