E’Twaun Moore has aspirations for existence Junior Bridgman.
It’s not just because they have something in common—both men are from East Chicago, Indiana, and they played in the same school district and were NBA The jobs span more than a decade—but what Moore hopes to share with him, too.
After Bridgman left the NBA, he pursued a lucrative career. What started as a number of Wendy’s and Chili’s franchises – which he sold for $400 million in 2016, According to Reuters – became a family business that owns Coca-Cola bottling plants, Ebony and Jet magazines. His estimated net worth is $600 million One of the richest men on the planet Played in the NBA.
Moore heard stories of Bridgman’s success after his football career and saw a role model in the 69-year-old executive. He wants to do the same.
He reached out to Bridgman but was unable to contact him. Still, Bridgman is Moore’s motivator.
“I want this to be my track,” said Moore. the athlete. “And my goal.”
Moore was in his sixth season in the NBA, just 28 and at the peak of his career, when he really began to think about his life after basketball. The thought came to him almost by accident. yes, said to himself, You can’t do this forever.
He hadn’t thought about it before then. Sports almost completely consumed his life. He made it out of East Chicago and into Purdue, then stuck in the NBA as a 6-foot-3 combo guard even though he was only the 55th pick in the 2011 draft. Twenty-seven players in the draft class haven’t made it to the sixth season; Six have never played in a game.
Time was a limited resource for Moore, and he spent it with only one thing in mind.
“You only think about basketball and basketball,” he said. “How do you make basketball work?”
But it was that season, in New Orleans, that he realized all NBA players would eventually arrive, sooner or later: His basketball career had an end date. It was amazing.
His family members have always asked what he will do after the NBA. They told him to take care of his money. Moore had that in mind, too.
Now at 33, Moore said the realization was an inflection point for him. After 11 seasons, stints on five teams and more than $42 million in earnings, Moore is out of the NBA. These assumptions have come true, and Moore believes he is thriving.
Moore hasn’t been on the roster since last February, when he was waived before Charm, but he continues to work and prepare himself in case the team calls. However, it is realistic. While many players talk about life after the league, Moore prepared for it.
Today, Moore said his business interests are worth an estimated $40 million, having invested $6 million to buy them. He said he owns two McAlister’s Deli restaurants, has a moving executive in Orlando and rents single-family homes in Indiana and New Orleans, and last year he invested in a 600-unit multi-family real estate deal in Denton, Texas, near the University of North Texas. His most prominent deals were in Texas, where he is located development investor Dulles Executive Airport. Moore was drawn into this project by his cousin and developer, Rodney Burchfield.
“It’s just getting started,” said Moore, who graduated from Purdue with a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership. “I want to try to get nine figures. I want to do my best off the court more than I did playing basketball.”
He said it was Burchfield and Moore’s brother who pushed Moore to find out about his post-NBA plans. During the last six years of his career, Moore received information about real estate or business ideas from Burchfield and began to learn about how that world worked. He was also helped by his agent, Marc Bartelstein, and his financial advisor, Paragon Sports, who he says helped smooth out his deals.
He knew communication would be important. Fortunately, he said, playing in the NBA offers some benefits. Even having a blue check mark on Twitter made it easier to reach others. They know it really is. He connected with Marco’s Pizza on social media while he was still playing for swans And he was able to start a conversation because of his platform.
“When you’re in the NBA, it’s definitely easier to connect with people,” he said. “Obviously you have a name, and the credibility is much higher. To get to the NBA and be successful, you have to be disciplined. You have to work hard. I feel that translates to any work environment or anything you want to do in life. … It’s definitely easier to be an athlete.”
Fame can be a double-edged sword, too. Moore said he’s had people reach out to ask for money for a business — an immediate red flag for him. He’s tried to get to know each person he’s involved with on a personal level in order to build a certain amount of trust.
Moore is also wary of what he calls “home plays.” He tries to be patient with his investments and the opportunities he chases and is aware of his limitations. He said that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
The day after Moore’s magical spell last February, Burchfield called him and told him of a job opportunity. It was a dallas airport deal.
“Maybe that was a blessing in disguise because I have to put all my time into work,” Moore said. “If I was traveling and (playing in the NBA), I wouldn’t have done this deal. … I made $44 million. I would make way more from the airport development project than I did.”
Moore has tried to use his last few years in the NBA to serve as a sounding board for young players. On his last three teams, he’s talked to teammates about taking care of their money and being quick with confidence. He speaks publicly about his work outside of the court because he wants to set an example. He said he grew up in government housing with little money. Now, he wants to provide generational wealth for his family.
It was advice he hadn’t heard early in his career. Generation Z players are already full of more entrepreneurs, and for many of them fortunes came early in life, with no bigger paychecks in their first few years in the league. Moore believes that this new generation is already more introspective and business-minded.
“It started as a business even before you got to the NBA, so you have to protect what you have,” he said. “The earlier you can understand how to pay your bills, and what the interest rates are, the better.”
While Moore is not on an NBA roster, he does not consider himself a retired player just yet. He still loves sports. He still watches games, practices and believes he can help a team that needs his skill set and skills (he hit 38.8 percent of 3 in his career).
He thinks he can play for another five years but knows he probably won’t.
“I have to be ready if the team doesn’t want to take me,” he said. “So what am I going to do?”
When he officially retires, Moore plans to finally make some business cards. He just kept holding on until he knew it was over.
He already knows what the cards have to say: He’s a former NBA player, he’s devoted most of his life to that pursuit and he’s not going to shrug it off.
But they will also say that he is an entrepreneur. In fact, he wants to correct that. His business card would read, “Successful Entrepreneur.”
(Photo by E’Twaun Moore: Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images)