Tag: Rich Kleiman

He didn’t go to Duke University law school like renowned sports agent Drew Rosenhaus, or have a relative cutting deals at Universal Music, making his path to celebrity row at Madison Square Garden nearly unreplicable. “I would see all these corporate guys [courtside] and thought I couldn’t do that — I’m not going to college. Then seeing Clive Davis, Marty Van Deer and Puffy, Jimmy [Iovine] and music big wigs around the time I was hustling in that world was when I wanted the music industry energy,” he says of MSG’s Golden Age, with the Knicks and Rangers making runs well into June seemingly every year during the ‘90s. With hoop dreams of his own six feet under, Kleiman enrolled at Boston University, but his time there in the general studies program wouldn’t last long. Dropping out after a semester, which he now chalks up to not being “disciplined enough,” Kleiman remained in Beantown for two years working as a bookie. He even spent a year in Boca Raton, Florida — but contrary to the typical relaxing life of retirees in the Sunshine State, Kleiman grinded, working odd jobs but priding himself on continuing to build his interstate Rolodex.