
How Andre Iguodala handled his rare NBA sabbatical in Silicon Valley - clairity
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/28633740/how-andre-iguodala-handled-rare-nba-sabbatical
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goatherders
Chris Bosh, oft-derided for "riding the coattails" of Lebron and Dwyane Wade*
funded a number of coding schools and studied CS at Georgia Tech. His parents
had him coding at an early age as well.

(*Chris Bosh is a Hall of Fame player and maybe the most underrated big man of
the last decade. Happy to debate. LOL)

Kevin Durant spent his time in the Bay Area investing in startups and learning
how the tech world worked in SV.

More and more athletes are thinking of life-after-the-sport, but just as many
are also seeing themselves as businessmen DURING their careers. The biggest
names want to build iconic brands, and not just brands that focus on their
personal identities. Podcasts, streaming services, energy drinks, athletic
gear, music, film production, technology. Young smart men (mostly) flush with
cash who have been coached on the cautionary tales of the late 90's and'00s
where players received mega-contracts and were broke within 5 years (see:
Vince Young, Antoine Walker, Andre Rison)

One last story: I used to work in the hosting/infrastructure world and an
early colleague was a very early employee at RAX. Once told me a story that
Gregg Popovich (coach) and David Robinson (HOF player) of the San Antonio
Spurs each put $1M into RAX when they were still doing seed investments from
friends, family and connections. He told me that if both men liquidated their
shares at IPO, even with the 20% dip that happened quite quickly, their
individual take would have each been more than Robinson made as an NBA player
in his entire career ($112M).

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eagsalazar2
Who says that about Chris Bosh? Almost every analysis I've heard of his time
in Miami with LeBron and Wade is that he sacrificed a superstar career to be
3rd option. Bosh was insane in Toronto when he was "the" guy.

~~~
yardie
He won 3 rings while in Miami. He didn’t sacrifice anything.

~~~
eagsalazar2
He sacrificed numbers and the spotlight. Just look at his stats before and
after. Of course there was a major upside, not saying otherwise. He sacrificed
but for the greater good of winning rings and it worked but he still
sacrificed. However in terms of him riding their coattails, I've never heard
anyone say that.

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reidjs
“How underperforming tech companies trick pro ballers for investment funding.”

Jokes aside, I respect the hell out of athletes who realize their timeframe is
limited and pursue business opportunities like this. They bring an
interesting, outside perspective on what can be a Very niche world.

A couple years ago I went to a cryptocurrency conference only because Kobe was
the keynote speaker and honestly I wanted to bash him (hate the lakers). But
despite the general idiocy of the conference he shared some very insightful
comments about his thoughts on economics, investments, business, etc.

~~~
RcouF1uZ4gsC
Sports Illustrated had a great article about why athletes go broke:
[https://www.si.com/vault/2009/03/23/105789480/how-and-why-
at...](https://www.si.com/vault/2009/03/23/105789480/how-and-why-athletes-go-
broke)

It seems that many athletes do realize their timeframe and try to invest so
they have money afterward. Unfortunately, many make bad investments. Many
athletes like the concreteness of investing in a business where you know the
people, over the abstractness of putting money into an index fund, though the
first comes with a lot higher risk than the second. Many times they are preyed
upon by unscrupulous business people because of this.

~~~
clairity
i know that there are organizations that provide business education to
professional athletes. it seems to be too little however, given the
stories/anecdotes you hear.

i'd go so far as to suggest that all pro athletes should be offered a mini-mba
program of business courses as rookies: statistics, economics, marketing,
accounting, finance, and strategy (and possibly financial valuation,
operations and organizational behavior too). that way, they'd have the basic
tools to evaluate the investment opportunities that will inevitably seek them
out.

~~~
lonelappde
Why doesn't the NBA start an incubator where they rent out player likenesses
to companies and take a percentage? That way the player gets nice endorsement
money without worrying about business stuff

~~~
barbecue_sauce
I don't think the players' union would be cool with that.

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bluedevil2k
Sabbatical? The dude just refused to show up for his job and he still
collected his $17M salary. Memphis had to just keep paying him cause it would
look bad to other potential players that might come some day if they stopped
paying him. Thankfully for Memphis, they traded his deadbeat-ass to Miami.

~~~
thrower123
It's kind of magical how washed NBA players can keep floating around the
league for years and years after their expiration dates, as long as GMs keep
making mistakes and giving them contracts.

Gerald Green is still bouncing around the league as a trade chip.

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majos
He also briefly interned at Merrill Lynch during the 2011 NBA lockout while
the league and players’ union negotiated a new deal. It’s on his LinkedIn page
[1].

[1]
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreiguodala](https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreiguodala)

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iampims
Related: Shaq's business Empire [https://money.com/shaq-business-
empire/](https://money.com/shaq-business-empire/)

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buzzdenver
He was interviewed by Gimlet, part of it is being a businessman

[https://gimletmedia.com/shows/without-
fail/brhvor](https://gimletmedia.com/shows/without-fail/brhvor)

