‘I think it’s revolutionary’ former NBA star Baron Davis talks athletes in media, investing at Collision in Toronto

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Baron Davis thinks there is plenty of space for professional athletes to do far more than just compete at the highest level in the sporting arena.

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Since retiring in 2012 after 13 seasons in the NBA Davis has gotten involved in a number of startup companies and has made a mark in broadcasting both in television as a TNT analyst and as a podcaster.

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Podcasts featuring current or former NBA players such as Draymond Green, JJ Redick, ex-Raptor Danny Green and former Davis teammates Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson now have massive audiences and are changing the way information is disseminated to the public.

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“I think it’s revolutionary because we get to hear from the players themselves,” Davis told Postmedia Wednesday at Collision, the technology conference that brought more than 35,000 attendees from 118 countries to downtown Toronto for three days this week.

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“I realized this when I became a reporter or part of the media, there’s a lot of f—-ng research you have to do. Right? To like, find out about a player. I think the beauty of being a player is even if you don’t know that player, you know them,” Davis continued. “So you share an experience and then there’s like this little X factor … We have this kind of like, feel, frequency and understanding (from having gone through the same things),” he said.

“And so now athletes going into the media in the podcasting space, I like it, because it gives another level of perspective. And then it gives it a deeper level of actual emotional reaction.”

The two-time all-star feels that athletes sometimes open up a bit more when around colleagues as it doesn’t seem as formal as the media availabilities they are consistently trained to button themselves up for.
Davis believes that can lead to better content for everyone.

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“You’re actually getting true value, or their true point of view. It just gives more and more context, and then lets the reporter come back (later), follow up circle up, and professionalize a lot of the stories that are being told,” Davis said.

Davis was on hand to promote some of his initiatives like SLIC (Sports Lifestyle in Culture) a digital sports platform. He said none of this is new to him. He was ahead of the curve in embracing off the court investments.

“I was doing it when I was playing. I built my first tech startup company in 2004. It was called Ibeatyou.com,” Davis said. “It was way before the phone and I built a platform that I wanted to compete with my friends. Whether it was a shoe challenge, cinnamon challenge, how many free throws you can make, three-point challenge so that was way before there was an iPhone. I’ve been kind of using the time that I was in the league to find different entrepreneurs, find smart people, create companies and businesses and, just kind of grow in that aspect,” he said.

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“I think it’s my duty, to be a voice and then also be an ally to athletes that are breaking barriers … What I say to athletes now is ‘you are a business. A scholarship is a grant, so that is the seed funding to figure out who you want to be. And while you’re on the team, you have access to a world of people in a world of opportunity to create your own narrative.’”

Davis spoke at the third in-person Collision event in Toronto since 2019. It will return next year too. Each of the conferences have featured a number of sporting angles, and this one was no different. Canadian swimming icon Penny Oleksiak talked of her love of financial literacy and her interest in the growth of athletic technology, which can help edges be gained and in injury recovery (Oleksiak is on the mend herself from a torn meniscus).

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“We need to inspire kids so that we have innovation and we have people that can think beyond what we’re able to (currently do),” Oleksiak said at a Q and A at Collision.

One-time Davis rival Shane Battier discussed his love of analytics, which helped him break down strengths and weaknesses and slow down players like Kobe Bryant, and how he now aims to “control the process towards optimal health” and how to bring that to the masses.

Kelvin Beachum, an Arizona Cardinals offensive tackle who broke into the NFL around the time Davis was retiring from the NBA, had a fascinating talk Wednesday about how a seventh-round draft pick has become an investor in 16 different companies. “We can only play sports for a finite amount of time. Venture can open new areas. Why can’t I do it?,” Beachum, similarly to Davis, wants athletes to ask themselves.

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Beachum knew he wasn’t going to be able to come up with the billions needed to invest in an NFL team, so he looked for something else. Something he knew nothing about: Cricket. When he found out it was the second-most popular sport in the world, Beachum had a spark and now he is a minority owner of the Rajasthan Royals, valued at $1 billion, in the Indian Premier League, with former teammate Larry Fitzgerald and hoops star Chris Paul.

You can bet Davis is a fan of the move.

@WolstatSun

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