This story is a partnership with The Street, part of Sports Illustrated’s exploration of the ways sports and finance intertwine—from the NIL revolution to online betting, business-minded athletes and more. For more on sports and money, see SI’s October 2023 Money Issue or go to TheStreet.com.
Many consider Richard Jefferson the greatest NBA player never to make an All-Star team. That doesn’t mean that the current league analyst was not widely regarded as one of the top players of his era—and, frankly, pro basketball players don’t have careers that last for 18 years if they’re not elite hoopers.
Jefferson, however, knew during his playing days that while basketball was his passion, it was not the only thing he was interested in.
“You get to a point in your career where you're like, ‘Okay, I've been fortunate to make money. I'm very stable in this career, but there are other interests,’” he tells Sports Illustrated.
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The current ESPN analyst believes that, aside from the big-name athletes whose post-career ventures get a lot of attention, many people are willing to overlook what former players accomplish once they retire.
“There's guys who want to go and be teachers, there are guys that want to be coaches. There's guys that want to invest in business,” he says. “And I think, you know, that competitiveness and that curiosity, I think, is a positive thing when you enter into more of the business space.”
Jefferson believes in making mistakes
Jefferson also wants to clear up one common fallacy he hears about athletes moving into the business world.
“I think one of the things I think one of the biggest misconceptions is that businessmen don't get it wrong,” he says. “...There have been plenty of like athletes that have invested in silly things or have made mistakes. But that's also saying that regular investors haven't made mistakes. One of my one of my kind of favorite things is like Bernie Madoff stole $40 billion, and he’s the richest smartest businessman in the world, right?”
Jefferson believes that making mistakes is part of the journey.
“There's no person that has made a billion dollars or no person that has made hundreds of millions of dollars that hasn't also made mistakes,” he adds.
Jefferson credits the NBA with helping him learn that he needs to do extensive work before entering a business venture.
“The NBA, they do a real estate class and they said, ‘hey, walking around with a ton of money and entering a field without the right education is like walking around [with a] loaded shotgun and not knowing what to do with it and how to use it, it can be dangerous,’” he says.
That’s why some of Jefferson’s first business ventures were real estate purchases made with friends who were successful in that field.
“So now I'm working with people that are in the industry, I'm working with people that have a better understanding of what the market is doing and the prices of things,” he says. “I think the one thing that I've learned is to find mentors or people you trust within that industry that you're trying to work with.”
He shared that he understands that people will always want his money and his notoriety and in exchange for that, he gets to work with people with experience.
Sometimes experience leads to opportunity
Jefferson’s first standalone business came out of an experience he had doing hot yoga during the 2011 NBA lockout. The studio he was attending classes at was in Santa Monica, and he saw people driving from 20-30 minutes away to attend classes.
That suggested to him that there was a need for similar studios in other markets. The NBA great realized after talking with numerous people, and a chance encounter with a yoga enthusiast on a plane, that a market might exist for a hot yoga studio in Los Angeles’ South Bay neighborhood.
Jefferson also knew the South Bay area, which contains Manhattan Beach, was home to many L.A. Lakers and other professional athletes. That was enough for the former NBA great to bring on partners and open a yoga studio in that area.
“It probably took us a year. It probably took a, you know, a good amount of money. But once we open, we've probably broke even four months in,” Jefferson says.
Now, the studio has over 500 members despite going through the COVID-19 pandemic when many people canceled their memberships because in-person classes could not be held.
The best move Jefferson and his business partner made was bringing in the right yoga expert and giving her an incentive to have the business succeed. They offered one of the yoga teachers at another studio a chance to join them as a partner with profit participation.
“It’s really a small business. But that, to me, is probably the most proud thing that I have created,” Jefferson says. “Because not only am I doing it with people that I’m close to, but it’s because I was able to spot a hole in the market. I was able to spot an opportunity and did everything that we could to make it succeed.”
