All too often, we hear about professional athletes who finish their playing careers and wind up bankrupt shortly thereafter, either from spending beyond their means or not investing properly. There are superstars like Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Steph Curry who have made hundreds of millions in salary, endorsements, and through their extensive business portfolios, but it’s rare to hear about an athlete whose business empire vastly outpaces what they’ve earned from playing.
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Milwaukee Bucks shooting guard Pat Connaughton is one such success story. The former Notre Dame star has been in the NBA for 10 years, and in that time, he’s made just over $40 million, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at. Off the court, though, he’s built a $550 million real estate empire that all stemmed from a $428,000 baseball signing bonus.
While most fans know him now for basketball, Connaughton was a two-sport star at Notre Dame. His pitching talents led to him being drafted in the fourth round of the 2014 MLB Draft by the Baltimore Orioles (he was also drafted out of high school in 2011 by the San Diego Padres but opted to attend Notre Dame instead).
Connaughton received his signing bonus and pitched in six games for the Orioles Class A team before returning to Notre Dame to finish his basketball career. The Brooklyn Nets drafted him in 2015, and he chose basketball permanently, following a different path than fellow Notre Dame alum Jeff Samardzija, who chose baseball over football and pitched for 13 years in the majors.
Connaughton’s dad was a real estate developer, and on his advice, Connaughton invested his signing bonus in a house on Notre Dame’s campus, which he fixed up and flipped for a modest profit. That was the start of what would become an enormous business empire.
Pat Connaughton’s playing career pales in comparison to his business accomplishments
Even after being drafted by the Nets and reaching the NBA, Connaughton continued to flip houses, and he’s since turned his side hustle into a booming empire.
His company, Three Leaf Partners, counts dozens of other professional athletes as investors, and it currently has real estate development projects all over the state of Wisconsin and beyond.
Connaughton was named to the Milwaukee Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” list in 2022, and his business has only continued to grow since then. Three Leaf has a wide variety of projects, from multi-family housing developments to condos, hotels, and business centers.
Connaughton has been a role player for the Bucks for the past seven years, but before it’s all said and done, he may be more known for his business accomplishments than for his decade-long NBA career.
His story just goes to show that you don’t have to be an NBA superstar to build a business empire.
