Let's Not Worry about Worldwide Wes

LeBron took a trip across state lines last weekend to promote a new sneaker, watch a good college basketball game, and cheer on his friend, presumptive number one NBA draft pick John Wall, so of course we had to hear all week about James and Wall ending up together with the New Jersey Nets in 2010.  And of course we had to hear about the singularly mysterious Worldwide Wes (aka William Wesley) and the various connections between and among Wes, James, Nike, Nets owner Jay-Z, Wall, and Kentucky coach John Calipari.

We had to hear it even though LeBron is as much an employee of Nike as he is of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and has excellent business reasons to nurture his relationships with Wall and the Kentucky basketball program (to say nothing of how much he must have enjoyed modeling that new sweater). 

Of course, the insertion of Worldwide Wes into the story makes it much easier to traffic in this kind of speculation.  There's so much mystery surrounding Wes that it can seem like anything's in play when he's involved.  It's enough to make some Clevelanders worry about "what Wes is going to advise LeBron to do" when LeBron becomes a free agent this summer, and it's plenty to make anyone wonder about how a guy gets to be so mysterious. 

Of course, there's a difference between access and influence, despite that either combined with secrecy would yield mystery.  There's no question that Wes' access is legendary (from Michael Jordan, to Nike, to Jay-Z, and he even has Bill Clinton's phone number), as is the level of secrecy he maintains regarding his affairs. But how much influence does he really have?

ESPNs Chris Sheridan has said Wes might best be described as a "professional friend to most of America's top athletes."  So how does somebody get that job?

ESPN's Henry Abbott has long been concerned with "the big void of information surrounding William Wesley," and has observed that "that void gets filled with assumptions" such as that "Wesley is making money from this or that sinister or exploitative mechanism."

Well, sure.  Because if it wasn't for sinister or exploitative mechanisms, who would ever need a "facilitator" who specializes in "procurement"?  How do you get to be a "professional friend" to America's top athletes?  You get them stuff, of course.

GQ reported in 2001 that Wes "watched and learned" from his close friend Milt Wagner's experience as a young NBA star, "realiz[ing], for instance, that a young athlete who signs a big pro contract needs somewhere to live."  So Wes became a mortgage broker, and eventually,

formed an additional business, William Wesley Enterprises. Wes provides any service a pro athlete or--in his godson[ DaJuan Wagner's] case--a future pro athlete would want." 

Author Roland Lazenby told Abbott that:

Wesley is likely one in a long line of NBA "facilitators." "The main thing facilitators do," [Lazenby] says, "is procurement. People at that level have needs. They need tickets. They need good, safe, well-managed recreation. And you can't go hire a company to get that kind of stuff for you."

Abbott later noted, of Wesley's relationship with Dennis Rodman, that

If you’re a celebrity with voracious appetites for all kinds of stuff, it can be extremely handy to have someone around who is capable, sensible, and discreet.

All kinds of stuff. That kind of stuff.  Extremely handy.  Of course people have needs.  Of course you just can't go hiring a company. And if you were a guy who is in the business of getting all kinds of stuff, you'd be intent on secrecy too.

If you were the guy that could always get all kinds of stuff, of course everyone would love you.  Again, per Abbott:

Wesley makes it his business to figure out what you want, and to help you get it. Doing that again and again and again, for countless people, is a rich source of good karma, good friends, and goodwill.  

(Stuff's da bomb, Wes.  You da bomb, Wes.)

Right.

In a summary piece on his Wesley investigation, Abbott observes that Wes' success is due to his ability to fill "a power vacuum in the NBA" that no doubt "exists in all of professional sports."

The players are at the top of the mountain, but many are not sophisticated at wielding that power as businessmen. For obvious reasons, most are focused on basketball, eager to delegate many of the intricate responsibilities that come with the position of international media superstar. There is work to be done managing myriad relationships . . . ; somehow keeping in touch with the values of a typically humble upbringing while adjusting to the realities of the decadent present; maximizing earning before the playing days are over; establishing a brand that has multicultural appeal; constantly improving as a basketball player; and organizing lots of fun while staying out of the kind of trouble that can bring the house tumbling down.

A power vacuum.  Of course.  It was really easy to get all kinds of stuff when you were growing up in the hood.  The stakes were much lower for everyone involved back then.  But when you become a professional, you need to be able to rely on someone who understands how to assimilate your need for all kinds of stuff in the decadent present with your need to delegate many intricate responsibilities and manage myriad relationships.  

You don't have to know LeBron or any NBA star personally to know how foolish it is to pretend that the need for all kinds of stuff isn't there.

Many, perhaps even most adults suffer from a rapidly diminishing capacity to enjoy all kinds of stuff as they enter and proceed into adulthood, for a number of reasons.  But millionaire superstars with demanding daily physical routines to create a strong incentive toward moderation with respect to all kinds of stuff?  Not so much at all; which makes it all the more important for these folks to know folks who can reconcile various needs in this way.

So why wouldn't Kentucky coach John Calipari want guys like Wes around his program?  It's tempting enough for these kids to think it will always be easy for them to get their hands on all kinds of stuff.  They need to learn fast that that just isn't the case.

And why wouldn't David Stern like David Wesley?  What a disaster for him if his stars had to worry more about getting their hands on all kinds of stuff.

So maybe that folks call Wes "the most powerful man in sports" shouldn't be a mystery at all.   By all accounts, he's a good guy who never asks for anything.  American history is full of good businessmen and/or good guys who have risen to incredible fame and power in part for their abilities to help folks get their hands on all kinds of stuff.

The NBA is likely the most rich, powerful, close-knit, and protected network of people with a use for all kinds of stuff that one could imagine.  Why wouldn't a person who made it his good business to make all kinds of stuff available to this network wind up so powerful, and "as connected an NBA insider as there has ever been"?

Doesn't it make more sense in this light, and isn't it more humorous that Alex French's essential Worldwide Wes piece in GQ kicks off with a quote from Reggie Miller of all people, complaining about Wes's presence on the court during the infamous 2004 brawl between the Pacers and Pistons in Detroit.

"What is he doing? He has no business out there! He injects himself into the middle of everything!”  

That darned Wes!

No doubt LeBron is a lot different from Reggie Miller, and would appreciate Wes' or anyone's efforts in making the world, and specifically his world, a place where its easier for folks to get all kinds of stuff.  But if this is the source of Wes' power, there's little reason to believe that Wes would have much if anything to say about where LeBron signs in 2010.

Of course, maybe Worldwide Wes is just a really good mortgage broker who's made the most of his friendship with Michael Jordan in a league of men who generally just want to Be Like Mike.  And if LeBron wants to listen to Wes just because Michael did, then maybe Cleveland should be especially encouraged that Jordan didn't leave Chicago until he'd won six titles.

Either way, count us among Clevelanders whose only concern with Worldwide Wes is that he keeps up the great work. 

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Also on that, see the amazingly resolute job that Henry Abbott has done covering Wes at TrueHoop.