You can’t miss this guy on the court. Even among giants, Shawn Bradley towered at 7-foot, six-inches. Bradley was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1993 after leaving Brigham Young. He went on to play center for the Nets and the Mavericks, leading the league in blocks in 1997. In 2005 he called it quits.
One of his post-retirement endeavors has been running for the House of Representatives as a 2010 Republican candidate. He lost that race, but he went on to be in the movie Space Jam. His day job is running a ranch. Finding a horse big enough to carry him is one of the challenges of working on the ranch. He enjoys operating heavy equipment and has his own heavy equipment rental company called Mammoth Machinery, also based in Utah. Bradley is also a devout Mormon. He and his wife of six children live on the Utah ranch.
Hakeem Olajuwon – Real Estate Mogul
Hakeem Olajuwon is another basketball legend whose name is synonymous with the NBA. Olajuwon may have been born in Nigeria, but he’s an American superstar. Starting out at the University of Houston, he came to the NBA with the Houston Rockets in 1984. Apropos of the Rockets, Olajuwon launched his legacy with a bang. That year he won, not just NBA MVP, but NBA Defensive Player of the Year and NBA Finals MVP. It goes without saying, he led the Rockets to an NBA title that year as well. He did the same thing the next year. Back to back championships!
So, what else has he done? Well, first of all he mentored players like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, to name a couple. After retiring in 2002 from 18 seasons of play, he became a Houston real estate magnate. With huge investments in the city’s properties, his company, Palladio Development Ltd., churned out $100 million in profits. As a devout Muslim, he’s made his fortune interest free. He’s worth $200 million.
Dennis Rodman – World Diplomat
Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman won five NBA Championships in his 14-season career. Like a basketball genius, he is known as the best rebounding forward in NBA history, racking up points for the Pistons, the Spurs and the Bulls. The two-time All-Star’s attitude came before him. The many scuffles and tension with the NBA ultimately found him sampling other careers.
Rodman’s autobiography called, Bad As I Wanna Be, says it best, as if his tats, piercings and outrageous hairstyles didn’t say it already. He took his impetuous personality to Pro Wrestling and appeared in Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling ring, flamboyantly reveling in the acts. He starred in Hollywood movies, hosted an MTV gig, and ended up in North Korea chillin’ with communist dictator Kim Jong Un—becoming an American ambassador of sorts to the tiny section of the Korean peninsula. He’s lived life his way, unapologetically.
Kenny Anderson - A Camp Director
NBA point guard, Kenny Anderson from Queens, N.Y., played for the New Jersey Nets and several other teams, staying four seasons with the Celtics. Straight out of Georgia Tech, after leading the team to the 1990 Final Four, he made the 1991 All-American first-team his rookie year. Anderson went on to make the All-Star team in 1994 and to enjoy a solid career, retiring in 2006. His advice to retirees of the NBA? He addresses an all-too-common problem: “Be cautious on who you allow to handle your finances,” adding, “You think you’re letting other people help you out but they could be stealing from you.”
High school basketball coaching became his day job after he left professional basketball. A DUI ejected him from that career, but he’s been running basketball camps in Florida and gets back on the court as a coach of youth travel league. Sadly, Anderson suffered a stroke in February of this year and is now recovering.
Karl Malone – Malone Properties Entrepreneur and Truck Driver
NBA Hall of Famer, Karl “The Mailman” Malone, delivered over 36K points over his 19-year career, ranking second in all-time NBA scoring history only to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Malone was a 14-time All-Star and a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player. Malone is a Utah Jazz staple, even after being retired for 20 years. An 8-foot-high bronze statue of his likeness stands in Salt Lake City. The next two decades of his life have been spent as a successful entrepreneur owning businesses from car dealerships to running a deer hunting venture called Malone Outfitters—Malone as your personal, licensed guide. He’s an avid hunter. His house in his home state of Louisiana looks like a taxidermist shop! It sits on a large timberland property.
One of his first business ventures out of retirement was harvesting the trees. He’s hands-on. Malone will actually haul the timber himself, apparently loving trucking. It gives him time to think. Recently he has opened some Louisiana businesses near his family home with his oldest daughter who’s got the entrepreneur bug too. She’s super proud of their Cigar and Vape Shop. They traveled to the Dominican Republic to research out the endeavor. In that Louisiana town they also own a restaurant together called Teriyaki Grill, Tactical by Karl Malone, a clothing store, plus an apartment complex for college students. It’s Ruston, Louisiana, but people just call it “Malone Town.” In Salt Lake City, where his auto dealerships are located, Malone Properties employs over 370 workers.