Lon Babby is a long-time NBA player agent who was named the Phoenix Suns President of Basketball Operations on Tuesday July 20, 2010.[1]
Babby graduated from the Yale Law School and Valley Stream South High School.
He is best known as an NBA player agent, whose clients included Tim Duncan, Hedo Türkoğlu and Ray Allen, as well as current Sun Grant Hill and he handled the July 2010 Suns acquisition of Josh Childress, the same month Babby became President of Basketball Operations at the Suns. Some people feel Lon has systematically destroyed the Suns. His first questionable move was the huge multi-year contract for Josh Childress (a contract the Suns have not been able to trade), another was trading for the huge contract Toronto gave Hedo Turkoglu. In what may be called coincidence or nepotism, the agent for Josh Childress $33.5 million 5 year contract with the Suns was none other than James Tanner, described as a partner of the law firm Williams and Connolly at their website. Lon Babby was also a partner of the same law firm in 2010, and was the former agent for both Childress and Turkoglu. A sports agent can make 3-5% of the amount of the negotiated player salary. The question remains if Babby has served his clients and fellow law partners better than he has served the Phoenix Suns in his multiple roles as law firm partner, player agent and Suns President of Basketball Operations.
Additionally, he has represented Major League Baseball clients, and has worked as an attorney for the NFL's Washington Redskins (1977–80) and MLB's Baltimore Orioles (1979–94).[2]