NBA player Spencer Jones is already being strategic about his life beyond the league.
Jones was a high school basketball player in Kansas and saw the sport as a path to a great college, he shared with Front Office Sports. It wasn’t long before he had been accepted to Stanford University in 2019, which sits at the heart of Northern California’s Silicon Valley, where he studied management science and engineering through 2024. The outlet reports he appeared in 146 games during his time at the university, averaging 11 points per game on 40% from three-point range and showing defensive versatility.
Though he wasn’t drafted to the NBA, he went on to sign a two-way contract with the Denver Nuggets in 2024 and is in his second season with the team, per the outlet.
“I was not planning on making it big,” Jones told Front Office Sports. “The goal was just to use basketball to get into a place like [Stanford]. Everything else kind of felt like a bonus.”
What’s more, Jones’ identity isn’t tied solely to basketball. He is an active LinkedIn user, where he shares life lessons from the sport on a platform populated by professionals, founders, and investors. He said the platform will be helpful for life beyond basketball.
“I know once my [basketball] career is over, I’m using all this to just pretty much seamlessly bounce into the next thing,”Jones acknowledged to Front Office Sports.
He is already being intentional during his time in the league while growing as a tech investor. According to his LinkedIn profile, his investment portfolio includes Plantiga, “an AI movement intelligence platform, powered by in-shoe sensors.” That opportunity came after Jones connected with the company’s CEO, Quin Sandler, through the NBA’s Business Mentorship Program, Sports Business Journal reported.
“For me, it’s how consistent is the force through the workouts,” he said, speaking of the Plantiga technology, per the outlet. “I’m just letting my body be itself versus forcing it into a specific movement pattern. So it gives me real metrics on the quality and quantity of force I’m putting into the ground on each step, and it matches it based on each side. You’re going to have a natural imbalance a little bit, but what it really helps me track is, if it’s ever outside a 10%-to-15% range, then I’m like, we’ve got to change something. Usually when it’s outside a range around that threshold, [there is] a much higher risk of injury.”
Jones has also invested in ANDIEM, Pison, Aescape, and Rain, per his LinkedIn. When it comes to his sports tech portfolio, he told Sports Business Journal his investment decisions are guided by whether a product can reach a broad audience and whether there is a pathway into health, youth sports, or general consumer wellness.
Overall, he credits his time at Stanford with shaping how he approaches technology today, per the outlet.
“It’s as much the engineering background as just generally being at Stanford and being in Silicon Valley where everybody’s building something, introducing you to something new,” he mentioned, according to Sports Business Journal. “You realize that you don’t have to wait for the teams, companies, whatever you’re working for, to adopt technologies for you to use them. You can get ahead of the curve.”
Jones may not know how long his NBA career will last, but by building relationships, investing early, and treating technology as a long-term play, he is signaling that the NBA will not define the limits of his career.
