There were some bumps on the way to the bank. Dantley and agent David Falk fell out after Falk had worked out a deal during the 1989-1990 season that enabled the Dallas Mavericks to void the last year of Dantley’s contract, effective at the end of that season.
Dantley broke his leg just after that agreement, and his career was effectively over, minus the million bucks he’d have been paid had the contract not been voided. Dantley then sued Falk for $15 million in 1995, blaming his adviser for bad financial counsel during his playing days that Dantley said had cost him $1.5 million.
After filing the suit, Dantley told the Chicago Tribune that he’d asked Falk again and again about the investments and was never given any hint of trouble. “They said everything’s fine. No problem,” Dantley said. “I said it better be fine because I’m not going to spend much, sacrifice for later down the road. My money better be there. They said, ‘You’re set.'”
Dantley hired R. Kenneth Mundy, another legend in D.C. for helping former Mayor Marion Barry beat almost all of the drug and corruption charges he’d ever faced. Mundy painted Dantley as fiscally prudent, telling the Washington Post that Dantley avoided extravagances and lived on “about $1,500 per month” during his NBA career. The litigants settled the case just before trial, and while the details of the deal were to remain confidential, rumor around D.C. has always been that Falk’s side gave Dantley’s people every penny they’d asked for to avoid having the agent’s business methods aired in public. Falk did not return a phone call for this story. Mundy died in 1996. Washington attorney Richard J. Leveridge, who represented Dantley after Mundy’s death, declined to comment on the settlement other than to say he was “choosing to honor” the confidentiality agreement.