(upbeat music) - Hello, I'm Nido Qubein, welcome to Side by Side.

My guest today says that life is a team sport.

And as the former president of the NBA's Charlotte Hornets, he knows what it takes to lead transformation both on and off the court.

Today we'll visit with Mr.

Fred Whitfield.

- Funding for Side by Side with Nido Qubein is made possible by Coca-Cola Consolidated makes and serves over 300 of the world's best brands and flavors to over 65 million consumers across 14 states and the District of Columbia.

With 17,000 purpose-driven teammates, we are Coca-Cola Consolidated.

- The Budd Group has been serving the Southeast for over 60 years.

Specializing in janitorial, landscape, and facility solutions, our trusted staff delivers exceptional customer satisfaction, comprehensive facility support with the Bud Group.

- Truist, we're here to help people, communities, and businesses thrive in North Carolina and beyond.

The commitment of our teammates makes the difference every day.

(upbeat music) - Fred Whitfield, welcome to Side by Side.

My goodness, what a career you've had.

I don't think people realize that you're also an attorney.

You went to North Carolina Central University and you got your JD degree.

And before that, you went to Campbell University for bachelors and MBA and got a degree in economics.

And you played basketball there.

- I did, I did.

- And you met the pretty famous guy, not famous then, but famous now.

- Right, Mr.

Jordan.

- Michael Jordan.

- Yes.

- And then as fate would have it, you ended up being a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets and COO, Chief Operating Officer and President.

And then you worked with the Jordan Brands for a while up in Washington, DC and with the Washington Wizards.

You've been everywhere, you've done it all.

- Right, you know, Nido, may I call you Nido?

- Yes, of course.

- You know, I've just been very blessed and I've had some great people in my life that have extended an olive branch to me and given me opportunities.

And I just tried to take advantage of every opportunity that came my way.

And so I, you know, I look back at my career and it's really like a dream come true, being a college athlete.

And as you mentioned, getting an economics degree and an MBA and a law degree, being able to craft a career that I was able to utilize all of those tools was really just a dream come true.

- Did you ever practice as an attorney?

- I did, I practiced in Greensboro.

- You did, you were born in Greensboro.

- Yeah, I was born in Greensboro and I had a small law office over on State Street in Greensboro and used to go to traffic court in the morning and handle 10 or 15 speeding tickets, misdemeanor criminal actions and occasionally personal injury cases.

So, you know, I practiced and enjoyed that, but my passion was always sports.

And when I was able to move my career in the direction of sports, I took advantage of it.

- Mm-hmm, and when you were at Campbell, Campbell was in, was it D1 at the time?

- I played on the first Division I team.

- Oh, really?

- Yeah.

- And what conference was that?

- We were independent.

And Campbell actually finished second in the nation, NAIA, the year before I went there.

I went my freshman year to UNC Greensboro.

They had aspirations to go Division I and promised me that if I stayed there, they'd go Division I. I chose not to, so I transferred to Campbell and I was able to play immediately as a sophomore.

And so I played at Campbell three years.

- And Fred, how much NIL money did you get there?

(Fred laughs) - I wish NIL money had been available.

You know, I may not have played three years at Campbell.

I may have played one year and I- - Yes, you would have- - And then I would have transferred to High Point.

- Yes.

What do you think about all this portal stuff going on?

- You know, it's very- - I mean, I know now you're in professional basketball and so on, but this collegiate basketball- - Collegiate basketball, in my opinion, has turned into professional basketball.

- Absolutely.

- And I think the NCAA really needs to put some more rules in because I think, you know, when kids are able to transfer and play immediately and even transfer within their conference, it sort of takes away, in my opinion, from the integrity of the game.

- You used to have to sit out a year and so on.

- You used to have to sit out a year if you transferred.

So you really thought about, especially if you were a student trying to graduate on time, you really thought about whether you wanted to transfer- - And there was no NIL money then either.

- No NIL money.

- Just a scholarship.

- Just a scholarship.

But for me, being able to play on a full scholarship at Campbell, to be able to go to graduate school as a graduate assistant and earn my MBA for free, you know, I got out of undergrad and graduate school and had no bills.

- Yes.

- And so I didn't pay any tuition until I went to law school.

- No debt, yes.

- No debt, no debt.

Which isn't, you know, the norm for most students.

- No, yeah, yeah.

