Kevin Durant is one of the best basketball players in the world, which makes him one of the highest paid players. He has used some of this money to progress a few different businesses outside of the NBA.
How many Businesses does Kevin Durant own? Kevin Durant is the majority owner of one business, Thirty Five Ventures, an investment company. He owns shares in more than 80 different companies through endorsements and investments. The 35 in Thirty 5 ventures is taken from his playing number, he wore at high school, college and with the OKC Thunder in the NBA. After a brief stint as number 7 in Brooklyn, Durant is sure to pick the Thirty5 back up with the Phoenix Suns.
Kevin Durant received a pretty good rookie contract having been the second overall pick in the 2007 NBA draft, just behind Greg Oden. Durant and Oden went on very different career paths. The contracts of the two make that pretty obvious with Durant signing some huge contracts in his time in the NBA and Oden falling out of the league due to injury.
There are some NBA players who don’t use their contract earnings well. Durant is certainly not that sort of player. After continued good performances with the Oklahoma City Thunder, 2016 was looking to be a big year for Durant as he entered free agency for the first time and off the back of losing the conference finals having been cruising 3-1 up against the Warriors. He made the huge decision to join the Golden State Warriors but it was not the only big move that Durant made in 2016. Part of Durants stated reason for moving to the Warriors was the business connections he could make being based out near Silicon Valley. With his manager Rich Kleiman, the pair started Thirty Five Ventures, named after the number Durant has worn throughout his NBA career before moving to the Brooklyn Nets (now 7).
What is Thirty Five Ventures?
The company is an investment firm that has a focus on media, tech and entertainment. It is Durant’s main lane into the business world as he is the majority owner of the company. The combination of the vast funds that Durant has earned throughout his career combined with investment and business experience from his partner have produced a very profitable business.
The company has grown massively over the last five years thanks to some incredibly smart investments. One of his most profitable investments was into cryptocurrency marketplace Coinbase. Durant made significant investments into the company alongside his partner Kleiman before the company went public when they had a $1.6 billion valuation.
When Coinbase went public In April of 2021, the company was valued at more than $100 billion and Durant made huge profits on his and Kleiman’s investments. It is not the only incredible profit that KD has made on an investment. The biggest win was when Thirty Five Ventures participated in a $200 million funding round for health tracking firm Whoop.
The company’s value skyrocketed after investment and Durant made a return of approximately 2,800%. His investments have certainly diversified thanks to a few big wins. As planned, his time in Golden State allowed Durant to make some close connections with Silicon Valley executives.
It led Durant to expand his investments into different tech companies and now Thirty Five Ventures has investments into over 100 different companies including the two already mentioned. Included in those investments are companies like SeatGeek, Dreams and Overtime which are three very different companies.
So while Durant does not own these companies, his investments mean that he is a minority owner in more than 100 different companies. His investments have also moved back into sports even during Durant’s NBA career.
The biggest investment came in 2020 when Kevin Durant purchased a 5% stake in MLS side Philadelphia Union which was estimated to cost around $16.25 million. The deal also included a partnership with Durant’s investment firm. This deal was only made because Durant could not agree to a deal with his hometown MLS team D.C. United.
The company has also started to expand into producing media content, with Durant following in the footsteps of Lebron James to set up his own production company. This expansion has included Durant and Kleiman working on a few different films together.
This includes “Two Distant Strangers” which recently won an Academy Award in the “Best Live Action Short” category. They have even recently sold a show to Apple TV. It is called Swagger and premiered on the 29th October 2021. It stars O’Shea Jackson and was inspired by Kevin Durant’s childhood in basketball.
Kevin Durant & Boardroom
One of the other companies that Durant has helped to launch is Boardroom, a sports business media network that can include lifestyle and culture content. It was launched in 2019 and was another joint venture between Durant and Kleiman, owned through 35 Ventures.
Boardroom is one of the most innovative companies that Durant is involved in. Its main aim is to bring unique perspectives on sports business news and key players. Boardroom is incredibly varied covering players, teams, league news as well as cryptocurrency, collectibles and market trends.
Thanks to Durant’s huge range of connections, Boardroom continues to do interviews with some of the big names in a variety of industries. In the last month alone the company has interviewed Jerry Rice, Tony Khan and Logan Paul. It shows how varied the company’s content is.
Thirty Five Ventures has also made huge investments into the Kevin Durant Charity Foundation which was set up in 2013. The mission of the foundation is to enrich the lives of at risk youths from low-income backgrounds through a few different programs. The foundation’s biggest achievement is the Durant Centre.
The Durant Centre will act as a community hub for over 230 students and is the home of a range of programs that the KDCF runs. They already have their first class of high school students graduating in 2022 and the foundation is looking at ways to support them going into college.
Durant recognises that basketball is the reason he is able to make these smart business investments and so he is giving back to the community. The Basketball Renovation Initiative was set up by Durant and the aim is to increase the number of high quality basketball courts accessible to underprivileged youths across the United States.
So far, the initiative has completed total renovations on 24 different courts across countries like the USA, Germany, China and India. Durant is the owner and face of the company and his efforts are making positive impacts on lots of different communities worldwide.