Arn Tellem

Keith Langlois

FLINT – The spotlight on the Pistons move to Detroit is glaring, but Tom Gores isn’t about to let his hometown get cast in the shadows.

Just as the Pistons owner was there to address the immediate needs of Flint during its water crisis to nourish the bodies of the community he called home, so is he there again to nourish their minds.

“I know how much this means to Tom, having grown up here with his siblings,” Arn Tellem said after announcing the latest of Gores’ commitments to Flint, a $1 million pledge – matched by a $1 million grant from the Consumers Energy Foundation – to launch the Flint Promise, a program to create a tuition-free path to college for Flint high school graduates.

“Tom’s view was that they wanted to help initially with the crisis – the water problem – but also deal with the long-term goals of improving the life and the rebirth of this community. An essential part of that is providing young people here a chance at a better life and that means getting a better education. He knows how much that means to someone’s future and he’s had this idea, to support a promise. That’s what he wanted me to echo here – that if you graduate high school, Tom has your back.”

Gores’ giving to Flint began with his FlintNOW campaign, a $10 million pledge to support a variety of programs as the community’s needs were brought to light by its water crisis.

“I am grateful to the Consumers Energy Foundation for joining us in this effort to provide every kid in Flint with the promise of a chance to go to college,” Gores said.  “I grew up in Flint, went to school here and appreciate the power of education to transform people’s lives and revitalize a community.  Every student who works hard deserves a chance to earn a college degree. We want to give those kids and their families a reason to dream and provide them the resources to make those dreams come true.”

Both the Gores and Consumers Energy checks were handed to Isaiah Oliver, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint, who as a product of Flint’s schools knows well the potential impact of the Flint Promise.

“The goal is to bookend this,” he said. “We have a lot of immediate needs and we have not moved, as a community, from crisis to recovery. But the reality is we have to start looking long term. It’s a commitment to these students. How do we make sure we boost the economy, how do we provide educational opportunities, post-secondary opportunities for students and families and change their life? We’re not only changing a cohort of students’ lives, this should be a generational change, a culture of change.”

That was exactly what motivated Gores to buy the Pistons in 2011 and the carrot he used to lure Tellem away as vice chairman of Palace Sports &amp; Entertainment from his wildly successful career as a prominent sports agent representing a spectrum of NBA and baseball stars.

“I’ve been here two years now and the Pistons are an incredible platform to be involved in the community,” Tellem said. “Really, that was Tom’s vision when he bought the team and then later when he hired me to help execute that plan of his. It’s been a privilege for me to be here the last two years to support Tom and work on his behalf and I think today is emblematic of that. Tom, at the essence, believes that, yes, we’re here to win games and entertain our fans, but our mission is larger. We’re really here to improve the lives of others and this embodies that in the Flint community.”

There are many fine points still to be ironed out to finalize the Flint Promise, Oliver said, with the third of four meetings at which numbers will be crunched set for Monday. But there was an urgency to launch the program now so that its impact could reach the 2018 graduates about to embark on their final year of high school.

As president of Mott Community College and a Flint resident, Beverly Walker-Griffea has a profound stake in the successful implementation of the Flint promise. And she appreciates the impact that the association with the Pistons can have on a city which has had basketball coursing through its veins for decades. Some of Michigan’s greatest high school basketball teams claim Flint as home with Glen Rice and Jeff Grayer reaching the NBA from the Northwestern powerhouses of the 1980s.

Having the double appeal of the support of Michigan’s NBA franchise plus an owner with such deep roots in the Flint community to serve as a call to other corporations, foundations and philanthropists makes the Flint Promise an especially powerful tool, she feels.

“I have had the opportunity to have other types of athletic associations or athletes do things for Mott students and the community just rallies,” she said. “They are so pleased and happy when their own come back to help. I live here in Flint so I am just very excited of what the possibilities are as we step forward and say more can come forward. We can raise more money so that every student will have that opportunity of a lifetime.”

Gores has an idea who might be in line to join the Flint Promise team. When Lansing native Magic Johnson was rallying support for a similar initiative in his hometown, he enlisted Gores’ help – with the Pistons owner serving notice that he would be calling to return the favor on Flint’s behalf someday.

“So Magic, wherever you are,” Tellem smiled, “your phone will be ringing.”

When Gores announced the Pistons move to Detroit last November, he made clear that a primary motivation was to further the momentum of the city’s revitalization and continue to use the platform of Pistons ownership toward that end. But he’s equally committed to putting the power of that platform to use in a variety of communities where Pistons fans live and work.

“Obviously, we care very much about Detroit and Detroit’s rebirth,” Tellem said. “But we also care about the surrounding communities and really – especially because Tom grew up here and has deep ties to Flint – this is very much a part of his heart and soul. He really wants to do something for this community to give Flint a chance at a better future.”

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$1 million launch of Flint Promise latest in Tom Gores’ efforts to help his hometown

The Pistons portion of Dave Bing’s Hall of Fame career had just come to a close when Arn Tellem arrived at the University of Michigan law school in the mid-’70s, sometimes putting off studies to sneak away to Cobo Arena to catch the Pistons. Now they’re backcourt partners, more or less.

Pistons owner Tom Gores brought super agent Tellem on board last summer for many reasons, but perhaps none bigger than to maximize the franchise’s ability to help in the broadest and most efficient ways possible in the communities their fans call home. They’ve found one in Bing’s mentoring program for Detroit’s youth, BINGO.

“Having watched him play and now being here, it’s almost surreal to be able to support him and help him,” Tellem said. “On behalf of Tom and myself and the Pistons, we’re really excited about this partnership. We think it’s a terrific one.”

