Michael Jordan is one of the savviest businessmen the NBA has seen grace its hardwood. During the ‘Icon’s Club’ podcast, he revealed that it was Julius Erving who influenced him into delving into the business side of things as an NBA player. Whether it was knowing how to market himself or investment strategies, Jordan took notes from Dr. J during the infancy of his career. Giannis Antetokounmpo is cut from a similar cloth when it comes to earning money passively.
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The Milwaukee Bucks superstar was very new to having been given as much money as he had gotten during his rookie contract with the team back in 2013. He was so paranoid about losing his money that he kept his money spread out over 50 different banks.
As he began to acclimatize himself to being a fully-fledged millionaire, he became smarter with his finances. So much so that he decided to invest in a company that Jordan, a man valued anywhere between $1.7 billion and $2.2 billion, took interest in.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Michael Jordan invest in a company only to lose most of their investment
Watchbox serves to act as a secondary marketplace for luxury watches, Michael Jordan, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Chris Paul, amongst several other millionaire investors took a keen interest in this company and put up millions of their own to help jump-start the company off the ground.
The Series A funding round concluded with a total of $165 million being raised to help the company out, with guys like MJ and the ‘Greek Freak’ at the forefront of it all. With the $165 million, the company was now valued at $1 billion back in 2021.
However, according to information from ‘cbinsights’, as of now, the valuation of the company has dropped down to $99 million. It’s unclear if this information is verified by officials but ‘cbinsights’ is considered to be a trusted website.
If this information is true, the company would lost over 90% of its original valuation in less than 2 years time, leading to Jordan and Giannis losing out on their invested money as well.
Giannis Antetokounmpo invests in ethical funding
Giannis Antetokounmpo was taught by his parents to never put all of his eggs in a single basket, hence his need to find various avenues of income. In March of 2023, he joined forces with John Koudounis of Calamos Investments to start the Calamos Antetokounmpo Sustainable Equity Fund.
This equity fund is being used to bring the concept of sustainable investing to the mainstage. Giannis and his partner will invest in companies that are environmentally conscience with 10% of the profits going to financial education and other positive causes.
