- Giannis Antetokounmpo opened accounts at half a dozen banks as a rookie in the NBA.
- The basketball star wanted to ensure his money was covered by federal deposit insurance.
Silicon Valley Bank's dramatic collapse in March sparked a fierce debate about federal deposit insurance only extending to $250,000 of a customer's money at any one lender. When Giannis Antetokounmpo first moved to the US at 18 and learned of the coverage limit, he opened accounts at half a dozen banks to protect his wealth.
The basketball superstar, who plays for the Milwaukee Bucks, explained how his upbringing shaped his thinking about money during several media appearances this week. The two-time NBA MVP, nicknamed the "Greek Freak," also championed investing and encouraged young people to put their money to work.
Here are Antetokounmpo's 7 best quotes about money and investing, lightly edited for length and clarity:
1. "You give lots of millions of dollars to an 18 year old, they don't really know what to do with it."
2. "When I went to the bank, I gave them my money and they told me, 'Just to note that we only insure $250,000.' And I said, 'Oh wait a minute, I definitely do not want to go back to where I came from, go back to the life that I had. I'm going to spread it around five, six, seven banks."
3. "I was always taught, 'Don't put all your eggs in one basket.'"
4. "I was ahead of my time." (Silicon Valley Bank imploded in part because the vast majority of its deposits were uninsured, and customers pulled their money out because they feared losing it. Antetokounmpo was joking that he had the foresight to spread his money across accounts in multiple banks to make certain it was insured, and protect himself against any single lender failing.)
5. "My father never taught me about investing because he didn't know about it. Now it's the number one thing I'm going to teach my kids. I want my kids, before they even get their first dollar, to know how to make a dollar into two."
6. "Don't be scared. My family didn't have money — the little they had they'd rather keep it under the mattress and leave it at that. Be courageous, take the risk, allow your money to work for you. Go out there, invest in things that you're passionate about, that you're interested in, that you want to learn about, and you want to get involved in. I hope my kids can do this at an early age because I did it when I was 25, 26."
7. "Money makes money faster than people can."