Before joining the Pistons as vice chairman, Tellem devoted his professional life to not only making sure he did right by his clients during their playing days but also helping prepare them for life after basketball. The NBA perhaps has never had an alumnus with better second and third acts than Bing, who launched his own successful steel company and then became mayor of Detroit.

And now there’s a fourth phase for Bing: giving kids in his adopted hometown the chance to follow in any one of the paths marked by his footsteps. The financial support of and association with the Pistons puts muscle behind his noble intent.

“It means I can take kids on several more outings,” said Bing. “We have a lot of kids whose dreams are to be a professional athlete. One of the things the Pistons did last year when we visited, we let them see the business of basketball. Everybody’s not going to be a professional athlete, but if you want to be in professional sports, you start looking at what they do from sales, from marketing, from IT to the videos, the kids saw all that and all of a sudden they start thinking a little differently.”

They also saw a truck being built at a Ford plant, visited museums and went to Lear Corp., to see the manufacturing process up close. The glue that makes BINGO work is the adult mentors Bing recruits – 100 so far – and the success of that aspect has been eye opening.

“Our turnover rate has been zero,” he said. “What we express to the mentor before they come in is if you can’t make a commitment, don’t do it. The worst thing we can do is get a kid developing a relationship with a man and for whatever reason the man is absent. The dad has already done that in most cases. But we had 100 percent retention of all our mentors. For all those mentors to stay with us for a year and they’re all back now in their second year is outstanding. I’ve never seen that before.”

“The success of this program is a credit to Dave’s leadership and we are proud to be part of his efforts,” Mr. Gores said in a statement provided during the announcement.  “I believe one of the best ways to help a community is by supporting its young people.  Kids need mentors they can look up to who can help them develop skills and gain valuable life experience.”

When Gores bought the Pistons, he talked of his desire to build a championship contender for the platform it provides to do good work in the community. Detroit has been blessed to know the galvanizing power of winning titles – three for the Pistons since 1989. Hiring Stan Van Gundy has set in motion the Pistons’ return to prominence – less than two years after Gores made that move, they’re back in the playoffs – and with a starting five among the NBA’s five youngest, better days are ahead.

The more they win, the greater their reach. And Tellem is on the job to make sure no good opportunity to help goes unheeded.

“When I spoke with Tom at the beginning in taking this job, it was important to Tom to make an impact in this community and get engaged and I shared that vision,” he said. “That was one of reasons I took the job. I shared the view that the team is a community asset and we have a responsibility to be involved. We want to give the youth of Detroit the best chance to realize their potential and to make something of their lives, which is good for all of us and good for this community.”

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Tom Gores, Arn Tellem assist with Dave Bing’s mission

It’s tough to boil down to a paragraph the breadth of Arn Tellem’s mission in his dramatic career switch while becoming vice chairman for Palace Sports &amp; Entertainment. So let’s pare it down even further, to two words: door opener.

In his representation of Pistons owner Tom Gores and in his support of the organization, Tellem will serve as a master facilitator.

“My strength has been my ability to develop relationships,” Tellem said as his first week on the ground in Auburn Hills wound down.

Big ideas are a necessary component of any journey to greatness, but big ideas are more common than the means and the know-how to get them implemented. Enter Arn Tellem.

The bulk of his time, he expects, will be in big-picture projects that enhance the Pistons’ standing in the community, doing the sort of civic outreach that made ownership of one of the NBA’s flagship franchises so appealing to Gores, a Michigan native. That idea of doing something with lasting impact was a prime motivator for Tellem in leaving his resoundingly successful career as a sports agent.

He’s spent his first days reaching out to community, business and political leaders. He’s intent on partnering in yet unforeseen ways with the Ilitch family, owners of the Tigers and Red Wings, and with Dan Gilbert, Detroit businessman and Cleveland Cavaliers owner, already having fostered relationships with them through his representation of star athletes.

He had dinner last week with former Detroit mayor and Pistons Hall of Famer Dave Bing, whom he well remembered through visits to Cobo Arena from Ann Arbor when the Philadelphia native would make the trek to see his 76ers while plowing his way through law school at Michigan.

The next two to three months, he expects, will involve a heavy dose of those types of meetings. After he gets the lay of the land and figures out how the Pistons can best serve the communities where their fans live and work, then comes a plan of action. On that score, stay tuned. The possibilities are fascinating.

Another aspect of Tellem’s job will be supporting the work of president and CEO Dennis Mannion on the business side and Stan Van Gundy, president of basketball operations, in his endeavors.

He also has a strong relationship with Pistons general manager Jeff Bower, negotiating with him during Bower’s time running the New Orleans franchise. Pistons assistant general manager Ken Catanella once worked for Tellem, crunching numbers to complement negotiating positions. He knows well Pat Garrity, Pistons director of strategic planning.

“We have a lot of good, smart people,” Tellem said.

In whatever way Mannion, Van Gundy and Bower lean on him for insight and influence.

“It’ll be more to help,” Tellem explained.  “My skills complement theirs.  If it was just limited to basketball, it would not be enough of a motivation to come and do it.  But to have an involvement from an ownership level in basketball and the business and the community and see where we can make a difference and contribute to what's going on here in Detroit and Michigan – that is what excites me."

Arn Tellem

$1 million launch of Flint Promise latest in Tom Gores’ efforts to help his hometown

Tom Gores, Arn Tellem assist with Dave Bing’s mission

Tellem gets to work helping Pistons leadership bring big ideas to life