Andre Drummond and Don Peebles both know an awful lot about hotels. Drummond has stayed in too many to count during his NBA career, while Peebles has made millions of dollars developing them.
While Drummond, a two-time All-Star center who currently plays for the 76ers, will be back for a 14th season this fall, he’s definitely thinking about what he’ll do when his career comes to an end. He’d like to get into real estate, so who better to talk to than Peebles, who has been involved in it for decades? In 1996, Peebles became the first African-American to develop a major hotel when he secured the rights to the Royal Palm in Miami, and three years later he purchased the city’s historic Bath Club after becoming its first Black member.
Recently the two sat down for a friendly game of cards and a discussion about business as part of The Playbook, a video series created by Sports Illustrated and Entrepreneur. A few highlights of their talk are below.
Andre Drummond: As we all know, basketball doesn’t last forever. And getting into real estate, I’m still not very knowledgeable about it yet, which is why this is really dope for me to learn from you. I’m looking forward to really just learning what your journey was like and who Don was before all of this.
Don Peebles: It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m a big fan of yours and a big fan of athletics overall, because I think it prepares us for leadership. Being an elite athlete and the discipline and the resilience, those skill sets are transferable to business.
AD: So you're from D.C.?
DP: Yes, my mother had me when she was 19 years old. Mother ultimately was the head of the household, and she was the one who had this entrepreneurial dream. From 8 years old, I was aware of real estate.
I learned what to do from her, and I learned some things not to do. You know, she came from a different time in the country and I was looking at it with a fresh set of eyes from a different generation. So I see it as she’s the first leg of a relay. I’m the second leg and I got to open up a lead, and then I’ll hand the baton off to my kids and then they’ll run the next leg.
You are in the midst of your career. You’re at a point now where you're beginning to think about the next chapter. What’s that look like?
AD: So for me, this is 14 seasons for me in the NBA. And as the years went on, I started to see my peers and people that I came in with start to trickle out. And I’m like, Damn, I wonder what these guys are doing. And I started to see that a lot of them are either broke or not doing anything.
We always get knocks for doing things outside of our sport. I’ll get comments on my page like, oh, stick to basketball. Why this conversation is important is because people need to see that there’s more to life than just basketball. So if I can help the next person watching this and let them know that it’s okay to do things you love outside of your sport and to expand your mind [outside] the game so we don’t have that large number of guys that are struggling to find out what to do after basketball’s over.
Can you explain to me, who is Don Peebles without the accolades, without the money? Who are you to the core?
DP: I’m a person who wants to see a fair society.
That's one of the things I like about athletics. On the basketball court, while the game is being played, the team that plays the best is going to win. Simple, right? They can get some bad calls and so forth, but they can't take you off the field. They can't say, “Hey, you can’t come on the field.” Or they can’t say, “You’ve got to play barefoot.” But in other parts of our society, they can.
We all have to say that the system’s unfair. And I think that I’m in a good position to say that because I’m not complaining. I made the system work for me, right? But it’s important that we don't forget where we come from. And we don't turn our backs on the rest of our society.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Andre Drummond Gets a Lesson in Business from Real Estate Mogul Don Peebles.
