- 7/15/2024
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00:00I'm honored to be here with a fellow New Jersey native Jay Williams, the co-founder and chairman
00:05of Improbable Media, and we're going to dive right in because this is Sportico and Variety
00:10in the intersection of sports and entertainment.
00:12So Jay, tell us about Improbable, what's going on over there because you guys have had quite
00:16a splash with the launch.
00:17Yeah, so I've had a very unique journey throughout life working for ESPN.
00:23Obviously, Burke Magnus was up here with Jimmy Pataro, our chairman, and Bob Iger over at
00:29Disney and seeing how a lot of our content was very, you know, driven towards around
00:34situations around athletes, obviously, you know, 10, 11 years ago, reverse engineering
00:41that.
00:42So working with LeBron James and Maverick Carter with Spring Hill, launching a show
00:45called Best Shot and selling it to YouTube, then working with Kevin Durant of Rich Climate
00:49on the boardroom and selling two seasons to ESPN as they launched their D2C model.
00:54And obviously Improbable Media with Giannis has been a great opportunity to kind of reverse
00:58engineer that again by bringing production capabilities in-house, ideation capabilities
01:04in-house, and truly authentically storytelling around who he is and what he stands for.
01:09And doing a docu with Amazon, Giannis' marvelous journey, focusing on immigration, focusing
01:15on fatherhood, mental health, obviously from an immigration perspective.
01:19I can only imagine his mom and dad being from Nigeria and being born and raised in Greece
01:26but being an illegal immigrant.
01:28And growing up that way for 16, 17 years and all of a sudden becoming really good at
01:31basketball and the next day, him and his family have been hiding for so long but then take
01:36a picture with the Prime Minister of Greece and he's the face of Greece basketball.
01:41And, you know, cheers to him.
01:42Just qualified for the Olympics the other day.
01:44He's going to be the flag bearer for Greece and the opportunities that come along with
01:48that for the first time being an Olympian.
01:50So we're excited for him.
01:52And expanding that to other athletes, it's one of the goals of ours.
01:55I watched the doc.
01:57You called me about it.
01:59I called you immediately because I don't know if anybody here has seen it and if you haven't
02:02seen it, please go watch it.
02:04There's this opening scene where the family is sitting around this table and they're all
02:07talking to each other about where they've been and where they are.
02:11And I'm watching it at the beginning and I just said to myself, there's no way this is
02:14real.
02:15Like, they can't be this passionate or like, it was just, this has to be fake.
02:20And then I watched the doc and it beautifully ends back at that same scene where they're
02:24sitting at that same table and they're having that conversation.
02:27It's an extended part of that dialogue.
02:29And I was like, holy shit, this is real.
02:32And it's so authentic throughout the entire family.
02:35And you guys did a beautiful job of telling that story and making it come across real
02:40in that doc.
02:41It was just brilliantly done.
02:42Yeah, it was great.
02:43We had a great director and working with Connor Schell and the company over at Warden Picks,
02:48who I've known through my time at ESPN with 30 for 30.
02:53It resonated with me.
02:54I lost my mom a year ago.
02:56I referred to myself yesterday walking down the red carpet at the ESPYs.
03:00I'm Nikki's husband.
03:01My wife is in the back.
03:02That's always what I say because she's been monumental in the last year of my life losing
03:06my mother.
03:07So watching GA talk around, I call Giannis GA, losing his father and what that meant
03:13to him.
03:14And obviously his brothers corralling, you know, a lot of talk with LeBron James and
03:18Bronnie James being on the same team.
03:20We talk about the 55th pick in the second round of the draft more than we did about
03:24the Boston Celtics being NBA champions.
03:27But I mean, Giannis and his role with his brother, that same scenario, right?
03:31And how tenacity has been with him the entire time.
03:34And it was just, it was an incredible opportunity.
03:36And then working with brands that he already had pre-existing relationships with, WhatsApp,
03:40who we already had a deal with, and going back to Nigeria and working alongside with
03:46Amazon from a programming perspective to then bring life to his real name, which is
03:52Ugo, right?
