By any measure, Baron Davis had a very good NBA career. He played for 13 years in the league, made two All-Star teams, and averaged over 16 points and 7 assists per game. He also made nearly $150 million from his playing contracts alone. As successful as he was on the hardwood though, he’s been even better at investing.
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It’s well-known that professional athletes often end up bankrupt shortly after their careers are over. Many athletes spend too extravagantly in an effort to fit an image they’ve been trained to believe they should conform to, and too few make an effort to actually grow their money in any meaningful way. Davis once told CNBC that he tries to help young athletes avoid these pitfalls by giving them some advice: Begin investing from the moment they sign their first contract.
Davis wishes someone had given him this advice at the outset of his professional career, which is why he’s trying to pass his knowledge to today’s generation of athletes.
“Knowing what I know now, I definitely wish I would have taken the onus to invest more and be more of an angel entrepreneurial investor.”
He knows of what he speaks, as he reportedly made out extremely well from his decision to buy a stake in vitaminwater early in his career. That investment paid off handsomely when Coca-Cola acquired the company a few years later for over $4 billion. He’s also founded and invested in more than a dozen other companies, including the WNBA, Thrive Market, UWish, and Hims.
All athletes should be listening to Baron Davis
Being a professional athlete is like being part of an exclusive fraternity. There’s a responsibility to look out for one another that most athletes take seriously. Davis is doing his part to help those that came after him, but he isn’t the only athlete who has given good financial advice to the younger generation.
Future NFL Hall-of-Famer Rob Gronkowski likes to play on his persona as a dumb jock, but his advice to athletes to sock away their salaries and live on their endorsement money is incredibly intelligent. Charles Barkley has warned athletes against following in the footsteps of his younger days, calling himself an idiot for spending all of his money on ostentatious items like fast cars and fancy clothes.
Even though many of today’s NBA players earn salaries that dwarf what Davis was able to pull in during his career, the pitfalls remain the same. That makes his advice timeless and applicable across all sports.
