Even promises of tech startups couldn’t lure Andre Iguodala away from the Golden State Warriors (Photo by Monica Davey/Pool/Getty Images)
The tech scene in Austin has been thriving for more than a decade, evidenced by the crowded hallways of the South By Southwest tech and music festival where Twitter blew up in 2007 and Meerkat (a rival to Twitter’s Periscope) stole headlines in 2015.
Apparently it’s thriving so much, in fact, the San Antonio Spurs believed they could use Austin as a way to lure tech investor Andre Iguodala from the San Francisco Warriors.
The Spurs offered Iguodala, who was a free agent after his team won the NBA Championship earlier this year before ultimately signing back with the Warriors, a four-year guaranteed deal with an annual salary of $8.4 million, according to a report by ESPN citing unnamed sources.
That was half the salary Iguodala was seeking. But to sweeten the deal, the Spurs pointed to Austin, located 80 miles away, or an hour-and-a-half drive from the Spurs’ AT&T Center, as a thriving tech hub where Iguodala could continue to focus on his off-the-court investments, according to ESPN.
The team even presented him with research on plans currently being developed in the area for a potential speed rail that would shorten the trip between the two Texas cities to just 15 minutes, the report said.
The Sacramento Kings had a similar idea and also used technology to engage Iguodala.
Located a two-hour drive from Silicon Valley (or just 20 minutes via helicopter, which the Kings pointed out to him), the team pitched Sacramento as a hub for tech startups and gifted him a personalized iPad that had uploaded virtual tours of the Kings’ Golden 1 Center, according to ESPN.
Anyone who knows of Iguodala’s interest in technology would understand why these tech pitches likely commanded attention from the Warriors swingman alongside the salary offers. His investment portfolio includes the trading platform TruMid, lifestyle company Thrive Global, mattress startup Casper, beauty products maker Walker & Company, fashion platform Hingeto and The Players Tribune.
Iguodala wears a tracking device to improve his golf swing — his favorite hobby — and told SportTechie this summer that he’s watching the wearables market closely for technologies with potential to scale.
In August, Iguodala and Warriors teammate Stephen Curry hosted the first ever large-scale networking event intended to connect athletes with tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. The Players Technology Summit was held just across the bay in San Francisco from the Warriors’ Oracle Arena.
While the tech sweeteners ultimately weren’t enough to convince Iguodala to move out of the Bay Area — the Warriors did, after all, offer a three-year contract at $16 million per year — the recruiting tactics used by the Kings and Spurs highlighted just how much technology has infiltrated and affected the sports industry.
It begs the question as more pro athletes become involved in technology, evidenced by the very tech summit Iguodala and Curry hosted, whether this will be something teams will continue to offer in their effort to sweeten deals.
If we had to guess, this won’t be the last time technology is used to woo tech-minded pros.
