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About Boardroom

Boardroom is a sports, media and entertainment brand co-founded by Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman and focused on the intersection of sports and entertainment. Boardroom’s flagship media arm features premium video/audio, editorial, daily and weekly newsletters, showcasing how athletes, executives, musicians and creators are moving the business world forward. Boardroom’s ecosystem encompasses B2B events and experiences (such as its renowned NBA and WNBA All-Star events) as well as ticketed conferences such as Game Plan in partnership with CNBC. Our advisory arm serves to consult and connect athletes, brands and executives with our broader network and initiatives.

Recent film and TV projects also under the Boardroom umbrella include the Academy Award-winning Two Distant Strangers (Netflix), the critically acclaimed scripted series SWAGGER (Apple TV+) and Emmy-nominated documentary NYC Point Gods (Showtime).

Boardroom’s sister company, Boardroom Sports Holdings, features investments in emerging sports teams and leagues, including the Major League Pickleball team, the Brooklyn Aces, NWSL champions Gotham FC, and MLS’ Philadelphia Union.

All Rights Reserved. 2022.
Execs & Entrepreneurs September 29, 2023
Bernadette Doykos
Bernadette Doykos

The Kevin Durant Business Portfolio: Building Boardroom, Nike & Sports Investments

Photo by Chris Coduto / Getty Images
As Kevin Durant celebrates a milestone birthday, the Boardroom family looks back at everything that he’s built off the court.

Kevin Durant is heading back to Phoenix for his second season. Despite his meteoric rise as one of the best players in the history of the NBA, Durant’s impact extends far beyond the hardwood.

As he celebrates his 35th birthday, Durant can look back at a remarkable year during which he doubled down on his investments in sports teams and leagues, continued to build his production credits, and signed Nike basketball’s third-ever lifetime deal. KD is the blueprint for the modern athlete/investor. In addition to his investment in the MLS, NWSL, and Major League Pickleball, Durant has also set his sights on emerging sports leagues, such as the Premier Lacrosse League, Athletes Unlimited, and League One Volleyball.

Additionally, Durant announced Boardroom’s newest venture: the Boardroom Advisory, which will work with athletes, executives, and brands to create opportunities through venture and private equity investing, sports ownership opportunities, business strategy, and content creation.

Let’s take a closer look at the Kevin Durant business portfolio.

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Kevin Durant Business & Investments Overview

NOTE: This list is Boardroom’s curation of the most important Kevin Durant businesses and ventures and is not to be considered exhaustive.

35V

  • Type: Sports, Media and Entertainment Company
  • Role: Co-founder
  • Founded: 2016
  • Fun Fact: 35V includes investments in more than 100 startups, and serves as the foundation from which Boardroom was born.

Boardroom

  • Type: Media Company
  • Role: Co-founder
  • Founded: 2019
  • Fun fact: Prior to founding Boardroom, Kevin and his business partner, Rich Kleiman, hosted a limited-release show on ESPN called The Boardroom. The show brought fans inside the business of sports, featuring real-time conversations with athletes and executives about what’s really changing the game. The conversations that they had on that platform served as the foundation for the media company.

Durant Family Foundation

  • Type: Philanthropic Foundation
  • Role: Co-founder
  • Founded: 2013
  • Fun Fact: The foundation’s mission is to enrich the lives of at-risk youth from low-income backgrounds through educational, athletic, and social programs. DFF started the BUILD IT AND THEY WILL BALL initiative, which aims to build high-quality basketball courts in low-income neighborhoods. Since 2015, it has constructed 32 courts around the world, from Brooklyn to Guangzhou, China. Additionally, in 2019, DFF opened The Durant Center, a 10-year, $10 million investment in partnership with College Track, which provides out-of-school time programming for local youth of Prince George’s County and has served over 230 students to date.

Nike

  • Type: Sportswear Brand
  • Role: Lifetime Athlete
  • Fun fact: Kevin is the Beaverton Brand’s third-ever lifetime basketball athlete, joining rare air with the elite company of Michael Jordan and LeBron James.
Read More About KD’s Lifetime Deal with Nike
The NBA superstar is locking in with the Swoosh for the long haul — the enduring Kevin Durant Nike contract just became a forever deal.
Check it out!

Philadelphia Union

  • Type: MLS Team
  • Role: Minority Investor
  • Year of Investment: 2020
  • Fun fact: The Union claimed the Eastern Conference Championship in 2022 to advance to their first-ever MLS Cup Final.

NJ/NY Gotham FC

  • Type: NWSL Team
  • Role: Minority Investor
  • Investment Year: 2022
  • Fun Fact: Durant jumpstarted a long list of all-star investors in NJ/NY Gotham FC, which also includes Sue Bird and Eli Manning.

Brooklyn Aces

Athletes Unlimited

  • Type: Network of Professional Sports Leagues
  • Role: Investor
  • Year of Investment: 2023
  • Fun fact: Athletes Unlimited seeks to provide a new variety of professional sports leagues for women. Since starting 2020, AU has rolled out basketball, volleyball, lacrosse, and softball leagues. Additionally, it is a Public Benefit Corporation founded on the values of innovation, inclusion, and excellence. Prior to making an official investment in 2023, Durant served on AU’s advisory board since its inception.

Premier Lacrosse League

  • Type: Professional Lacrosse League
  • Role: Investor
  • Investment Year: 2022
  • Fun Fact: Boardroom and the PLL teamed up for the first-ever street lacrosse event in Sept. 2023. The afternoon featured an updated version of North America’s oldest game and brought in athletes from across New York City.

TMRW Sports

  • Type: Professional Golf League
  • Role: Investor
  • Investment Year: 2023
  • Fun Fact: Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy founded the league, which is expected to make its debut in 2024. KD joins a deep list of investors, including Stephen Curry, Andre Iguodala, Steve Nash, Chris Paul, Jayson Tatum, and Diana Taurasi.

League One Volleyball

  • Type: Professional Volleyball League
  • Role: Investor
  • Investment Year: 2023
  • Fun Fact: League One Volleyball raised $35 million in Series B funding with investments from Lindsey Vonn, Candace Parker, Jayson Tatum, and more.

National Cycling League

  • Type: Cycling League
  • Role: Investor
  • Investment Year: 2023
  • Fun Fact: The NCL is also the first majority-women-owned and minority-owned professional sports league in the US and is committed to diversity and inclusion.

More Athlete Investments:

Bernadette Doykos

Bernadette Doykos is the Senior Director of Editorial Strategy at Boardroom. Before joining the team, her work appeared in ELLE. She previously served as the head of evaluation for a nonprofit where she became obsessed with systems and strategy and served as the curator of vibes and extinguisher of fires for the design thinking firm Stoked. She is constantly plotting a perfect tunnel ‘fit and a playlist for all occasions.