Who Is Baron Davis? Meet The Former NBA Player Who Became A Serial Investor And ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Contestant
Baron Davis has come a long way from being a young boy raised in South Los Angeles.
Davis is likely a familiar face. He was recently dancing his heart out as a contestant on “Dancing with the Stars,” paired with Britt Stewart, for its 34th season. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Davis’ time on the show ended on Tuesday night, Sept. 23, with him having performed a Cha Cha to “U Can’t Touch This.”
“I haven’t been coached in a while,” Davis said, according to E! News. “So to get off my butt was awesome.”
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Now, he will return to his day-to-day as a founder and investor. Davis comes from humble beginnings, but creativity was always his safe space. He admitted on the “LeBatard Show” that basketball was his art and escape. His grandparents raised him during a time that coincided with the crack epidemic, which his parents were affected by.
He also credited his grandfather with building a basketball court for Christmas, bringing the sport into his life.
“I could escape… I was all imagination… It was all dreams,” he said on the podcast.
NBA
That planted seed helped Davis become a Gatorade National Player of the Year and a Parade All-American while at Crossroads School in Santa Monica, CA, Basketball Network reports. As a No. 1 recruit as point guard, he chose to play for the University of California, Los Angeles and was drafted to the NBA following his sophomore year, according to information on the team’s website. The Charlotte Hornets selected him in 1999 as the third overall pick. After six seasons with the Charlotte Hornets (later the New Orleans Hornets), he went on to play for the Golden State Warriors. His 13-year playing career also includes the LA Clippers, Cleveland Cavaliers, and New York Knicks, ESPN reports.
He was a two-time All-Star and retired from the league in 2012 with $147.3 million in career earnings, per Spotrac.
Investor
What he has overcome and accomplished until that point has been impressive, but Davis has only continued to dominate beyond the court. He had already shown interest as a professional athlete, forging connections, attending conferences, and even interning during the off-season, including at a real estate firm, which he admitted did not last long. He also gained experience in a production studio, and from a guy who wrote state legislation finance laws in North Carolina and worked at a family office, who showed him the ropes on investing, Davis said at a panel during LA Tech Week in 2024.
“He taught me a lot about manufacturing, private equity mergers, acquisitions, how you buy a company, why you would invest in the company. So that was cool,” Davis told the audience.
“He’s a huge mentor,” he later added.
Unsurprisingly, Davis is a serial investor with a portfolio that includes Vitaminwater, Thrive Market, Blavity Inc., and Kiddie Kredit, a mobile app that helps children build credit. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, he participated in the app’s $1.4 million seed round that also included investments from Nueterra Capital, Plain Sight Capital, Fuerza Ventures, Verve Capital, and former Miami Heat player Dwyane Wade.
Baron Davis The Founder
Davis is also a founder of The Black Santa Co., a storytelling company with diverse characters, and Business Inside the Game (BIG), a members-only platform connecting professionals to events, investment opportunities, and community building, according to information on its LinkedIn.
“For BIG, it’s really how can we understand the people that are in our membership club and then how do we best recommend the right people to those people. So that’s where I’m at, that’s where I think the tech is at, and so our goal is to build a great community, and for me, I stopped investing so I can start amplifying, so I can start hosting,” Davis said at LA Tech Week. “So I can have the right entrepreneurs on my podcast. So I can bring the right people in the right room. And I looked at the investment side and said ‘OK if I give that up then I can be great for everybody, and I can champion everybody and BIG can be that club that helps elevate people.’”
Baron Davis reportedly has an estimated $60 million net worth, per Celebrity Net Worth.