03:54And how that works and doing a smaller docu on that.
03:57So it just led to a lot of creativity, a lot of innovation around him.
04:01And it got a chance for him to truly tell the story around him and his family, which
04:06you might've saw that a little bit in Rise with Disney, but this was a more true, real,
04:10raw, authentic account.
04:12In your personal involvement, obviously you've had a lot of different roles across media
04:16and entertainment.
04:18What was your involvement in the creation of that film?
04:20I know you had talked a little bit about putting some of the creatives in place, but were you,
04:26how deep did you get into the process?
04:28I was very involved in the process.
04:30Obviously we leaned heavily upon Kristen and Connor over at Word and Pix, but I was a producer
04:36in the process.
04:37And I think just from a storytelling perspective, Todd, like I had to learn how to tell my own
04:41story.
04:42I hit a utility pole my first year in the NBA after I was drafted second overall by
04:47the Chicago Bulls.
04:49And for a very long time, people looked at me as, oh, you're the person that screwed
04:54up their life in a motorcycle accident.
04:56And thinking through the prism of, I feel a lot of times as an athlete, you're always
05:00trying to tell the world how differentiated you are.
05:03I think things are very much different now.
05:05So I think me writing a book, Life is Not an Accident, I wanted to build more bridges
05:11towards people because everybody in this room has had an accident in some form or fashion.
05:15Some may be more extreme than others, but where was that parallel?
05:18Where was that bridge?
05:19And it took me 10 years to do that and multiple editions where Coach K said, this edition
05:23is shit.
05:24Come back, do it again.
05:26But I think after doing that, it kind of just changed the dynamic of how people saw me and
05:31how I was able to view myself in the public.
05:33So I think doing that for athletes and also being on air every single day, you see how
05:39most people come to the table with these narratives and then informing them, this is how you can
05:43actually flip the narrative and talk around things that are truly authentic to you and
05:47give people insight to what's actually going on instead of it being subjective from the
05:53outside in.
05:54Now you're giving your own opinion from the inside out.
05:56One of my favorite things about working with athletes, their families, and their teams
06:01is not the court stuff, not on the field.
06:04It's the human side of it.
06:05And when I read your book, I guess it was seven, eight years ago at this point, which
06:09I, again-
06:10You're dating me.
06:11No, it's, there's a lot of athletes that try to tell their stories in different mediums,
06:16if it's written, if it's audio, if it's on documentaries, what have you.
06:20The book is so well done because you read it and there's so much of your story to your
06:24point that people think about or they think they know, and then you go deep into that,
06:29into what happened and you're very honest throughout and I've had just an incredible
06:34respect for you after reading that book.
06:36But working with athletes on the other side of it, right, who you are as an individual,
06:40what drives you, what your identity is off the court, what you want to do next, I think
06:45what you're doing with Giannis and with some of the other athletes that we're going to
06:47talk about, you bring that out and you help them execute because ideas are one thing.
06:53The execution is incredibly difficult, but that's so much of the value in success is
06:56the execution.
06:57Yeah, and our team, we have over at Improbable, you know, John Stern, you know, we have a
07:03lot of incredible people that work with us on that brand strategy and what that looks
07:06like.
07:07And it's one of the reasons, you know, even like a guy like Chase Griffin, who's here,
07:10you guys hear from later, quarterback over at UCLA, NIL has now opened up so many opportunities
07:17for athletes to challenge themselves.
07:18You know, one of the things that happens, and it happens naturally in any environment
07:22you work in, you know, Todd, when we meet people all the time, the first thing people
07:26ask you are, hey, what do you do?
07:28So you naturally have this identity crisis with I am what I do.
07:32And I think now having younger people truly try to reflect, I wish this would happen to
07:36me when I was 17, 18 years old.
07:38It did to a degree because Coach K very much gets you to think outside of the box.
