Orlando Magic guard Cole Anthony wants to help basketball players manage their money

There were two things guard Cole Anthony had to have ahead of his rookie season with the Orlando Magic in 2020.

Before Anthony, a New York prodigy and the son of former NBA player Gary Anthony, was selected in the first round of that year’s draft, he bought a chain with his initials spelled out for $30,000. After the draft, and after signing his four-year, $15 million contract, he leased a new Tesla Model S. The base model price at the time was approximately $100,000.

At 20, he wasn’t thinking about long-term saving or diversifying his portfolio. He had money burning a hole in his pocket.

“My instinct, No. 1, is I get a lot of money I want to spend it,” Anthony, 24, told Andscape. “Especially as a kid, like in high school, I’m not even thinking about saving that money.”

But as fellow New Yorker Jay-Z once said, “Hov did that, so hopefully you won’t have to go through that.” And Anthony wants basketball players younger than him coming up in the name, image, and likeness era, where athletes of any age can make money off their talent, that handling your money correctly is just as important as working on your handle.

“You can come into a lot of money fast,” Anthony said. “You can come out of a lot of money fast.”

On Aug. 22, Anthony held the second annual The Playbook event. Anthony and his business team bring together some of the New York area’s top high school basketball players to help guide them through the financial maze of managing life-changing amounts of money.

The event, which was held at the Police Athletic League in the Harlem neighborhood, consisted of a celebrity pickup game, a comedy show and a backpack drive. The featured event was a financial education panel headlined by Anthony.

Anthony participated in the panel with former Rutgers men’s basketball player Geo Baker and representatives from Morgan Stanley’s Global Sports & Entertainment wealth management division. The group discussed the importance of saving and budgeting, how to strengthen their credit score, the role personal taxes play in sports, hiring the right advisers, and how to navigate NIL deals.

Bryce Council – Anthony’s childhood friend, manager, and co-founder of Anthony’s charity, the 50 Ways Foundation – had been talking to Anthony about mentorship opportunities for high school basketball players in the New York area, their hometown. After the NCAA’s board of directors ruled in June 2021 that collegiate athletes were no longer prohibited from profiting off their talents, athletes of all ages, even as young as 9, have been able to earn large amounts of endorsement money.

“They’re making money a lot earlier than we were making money than obviously when we were in high school,” Anthony said.

Growing up in New York City as the son of Greg Anthony, who played 11 seasons, including for the New York Knicks from 1991 to 1995, Anthony had a village around him who could help him navigate and avoid the dangers of money management. Between his father, mother and stepfather, he had the privilege and access to resources.

So with The Playbook, Anthony wanted to share his personal story, offer the athletes an opportunity to learn more about money, and provide resources to help in the athletes’ college and pro careers.

“We chose New York because that’s where we’re from,” Anthony said. “We wanted to help out the next generation of hoopers — I don’t want to just label them as hoopers because they’re more than that — just kids coming up out of New York.”

Obtaining wealth isn’t as easy and carefree as it can be perceived. Former NBA All-Star and champion Antoine Walker squandered the $108 million he made during his 12-year career.

Anthony thought big purchases such as the chain and Tesla would bring him happiness. He quickly learned that money alone doesn’t take away all your problems. Within a few weeks of buying the $30,000 chain, Anthony never wore it again, eventually melting it down.

“It was cool, but it didn’t really do nothing for me, it didn’t help my family, it didn’t help me,” he said. “It just kind of looked cool. I just feel like it was a big waste of money on my part.

“Cool at the time, though.”

As for the car, he didn’t need a Tesla at the time, but he got it and still drives it to this day (“I need to do something with that,” Anthony said, referring to the lease. “You actually reminded me.”)

Anthony doesn’t want to see these young athletes lose the money they’re earning from endorsement deals, especially since the value of basketball players has increased. During the 2014-15 season, each NBA team had a salary cap of $63 million. Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry signed a one-year, $62.6 million extension in August.

“I don’t want to see none of these kids losing all this money that they worked hard to make up to this point,” Anthony said. “I want to see them take that money they’ve made and let it blossom into more wealth for them and their family.”

During The Playbook, the attendees participated in sports-focused financial literacy exercises to find out how investing and budgeting works. The representatives from Morgan Stanley asked the athletes would they rather have a lump sum of $2 million or start with one cent and double each day’s amount every day for a month, with the lesson being that the latter option actually comes out to the higher total (approximately $5.4 million). In another exercise, the attendees were told to write down their starting five NBA players. They were then given a hypothetical $15 to build out their roster, with players broken into tiers based on their skill level; an NBA veteran like Los Angeles Laker LeBron James might be worth $5, while a six-year forward Mikal Bridges might be worth $3. The lesson was how to budget in a way that optimally works to reach goals and satisfy needs.

“They brought it into basketball because it’s a real-life comparison,” Anthony said.

The NIL era has been needed for a long time, Anthony said, arguing that many basketball players struggle financially growing up in the sport. The ability to get paid for their talents gives these athletes a lifeline that, until recently, was forbidden. While Anthony had the privilege of growing up in Manhattan as the son of a former NBA player, most of his teammates in youth basketball didn’t have the same upbringing. So Anthony understands the difference money can make for those just trying to make it.

(While there are still college basketball players who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, an Andscape study found that from 2010 to 2015, the percentage of first-generation Division I basketball players dropped from 28% to 19%.)

Financial literacy is important, Anthony said, because young athletes are projected to make a lot of money but might not have the proper guidance to not make the money consume them. He and the other panelists at The Playbook also stressed the importance of finding someone they trust to guide them.

Sandra L. Richards, a managing director and head of Global Sports & Entertainment at Morgan Stanley, which donates to the 50 Ways Foundation, said the new NIL landscape exposes athletes to new financial risks and resources.

“Unlike in years past, it is now encouraged and vital to explore working with financial advisors, lawyers/attorneys, accountants (CPAs), and agents/brand managers to help them build and protect their brands,” Richards wrote in an email to Andscape. “So ultimately now, the process and exploration begins earlier, which can be a beneficial thing, so long as they are surrounded with the right people.

“Young athletes today can be more exposed and better equipped to embark on their high school, collegiate and professional journeys, whether it be on the next levels of their sport, or in business and in life.”

The high school athletes of today have the potential to make more than $1 billion individually as NBA players. Five current NBA stars (James, Curry, Kevin Durant, Paul George, Joel Embiid) have each signed for more than $500 million in collective contracts in their careers, meaning the new crop of stars are destined to surpass those totals sooner.

With the money being thrown around these days at young athletes, it’s reasonable for them to believe the money will never run out. But Anthony is here to dispute those notions of limitless finances. He stressed to the attendees at The Playbook that you can’t live on the money you haven’t earned yet, nor can you assume the financial well will never run dry.

“Money can be your best friend if you manage it, take care of it the right way,” he said.

Anthony became a pro athlete a year before the NCAA allowed NIL. But when asked how NIL would have affected him while he was the No. 2 recruit in his high school class or as a freshman at North Carolina during the 2019-2020 season, his response was modest.

“If there was NIL when I was out,” Anthony said, “I might’ve just made a little more money.”