NBA Finals Bonus: MAI Capital's Joe McLean on Being the NBA's 'Money Whisperer'

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News. This is Masters in Business with Barry Ritholtz on Bloomberg Radio.

**Barry Ritholtz** (0:16)
This week on the podcast, what a fascinating conversation. Joe McLean, Managing Partner and MAI Capital, began his career as a professional and college basketball player before effectively becoming the money whisperer to pro athletes.
He works with pretty much all major athletes across every sport, basketball, football, hockey, baseball, golf, NASCAR, you name it. I thought this conversation was really fascinating. Obviously, the average person who's listening to this doesn't have a $100 million contract, but a lot of the ideas, a lot of the rules, a lot of the ways of thinking about money with college athletes and professional athletes are surprisingly applicable to the average investor. I thought this conversation was really fascinating. The idea of saving a substantial percentage of your income in your first bucket and once that's covered, moving to a second bit of saving that you're going to be able to live off in the future that that's your growth and investing bucket before the fun entrepreneurial types of types of investment. I thought this conversation was fascinating and I think you will also, with no further ado, my interview of MAI Capitals, Joe McLean. I've been looking forward to this for a while. I got to start with your undergraduate years, four years at Arizona, division one ball.
What was the original career plan?

**Joe McLean** (1:59)
A hundred percent to play professional basketball. I was eight years old, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, posters on the wall. I remember when the ball was put on my hand. That's all I wanted to do. I was super blessed. Grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and then my dad, T. Boone Pickens, in 84, 85, he worked for Golf Oil and we either had to move to Houston or San Francisco Bay Area, and so we chose the Bay Area and it became Chevron.
And I met a point guard named Jason Kidd, who was my high school AAU point guard. And so I was blessed to be put in that position. The whole world would come watch him play.
And I got seen by all the right people. And my mom was the one who decided, which really what college I was going to go to, because during the recruiting visit, Lute Olson and Bobby Olson, his wife showed up, and she really connected with his wife. And she said, that's who you're going to go play for. I want you to be in that environment.

**Barry Ritholtz** (2:54)
So we'll get to Lute in a minute. Did you have height in high school? Like when did you shoot up?

**Joe McLean** (3:00)
I did. I was always 6'3, 6'4, and then grew another two inches in college. But full disclosure, I peaked around 19

**Barry Ritholtz** (3:08)
Right.

**Joe McLean** (3:09)
Because everybody, I remember, I'm fast forwarding, but I was in an NBA pre-draft camp, and I was 6'6, I think it was Ron Artest, was right around the same height as me. And then we were standing in our underwear, he extended his arms, and I was in proportion, and he was not in proportion. I think he had a 6'10, 6'11, wingspan. I was like, I don't know if I'm gonna make it.

**Barry Ritholtz** (3:32)
So, Lute Olsen, Hall of Fame coach, right? Multiple trips to the final four.
You played all four years under him, averaging 10 points a game. Small forward, what was your position?

**Joe McLean** (3:44)
Shooting guard and guarded the small forward in big forward positions. I had to learn very quickly how to hold on to a guard's jersey, because everybody was getting much quicker, much faster than me.

**Barry Ritholtz** (3:55)
And so, you graduate college. You start playing pro in Europe. Where did you play? What countries?

**Joe McLean** (4:03)
Basically, I would try out for an NBA team and then get cut. And then you had two decisions to make. One, go to the minor leagues, which is now the NBA G League. It was the CBA at the time. So, you go to Bismarck, North Dakota. I lived there for a year, living in Bismarck Hotel, and traveling by bus. And then decided to go to Europe for the years after that. So, I played in 11 countries, because there's only two Americans per team, no binding contracts. You lose a couple of games, they'll rip up your contract and send you home.

**Barry Ritholtz** (4:28)
Really?

**Joe McLean** (4:28)
And so, it's a great way to see the world.

**Barry Ritholtz** (4:31)
What countries did you play in?

**Joe McLean** (4:32)
I played in Spain, Portugal, China, Australia, Cyprus. I moved to Ireland for a year to try to get dual citizenship, because then I wouldn't be counted as one of those Americans.