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NBA legend Carmelo Anthony wants to see more current and former players in prominent professional sports ownership positions, including in the NBA. However, Klutch Sports Group founder and CEO Rich Paul cautioned him about the downside of athletes doing so for ego-driven purposes.
While numerous NBA players have made savvy post-retirement investments, the league's teams are primarily run by businesspeople who never played basketball.
LA Lakers superstar forward LeBron James is widely expected to transition to an NBA ownership role after his playing career. However, Anthony would like more athletes to follow suit across pro sports.
On Tuesday's episode of "7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony & Kid Mero," Anthony touched on the importance of players getting chances to run franchises. He noted that more need to be in roles where they can use their expertise to make day-to-day decisions.
"I'm for it. I'm for athletes in ownership," Anthony said. "I think there's not enough of us in those seats. There's not enough of us in those boardrooms making the basketball decisions and being able to sit at the table and not just write a check and tell somebody else to go run it."
However, Paul, James' agent, slightly pushed back, pointing out the downside of athletes becoming owners. According to Paul, players are better off investing as parts of ownership groups alongside successful businesspeople than becoming majority owners.
"For me, it's a double-edged sword," Paul said. "I would rather them be able to have access to the deal flow of the groups that are buying these teams and be able to invest alongside the governors and owners of these teams in addition to being able to own teams."
(from 47:22 mark onwards)
Paul added that there is less to gain from buying a sports team in 2026 compared to 1996, as franchises are "at a premium today." So, unless players are interested in trying to "flip" a team for profit, they are better off putting their "egos" aside and accepting ownership group positions.
Carmelo Anthony tells Rich Paul he wants to own parts of multiple professional sports teams
Toward the end of his discussion with Rich Paul about athletes becoming owners of pro sports teams, Carmelo Anthony touched on his investment plans.
According to the 10-time All-Star, he would like to heed Paul's advice and be part of an ownership group so he can invest in multiple franchises.
"Most people would say they want ownership. I don't wanna own a whole team, I wanna get a group because I wanna own another team," Anthony said.
In June, it was reported that Anthony agreed to become a future owner of an expansion team in Australia and New Zealand's NBL. Shortly after, the six-time All-NBA selectee told Andscape that he also wanted to become an NBA team owner "now" and was "working toward" his goal.
Thus, it appears Anthony plans to keep himself busy post-retirement.