It's where colleges become more expensive.

- Right, right.

And so, but you came, tell me about how you then became a minority owner with the Charlotte Hornets, how you hooked up with Michael and you did all that.

And now you've sold your share.

- I sold my interest when Michael sold majority interest to Gabe Plotkin and Rick Snall.

- So one can safely say you're now in the money.

(laughs) - Well, I owned a small piece of the team.

- Yeah, but that's still in the money.

- But you know, we were very fortunate and this is very public.

You know, we bought the team, or Michael bought the team for $175 million from Bob Johnson.

And we were fortunate to sell that team at a $3 billion valuation.

- $3 billion.

- Yeah, so six-- - What makes a team go from 175 to 3 billion over how many years?

- 10 years.

- That's remarkable.

- You know, it was a lot of luck and a lot of great people.

I was fortunate to be able to surround myself by a great team of leaders.

And I let them do their jobs.

I let them focus on their respective areas of expertise within the company.

I got involved in the community and the community supported us, even though we didn't win a lot of games.

You know, we turned that organization around from losing 30 million a year when I started in 2006.

By the time we sold, we were almost at three digit profit.

And you know, very, very public.

When Bob Johnson owned the team, the community, for whatever reason, you know, wouldn't support the team.

When the hometown hero came in, Michael, and bought the team, you know, all the local companies got behind us.

All the national companies that he was associated or affiliated with got behind us.

You know, we averaged about 18,000 fans a night.

But more importantly, as other teams in the NBA sold, the valuations of other teams in the league continued to rise.

And so the Portland Trailblazers just sold for a little over $4 billion.

And they're a small market team like we were in Charlotte.

But right before our sale, Phoenix Suns sold for $4 billion.

And so that really pushed our valuation up.

And of course, again, we were driving a profitable business and the NBA recognized us as a best practice organization.

And I think the combination of all is really what helped us be able to get a 17 times multiple of what we paid for the team.

- You haven't done a leader called Cynthia Marshall?

- Oh, very well, very well.

- She's a good friend of mine.

You know, Cynthia went down to Dallas, Dallas Mavericks, and they had some issues there.

And she became the CEO, and she's done a great, great job down there.

- She's phenomenal.

- Yeah, she's a Los Angeles born lady, but she was in North Carolina for a while and so on.

- Well, I tried to sell Cynthia, naming rights to our building when she was president at AT&T.

And we got very close that their chairman wouldn't agree to pull the trigger because they already had the naming rights of a building down in Texas.

But Cynthia and I became close friends.

The day she accepted the job, I was one of the first people to reach out and offer to help.

Really helped teach her the business the way Rick Welch and Scott O'Neill taught me the business when I was hired back in '06.

And then our friendship just continued to grow.

- What are the secrets you say taught you the business?

What are the principles?

What are the fundamentals?

What are the secrets and systems to have a successful franchise?

- Well, the first thing you have to do in my opinion, especially in a town like Charlotte, is you have to be connected in the community.

And you have to be willing to give back.

You have to be willing to sit on nonprofit boards and serve the community.

Forget about your company necessarily and think about the betterment of Charlotte.

And we were able to do that.

And then, you know, the things that you have to drive revenue, ticket sales, sponsorships, regional television deal, food and beverage.

You have to figure out a way to maximize all of those areas of revenue.

And that's what a successful business is about.

And I believe that with the NBA's help and the NBA has a great group called the Team Marketing and Business Operations that goes around to each team and shares best practices.

- And coach and mentor, yeah.

- And you know, we share best practices amongst small market teams.

And I believe that if you follow those principles and build the business the right way, whether your team wins on the floor or not, you got a chance to be profitable.

- So the revenue at the time you were CEO and president of the Hornets, the revenue divided up for me, not in dollars, but in percentages.

Well, what percentage came from television revenue?

What percentage came from, you know, food and beverage and so on?

- Sure, so the biggest revenue comes from the league wide TV deal, the national TV deal that we all split 30 ways.

You know, every team gets-- - Just like they do with NCAA.

- NCAA and NFL.

- NFL, yeah.

- But in the NBA, every team has their own regional TV deal.

And that station carries or that carrier covers all the games that aren't on national TV.

And because we didn't have a lot of success on the floor, normally we didn't have any national TV games, but all 82 of our regular season games were on Fox Sports Net.

So that was our second biggest revenue driver.

