According to ESPN, Kevin Durant's aspirations to eventually own an NBA team have "intensified" since he became a Golden State Warrior back in July 2016.
That's a sentence that probably needs a lot of context, so here it is. Durant and his business partner, Rich Kleiman, have held numerous meetings with current owners and tech CEOs over the past year-and-a-half in order for Durant to get a feel for the position. In addition to giving Durant an idea of what the job would require, it's also part of a strategic effort to get on the radar of some of the Bay Area's top business figures.
Sources told ESPN that Durant is serious about buying a team when his playing career ends, and that a transaction like that "is a genuine goal of his after he retires, to add another African-American in the position of majority ownership."
Currently Michael Jordan holds the title as both the only African American and the only ex-player to be a majority owner of an NBA franchise.
Durant's now publicly revealed ambition comes just a week after he told ESPN that he wants to see more African-American players holding down NBA personnel roles.
"MJ was the first big Nike athlete, the biggest star of his time, but if you don't have the trajectory, that path, that journey, it's going to be hard to do what he did," Durant said. "But you can still affect the NBA and the game of basketball in a different way. You don't have to be an owner. I think it should be more guys in the positions of power like general managers and scouts and coaches. Anything that involves the day-to-day operations of these franchises. I think more players and more experienced players should be in those positions."
As pointed out by ESPN, Durant has used his NBA checks to invest in a number of tech companies. As writer Chris Haynes wrote:
"Durant has investments in Rubrik (a cloud computing startup), Overtime (a sports technology media startup), the pizza chain Pieology, the app Acorns, Postmates (an on-demand delivery service) and Skydio (an autonomous drone startup)."
"We're paid for what we can do on the basketball court and most players know these paychecks are not going to come on the first and 15th for the rest of our lives," Durant said. "If we get a big sum of money, why not try to help it grow? That's what entrepreneurs and Fortune-500 CEOs do. They get a crop of money and they try to grow it. They get a product and they try to grow it. We're our own business. Why not try to control that and why not try to leverage that to provide a better life after you're done playing? That's what it's about."
Well said, well said. If it does happen, though, just don't follow the Derek Jeter blueprint.
