How a Former NBA All-Star Became a Real Estate Mogul

With his 15-year NBA career winding down, two-time All-Star Luol Deng is already in pretty good shape, financially, for retirement.

A former first-round pick, Deng has been able to parlay the $151 million or so he’s made playing basketball into an impressive real-estate portfolio that’s worth roughly an additional $125 million.

Deng, 34, began investing in real estate when he entered the NBA in 2004 and has added holdings including hotels, resorts, condos and apartment buildings to his portfolio over the past decade and a half. Using former Wall Street banker David Gross as his advisor, Deng has used his company, D3N9, to invest in properties ranging from to spec houses in the Hamptons to multifamily units in Baltimore to a luxury resort in the Bahamas.

Derrick Rose, who played with Deng when they were both with Bulls and now plays with the 34-year-old once again on the Minnesota Timberwolves, is on the verge of joining Deng in a massive deal that will net them a trio of sites containing 23 buildings housing 354 multifamily units in Chicago.

The cost of the acquisition? $25.6 million.

“If you know the market and you are using your leverage and doing the right deals, it is really nonstop with the opportunities,” Deng told Forbes’ Kurt Badenhausen. “I’ve always had a love for real estate and wanted to do something in Chicago for a long time.”

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Evan Bleier

Evan is a senior editor with InsideHook who earned a master’s degree in journalism from NYU and has called Brooklyn home since 2006. A fan of Boston sports, Nashville hot chicken and Kentucky bourbon, Evan has had his work published in publications including “Maxim,” Bleacher Report and “The Daily Mail.”