07:42But now from a business perspective, who am I?
07:45What do I stand for?
07:46What are my brand values?
07:47What is my brand promise?
07:49How do I fulfill that promise?
07:51And then what's the right strategy?
07:53Seeing young people start to ask those type of questions and hold their teams accountable
07:58is such a, it's a difference maker in where we're going.
08:02And it allows and feeds for so much more opportunity.
08:04I had a conversation with someone in media recently about what's happened in the last
08:0910 to 15, 20 years with athletes and the money side and the transition.
08:14And I kept pointing to the fact that there are athletes out there like yourself who are
08:17setting this example for others to follow and to emulate.
08:21And that is changing the narrative.
08:22And it's through your actions, not that you have to have indirect, you know, direct conversations
08:26with everybody, but people see what Jay is doing and they say, oh, I can do that.
08:30I'm going to try to do that.
08:31I'm going to learn from him.
08:32And I think that's, that's, what's changing a lot of the outcomes for a lot of athletes.
08:36You know, I, um, I always feel some type of way when I get called an athlete.
08:39I haven't been an athlete since I was 21 years old.
08:41It's true because I did, I did, I, but I guess you're right.
08:45Um, and I did ask you to hoop yesterday and you told me no, I definitely told you no.
08:49And, and, um, you're going to give me 30, that's going to be all over social media.
08:53If I give you 30, nobody cares.
08:54That would have been all over LinkedIn, but I don't know about the rest of social media,
08:58but, um, uh, there, uh, we were on the eve of the Olympics, so I had, this is, I have
09:02to just tell this quick story, but, um, you, sometimes you go to these dinners, right?
09:05I'm sure we've all been there and you sit around and everybody introduces kind of like
09:08who they are, what they do to your point.
09:10And, um, uh, I was coming, the woman who spoke right before me was a, a four time Olympian.
09:16Perfect.
09:17Right.
09:18Right before you.
09:19And so she gets up, she, she speaks, you know, she, she carried the flag.
09:22Um, I think it was the Lily hammer games, four time Olympian.
09:25And I get up and I get the microphone and I go, Oh, I've never had to follow a former
09:30Olympian before.
09:31And she goes, let me stop you right there.
09:33Once an Olympian, always an Olympian.
09:37Yeah.
09:39So details matter.
09:40Yeah.
09:41There you go.
09:42I guess so.
09:43Yeah.
09:44But you know, it's, um, I love my journey.
09:46It's a, it's one of the reasons even, you know, being at ESPN and watching guys like
09:50Bob Iger or Jimmy Patero or Burke Magnus, because I think a lot of me over the last
09:5520 years, I've had to not be an athlete.
09:58I've had to learn how to become an operator.
10:01I've had to learn where the business of sports, entertainment and finance are going.
10:05Um, and I think really kind of sitting at that intersection, having a lot of conversations
10:10with athletes is one of the reasons why I love that time with Katie and rich when we
10:14launched the boardroom and got a chance to, you know, Serena crushed it last night at
10:18the SPS.
10:20I want to give a shout out to her on that.
10:21And it really shows the evolution of her brand.
10:23I mean, we, I've sat down with her before when she launches her, her venture firm.
10:27What does that mean?
10:29And I think having her explain how she assesses businesses, how she thinks through her strategy
10:34to younger athletes and for them to hear that is amazing.
10:37You know, a guy like junior Bridgman who was one of the most successful athletes out there
10:41in the world and some of the brands he works with, um, talk to David Gibbs about this all
10:46the time.
10:47He's the CEO of young foods.
10:48So that's an example of somebody that athletes should try to model their strategies at.
10:53So I think just now kind of sitting in this world and then being able to relate to the
10:57schedules that athletes have, I have three kids under five, my wife makes sure that we
11:01stay on schedule and everything and managing a calendar and social media and how you do
11:05all these things.
11:06Um, it's important.
