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NBA stars learn the business plays

  • Story Highlights
  • New business school program teaches business to NBA stars
  • Players learn brand building, investment and negotiation
  • Teaching comes from top faculty at a leading U.S. business school
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By Peter Walker for CNN
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- On the court they have unparalleled balance, grace and power. Unfortunately, for too many NBA stars, life away from the game can be a far trickier proposition.

On target: Desmond Mason was one of the stars on the program.

On target: Desmond Mason was one of the stars on the program.

This can be particularly the case when it comes to money, despite the stratospheric salaries on offer, currently averaging more than $5 million a year, higher than in any other U.S. sport.

Some players, it seems, are as adept at signing checks as they are shooting hoops. A report earlier this year cited an internal NBA Player's Association (NBPA) study as showing that more than half ex-basketball pros are broke within five years of retirement, many struggling to maintain expensive lifestyles without the regular salary payments to match.

But now one business school hopes to help at least some of the current crop of NBA stars become as business savvy as they are athletic.

Illinois-based Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management has just hosted its first intake of basketball stars for a four-day executive education program covering topics including business leadership, negotiations, brand building and investing.

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Jointly developed by the NBPA, the scheme follows a similar program, run for several years by Kellogg and several other schools, which teach business skills to NFL stars (covered previously on Executive Education).

While their team mates enjoyed some downtime in the summer off season -- or at least those who weren't winning the men's Olympic basketball gold in Beijing -- players including Quentin Richardson of the New York Knicks, Desmond Mason of the Milwaukee Bucks and Jeff Foster of the Indiana Pacers headed to the classroom for sessions with some of Kellogg's top professors.

"It sounds kind of boring, but it's really not," Richardson said afterward. "There's a lot of interaction and discussion."

Fact Box

FT MBA Rankings
1. Wharton, U.S.
2. London Business School, UK
3. Columbia, U.S.
4. Stanford GSB, U.S.
5. Harvard, U.S.
6. Insead, France/Singapore
7. MIT: Sloan, U.S.
8. IE Business School, Spain
9. University of Chicago GSB, U.S.
10. University of Cambridge: Judge, UK
Source: Financial Times 2008

"As pro athletes, we're approached all the time with people saying, 'You can do this or that, just give me the money.' Now maybe we'll be a little better equipped to handle the situation, to know whether the person is serious or not, or whether they have really thought it through to see if it really makes sense."

Mindful of the fact that the average professional basketball career lasts less than five years, the program is intended to both make the most of their earnings while they play and also consider what they might to subsequently.

"We realize that business education is helpful in preparing a person for a career move, especially for professional athletes," said Steve Rogers, professor of entrepreneurship at the school, who devised the syllabus, adding that the course does not "dumb anything down" for the sports stars.

"The program is optional for these NBA players, so their commitment level is high and they want to learn these business principles."

Rogers now hopes to devise similar programs for other pro sports players in hockey, auto racing and other fields.

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