In a recent piece on Lindsay Kagawa (“Sports agent no devil, but wears Prada”), head of the newly created Women’s Elite Division for Bill Duffy’s BDA Sports, columnist Marcus Thompson II seems to fawn, just a little: “Kagawa, an Albany native, is what they call a postmodern businesswoman, the smoothie you’d get by mixing Ellen DeGeneres and Victoria Beckham in a blender with some ‘Colbert Report’ and a little bit of ‘Sex and the City.’ She stands out among this boys club’s nuclear levels of testosterone by embracing sexy and flaunting smarts. She complements tireless hustle with rebellious thinking and progressive motives, allowing her humor and Gen-X flair to serve as the chaser.”

It was around this point when Marcus began to drool.

Yet perhaps he is on to something. Kagawa wasn’t given the keys to her own BDA division, so to speak, by accident. True, she spent five years as Duffy’s executive assistant, the Lloyd to his Ari. But so what? The sports management industry is full of executive assistants. What made Kagawa stand out?

Maybe it was Kagawa’s generous and charitable nature. While primarily at Duffy’s side, Kagawa was concurrently put in charge of creating the firm’s charity division, BDAGiving–the first of its kind in the field of athlete representation. And when Duffy was searching for the right person to lead it, Kagawa was the natural choice given her background. Upon completion of her MA in Sociology with a focus in Organizational Studies at Stanford University, Kagawa was awarded the Stanford Haas Center for Public Service Sand Hill Fellowship. During her time as a Fellow at the East Bay Community Foundation, her work focused on marketing, research and charitable giving for professional athletes and high net worth individuals. Moreover, as a part of her graduate work at Stanford, Kagawa collaborated with the athletic directors to establish SAKU (Stanford Athletes & Kids United), a mentoring and tutoring program for East Palo Alto Youth and Stanford Student-Athletes. It was also in the role as head of BDAGiving that Kagawa helped to spearhead Carmelo Anthony’s youth center in Baltimore, and Drew Gooden’s learning center in Cleveland. She still works with BDA’s NBA clients on charitable projects, and also is part of a five person team that manages Carmelo’s MySpace site, adding blog items that Anthony approves and updating special events. All of Anthony’s video advertisements, plus a “Vote Melo” all-star link, are downloadable, meaning fans can copy those items onto their own pages and spread the message.

Or maybe it was her willingness to do whatever it took, whenever. A spur of the moment red eye to Phoenix to cheer up and just ‘be there’ for star client Diana Taurasi, who at the time was in a slump with the Mercury; another flight to Russia to make sure client Seimone Augustus was getting her paychecks from her team; a quasi-music video to market recently signed Sylvia Fowles to the Chicago Sky; even finding a maltepoo for Candice Wiggins, a dog lover.

Dog browsing and jet hopping aside, most of Kagawa’s time is spent running BDA’s women’s division, which now features five WNBA clients including Taurasi (who signed in 2005); Wiggins, the ex-Stanford standout; Augustus, the two-time national player of the year at LSU and now a star for the Minnesota Lynx; and Noelle Quinn, formerly of UCLA. And this past April, Kagawa signed Fowles.

“To be successful, an agent has to have a good amount of determination, be comfortable working in the gray area and — above all else — they have to have a creative intelligence,” noted Angie Wells, president of Dawn Staley Enterprises. “Lindsay has it all. She’s a rarity in the agent game.”

Apparently she’s not bad to look at either.

• Wonderlic scores are out! Ryan Clady of Boise State must have not eaten his Wheaties the morning of the test [NFL teams weigh Wonderlic tests].
• Al Harrington dropped Arn Tellem for Dan Fegan [Fegan Gets Another One].
• At least Gary Sheffield is happy that the Detroit Tigers just gave Miguel Cabrera its largest contract offer in the organization’s history [Cabrera set to ink Tigers' biggest pact: $153.3 million].
• Dave Pepe got his client, Joe Nathan, a solid deal for a closer worth at least $47 million. What teams do you think the limited no-trade clause applies to? [After 37 saves in 2007, Nathan agrees to new four-year contract with Twins].
• You have to be a pretty decent player when accepting a 6-year $50.2 million contract is considered taking a hometown discount [Trufant agrees with Seahawks on long-term deal].
• Cal receiver DeSean Jackson signed with DeBartolo Sports and has been preparing for the NFL by practicing with Jerry Rice [The Dynamic Duo: Jackson and Rice].
• Sports agent Brian Levy is hosting the third annual Walk Under The Stars 5K Marathon this Sunday in Aventura, Florida to help raise money and awareness for cystic fibrosis. I actually used to run the 3.1 mile trail [Miami Triad Crush expects record number of triathletes to compete Sunday].
• Interested in learning how Congress has attempted to regulate sports in the past? [Timeline: Politicizing America's pastimes]
• It’s been a while since SportsAgentBlog.com has been on Carnival of the NBA. We make our return with a post on Carmelo [Carnival of the NBA #55].

This week’s featured post is Jason Wulterkens’ Dolphins On The Clock. Weigh in and give your thoughts on Jason’s opinion of the Fins’ franchise. Check out the story by clicking Featured on the right sidebar.

Well not really, but Anthony is shopping for a new (wo)man to find his next endorsement opportunity. According to the Rocky Mountain News, Melo is no longer using the marketing and PR services of BDA Sports Management. No word on what went wrong in the relationship, only that Melo is excited to find a new team to take his marketing to the next level. Anthony will still retain BDA to handle his contractual negotiations with NBA organizations.