11:08I think the more relatability, the better you just hit on there a second, your, uh,
11:12the work with boardroom, um, and spring Hill, what, what did you learn about that time in
11:16your professional journey and how you created, um, and built improbable?
11:22Um, I think there has to be a delineation and there has to be, um, lines of governance
11:30on how it works.
11:31And I think just being real with everybody, I learned that very much with Kevin Durant.
11:35Um, I found myself, you know, there's a delicate line that you walk every single day when you're
11:39able to build relationships with people and then for that not to carry over while you're
11:44doing your job on TV.
11:46Uh, so with Katie in particular, I was on get up, I was telling a story that I thought
11:51was very intriguing as a fact that he reminds me more of Michael Jordan.
11:56And I think I slightly went over the line, um, around who he was competing against and
12:02how he thought around that particular situation.
12:04And that led to almost like a public feud, um, where he responded back to me without
12:10really conversing with me.
12:11And then I had to handle that in real time on national TV and, uh, really make that decision
12:17on who do I want to be?
12:18Do I want to engage in this type of salacious view back and forth?
12:23Because I know that could generate clicks.
12:25I know that's what brands may like, right?
12:27On some of the platforms that we have, or, you know, what do I stand for me?
12:31I chose not to engage.
12:32Uh, and I think that was a very valuable lesson because now working with GA, it's like, Hey,
12:37look, I have my job.
12:38Uh, my job is going to require me to have opinions on what you do on the court.
12:43Um, but it has really helped me shape my mentality on how I don't want to be involved in salacious
12:48content around, you know, things that happen off the court.
12:52I rather focus to the primary place or platform of your job.
12:56And I try to keep it more to what do I see in basketball?
13:00What do I see in football?
13:01What do I see in soccer?
13:03And just really try to keep it to on the core on the field performance.
13:07I don't see coach K would make you run like 15 suicides for that back in my day.
13:12So, uh, yeah, coach Boeheim, um, I was not Jay in college.
13:16I was a walk on at Syracuse and I, so you gotta stop minimizing.
13:20Thank you for the clap from the one Syracuse fan building.
13:22I appreciate you.
13:23Um, but coach, if we had a seven foot around our team and, and coach's rule was always
13:27backboard or dunk it to like, if, you know, no finger rolls, cause you're going to hit
13:30the back rim and it's going to bounce out.
13:32And if any of you have been to what's now the JMA dome, once that was the carrier dome.
13:36If you ever tried to finger roll it, didn't backboard or dunk it, coach band would make
13:40you run the stairs at the dome, which was a miserable, somebody actually in the room
13:45is from our training staff at the time.
13:47So they can probably vouch for me after that, which is crazy.
13:49Small world.
13:50I do know that coach Bayham and coach Kate, they love wine and they love to swear.
13:54So they do.
13:55I've got some stories, but not for this.
13:59And I totally lost my train of thought.
14:00But, um, uh, where were we going?
14:02Oh my goodness.
14:03I mean, you were asking me about, obviously my relationship with Giannis and so thank
14:07you.
14:09This is why it's good.
14:10We do TV for a living.
14:11I can be like, Jay, I need 30 minutes of you right now and he'll talk for the next 30.
14:15Not every athlete is Giannis, right?
14:17Not every athlete is KD.
14:19And I know if you read about improbable, it's, it's about expanding beyond just GA into other
14:25athletes.
14:26So where do you draw the line?
14:27What do you look for in another athlete to help them tell that story?
14:32And is there something, is there someone that's sort of next for you all?
14:36Well, first off, I mean, shout out to Constance Swartz and what she's been able to build with
14:40smack.
14:41Right.
14:42Um, she's really kind of set the tone on the model and Michael Strahan was obviously doing
14:46so much with GMA and also, you know, doing a lot with Mark Lazor in our front over Avenue
14:51sports.
14:52He's kind of like the walking epitome of what it is to be, you know, a sports business athlete.
14:58So I think for me it has to do with intention.
15:01You know, having page backers up here, I've known Lindsay, um, Kagawa Colas, uh, for a
15:06very long time.
