‘I’ve had to work my a– off to prove myself’: Meet the NBA’s only female agent with a client
Danielle Cantor gets mistaken as her business partner’s girlfriend
Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Candace Buckner.
Danielle Cantor is David Falk’s lone partner in his sports agency, F.A.M.E., but in the NBA she holds an even rarer distinction: the only woman, among approximately 30 certified by the National Basketball Players Association, to solely represent an active player.
While Falk serves as the primary agent for F.A.M.E. clients such as Otto Porter Jr. (Washington Wizards) and Greg Monroe (Milwaukee Bucks), one athlete elected to sign directly with Cantor: Milwaukee Bucks’ Malcolm Brogdon.
“As a minority in this country, I think it’s important that you give other people that are overlooked or not given similar opportunities — you give them a chance, as well,” said Brogdon, who in June became the first player in NBA history selected in the second round to win the rookie of the year award. “I know what it feels like to be overlooked in the business or not be given credit or just not to given an opportunity.”
“I thought it would be breaking the glass ceiling and we’d be doing something special together.”
Cantor tailors a brand that best fits the personality of Brogdon, a four-year college player and Virginia graduate who holds a master’s degree.
- For his first sponsorship deal, she chose a bank.
- The week before training camp, she flew to Milwaukee to sit in on his five-hour commercial shoot.
- When Brogdon weighed in a little less than the Bucks expected, Cantor smoothed things over with the team.
- While there, she also put in face-time with Monroe, dining out and holding his last contract discussion before he hits free agency in 10 months.
- By that weekend, Cantor was overseeing Porter’s move into his new home in Arlington, which comes after F.A.M.E. helped him negotiate a four-year, $106 million maximum contract to remain with the Wizards this summer.
This ability, to passionately advocate on behalf of her clients to NBA general managers or even moving companies, helped convince Porter to sign with F.A.M.E. in 2013.
“First impression was, ‘God dang, who is this woman?’ ” Porter said. “She’s fierce. She gets stuff done.”
A quick history of Danielle Cantor
- Grew up in Bethesda, Md.
- Played football and soccer as a young girl
She was “very, very competitive,” her former soccer coach, Sam DeBone, said of his four-year varsity letter winner, calling her “the kind of athlete every coach would like to have.”
“In fact,” DeBone added, “if I had a whole team of Danielle Cantors, I’d be very successful.”
- Became a Bullets ballgirl
- At Penn, she decided to focus on finance
- Graduated from the Wharton School of Business and accepted a job at SFX Sports Management in 2000, tasked with marketing professional athletes
- Falk took notice of her work ethic at SFX. In 2007, he hired her when he decided to relaunch his agency, F.A.M.E., as a boutique operation representing only NBA players
- Cantor didn’t even realize she was the only current female NBA agent with a client until she was informed by SportsBusiness Journal. She was recognized this month by the publication as a “Game Changer,” an honor given to 35 women in leadership positions across sports
- NBPA Executive Director Michele Roberts said the fact that there aren’t more is disheartening.
“It is an incredibly, incredibly competitive field. I suspect that there’s more dirty laundry than I even want to admit exists,” Roberts said. “Agents themselves tell me it really is a raw-knuckled brawl kind of business. It may be that it’s just the kind of work that women just find distasteful on some levels. I suspect that not a lot of women are trying to knock on these doors, and that disappoints me.”
Cantor and Falk are a formidable team
On business trips, Falk and his executive vice president are a package deal. He and Cantor have been together for every negotiation over the last decade. They sit courtside to watch their clients on the NBA stage. Cantor, who avoids the subject of her age, has bristled at times for being judged on how the relationship looks. Once, while in the arena of a Central Division NBA team, the owner’s wife assumed Cantor was Falk’s girlfriend.
“My goal is to prove myself with owners and GMs, so they know who I am and they respect me — which I think has happened,” Cantor said. “But I’ve had to work my a– off to prove myself.”
At the negotiating table, Falk does most of the talking while Cantor sits back and observes, her mind running through the spreadsheets she has created to prove their players’ worth. When she does speak, it’s refreshing.
“David Falk is a man who’s done an awful lot in this business, to say the least. He’s a man that people in this league respect … but at times, everyone needs a buffer and Danielle is definitely that for David,” said John Hammond, the Orlando Magic general manager. “Danielle can be sometimes a friendly voice, a calming influence to some of us and I think that’s why she’s appreciated.”
Though on the surface Cantor is a foil to Falk — right down to their contrasting appearances as a blonde woman with piercing light blues eyes and a 67-year-old bald man — their business partnership is a match made in Type-A heaven.
“Here’s the deal: I like to be behind the scenes. And I don’t like people talking about me or writing about me,” she said, enunciating so precisely she bares her teeth on every consonant. “But when I’m in a negotiation, when I’m in a recruiting meeting — game on.”
Behind-the-scenes of a photoshoot
As the partners waited for Porter to join them in the office, Cantor was very much in the spotlight, getting coached by Falk as they squabbled over the direction of her photo shoot.
“Relax. Just relax,” Falk said, watching Cantor glare out of the window. “Don’t wrinkle your forehead.”
Then he offered: “Want me to tell you a joke?”
“No,” Cantor responded, holding her pose. “[The photographer] told me not to smile. He said, ‘Look natural.’ ”
She expressed how uncomfortable this felt, particularly the attention, because this is a game she’d much rather play in the shadows. Her goal is to be respected, not recognized. Besides, she’s busy.
While she was tied up with the shoot, Falk asked if he should make an important call that was on her to-do list. Cantor responded bluntly: “No. Please don’t.”
Falk got the message, turning away and smiling.
“She’s the boss,” he said.
