Page 84 - Forbes - USA (December 2019)

was the MVP of McDonald’s High School All-American vestments in Coinbase, Robinhood, Caffeine TV, Imper-

Game. By 18, College Player of the Year at the University of fect Food, Lime scooters and more. “He learned about what
Texas. By 19, NBA Rookie of the Year. And so on, all the way it takes to start companies and invest in companies,” says
to league MVP recognition and several runs at the crown Eddy Cue, the head of Apple’s vast internet software and
with the Thunder and then his 2016 decision to join the services division, who first met Durant for dinner and end-

team he couldn’t beat—signing a $54 million contract with ed up talking with him until 3 a.m. “When you’re winning,
the Warriors. The move would forever alter his brand and everyone’s interested in learning what makes you tick, and
his business. Kevin was smart to take full advantage of meeting people.”

82 Durant first took an interest in the money game when
he was weighing competing endorsement offers from Nike o will this playbook work in New York,

and Under Armour in 2014: “I learned a lot about the busi- S America’s other business capital, a place
T

N ness side through that. It really broke things down for me.” that’s more diversified and less starstruck?
A Oklahoma City offered slim options. “There’s oil and real

R To Durant’s credit, as he did around San
U estate,” Durant says, “but that was a real old boys’ club, Francisco, he’s embracing the local ethos—
D

and it was hard to break into.” With one foot still in the oil including the city loft, from which he can walk to Thirty
N
I patch, Durant and Kleiman waded into the tech world, lob- Five’s soon-to-open 4,500-square-foot Chelsea headquar-
V

E bying to invest in the delivery startup Postmates and the ro- ters. “New York will be the culmination of the different
K
bo-investor Acorns. communities Kevin’s touched, and it will take our company
—
In the Bay Area as a Golden State Warrior, though, he had to the next level,” says Kleiman, who met Durant originally
T
S VIP access to the world’s hottest startups. “All the founders through a mutual friend, the musician Wale, at a Jay-Z con-
I
L
and investors come [to Warriors games], and you get to in- cert at Madison Square Garden.
E
H teract with and meet them,” Durant says. “They look like If the Bay Area was about Durant latching onto deals,
T
normal people, but they are changing the world so fast and New York is about owning his own media. There’s Swagger, a
have so much power.” scripted series based on Durant’s early life backed by the Hol-
Durant soon struck up friendships with the likes of Lau- lywood titan Brian Grazer; it’ll be distributed on Apple’s new
rene Powell Jobs, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, streaming service (thanks in part to his friendship with Cue,
Airbnb’s Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, and executives from the Apple executive). Lower-budget series and shorts live
Google and Apple. In the Silicon Valley startup scene, at on his YouTube channel, which now approaches 800,000
once square and status-obsessed, Durant money was sexy, subscribers. Durant’s franchise, The Boardroom, covers the
attracting press, street cred and customers. Soon came in- business around elite athletes with a website, newsletter and
ESPN show. “The younger generation is looking for access
and authenticity,” says ESPN president James Pitaro.
All these initiatives possess an incredibly potent market-
ing solution, the ten-bagger kind. The secret sits in those
MJ VS. LBJ VS. KD workout machines in Durant’s apartment. No player of Du-
rant’s caliber has ever returned from a ruptured Achilles
HOW KEVIN DURANT POSTS UP AGAINST MICHAEL JORDAN to the same level of dominance. No player in almost half a
AND LEBRON JAMES ON (AND OFF) THE COURT.
century has brought an NBA trophy to the country’s larg-
est city, one mad for basketball. “The team is in the garage
stage, where we are putting the idea together. It’s more inti-
mate, everyone understands the goal and has a fresh experi-
ence,” Durant says. “A championship would be a whole oth-
er level, but injecting a new energy into a city through bas-
MICHAEL JORDAN LEBRON JAMES KEVIN DURANT ketball would be even cooler.”

If Durant can pull this off, he’s now positioned himself to
AGE
56 35 31 reap . Acorns and Lime scooters will succeed or fail without
NBA DRAFT PICK him. With his new initiatives and his own assets, he controls
3 1 2 his destiny, and the sky’s the limit. “I want to own and run
NBA TITLES an NBA team—run day-to-day operations and impact young
6 3 2

players coming through the league,” he says, ticking off the
INSTAGRAM FOLLOWING path that Michael Jordan took to become a billionaire.
19.1 Million 53.5 Million 11.6 Million
@jumpman23 @KingJames @easymoneysniper “I started down here,” Durant adds, leaning forward to

NBA CAREER EARNINGS1 touch the floor of his apartment with his gigantic hand. “I
$90 Million $307 Million $224 Million know there’ll be kids popping up in my family, and I want
(1984-1993, 1995-1998, 2001-2003) (2003-present) (2007-present)
them to start above this roof. The only way to get there for
2019 NIKE SNEAKER DEAL
$130 Million $32 Million $26 Million your family is to create money, and I want to do it in a cool-
BEST INVESTMENTS er way, not just being greedy and accumulating as much as

Charlotte Hornets Blaze Pizza, Liverpool FC Coinbase, Postmates
I can.” F
DISCARDED NICKNAME
Magic The Akron Hammer Durantula
D E C E M B E R 3 1 , 2 0 1 9
1

Not adjusted for inflation.