15:07And I think valuing the people that you work with is very important.
15:11So I was actually calling a game, um, Alabama at home versus Auburn and behind basketball,
15:19not football, basketball, not football, the iron bowl on the court.
15:24And, um, Jalen Murrow walked behind me and I, you know, we're always trying to look to
15:27do media differently.
15:28And I said to my producer, Hey, he's walking behind me.
15:31Why don't we just get them on?
15:32And we had them on for the first minute of the tip of the game.
15:37And while the game was going on, all the lights went out in the stadium and it was literally
15:41like a 16 minute delay.
15:42We had to do a 16 minute fill.
15:44There's no worse feeling as a broadcaster.
15:46We're like, fill for 16 minutes.
15:48But we had him and, um, you know, I was with Carl Ravage and we just started talking around
15:52a lot of real issues.
15:54And he started talking about, you know, wanting to be the first black quarterback from beginning
15:58to end to win a national championship at Alabama.
16:01He talked around, you know, the transfer portal and how he had a lot of other opportunities
16:05to go to a lot of other schools, but chose to stay.
16:08And he also talked about the pressure he felt, um, being benched the year before Bill O'Brien,
16:15who was the, uh, the eight, the offensive coordinator, the OC, um, for another quarterback
16:20and winning that position back.
16:22But now Nick Saban retiring and having Kellen DeBoer come in from University of Washington
16:27and how they're going to play, you know, a more dynamic system, the West Coast, that's
16:32going to allow him to throw the ball more, the pressure he felt on that for a legacy
16:36brand.
16:37And he, honestly, he blew me away.
16:39He blew me away.
16:40And we then had conversations, it was just announced about an hour ago that we signed
16:44him.
16:45He was our, he's our first official partner outside of Giannis.
16:48Congratulations.
16:50And the thing that really stood out, thank you about, uh, about him the most, and I think
16:53it really shows you where this entire industry is going is that they had a, they had a really
16:58big moment last year, him and his teammate, Terry and Arnold, who got drafted.
17:02He's with Nicole Lynn over at clutch sports.
17:05Um, they filed for trademark, the name link, uh, let a naysayer know.
17:10And there was a moment last year that occurred on college game.
17:13They were Reese Davis and Pat McAfee and it went viral, right?
17:17And the fact that they have a licensing agreement, uh, around merchandise, the fact that they
17:22have filed for trademark, there's a lot of creativity with that and how it's become a
17:27rally cry for the school and seeing how the school has gone in behind it and how they
17:32look to promote it and push it because it's a marketing tool for them.
17:36I don't know why you wouldn't want to promote that.
17:38Uh, cause any other young athlete, look how we're helping this athlete build enterprise.
17:42But I think there are certain individuals out there that are uniquely positioned, uh,
17:48to really build enterprise value.
17:51And Jalen is that for us.
17:52I think working with him on his strategy and how he's going to market and how he's building
17:57incrementally is very important and a super excited for the opportunity to work with him.
18:01What should we expect from a content perspective is with his story.
18:05Is it something long form?
18:06Is it something social media?
18:07Like what are you guys thinking about out of the gate?
18:09I think we're going to look at something social media first.
18:11Uh, it's just the platforms where, you know, people younger than us to live in daily.
18:16I think there's a lot of creativity with the name and himself and you know, his background.
18:21I think him being open and candid and kind of working with us on how to delicately, you
18:28know, walk that line between what's good to tell and what isn't good to tell.
18:33But I mean, he's, his background comes from a military background, both his mom and his
18:37dad.
18:38His dad was his head coach as a young kid.
18:40I mean, I don't think I would have ever made it if my dad was my head coach as a young
18:43kid.
18:44Right.
18:45And how that prepares him for where he is.
18:46And I also think leaning into how difficult last year was for him, uh, there are some
18:52challenges that come along with being an African American quarterback at Alabama and also some
18:58challenges coming along with, you know, one of the greatest coaches of all time telling
19:02you that if you would like to transfer, you're more than willing to transfer and him choosing
19:07to stay.
