At the age of 71, Danny Espiritu remains the choice of a great majority of professional basketball players to represent them in their contract negotiations.
How many players? Seventy-eight to be exact, including most of the league’s superstars, while his son Marvin and partner Matthew Manotoc have 25 cagers they represent, most of whom are the newer players.
Danny never thought of becoming a player agent. He was just an ordinary basketball fan of the Crispa Redmanizers. He used to spend thousands of pesos getting tickets from scalpers during the Crispa-Toyota championship games in the late 1970s up to the early 80s. One time, he even paid P10,000 for a ticket.
It was Bong Alvarez, though, who started Danny’s path towards being a player agent when he requested the latter to accompany him in his meeting with Alaska, which was offering a two-year contract then to the player known as Mr. Excitement. The two agreed on a foot signal if Alvarez was okay with the offer, then Danny would agree on behalf of Alvarez.
What happened was the player was happy with the initial terms offered, but the manager was not. And instead of accepting, he requested for another meeting, to the disappointment of Alvarez. But in their next meeting, Danny was able to get a hefty improvement from the initial offer.
Word then started to spread around to other players how good Danny was in negotiations. And before he knew it, Danny was swamped with requests from other players.
At that time, Danny was just happy to help, getting free PBA tickets to the games as a payment.
But five years into this new-found calling, the PBA told him that in the absence of any contract between him and the players he was representing, the league will not recognize him as a player agent. Forced by circumstances, he had his lawyers draw up a contract, which now includes a small commission, to which all the players readily agreed.
Being an accountant by profession, Danny found legitimate means to steadily improve the packages of his players through incentives, bonuses, and other perks. And as he always negotiates with teams in good faith and with transparency, he earned the respect of the team owners and managers.
“I believe that (respect) is the key to my still being here after close to three decades. The teams know, I know what I am talking about and they can always check with each other on what I tell them during negotiations. On the part of the players, I have never made a decision on my own for them. For me, my job is to work out the best deals possible and lay down to the players the different options open to him, including possible consequences. In some cases when players are hard headed, up to now, I maintain this position, the players decide what they want, “ said Danny, who admitted though that not everything is easy with this kind of job as being a player’s manager means, too, he has to absorb the heat for his players at times.
“The truth is, I find it more difficult to address off the court problems and situations for some players,” said Danny.
Asked about the difference between the players in the 1980s, the 90s and the present crop of players, Danny said: “I believe the players then had more love for the game. Now, it is more of a job and emphasis is on the money side of the matter, which adds to difficulties at times in negotiating.”
But whatever happens, Danny intends to stay in this “world” until he can.
“I thought before that when I reach 60, I would retire already and let my son eventually carry on. Instead, I have more players under me now.”
