6 ms·

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

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).

alharith 7y ago
People who think Chris Bosh was riding anyone's coattails clearly don't know anything about Chris Bosh or basketball. First of all, he already showed he was a superstar in his own regard with the Raptors, where he left being the franchise's all-time record holder in points, rebounds, blocks, and minutes played. Second, there is a such thing as too many cooks in the kitchen, and so Chris Bosh understanding this, elected to do what it took to win a championship rather than trying to inflate statistics, and he played his role exceptionally. If you have ever read Bill Simmons' "Book of Basketball" he describes this as "The Secret" (Thank you for this rare opportunity to talk sports on HN!)
- goatherders 7y ago
  I usually shut down Bosh haters with "He has 2 rings, is an 11 time All Star, and has an Olympic Gold Medal. The number of people with half that resume who aren't in the HOF is ZERO. He's a first ballot guy no question."
  - tedk-42 7y ago
    He also grabbed the rebound and threw the ball to Ray Allen for a game winning shot. He was a hard worker who improved his 3pt shot when we went to Miami, knowing he needed to space the floor. He understood what team mentality meant for success.
    - lpaone 7y ago
      Bosh grabbed the rebound because of arguably one of the worst coaching decisions in NBA history; that being to sit one of the greatest defenders ever (Duncan) on the bench for the most important defensive possession of the season. Bosh would not have been able to reach over Duncan to get the rebound and it would have been over. To this day, I still cannot comprehend what Popovich was thinking. That being said, Bosh definitely deserves a spot in the HoF. He was a MVP candidate his final year before leaving for Miami. A lot of people totally forget this.
tmpz22 7y ago
A lot of athletes have their intelligence underestimated because of their background and education - most people don't understand just how smart you need to be to compete at the highest level. But lets not fool ourselves either, there is also a lot of celebrity investments where a famous name is slapped on a lifestyle product like vitamin water, the celebrity makes millions, and the consumers ultimately get shafted because more often then not the celebrity name is just credentialism to up-sell a mediocre product. Shark tank does this as well because they know as soon as the show airs there will be a huge spike in sales by default. Sometimes this is really bad for society as was the case with Theranos board of directors and any of the Kardashian brands. We shouldn't let celebrities amplify pump and dump schemes. I don't think the NBA players you listed have been involved, but I think its always important that we are vigilant for it...
- goatherders 7y ago
  I'm not sure it's reasonable to put blame on celebrities (athletes or otherwise) for hawking crappy things. A lot of the things people spend "more" on are mediocre product, excellent branding (Apple, Gucci, Range Rover, the list goes on). A celebrity endorsement is just more of the same - branding. And I appreciate your diplomacy (seriously), but a lot of athletes have their intelligence underestimated because they are minorities and only went to college for one or two years...but mostly because they are minorities. The notion that someone young and African-American who can jump out of the gym might also be really smart is not something that's common to consider unfortunately.
  - tmpz22 7y ago
    My wording could've been much better, for me its less about condemning celebrity endorsements but taming various tech and consumer fetishes which I ultimately deem as harmful to society. For example, investing in start-ups is good but raising gluttonous amounts of money with a terrible product or business plan is bad. If we have a bunch of articles glorifying industry outsiders parking their money here, it will raise a reciprocal amount of Uber and dollar shave club clones which take away from "more-worthy" projects.
  - 7y ago
eagsalazar2 7y ago
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.
- creativityhurts 7y ago
  In Miami with LeBron and Wade they were called "The 3 Kings"
- yardie 7y ago
  He won 3 rings while in Miami. He didn’t sacrifice anything.
  - goatherders 7y ago
    2 rings.
  - eagsalazar2 7y ago
    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.
forkLding 7y ago
What's RAX? And also Shaq invested early in Google. In the end, the NBA reflects society and has broad strokes and a wide spectrum of players.
- bruceb 7y ago
  Rackspace.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
elpakal 7y ago
Reminds of a fact about Kobe - apparently he made $196 million on a sports drink investment after retirement. https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/kobe-bryants-6m-investment-sports-drink-now-worth/story?id=57206907 https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/kobe-bryants-6m-investment-spo...