19:08It says a lot about his character.
19:09It's like, why, why would you choose to stay?
19:11Um, so I think, you know, really leaning into his story and then also seeing how in this
19:18day and age of so many transfers, how he's been able to build camaraderie with all of
19:22his teammates and how he's going to deal with the ups and downs, you know, look, I dealt
19:27with this going into my junior year of school, you know, my sophomore year, we won a national
19:32championship.
19:33I stole a national player of the year award.
19:35People told me I could be the first pick in a draft.
19:37I wanted to stay at school and graduate school year early.
19:40So I came back to school and the amount of media attention I had on me daily and every
19:45little story how it became so much larger than what the story truly was.
19:51I wish I had my own platform to kind of articulate what was actually happening as opposed to
19:58how the media was interpreting what was happening.
20:02And I think, uh, working with Jill and to see if we could bring that to life is going
20:05to be an incredible opportunity.
20:07How, uh, how, from a roster perspective with improbable, like, are you talking 10 athletes,
20:1220 athletes?
20:13Like how big do you think this platform will be or should be?
20:15And from a breadth of sports, obviously we've talked a lot about women's sports today.
20:20Um, is that part of the strategy going forward?
20:23I mean, from a person that's always been an advocate of women's sports and, um, yes, but
20:30I'm not set on a number.
20:32I don't want a large number of people.
20:35I mean, look, Giannis is enough.
20:37Okay.
20:38Like, uh, like, look, it's, it's an international brand and I think that's where sports is going.
20:43Look at what the NFL is doing.
20:44Look at the NBA, uh, with, you know, having multiple players drafted from France, right?
20:49And Victor Wambayama, we were talking about him in the back.
20:52So I can't be in Africa, I mean, Nigeria and, and what the NBA is doing and to grow the
20:57game there is massive.
20:58Exactly.
20:59And then tying that back into Giannis's roots, I think is a, is a really key opportunity
21:02for him and his team as well.
21:05So, uh, I don't want to be something for everybody.
21:07There's not enough room for me to be everything for everyone.
21:10But I think, you know, when you're out in this field and you meet people and you have,
21:14I'd like to spend time to connect and when I understand your story and then how you're
21:18thinking around telling your story and then what the opportunities are, I think it has
21:21to be that unique connectivity point for me.
21:24One of, I want to switch gears and talk a little bit about your personal journey.
21:27Um, and one of my first interactions with you was at a boardroom at our offices back
21:32in New York city.
21:33And I used to host these dinners with, or it was a lunch with, um, our former CEO, Russell
21:37Goldsmith.
21:38And, uh, I'll never forget Jay walks into the room and Russell walks up and they introduced
21:43themselves and, and Russell says to you, Jay, I'm Russell Goldsmith, I'm the CEO of city
21:48national bank.
21:49And you looked him back and you said, I know exactly who you are.
21:53You had done your research and that to me was such a telling moment about you.
21:58And I'm sure some of that from coach K and your family, but your preparedness and everything
22:02you do.
22:03And I know you are spread relative, obviously you've got kids and your family and your wife
22:08and there's a lot of pulls on your time.
22:10But I always look back to that moment.
22:12I'm like, Jay's a special cat.
22:14Where does that come from?
22:15Well, I'm still learning how to balance my time.
22:17As my wife can tell you personally, um, it's a work in progress, but, um, you know, constant
22:22says something that, uh, Dion says all the time, like the main thing is the main thing.
22:27And what I try to help young athletes or people understand is that, okay, let's play this
22:31hypothetical game for a second.
22:33Let's say that you apply yourself for eight hours of the day to train, which is already
22:40absurd.
22:41Like Kobe did five to six.
22:42Okay.
22:43So you're not surpassing Kobe, but let's say eight.
22:44We're just an arbitrary number.
22:45Is he the goat?
22:46Is Kobe?
