An NBA champ and Olympic gold medallist who became a tech entrepreneur

Most athletes dread retirement. Emptiness and a big question loom ahead. The former Indian tennis player Ramesh Krishnan once articulated this question well - “What do I do with my day?”

There are no such worries for Andre Iguadola, currently with Miami Heat but earlier at Golden State Warriors, with whom he won three NBA championships. Iguadola is 36 and near retirement, but already well-entrenched in the business world. He was an early investor in a company you love and hate - Zoom. He joined Comcast Ventures’ Catalyst Fund as a venture partner. He is a board advisor at enterprise software company Zuora. He believes in data. He reads ‘The Art of War’.

“Professional athletes have too much downtime,” Iguodala said in an interview in The New York Times in December. “That’s how they get in trouble. What I’ve been able to do is take that time and find something that’s purposeful, and it’s something I really enjoy, and not just monetize it, but also help bring my cohorts into the space with me and help them learn as well.”

Iguadola, a member of the gold medal-winning American side at the 2012 Olympics, added, “The folks that follow the tech space, they all know data is king and we all know the importance of data. And not just the importance of data, but how you use it and how you can use it to build your company.”

Iguodala, who plays in defence, is basketball’s Everything Man.  He is the NBA Player Association’s first vice-president, and mobilises players for social and commercial causes. In 2017, Iguodala and teammate Stephen Curry teamed up with Bloomberg L.P. to establish the annual Players Technology Summit. It is a platform to connect athletes with key people in technology and venture capitalism.

In 2020, there were other priorities. After the police shooting of Jacob Blake, an African-American man, Iguodala was at the forefront of player agitation and their discussions with the league’s franchise owners about race issues. They agreed to carry on playing only after the owners made certain promises, including finding ways to provide voting access to underrepresented communities.

“How you get so many African-American athletes of that wealth to be able to come out stronger as a whole, as a union, that was a beautiful thing, regardless of what people may have thought would happen,” Iguodala told NYT. “Just seeing all of us being able to have dialogue, whether we agreed or we disagreed with one another, that was huge.”

Watching other players – including one who temporarily called himself Metta World Peace - for hours for data was the basis of Iguodala’s game. It’s what he advocates to his 13-year-old son, Andre II. And it is fair to assume he applies it when he steps out of basketball gear and into a business suit.

“I’ve learned to pick up on my surroundings,” Iguodala said. “That’s something I’ve taught him [his son]. ‘When you’re watching me play, see how I’m playing, knowing your opponent.’ It’s like ‘The Art of War’ and giving him a few tactics on just seeing life a certain way, where you’re ultra-alert and you try to use those things to your advantage. Data is the key. There’s no such thing as having enough knowledge.”