James L. Walker, Jr. Esq.

By James L. Walker, Jr., Author, Adjunct Professor, Attorney and Businessman

jwalkerbook@yahoo.com

Here we go again!

Another one of our multi-million dollar pseudo celebrity Alpha males disrespecting a woman and the male-dominated media wants to focus in on the character of the woman and whether she extorted the man.

ESPN reported this morning that married celebrity basketball coach Rick Pitino admits to having an affair with a woman he met at a bar several years ago.

According to ESPN, over five years ago, Karen Cunagin Sypher and Pitino met in a bar and later that night had some sort of sexual contact. Pitino claims it was consensual, Sypher now claims it was rape.

Sypher has been indicted by a federal grand jury. She has pleaded not guilty to charges that she lied to the FBI and attempted to extort money from Pitino, if he wanted to keep the matter hush-hush.

With all of these cases, it’s his side, her side and of course, the truth, which we’ll probably never know.

However, what we do know is: Pitino, according to a police report obtained by the Courier-Journal newspaper in Louisville, admitted that he had sex and later gave Sypher $3,000 for an abortion and it appears to hopefully, make it all go away quietly.

We also know that Pitino most likely have a morals clause in his near $10 million dollar, multi-year contract, so he is technically in violation of that clause if the school really wanted to flex muscle and void his contract.

This is a sad tragedy on so many levels.

First, the way the story is being reported today by several media outlets seems to only emphasize a “woman trying to extort Rick Pitino” and she allegedly “lied” to the FBI.

Uh hello!

Pitino is a married man, father, role model to dozens of players and a coach of young kids!

Shouldn’t the lead story be: “Married coach, who makes millions and is a role model to dozens of youths, gets drunk, picks up a woman, has sex, then attempts to cover it up with an abortion?”

This is just horrible, by any stretch.

Moreover, am I the only one thinking he needs to either voluntarily take a leave of absence from his job, step down immediately or be fired by the University?

If Pitino doesn’t, you can be assured within days, the victims’ rights advocates and women’s groups will be all over the University of Louisville to take action.

And my hope is that the media does not impose the normal double-standard, because this is RICK PITINO, one of the legends of college basketball.

When Pokey Chatman had her alleged sexual misconduct at Louisiana State, the top female basketball coach was gone!!! She lost everything, including her $400,000 base salary, for allegedly messing with a former player and had to resign. She had won over 100 games and lost maybe 20 or so.

And, why is it when Kobe Bryant went through his sexual romp at a Denver hotel room, the media machine initially attacked the female victim, her reputation and credibility?

Kobe returned to his wife and has endorsement deals, an NBA ring and an Olympic Gold medal on his mantle since then.

Am I the only one asking, “Why is a married coach and role model like Pitino not home with his 5 kids, but at a bar and picking up women?”

One professional female said to me today, “What about the young men who come to his school from single family homes and look to him as a father figure and role model? What does he say to them now?”

Exactly!

And, my question is how does he sit in the living room of a mother on a recruitment visit and promise, “I will take care of your son…and set an example for him?” (“So long as there is no bar nearby or woman I want to sleep with on a given school night?”)

Even if we find out that he did not rape her as Sypher claims or that she lied to the FBI and tried to extort him for money, the point is, Pitino put himself in this boat and horrible situation.

He is a great coach on the hardwood floor.

Pitino is in the top 10 among active coaches in the country when it comes to wins. He’s 29th on the all time list, and has won over 500 games.

So now it’s time to win off the floor by doing the right thing.

Do the 5 R’s as I often call them: Regret, Remorse, Respect, Responsibility and then Rehabilitation.

Pitino must show Regret that this happened and great Remorse for his contribution and poor judgment.

He must Respect woman and take Responsibility for what he did, particularly paying Sypher to get an abortion.

Then, step down and get off the coaching circuit and go Rehabilitate his name, reputation and family in the midst of this PR nightmare.

If he truly understands the sorrow he has caused his players, fellow coaches, family and school, he will step down.

The school doesn’t need Pitino’s baggage and the daily media circus when Sypher’s case potentially hits a court room and all the facts tragically come out about that night (or nights), that Pitino wishes he could take back!

James L. Walker, Jr. is an Attorney, Author, Adjunct Professor and can be found at www.jameslwalkeresq.com or contacted at www.walkerandassoc.com. Walker has represented a number of pro-athletes, major artists and sports and entertainment related businesses.

The Business of Michael Jackson: Why the King of Pop Is Wealthier in Death

By Kenya N. Byrd

If anyone knows the music biz inside out it’s attorney and author James L. Walker. In 1989, Walker launched his career working with the late Phyllis Hyman and has worked closely with the Jacksons in the past when his client was signed to their family label, Modern Records. Recently, Katherine Jackson appeared in court to address the handlings of her son’s estate as well as the financial allowance to care for MJ’s surviving three children and herself. Walker breaks down Michael Jackson’s potential value for ESSENCE.com – and why he’s far from broke and even wealthier in death.

ESSENCE.COM: Since Michael’s death there have been many reports that he was not in a healthy financial standing. Is that true?

WALKER: What disturbs me most is that since his death and over the years there is the misnomer that Michael Jackson was broke and was losing everything. This is so untrue and shows the complete inaccuracy of reporting and the misunderstanding of how the music industry works. When Michael Jackson was alive and heading into his 50-date tour, his value on paper was approximately $800 million to 1 billion dollars, based on my understanding of the 750,000 songs he owned or co-owned in his partnership with Sony/ATV Music and his MIJAC Publishing and related companies.