And then your tickets are your third and corporate sponsorships are fourth.

And I'd say food and beverage because you split your food and beverage revenue with your supplier.

- Now that you're not CEO anymore, you can tell me that, is that number about 40%?

What is the food and beverage?

- No, it's less than that.

- Less than that.

- Because you have to split with your provider.

Levy Foods was our provider and we had a shared agreement with them.

- Right.

- And our ticket sales and our sponsorships, we kept 100% of that money.

- Right.

So the food, I always understood that food is about a 40% markup.

- Oh, it is 40% markup, but once you-- - I mean 40% share comes to the team, but you're saying no.

- No, if you're 40% share of the food and beverage that you drive comes to the team, Levy keeps 60% of the F&B that goes to the bottom line.

- I see, I see.

- If that makes sense.

- Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah.

- And Levy has been and continues to be a phenomenal partner.

I believe Levy is the best at what they do in managing food services and not only arenas and stadiums, but hospitals.

I mean, Compass Group is a phenomenal company, as you know.

- Yes, absolutely.

- What were the biggest challenges you had as president and CEO of a national franchise, NBA franchise?

- You know, Nito, the biggest challenge was we never won the entire time I was there.

And I've watched my friend Rick Welch, who was the president of Golden State Warriors, win three and four championships and obviously it's much easier to sell tickets.

- Why didn't you win?

You weren't able to attract the best players?

- No, again, I think a lot of it is luck.

You know, we had a really bad season the year there was a lockout and we were seven and 56.

So our hope was that we would get the number one pick in the upcoming draft.

- But the fans kept coming?

- The fans kept coming.

And it was only because we were so connected in the community.

And I think our fans just would give us another chance.

Every year we sell hope and our fans would keep coming.

And as I mentioned, you know, we were averaging 18,500 fans a night in a 19,000 seat arena.

- Was that the same arena downtown?

- Yes, uptown.

- Uptown Charlotte.

- Uptown.

Spectrum Center.

You know, we were fortunate to sell our name and rights to Spectrum.

Or Time Warner Cable, which became Spectrum.

But when you don't win, you really have to do everything else right.

You have to be involved in the community.

You have to make sure that the food is hot and the beer is cold.

- And the experience is great.

- The experience is great.

Your fans are leaving and say, oh, I hate that we lost tonight.

But as a family, we had a great time.

- I enjoyed it, yeah.

- And so we made it a family environment.

Hugo, our mascot, became one of the stars of the show.

And you know, we made the playoffs three times in 17 years.

And twice we were swept in four games.

And the third time we lost in game seven to Miami.

So when you're in the sports and entertainment business, winning certainly helps.

But I truly believe that if you've got a great owner, like we had a great owner, Michael Jordan, who was willing to do and invest anything that he could to help us run a great business and even put a great product on the floor.

But injuries can come in and hurt you.

- Ruin everything.

- It can ruin everything.

- So Fred, I'm intrigued that you never chose to be a coach.

- You know, it's an interesting story.

You know, when I was in grad school, you probably heard the name Pres Maravich.

- Yes.

- Pistol Peach's dad.

He was the other assistant at Campbell.

When I was there, his granddaughter was in school.

And I sat next to Pres Maravich for a full year while I was in grad school.

And he would say to me, "Fred, you're too smart.

You're too smart to be a coach.

Get out of coaching, go to law school."

And that's really what pushed me to go to law school.

- Wow.

- And so, you know, God bless his soul.

You know, I look back on, you know, Pres having that talk with me.

And, you know, but I also look at what these coaches are making now.

And I'm surprised I was too dumb not to be a coach.

- Well, one cannot predict life like that.

- I know, you're right.

- That's for sure.

You know, I read somewhere where the most influential person in your life, to a great extent, was your mom.

- And dad.

- And your mom and dad.

- Yes.

- Mom's name was Janelle.

- Janelle.

- And your dad's name?

- Fred, Fred Wesley.

So I'm not a junior.

We have different middle names.

- I see.

And what is it about him?

What did they teach you?

What is it about him that stayed with you all your life?

Your mom's still living.

- My mom's 94.

- And lives in Charlotte.

- Lives in Charlotte.

Lost my dad about five years ago.

My parents were married 63 years before my dad passed.

But unusual at the time, both my parents had master's degrees.

- Really?

