SILNA BROTHERS- ABA

DEAL OF THE CENTURY

The Silna brothers and their partner Donald Schupak make $13 million a year from the NBA.

The do not own a team. They are not players. They have never been players. They do not sell NBA merchandise. They do not have any association with the NBA except for receiving their yearly check.

Are they blackmailing Michael Jordan?

Are they the brother-in-laws of commissioner David Stern?

No. But, they might have made the deal of the century.

Dan and Ozzie Silna were the owners of the St. Louis Spirit basketball team of the old ABA. The American Basketball Association operated from the 1960s until 1976. The Spirit belonged to the ABA for only two years and compiled a record of 67-101, and featured players such as Marvin "Bad News" Barnes and John "Fly" Williams.

In 1976, the ABA merged with the NBA but only four teams were allowed to continue. The teams that didn't become a part of the NBA were bought out.

John Y. Brown who owned the Kentucky Colonels was paid $3 million.

The Silnas accepted $800,000 less but got something extra. Their agreement calls for the four team that became a part of the NBA- Indiana, San Antonio, Denver and New Jersey to share 1/7th of their television money in perpetuity.

In the mid 1970s, the NBA television contract was almost worthless. There wasn't a lot of interest in the NBA, and had sunk so low that the 1976 NBA championship game was broadcast on tape delay.

Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan changed all of that. Their emergence in the NBA in the 1980s caused fan interest to explode. The television audience shot up as well as the prices paid for the television rights.

How did the Silnas get such a deal?

Their partner, attorney Dan Schupak, pushed it through.

"Schupak just wore everyone out with his demands," said Mike Goldberg, former ABA legal counsel.

The teams just gave in.

Indiana president Donnie Walsh has tried for years to buy out the trio's share of the over $2 billion television contract.

"Perpetuity is a long time," said Walsh.

FreeEnterpriseLand.com

ONE OF A KIND!
He made and lost
three fortunes
and loved every minute.

FREE ENTERPRISE IS GREAT!: Socialism Stinks
FREDERIC BASTIAT EXPLAINS IT ALL: Why free enterprise is great and why politicians are misguided.
STEW LEONARD: The Disneyland of Dairy Stores
CATCH LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE: He became rich after figuring out he could sell something he had been giving away and had invented to stop roughnecks in Alaska from throwing plates at him.
GONE IN 60 SECONDS: The time it takes him to sell out a whole year's work.
SELL SOMETHING PEOPLE USE UP AND THROW AWAY
GARY KILDALL: Could he have been richer than Bill Gates?
WORLD'S LARGEST DRIVE-IN: They serve 15-30,000 hot dogs a day and more Coca-Cola than any one place in the world.
WANNA BUY SOME BRINE SHRIMP?: How to get rich selling something that no one would want.
THE MIRACLE GREASE: How a bucket of oil well sludge turned into a jar in everybody's medicine cabinet.
THE GUSHER: They laughed when he walked around town and called him "The millionaire", until his idea changed the world.

Edison's Dirty Trick

ROSE BLUMKIN: Warren Buffet's partner: At over 100, Rose still whizzed around in her electric cart "like a cossack" selling furniture seven days a week at her store that Warren Buffet bought into.
THE MONEY GO ROUND: Take a ride on the music business money-go-round.
RICHARD BRANSON: A billionaire with no office, no computer
THE MAD BLUEBIRD: the photograph that changed an electrician's life forever.
HENRY'S SON: Henry Hershey was a walking disaster. Did Milton succeed despite or because of Henry.
NICK TAHOU'S HOTS: the home of the "Garbage Plate"
DEAL OF THE CENTURY: OR How to get paid $13 million a year to do nothing
Owwwwwhhhh! Get Nekkid!!!: Wolfman Jack and the gun battle in the Mexican Desert
SCRABBLE: The game you almost never heard of
KING OF THE KNOCKOFFS: A man who loves Academy Award Night more than anyone
ROLLO: the red nosed reindeer
ROADSIGNS TO SUCCESS: To Get/Away From/ Hairy Apes/Ladies Jump/From Fire Escapes/ BURMA SHAVE
DON'T CALL HIM THE SOUP NAZI!
A BRAND NAME GONE WRONG: "I wonder why all of those people who aren't coughing want cough syrup?"

Read this before going
on "THE APPRENTICE"
You'll Win!!

MADAME C.J. WALKER: Her hair fell out, so she created a business empire and became the first black woman to become a millionaire.
MATTRESS MACK: He started his business in an abandoned model home park. Now, he sells over $100 million a year.
THE PERFECT FIT: What is that thing called that measures you feet at the shoe store? The truth is revealed.
METEORITE MAN: The man that sells rocks from outerspace.
Where Does Lost Airline Luggage Go?
SAUSAGE KING: What caused Jimmy Dean to start making sausage?
LITTLE BOXES, LITTLE BOXES: The Levitt Brothers, their dad and the story of Levittown.
"BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE": Ron Popeil, the father of the infomercial, hair-in-a-can, RONCO, and inventor of countless handy dandy kitchen devices.
ZAMBONI: The story about the machines with the funny name that mesmerizes crowds during time outs.
CHARLES ATLAS: The man that prevented thousands of sand kicking incidents.
COMMIE CAPITALISM: Anyone can find success in free enterprise system, even if you're against it.