22:47Don't do this to me.
22:48I told you I was going to do it.
22:49Sorry.
22:50He's one of the goats.
22:51You know how I believe about this.
22:52There's no goat.
22:53Everybody in LA just wants to have this goat conversation.
22:55It's all I've talked about for the last two days, but I had to do it for a second, but
22:58we can go back.
22:59Serena's in that category.
23:00Okay.
23:01We're going outside of basketball now.
23:02If you can win a championship with a child in your stomach, I don't disagree.
23:07She is.
23:08She is a goat.
23:09We can move on.
23:10I agree.
23:11Amen.
23:12I don't know how you guys do.
23:13I agree.
23:14I'm with you.
23:15Um, what was I talking about?
23:16This is what I just had.
23:17This is what you do tonight.
23:18I'm sorry.
23:19I know.
23:20I'm sorry.
23:21We're not balancing your time.
23:22Yeah.
23:23So, you know, look about around the time.
23:24It's a lot of that just comes from doing your prep and understanding where that goes.
23:28Right.
23:29So, for me, when I talk to young athletes around that, so you, you know, we work out
23:32for eight hours and you sleep for another 10 hours, let's say you sleep for 10 hours.
23:37You still have six hours left in your day.
23:40So why aren't you reading up on people that you admire?
23:45Why aren't you coming up here and meeting Lindsay, meeting constant Swartz, you know,
23:49meeting Burke madness, you know, and, and asking them to be on your proverbial board.
23:54Um, if you really want to understand how it is to be a business person, because you
23:58are business.
23:59And I think we, we kind of, I think years ago we would have said that flippantly, uh,
24:04but now with the deal flow that comes across these people's tables daily, the opportunities,
24:11how do you vet that?
24:12How do you think for yourself?
24:14And I truly believe that sports and entertainment is a new asset class.
24:17And the one thing I'm pushing for more than ever is that I am tired of the athletes being
24:22the assets.
24:23I need us to become the principles like Ted Leonidas, right?
24:27Like what is monumental sports?
24:30Like who are they?
24:31What does he stand for?
24:32How is he scaling his business?
24:33How do we get into team ownerships?
24:35Watching LeBron and his team try to do that with the Las Vegas team, right?
24:40It's all these steps to become principles and that starts with building around foundation.
24:44So, you know, seeing athletes up on this podium here today feeling uncomfortable, that's good.
24:50You need to feel uncomfortable.
24:51Like I felt uncomfortable on the court.
24:54That means I was being challenged.
24:55I was learning, right?
24:56So sitting down at the boardroom and having that advantage of learning the vernacular,
25:01learning to ask questions, questioning storming and doing all these, that's what we need to
25:05become.
25:06That's who we need.
25:07That's the next iteration of where we're going.
25:08Did you always have that or was it something that you just had to get reps at?
25:12I mean, you have to get reps at it, but you have to put yourself in positions to get reps
25:15at it.
25:16And coach K was so brilliant at that.
25:17I mean, we had, we were doing all these fantasy camps while we're in college and we had some
25:21very powerful people that would pay 15 to 20 grand that would come on the court and
25:25want to live in our apartments and be coached by us.
25:27I'm like, how do you run a multi-billion dollar company, but you can't remember a simple damn
25:31set on the court.
25:32But it was, it was incredible because it forced us, if you want to be a CEO, most executives
25:38want to be athletes.
25:40That's why they stand on the side, sidelines of games.
25:43You know, don't like, don't think for one second, you don't see like Jeff Bezos, like
25:46thinking how it would be to dunk over Victor Wombayama or how it would be to sack Joe Burrow.
25:51I just got a visual in my head of Jeff Bezos dunking over Victor Wombayama and I don't
25:55know that that would actually work.
25:56Well, he is dunking.
25:57I mean, hypothetically, he is dunking over Victor Wombayama.
25:59I mean, when you're writing the checks, you're, you're dunking over everybody.
