Throughout his Hall of Fame career, Chris Paul has received almost every prestigious award, the NBA has to offer. From being the 2005-06 Rookie of the Year to earning multiple-time All-Star sections and being named to numerous All-NBA selections. Paul’s accomplishments resulted in his inclusion on the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.

Paul has used his basketball skills to build significant wealth for himself and his family beyond his on-court success, positioning himself as a prominent figure both on and off the court.

Chris Paul’s Endorsements

Chris Paul is one of the most recognizable athletes in the world and has an impressive endorsement portfolio to match. Throughout his career, Paul has secured endorsement deals with Nike, Beyond Meat, Panini, Spalding, and, of course, State Farm Mutual Auto Insurance and Tissot.

Per Forbes, Paul makes $8 million in endorsements per year.

Beginning in 2010, State Farm has been a corporate sponsor of the NBA and before that partnered with 25 NBA teams to provide signage. During the 2008-2009 season, Chris Paul led the league in assists, according to Basketball Reference. Around this time, sports marketing agent Ivory Tabb worked at The Marketing Arm, State Farm’s agency of record. Tabb orchestrated the endorsement deal that made Chris Paul a brand ambassador for State Farm. Tabb said, “This deal was not only the start of a long partnership between State Farm and Paul, but it also helped him to become a household name!”

Investments That Chris Paul Has Made

Throughout his almost two-decade NBA career, Chris Paul has earned close to $400,000,000, according to Spotrac. Paul has also used his career and endorsement earnings to invest in 29 companies such as WTRMLN WTR, WatchBox, Meati Foods, Greenfly, and Wicked Kitchen, which he recently launched his brand Good Eat’n. Paul has also had three portfolio exits, according to cbinsights.com.

WTRMLN SportWTR is a plant-based watermelon drink that is both delicious and hydrating, and it also has electrolytes and just 2g of sugar per serving, according to wtrmlnwtr.com.

“For me the partnership with watermelon water just made sense,” Paul tells FOX Business. “[I’m] a 32-year-old point guard and at this point in my NBA career, everything is about health. Since I’ve been in California, I’ve really tried to transform my life and its healthy eating and different things like that, because it helps me performance-wise.”

Paul added, “I definitely think that there’s a shift in the sports world. I can speak proudly that everything is about health and healthy lifestyles. I mean I remember when I first came on to the NBA and training camp was sort of training camp, like guys came in and they tried to work their way into shape.”

Paul’s investment portfolio does not end there, he has his own production company called, OhhDip, he is also an athlete founder in Players TV, and  TST [The Soccer Tournament].

The Golden State Warriors guard Chris Paul, recently sat down with Forbes senior writer Jabari Young at the Nasdaq to dive into his investment portfolio.

“Starting PlayersTV the way that we did it was about players having ownership. I remember the first breakfast that we had and talking about PlayersTV. [When you are] Deron [Guidrey], you have to be especially when you are black and you’re trying to get this capital and trying to get people involved. Players for so long have just been the talent right and never really on the ownership side,”  said Paul.

“So, I’ve had an opportunity to be a part of this evolution of the athlete right, so I remember when I came into the league, and I was on the executive committee. I was sitting at the table with all the different owners of the teams and this was my third year in the league. I was like aw man they [are] just talking about all this stuff I have no clue about.”

Fast forward a few years later, I become the president and I start to sit here and I’m in these rooms and I’m learning and you start to understand how important ownership is. So, as players as we started to become more informed, we said hey let’s start something called Players TV where we get an opportunity to have distribution, get other players involved and see how this grows.”

During interview with Rashad Miller of Theuncoolurban, Paul shared that he wanted to make sure he has an interest in other places. 

“I’m an investor in PlayersTV myself, Kyrie Irving, other players,” said Paul.

“If you really think about it, in a year or so I’ll be 40, that’s young in the real world. So, there’s a lot of life to live after basketball.”

Paul is also interested WNBA & NBA ownership after he retires from the NBA.

“Charlotte is definitely home, but I’m open. Especially if there’s an expansion team or something like that, I’m definitely open,

I’ve been involved with the league for too long, from every aspect of it. Just knowing the game, understanding the GMs, player relations, all of the different entities, that’s definitely one of my goals. I want to own a team.”

He added, “Every year since I’ve been in the NBA I’ve been to a WNBA game. I’m excited [about the WNBA’s future], because doing the union work, I’ve been involved in their union and just talking about ‘how can we grow their game, how can we do this or that,’ and they’ve just done it organically. People are finally starting to see just how amazing their game is. They have so many talented women, they play the game so smooth. Everything is really exciting and effortless, and I just think it’s going to continue to grow. And I want to be a part of it. I would love to own a WNBA team.”

Conclusion

During his NBA career, Chris Paul and achieve enormous success on the basketball court and off of it. Paul’s endorsement, investment ventures demonstrate his business acumen and understanding of leaving a legacy. His unwavering dedication to team ownership and empowering other athletes, and being one of the pioneers in the sports industry. Chris Paul’s journey gives future athletes and public figures leverage their platforms to achieve financial success and also provided motivation and create meaningful change.