Landon Buford
Last week, Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns were able to cash in after having big seasons. They were both able to sign supermax deals with their respected teams.
Town signed a four-year extension for $224 million, according to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, and Booker signed a four extension $224 million, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
Both contracts will equal out to be six-year deals worth $295 million.
Not only were they gigantic packages for both stars, but they were also historical.
Per Wojnarowski, “Booker and Towns’ representative, Jessica Holtz, is the first female player agent to secure a max contract — and did it with two super max deals on the same day.”
Phoenix Suns ex-guard Jason Richardson, who was in Frisco, Texas on Saturday afternoon playing in Ice Cube’s Big 3 League, was asked about Holtz making history last week.
“That’s amazing to have a woman in a male-dominated sport, especially a sports agency, do that for two guys that are well deserved. I hope this inspires other women that they can achieve anything they put their minds to,” said Richardson.
I’m glad we’re in a place now where we are not looking at their gender and not being able to do deals like that.”
Holtz was recently interviewed by The Boardroom, and was asked about the historic achievement.
“Obviously I understood how big that was, because it’s different. And it wasn’t something that I had or they had seen before,” Holtz said. “That’s one moment that I take to understand the gravity of it. But for the most part day-to-day, it’s what we know. For both [Booker and Towns], I’ve been with them for their entire careers. So my role in their worlds and my role supporting them is normal to us. But I do understand the responsibility that comes with being somebody that’s breaking a glass ceiling in a way.”
“And hopefully, that paves the way for other females that want to do the same.”
Holtz graduated from Penn State in sports journalism and remained an avid Nittany Lions fan. She received her MBA from Baruch College in New York, and after interning at the NBA, she started in the basketball industry, working at the league head office in 2007.