ESSENCE.COM: What did MJ’s publishing deal entail?

WALKER: Let’s break down publishing in its simplest analogy. First, a song has two halves – writer and publisher. The writer owns 50 percent of the song, a publisher takes half of that, which means that once a label is involved they are truly only receiving 25 percent. So I don’t believe that Michael’s label owns 50 percent of any of the songs he’s written, but a quarter.

ESSENCE.COM: In terms of musical wealth, how do you think the King of Pop has fared?

WALKER: Let’s use his best-selling album of all time, “Thriller,” which sold 59 million copies, as an example. My calculations are based on today’s economy. Under copyright law a writer receives a “statutory rate” of 9.1 cents for the use of their song and $1.75 for every minute the song goes over four minutes. Because labels want to pay the least amount of royalties, they urge artists to keep the song length under five minutes. Therefore, if the album were released today, Michael and his cowriters would receive more than 86 cents in mechanical songwriting royalties alone from each album sale, which means just from the album MJ made $51 million. Should this include singles, the “Thriller” track by itself would have made the publisher and writers nearly $ million.

ESSENCE.COM: Whoa! But what about everything else, such as licensing and all those things?

WALKER: Besides the fact that he profits from jukebox income, synchronization royalties (music used in videos or film, commercials, etc), sampling fees (using hook or snippets of a song on average use of about 20 seconds depending on the artist, he could get an upward of six figures); ring tones, and performance rights.

ESSENCE.COM: We can hear the register now. But MJ also owned an extensive catalog, and his 50 percent ownership of the Beatles’ catalog is reportedly worth half a billion dollars. Is that true?

WALKER: Exactly. Michael did it smart. He was one of the first Black artists to think about owning his publishing as well as buying publishing from rock n’ roll to Motown music collections. He owns Sony/ATV catalog featuring songs by the Beatles, Elvis, Babyface, Eminem, and Jackson himself. Based on what I explained about the going publishing deal rate, you can imagine the near billion dollar value of his entire catalog. People might not have understood why he paid $47.5 million for the Beatles’ catalog, but it’s also why he’s considered one of the business geniuses of this industry.

Attorney James L. Walker is the author of “This Business of Urban Music,” a professor of Entertainment law at the University of Connecticut School of Law and alegal expert for CNN and BET.

By James L. Walker, Jr.,  Author, Entrepreneur, Attorney and Adjunct Professor

Former President Bill Clinton is Super Man  —for a day at least

Early this morning, we got word that the former two-term President assisted in the release of two jailed American journalists after speaking to North Korean leader Kim Jong II.

The Associated Press reported that Kim, very ill a year ago, issued a “special pardon” for the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

The two were arrested March 17 near the China-North Korea border.   Press reports also stated that North Korea accused Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, of sneaking into the country illegally and engaging in unspecified “hostile acts.”

They were sentenced to 12 years by the nation’s top court in June to hard labor and everyone from The View to Oprah Winfrey to human rights societies and journalism groups screamed foul and demanded their release.

AP reported that Lee, a South Korean-born U.S. citizen, is the mother of a 4-year-old and Ling, a California native, is the younger sister of Lisa Ling, a correspondent for CNN as well as “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “National Geographic Explorer.”

In my book, Bill Clinton has redeemed himself today for all of the bad sound bites and race-baiting he allegedly instigated during the Hilary Clinton-Barack Obama presidential race.

Simply put:  Clinton is da man for 24 hours at least or until North Korea does something to upset the world order again!

But, before I give Clinton all the credit and Hi-Five him or give him the Obama fist-pound, it is important to note that Daniel Sneider, associate director of research at Stanford University’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, reminded the press that Clinton came in on the tail end of weeks of quiet negotiations between the State Department and North Korea’s representatives to the United Nations.

Whether Clinton flew in with a cape in the 9^th hour, or flew in “unannounced” and merely sealed a deal already done, what’s interesting to me is Clinton is THE news of the day in this historic release of two women, who were ironically investigating the abuse and trafficking of women.

What’s even more interesting to me is whether the negotiation and charm of the former Governor of Arkansas means he and President Obama will start using their mutual rock star, global presence to broker healthcare, world peace and fix the financial markets, among other joint do-gooder-work.

Remember, the big question during the campaign was: “if Obama takes Hilary (now Secretary of State), he gets Bill?”   And, “who wants Bill roving around at the White House?”

I said it!  You Said it!

And, We ALL thought it!

From city barber shops to suburban tea parties, everyone bickered about what do you do with the hugely popular Bill Clinton?

But, today Bill Clinton showed why he is still The Comeback Kid, scoring a real coup for Team Obama given all the tension and outrage over North Korea’s nuclear program and refusal to cooperate with U.S. demands in the past.

To distance themselves and in obvious caution, Team Obama has issued very careful statements on Clinton’s success today.

For example, when news reports suggested that Clinton “courteously” carried a “verbal” message from the President, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs was quick to tell that the AP, “that’s not true…”

He added, “While this solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans is on the ground, we will have no comment until the mission is complete?”  “We do not want to jeopardize the success of Former President Clinton’s mission.”

Say what?

Team Obama must now realize when they selected Hilary, they got her husband Slick Willie!

So use him, particularly worldwide.

A closing thought is: while there is room on the planet for both brilliant Ivy-league lawyers and Presidents to be in two different countries and two different time zones, can they make room for each other domestically, sharing the spotlight, managing egos and helping America get back on its feet!

James L. Walker,Jr., is an author, entrepreneur, attorney and adjunct professor.  He is the owner of walkerandassoc.com and can be reached at www.jameslwalkeresq.com