- My dad went to-- - Even in very difficult-- - In the 60s.

- Yes.

- They both had master's degrees.

My dad went to North Carolina A&T.

My mom went to Bennett College.

And they both went to grad school at A&T and graduated.

So from the time I was a baby, I was taught that education is a difference maker.

And if you really study hard and set high goals and aspirations, surround yourself by the right people, you can do anything you wanna do.

And my mom was a school teacher for 35 years.

- And educated parents.

- Very educated.

Which again, was not the norm.

Especially in black families in the early 60s.

But that encouragement is really what prompted me to try to be a good student all the way through elementary.

We called it junior high school back then, and then high school, and then obviously in undergrad and grad school and law school.

I just wanted to do everything I could to be prepared that if I got a great opportunity, which I was blessed to get, that I'd be ready to take advantage of it.

- I know that now you're on the board of O'Reilly Automotive.

- I am.

- Where are they based?

- Springfield, Missouri.

- Great company.

I love being on that board primarily because it reminds me of Nike.

I worked at Nike twice, once in Nike Pro Basketball and once in the Jordan brand.

And I watched the way Phil Knight built a culture at Nike, that everybody that worked there would run through a wall for him and the company.

And it was just a great team environment.

And Nike promoted from within and encouraged everybody to push each other.

O'Reilly was built the same way.

And now they have 6,600 retail stores in the US, another group of stores in Mexico, another group of stores in Canada.

And we're opening a hundred or so stores every year.

- So automotive parts.

- Automotive parts, yes.

Aftermarket.

And we sell the do it yourself, people that wanna go and work on their own cars.

And then all the shops that you see working on cars.

And we've just grown a phenomenal business.

Our stock was at $1,500 a share.

We did a 15 to one split about six months ago so that our employees would have a chance to be able to buy some of the stock.

But it's just a well run and well oiled machine.

- You know, your law degree clearly has helped you in a marvelous way.

You know, you're on a corporate board now of a public company, or CEO of an NBA, which is really a corporation of sorts.

- Absolutely.

- I mean, on the NBA franchise.

And then you were involved in Jordan Brand.

Tell us about Jordan Brand.

- You know, when I got fired from the Wizards, and I got fired when Michael Jordan got fired back in 2003, Nike called me up because I had worked at Nike Pro Basketball from 1995 to 2000 before I went to work for the Wizards.

And when I was doing my exit interview from Nike Pro Basketball, Phil Knight said to me, "Hey Fred, you've done a great job.

"If you ever wanna come back, we'll find a role for you."

Well, here I am going to work for the Washington Wizards.

I'm thinking, I'm not coming back to Nike, I'm going to the NBA.

Well, sure enough, after Michael Jordan was president of basketball for the Wizards, and then played two years, and helped turn that franchise around financially, unfortunately, Mr.

Poland decided to go in a different direction, and needless to say, he felt like he should go in a different direction from me too.

So I got fired, and Nike called me and said, "Hey, we've got this small brand at Nike "doing about 300 million a year.

"We'd love for you to come back to Nike "and help us put the strategy together "to grow it to a billion dollar a year business.

"If we can't do that, "then we'll roll it back into Nike basketball."

- This was all Michael Jordan products?

- All Michael Jordan products.

- But other than shoes?

- Shoes and apparel.

- Oh, shoes and apparel.

- Shoes and apparel.

- All under a separate subsidiary.

- Exactly, and it still remains that way, and it operates separately within Nike.

- It's owned by Nike.

- It's owned by Nike.

- I see.

- And so, when I got there, we were doing 300 million a year.

We put together a very unique strategy of bringing nine basketball athletes into the brand.

- How much of the 300 was in the US?

- Probably 250 when I got there.

- I see.

- But we realized quickly that our growth opportunity was to become global.

And so, I was there three years.

We grew it to a $900 million a year business, and that little division is now gonna do, very public, eight billion this year, and continues to grow.

And they're using the exact same strategy that we put together.

- They're gonna do eight billion in revenue this year.

- Yes.

- Just selling Michael Jordan?

- Yes, just selling Jordan brand footwear and apparel for men and women.

- Really?

- And kids.

- In how many countries of the world?

- All over the world.

- I'm not sure how many people watching this program would realize it was that big of an operation.

- Oh yeah, well Nike Inc.

is in excess of $50 billion.

- Right, right.

