Hour 3: Retired Super Agent Don Cronson Joins the Show!

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
Hey, Carton Show, Damien Woody is for Big Mac today.
You know, I totally forgot that Don Cronson was coming into the studio today. That's not me. That's why I shouldn't be booking guests. So Don was a long time, some people say one of the great agents of all time.
Representative Anthony Mason, Representative Jamal Mashburn, Martin Jackson, Michael Ray Richardson. We're gonna have you right over here, sir. Ed Chutol Jones and on and on and on. And he's called into the show a number of times. And I thought it'd be great to let him share some stories with the audience on a random summer afternoon. Don, that's Damien Woody right over there.

**Don Cronson** (0:44)
How you doing, sir?

**Craig Carton** (0:44)
And it's a pleasure to meet you.

**Don Cronson** (0:47)
Pleasure.

**Craig Carton** (0:47)
Look at that.

**Don Cronson** (0:48)
Absolutely.

**Craig Carton** (0:48)
That's right. You have a man handshake, by the way.

**Don Cronson** (0:51)
Yes, he does. I try.

**Craig Carton** (0:52)
You do? No, you do. You shake hands like a grown up.

**Don Cronson** (0:56)
Well, I'm 83 years old.

**Craig Carton** (0:58)
God bless you.

**Don Cronson** (0:58)
I'm still able to do a couple of things. Not that many, but I'm still here and I'm still punching.

**Craig Carton** (1:05)
You got your health, you got everything, right?

**Don Cronson** (1:07)
Knock on wood, as they say.

**Craig Carton** (1:08)
83 years old. You don't look a day over 82, by the way.

**Don Cronson** (1:12)
I mean, hey, listen, every woman I talked to was by definition an underage lady.

**Craig Carton** (1:18)
Stop talking to them.

**Don Cronson** (1:19)
Exactly.

**Craig Carton** (1:20)
Who is your favorite client to represent without you getting in trouble for saying it? Did you have one or two, though?

**Don Cronson** (1:27)
I loved, well, the two guys that made my career early on were Ed Tuttle-Jones.

**Craig Carton** (1:34)
The famous Dallas Cowboy.

**Don Cronson** (1:35)
And one, Truck Robinson.

**Craig Carton** (1:36)
Really? The famous Nick.

**Don Cronson** (1:38)
I had a, my career, I always wanted to get into sports.

**Craig Carton** (1:45)
And you went to Syracuse, right?

**Don Cronson** (1:46)
I went to Syracuse and then I graduated and went to Harvard Law School. Okay. And I graduated and I went to UCLA Graduate School.

**Craig Carton** (1:52)
You're a professional student.

**Don Cronson** (1:54)
I had more deferments than Dick Cheney.

**Craig Carton** (1:58)
Got it.

**Don Cronson** (1:58)
I broke an NCAA record. I had nine consecutive student deferments.

**Craig Carton** (2:02)
Got it.

**Don Cronson** (2:03)
The war was going on. I wouldn't have run away, but I was-

**Craig Carton** (2:07)
So you didn't go to Canada, you decided to stay in school to avoid going to Vietnam.

**Don Cronson** (2:10)
So there I am in UCLA and I see where the Detroit Pistons with Dave Bing, my dear friend and fraternity brother, are playing the San Diego Rockets.

**Craig Carton** (2:18)
Okay.

**Don Cronson** (2:19)
Hell, it's an hour and a half away. I drove down to see Dave, met him at the hotel, went to the game. That night I met a guy named Max Shapiro, who at the time was the head scout for the Rockets. Later, Max thinking outside the box, later became an A. When I say later, this is the late 60s, early 70s, when the field of athlete representation was just birthing.

**Craig Carton** (2:44)
Okay.

**Don Cronson** (2:45)
Prior there too, the money wasn't there. You didn't need advisors. What you needed was a good job in the off season to pay your rent.

**Craig Carton** (2:53)
Sure.

**Don Cronson** (2:53)
But with the TV money now, agents and I wanted to get into the business.
I kept knocking on doors. I talked to Larry Fleischer, who was the head of the NBA. At the time, his players association work was just, it was a hobby. He was the head council for restaurant associates. That was his job.

**Craig Carton** (3:14)
Got it.

**Don Cronson** (3:14)
But Max became an agent, sets up a camp where he brings, as they called them, rising seniors. These were young men who were about to be seniors after the given summer. They come out and he'd try to sign them.
And I met Max, I went to the game and then went back to UCLA. But Max and I kept in touch. He would come east to scout, et cetera. And one day in 71, he called me and says, Donnie, I need an attorney in my business. And all of a sudden, I'm in the business.
Because I went to see David play.