26:04So I think finding that gap and building that bridge, that's the responsibility of the athlete.
26:08I think it goes back to the point you made to me earlier about, I am not an athlete anymore.
26:12It's more than that.
26:14We've sort of forced this identity on our professional athletes that like, this is who
26:19you are.
26:20But there are more elements to it and being able to connect with people in a boardroom
26:25or people at a business that makes those reps, that makes that situation much more effective
26:31and for those athletes, for those individuals, I should say.
26:33I mean, look at the meteorites deal that just happened with the NBA, right?
26:36Now, so you still have to go through his progression and we'll see if TNT is able to respond.
26:41I mean, 11 years, you know, he was 86, I think it was 86, 76 billion dollars.
26:47Rounding years.
26:48It was 3X.
26:49All right.
26:50So now you're going to have a middle of the pack players, like names that people don't
26:53know making 25, $30 million a year.
26:56Like that, those are the opportunities afforded.
26:58So you know, what are you doing to build, whether you're an investor, whether you're
27:03looking to work with the league, how are you really scaling those opportunities that are
27:07coming your way and how are you vetting them?
27:11When you look back at your career and obviously the transition was not what you, what you
27:16expected it to be, but what, when athletes come to you and they talk to you about navigating
27:20that transition, what's your biggest piece of advice?
27:24Ecosystem is everything.
27:25And I truly believe in insourcing, like I'm an investor and a partner at a company called
27:29Galway Holdings, right?
27:30Which is an insurance aggregate company.
27:33So a lot of the companies within our port co, one is called, you know, the fairly group,
27:38you know, so we do all the workers comp for the NFL, the MLB, the NHL, it's pretty incredible.
27:43Real media who underwrites a lot of content, they underwrite our company and how we're
27:48working with them.
27:49So I think insourcing and how you can build out your own ecosystem is so important and
27:55finding value in your true authenticity.
27:57So like, why are you involved in risk mitigation?
27:58Well, I, you know, I decided Lloyd's of London policy when I was 19 years old, like that
28:03was a hell of an eyeopening opportunity.
28:05I'm like, wait a second.
28:06Like I can make this if I get hurt, but there's 12 million guaranteed if I leave school early
28:13to become the second pick of the draft.
28:16You know, how am I thinking through that opportunity?
28:18So I think learning what you're interested in and then really taking things that are
28:22truly authentic to you and learning how to build enterprise value off of them is important.
28:27What are you most excited about for you and all of your businesses over the next sort
28:31of three to five years?
28:32I think the investment opportunities.
28:33I think, you know, right now watching what, you know, Serena has been able to do, watching
28:38what LeBron has been able to do, Steph with SC30, KD with 35 Ventures.
28:43I think this next iteration is coming where instead of athletes thinking that they can
28:47do it by themselves, we win championships just by being a part of team sports.
28:52So I do think you will see something new where multiple big named athletes will be coming
28:58together because of how they can force the hand of the market from the investment perspective
29:03and as their brands, right, and navigating, you know, ownership stakes in brands.
29:07Like what Ryan Reynolds has been able to do with Maximal Effort.
29:10So I think the recognition of power that these individuals are having is really fascinating.
29:17And also, I mean, look, women's sports is so fucking cool right now to be involved.
29:22Excuse my language.
29:23I just get really excited about it.
29:24And from somebody that like, you know, and I hate that, you know, I have two daughters.
29:30I've always been engaged in it, but like watching the opportunities for them to see
29:36leagues and see individuals at a young age, to me, it's like, yeah, we're running heavy
29:42in that direction.
29:43We gave up our legend seats at Yankee Stadium a couple of years ago for Liberty tickets
29:46in New York, which has been the best thing ever.
29:48Everybody loves going to it.
29:49Stewie.
29:50Stewie.
29:51That's right.
29:52Yeah, Stew York City.
29:53On that note, we're out of time, Jade.
29:54It's been a lot of fun.
29:55Appreciate it.
29:56And thank you, everybody.
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