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Pumps among best at what they do - whatever that is

Aug. 6, 2007
By Gary Parrish
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer


LOS ANGELES -- Richard Pachulski was breezing through his acceptance speech, cracking jokes like a man performing a routine at the Laugh Factory. Far as bazillionaire lawyers go, I can't say I've encountered a funnier one, and judging by the reaction, it's doubtful many of the hundreds in attendance at the Harold Pump Foundation Celebrity Dinner had either.

The topic was serious: cancer.

But Pachulski's approach was sarcastic, and he must've used a dozen one-liners to clown the men honoring him -- David and Dana Pump, aka the Pump Brothers -- about everything from their connections to ticket brokers to summer basketball to college coaching searches. In a matter of 15 minutes, Pachulski, in a good-natured way, turned the hosts of the event into blushing cartoon characters, and it was an image reinforced by the Pump Brothers bobblehead sitting on the lectern at the Beverly Hilton.

Man, was that thing hilarious. Pachulski referenced it repeatedly.But in between verbal jabs, he made a nice point, too.

"I've known David and Dana for years," Pachulski said. "And though I still don't know what they do, I know they are the best at it."

In the middle of everything

If you read this site regularly you are probably familiar with the Pump Brothers, an Adidas-backed pair of twins from California considered among the most powerful people in college basketball, and not always so fondly. They have been written about and ripped for perceived conflicts of interests within the sport, and their names sometimes garner a strong roll of the eyes and firm shake of the head that implies they're always up to something.

I won't deny that claim. Neither will they, for the most part.
But speaking as someone who witnessed in person the Pumps' golf outing/charity dinner/coaches clinic late last week, I feel comfortable professing Pachulski was on the mark with the above quote. Because though we can quibble about what the Pumps do and how they go about it, there is no disputing they are indeed the best at what they do, guys capable of producing a mind-blowing event that would leave even skeptics impressed and overwhelmed.

Are they as wholesome as they think? Probably not.
Are they as evil as they're detractors think? Probably not.
Best I can tell, the truth about the Pumps lies somewhere in the middle.
Which is fitting, actually, because it is the middle where they live and prosper.

In the middle of ticket deals.
In the middle of coaching clinics.
In the middle of coaching searches.
In the middle of summer basketball.

"They've brought everything together under one roof like a good corporation would do," said Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon. "What they've done is used their contacts in one area to help them in other areas."

Consequently, the Pumps now run one of the premier summer teams (the Pump 'n Run Elite), one of the best search firms (Champ Search), one of the largest gatherings for coaches and athletic directors (the Collegiate Business Conference) and a charity aiding cancer research that hosted a dinner last Thursday night in the same room where the Golden Globes are annually held.

(Harold Pump, Dana and David's father, died of cancer in 2000.)

Among those attending the $400 per plate event emceed by Rich Eisen were college basketball figures like UCLA's Ben Howland, Georgia Tech's Paul Hewitt, Kentucky's Billy Gillispie, Southern Illinois' Chris Lowery and Nevada's Mark Fox. That was to be expected.

But others floating around were Joe Montana, Mike Tyson, Penny Marshall, Tommy Hearns, Bill Russell, Bill Walton, Magic Johnson, Chris Mullin, Paul Pierce, Baron Davis and countless additional stars who, on the surface, benefited professionally in no obvious way with their presence.

They were merely there for the cause. Or because of their friendship.
Or, as Montana explained, because "Dana and David got my cell number and wouldn't stop calling."

That comment was meant as a joke. But it also served as testament to what has made the Pumps successful.

"We are relentless," Dana Pump acknowledged. "We make it hard for people to say no."
It's an approach that turns many off at first meeting, an in-your-face attack during which the Pumps -- specifically Dana, the louder of the two, by far -- are not hesitant to explain what they've accomplished in the past for others and what they can accomplish in the future for you, regardless of whether you are a high school prospect, a college assistant, a college head coach or an athletic director.

They are not bashful, these two. That's part of what makes them polarizing figures.
But what I've learned in talking to people about the Pumps over the past year is that it's difficult to find many who have spent much time around them who do not like them (or at least respect them as productive businessmen), and that includes people who did not like them much at first glance.

As proof, I turn to Bud Haidet, the athletic director at Wisconsin-Milwaukee whose initial encounter with the Pumps came in 2005 when he saw Dana in the lobby of a hotel talking to Bruce Pearl, then the coach of Haidet's Panthers.

"I was mad as hell," Haidet said. "I walked by, and I knew what was going on."
What was going on was Pearl was in the process of being lured away from Wisconsin-Milwaukee to coach at Tennessee. It was among the first searches the Pumps conducted in an official capacity, and Haidet was on the wrong end of it, blindsided by it and in a position of helplessness, well aware that if Tennessee wanted to hire Pearl, there was nothing a school from the Horizon League was going to be able to do to keep him.

But Haidet didn't hold a grudge. He instead placed the Pumps in charge of his search, meaning he went from despising them to hiring them in a week's time.
"I called Dana and said, 'OK, buddy. You owe me,'" Haidet joked. "They were a great resource for me."

'They're not stupid'

Regardless of how much money the Pumps donate to the Northridge Hospital cancer programs ($1.9 million before last week), how many successful hires they facilitate (Pearl to Tennessee, Reggie Theus to New Mexico State, Andy Kennedy to Ole Miss), how many Division I prospects their summer program produces (Jrue Holiday, Jerime Anderson and Larry Drew are the latest) or how many accomplished coaches speak at their clinic (Bill Self, Bob Huggins and Kelvin Sampson highlighted a group last Friday), there will always be skeptics who wonder if it's possible for everything to be done above board.

The Pumps know and accept this reality.
But it seems their detractors are slowly fading.

As recently as a couple of years ago, people commonly implied the Pumps might be influencing where prospects in their summer program attended college, and that a school not hiring the Pump's firm to run a search or a school's coach not giving up his Final Four tickets could greatly hinder a school's attempt to land a prominent Pump 'n Run player.

But with the majority of the Pump 'n Run players committing to UCLA (like Holiday and Anderson), North Carolina (like Drew) or other sensible destinations, that kind of talk has pretty much ceased because Tennessee, Milwaukee, Ole Miss, New Mexico State or any other school don't appear to be gaining recruiting edges because of a business relationship with the Pumps.

"They're too smart for that," said one coach who requested anonymity while also noting the NCAA has never found the Pumps in violation of any bylaw. "They are businessmen interested in making money, and it isn't in their best interest to get involved in determining where a prospect goes to college. Could they do it? Maybe, because they do have a lot of influence. But from a business perspective, it wouldn't be smart for them to do it, and they know that.

"The Pumps didn't get where they are by being stupid," the coach added. "Do they have an agenda? Sure. Everybody in this business has an agenda. But don't think for a second that they're going to risk burning bridges over where a player goes to college. That would be stupid, and they're not stupid."

No, they aren't.

What they are is twins who have constantly hustled and in turn found a way to make a lot of money in a sport where lots of entities have long made lots of money, not the least of whom are NCAA administrators, television executives and high-major coaches often disguised as leaders of young men.

Bottom line, the Pumps are similar to every other success story in this sometimes questionable business of college basketball, just movers and shakers in a sport dominated by movers and shakers.

The only difference is they move a little more than the norm.
And shake a little louder than most.