The views expressed by the business participants are their own.
30 years is the prime of your career in most jobs – unless you’re a professional athlete. “It’s like life going backwards,” said Loop Capital founder and CEO Jim Reynolds, whose career includes a nine-year partnership with Magic Johnson Enterprises. “They make their biggest money when they’re very young, and in business, you don’t start accumulating real wealth until you’re in your 50s.”
The average NBA player retires at age 29, which sounds a bit envious if you ignore the fact that nearly 60% of them experience severe financial hardship after retirement. But it doesn’t have to be like that. While many retired players can’t make the jump they used to, bringing them into the corporate world can still be a slam dunk for business executives like Jim Reynolds, who recognize their transferable skills like tactical smarts and an insatiable competitive drive.
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Reynolds is currently the CEO of Coco5, a sports drink company he owns with an NBA dream team that includes Devin Booker, D’Angelo Russell, Derrick Rose, and the Morris twins, Marcus and Markeiff. The company made headlines this spring after partnering with the American Cancer Society to raise money for research and promote early detection.
Tech entrepreneur Julian Aiken, a former DII point guard, is also no stranger to professional sports. His uncle, Bob McCann, played in the NBA for five years, and many of his high school friends grew up to be professional athletes. Aiken is the founder and CEO of Brunswick Sports Management, a company that helps athletes transition into business. Recently, alongside the NBA trifecta of Michael Carter-Williams (retired), Mo Harkless (retired), and Andre Drummond (active), Aiken launched his latest venture: Special Teams Real Estate, a real estate flipping business vacant commercial properties into residential properties. .
Here are some of the global goals of these high-level athletes and their partners in business that they say can be transferred from the sports field to business.
Get A Little Better Every Day
In basketball, if you spend enough time alone shooting free throws, you will eventually make more of them in games. As Carter-Williams notes, however, there are no free throws in business. There are no predetermined rules. So for him, the first step to upping his business game was to cultivate a self-starter mindset. Instead of a strict exercise program given by the coach, he now prioritizes strengthening his mind every day.
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“Some days I just force myself to do something or learn something that will help me succeed,” he said. “It can be as simple as going on YouTube to learn about zoning laws. Or reading a complicated book about real estate.” His business partner, Aiken, shares that growth mindset and stresses that improvement doesn’t mean going from 0 to 100% overnight. Instead, the trick is to get 1% better every day.
“We don’t expect Mike or anyone else to finish every project immediately. But can you learn enough to finish a small percentage of it? And can you finish more the next time? And so on.”
A small percentage increase will not appear in Carter-Williams’ box score like in his NBA days. He notices his progress in new ways, such as his growing comfort in meetings and understanding real estate jargon.
“If I can understand more and answer questions that I couldn’t answer two weeks ago, I consider it my little win,” Carter-Williams said. While Carter-Williams still has a lot to learn about the real estate game, his NBA background comes with a built-in advantage: paid access to other professional athletes.
“Not everyone is willing to listen to someone like me who wasn’t in those locker rooms,” Aiken said.
“But if Mike could walk in there and say. ‘I’ve grown a sustainable business that lasts longer than an NBA career; here’s how I did it.’ Every NBA player will at least hear him.”
Accept Your Role
In basketball, a role player is an athlete of some skill and willingness to put team success above personal glory. They may not score the most points or have the most outstanding points, but they understand their strengths and weaknesses and get the job done. After spending more than a decade each as NBA players, Marcus and Markieff Morris understand the importance of knowing your specific strengths and using them to complement your teammates. A skill that easily translated into their roles at Coco5.
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As avid NBA players, the Morris twins delivered a slam dunk of product placement by bringing Coco5 directly into some of the NBA’s elite locker rooms, which also boosted its status in some high-pressure conference rooms. During meetings, the twins often regale potential investors with stories of their NBA journeys, using their roles as athletes to gain respect, trust, and – more often than not – new accounts.
“People like the idea of interacting with professional athletes,” Markieff said. “We can enter certain doors by being NBA players.”
Play the long game
In basketball, thinking ahead and anticipating where you should be next is important. For Michael Carter-Williams, navigating the courtroom is a good metaphor for navigating your way out. You always want to think about the next move. It’s a lesson he regrets not learning sooner.
“Do I wish I had reached more people around the world? Do I wish I had more investment knowledge as a rookie and sophomore? Yes.” It’s a big part of the reason why Carter-Williams is so passionate about helping the next generation of hoopers. As the NBA’s Special Teams Real Estate Coordinator, he now makes it his mission to prepare athletes for their next chapters, bridging the gap between current players, former players, and business executives like Aiken. During a recent meeting with his friend (and former Orlando Magic teammate) Cole Anthony, for example, he used his personal experience to discuss – minus the jargon – the importance of investing in your financial future earlier than you might think.
Jim Reynolds also knows something about playing the long game. For him, it boils down to one goal: equity ownership. For young players like Coco5 teammates Booker (27) and Russell (28), being part of a company can be more profitable than long-term basketball.
“It will mean that when they are 45 years old, they will have equity in a business that generates income, they will have in-depth knowledge of the work, and the names of celebrities to build on,” he said. “The richest people in America own equity. That’s how Magic Johnson became a billionaire.”
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