- So that division will do eight billion this year.

- Yeah.

- And using the same strategy.

- Selling just Michael Jordan.

- Just Michael Jordan product.

- Many, many years after Michael Jordan has finished his career as a basketball player.

- He last played in 2003 in Washington.

- Yeah.

- So we're talking 22 years ago.

- So how does Jordan brands remain relevant to the population of young people all over the world who may have never seen Michael Jordan play basketball?

- Great question.

Well, Space Jam helps.

So I'm sure you remember the movie Space Jam.

- Yes.

- That Bugs Bunny was in with Michael.

That obviously all the kids over the years have watched Space Jam.

But the product is iconic.

And Michael's brand as a former player and a winner of six rings still resonates with young folks.

And so our core consumer was between the ages of 12 and 18, primarily urban kids.

Now it's expanded into every economic class, every race.

- And all over the world.

- All over the world.

- The Chinese buy Michael Jordan products?

- They're Jordan branded stores in China that only sell Jordan brand product.

And so Jordan brand is huge in China.

It's huge all over Europe.

There's a flagship store in Milan.

The brand is just exploding.

- What is it about Michael Jordan that kept his feet on the ground all these years?

- His parents.

- His parents.

- His parents.

- I saw the movie where his mom was a big part of the negotiation.

- Absolutely.

And also, I think the reason he and I hit it off and became friends is we were raised very similarly.

His mom and dad were great people.

They pushed him to graduate and get his degree, which he did.

And he always listened to his parents.

And so as his mom gave him advice, a lot like me, mom knows best.

And he just had phenomenal role models and had phenomenal brothers and sisters that grew up with him and they just had a great family.

And I think that humbleness that he has comes from the way he was raised in a humble family down in Wilmington, North Carolina.

And I say Coach Smith, Dean Smith played such a huge role in his life as a father figure when he got to college.

And I don't think he's ever forgotten the principles that Coach Smith taught him.

- What would be your advice today to young men and women who play basketball in college and they're dealing with the portal and a big deal, people moving, you know, you feel bad for coaches because they're having to build a team every year.

- Right.

- You know, almost from scratch, right?

These people, the good ones are gone.

- Right.

- And most of the time.

And the coach has to bring these different people in different places and create some kind of congruence on that team.

- Right.

- And then the NIL and the agents get involved and all of that.

What's your advice to young athletes today?

- You know, I think athletes should continue to focus on academics and put a value in that college degree because the reality is less than 1% of all the players in college that wanna be pro players actually make it to the pros.

- Or make it like you did, you know, more from different roles.

- Exactly, but if they can concentrate and get that degree, there's so many opportunities that are fun that they can still earn a great living in a like I was fortunate enough to be able to do.

They can still be around the game.

You know, my office at the Hornets was literally right, I had a huge window right above our practice court.

So I could watch practice every day.

I could go to every home game.

If I wanted to, I could jump on the team plane and go to an away game.

So I stayed close to the game.

And so when you think about the NBA draft and only 30 players getting drafted, 30 players from around the world getting drafted in the first round, the only ones that get guaranteed contracts are first round picks.

You know, if you're in the second round and not get drafted, chances of you making the NBA roster is pretty slim.

- Pretty slim.

Many of them go to Europe and play and make a few bucks and come back and forth.

And so on and so forth.

Have you written a book, Fred?

- I have not.

- You should write a book about your life because your life has been a testimony to that, which is good.

And many, many young people could learn from it and be inspired by your example, having finished undergrad and masters and law school.

And then you got in business and sports in a very corporate way is remarkable.

Thank you for coming today and sharing this time with me on Side by Side.

- It's been my honor and my privilege.

And I really appreciate the invitation to come and sit with you.

(upbeat music) - Funding for Side by Side with Nido Qubein is made possible by.

- Coca-Cola Consolidated makes and serves over 300 of the world's best brands and flavors to over 65 million consumers across 14 States and the District of Columbia.

With 17,000 purpose-driven teammates, we are Coca-Cola Consolidated.

- The Budd Group has been serving the Southeast for over 60 years.

Specializing in janitorial, landscape, and facility solutions, our trusted staff delivers exceptional customer satisfaction, comprehensive facility support with The Budd Group.

- Truist, we're here to help people, communities, and businesses thrive in North Carolina and beyond.

The commitment of our teammates makes the difference every day.