alharith 7y ago

People who think Chris Bosh was riding anyone's coattails clearly don't know anything about Chris Bosh or basketball. First of all, he already showed he was a superstar in his own regard with the Raptors, where he left being the franchise's all-time record holder in points, rebounds, blocks, and minutes played. Second, there is a such thing as too many cooks in the kitchen, and so Chris Bosh understanding this, elected to do what it took to win a championship rather than trying to inflate statistics, and he played his role exceptionally. If you have ever read Bill Simmons' "Book of Basketball" he describes this as "The Secret" (Thank you for this rare opportunity to talk sports on HN!)

goatherders 7y ago
I usually shut down Bosh haters with "He has 2 rings, is an 11 time All Star, and has an Olympic Gold Medal. The number of people with half that resume who aren't in the HOF is ZERO. He's a first ballot guy no question."
- tedk-42 7y ago
  He also grabbed the rebound and threw the ball to Ray Allen for a game winning shot. He was a hard worker who improved his 3pt shot when we went to Miami, knowing he needed to space the floor. He understood what team mentality meant for success.
  - lpaone 7y ago
    Bosh grabbed the rebound because of arguably one of the worst coaching decisions in NBA history; that being to sit one of the greatest defenders ever (Duncan) on the bench for the most important defensive possession of the season. Bosh would not have been able to reach over Duncan to get the rebound and it would have been over. To this day, I still cannot comprehend what Popovich was thinking. That being said, Bosh definitely deserves a spot in the HoF. He was a MVP candidate his final year before leaving for Miami. A lot of people totally forget this.

tmpz22 7y ago

A lot of athletes have their intelligence underestimated because of their background and education - most people don't understand just how smart you need to be to compete at the highest level. But lets not fool ourselves either, there is also a lot of celebrity investments where a famous name is slapped on a lifestyle product like vitamin water, the celebrity makes millions, and the consumers ultimately get shafted because more often then not the celebrity name is just credentialism to up-sell a mediocre product. Shark tank does this as well because they know as soon as the show airs there will be a huge spike in sales by default. Sometimes this is really bad for society as was the case with Theranos board of directors and any of the Kardashian brands. We shouldn't let celebrities amplify pump and dump schemes. I don't think the NBA players you listed have been involved, but I think its always important that we are vigilant for it...

goatherders 7y ago
I'm not sure it's reasonable to put blame on celebrities (athletes or otherwise) for hawking crappy things. A lot of the things people spend "more" on are mediocre product, excellent branding (Apple, Gucci, Range Rover, the list goes on). A celebrity endorsement is just more of the same - branding. And I appreciate your diplomacy (seriously), but a lot of athletes have their intelligence underestimated because they are minorities and only went to college for one or two years...but mostly because they are minorities. The notion that someone young and African-American who can jump out of the gym might also be really smart is not something that's common to consider unfortunately.
- tmpz22 7y ago
  My wording could've been much better, for me its less about condemning celebrity endorsements but taming various tech and consumer fetishes which I ultimately deem as harmful to society. For example, investing in start-ups is good but raising gluttonous amounts of money with a terrible product or business plan is bad. If we have a bunch of articles glorifying industry outsiders parking their money here, it will raise a reciprocal amount of Uber and dollar shave club clones which take away from "more-worthy" projects.
- 7y ago

eagsalazar2 7y ago

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.

creativityhurts 7y ago
In Miami with LeBron and Wade they were called "The 3 Kings"
yardie 7y ago
He won 3 rings while in Miami. He didn’t sacrifice anything.
- goatherders 7y ago
  2 rings.
- eagsalazar2 7y ago
  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.

forkLding 7y ago

What's RAX? And also Shaq invested early in Google. In the end, the NBA reflects society and has broad strokes and a wide spectrum of players.

bruceb 7y ago
Rackspace.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

elpakal 7y ago

Reminds of a fact about Kobe - apparently he made $196 million on a sports drink investment after retirement. https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/kobe-bryants-6m-investment-sports-drink-now-worth/story?id=57206907 https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/kobe-bryants-6m-investment-spo...