Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas sat down for an interview with Forbes’ Jabari Young at the Nasdaq MasketSite in November, where he spoke at length about everything business and it’s a must-listen. The interview commenced with Thomas speaking on his mindset when it comes to the stock market.
Jabari Young: “We’re here at the stock market, you got to give me a stock. What has worked well for Isiah Thomas all these years and maybe you still have it in your portfolio or once you let it go, it’s served you well.”
Isiah Thomas: “I would say for me, communications and technology stocks. They have worked well for me. Whether it be Apple, AT&T, the things you need. The bread and butter. The food that comes to the table, that’s what I invest in. The things that you use every single day, those are the things that I invest in.”
Young: “Proctor & Gamble I told you that’s a great stock. I mean it’s in your house. Everywhere you look, Proctor & Gamble is in your house.”
Thomas: “That’s what my Econ teacher told me. My Econ teacher told me in high school, ‘Go into your pantry and look and see what products that you’re using at home and that’s what you invest in.’ And I said to him, ‘Well, you know we ain’t got no food in my pantry.’ So, I went over to my friend’s house… The things that you use every single day, those are the things you invest in.”
Young: “… As a CEO, what is the first order of business that you do after a U.S. Presidential election? You’re an international CEO, companies all over the world, what do you do after you know the candidate? You know it’s going to be a whole new administration, what’s the first action of business?”
Thomas: “What are the rules of the game? What rules are we going to be playing by with this administration as opposed to the last administration? And particularly being a minority owner, right? With DEI being discussed so much, if that goes away then how are companies going to operate… Those are the things that I look at. What are the rules of the game, how we playing, and who are the officials?”
Young: “That’s the big rule, right? Who are the officials? We going to get another Steve Javie?”
Thomas: “You gotta understand the rules. If you don’t understand the rules, then you can’t play.”
All that was quite insightful. Later on in the interview, Thomas spoke about his businesses and shared his outlook for real estate in 2025.
Young: “Well, let’s dive into Isiah International. You just mentioned you have the champagne company as a part of it. The real estate, construction. Isiah Ticketing is a part of it. One World Products… but I’m curious about the real estate and construction front because we are, what one can consider, in a housing crisis. People aren’t building, we got a whole bunch of people on the sidelines, interest rates still high. But I would imagine (in) 2025 things may pick up, right? What are you seeing or what are you guys looking at on a real estate construction front? And make me feel good about 2025, man, because again the housing market is just not recovered the way that people thought it would.”
Thomas: “Well, multi-family and affordable housing will be focused on heavily. Now, it all depends on the interest rates. Will you have access to capital the way you did maybe eight to nine years ago? That’s going to be the driver but I do think that home ownership is still the best way to build wealth and to build equity… There’s not enough housing in the United States right now so that factor along with construction will continue to grow and that will be an emphasis I’m hoping for the new administration coming in.”
Young: “You in that construction space. I mean are you guys planning on building are you guys looking at 2025? … What needs to happen for us to start to see building again?”
Thomas: “What I’ve looked at with One World Products, is introducing a new material into the space. As opposed to using concrete, we’ll start using hemp… Hemp takes carbon out of the air, it’s just as strong in some places as concrete. Or you can use them both together to create a new raw material that can be used not only to help the environment but also strengthen the building… Hemp I see as a replacement not only for plastics but I think it’ll be used in every aspect of our daily lives.”
Thomas seems all aboard the hemp train. His business also produces hemp-based molded containers and they are part of the supply chain sphere with Flex N Gate, an automotive supplier.
In total, Thomas is an owner of six companies: Isiah International LLC, Isiah Real Estate, Isiah Imports, Isiah Hemp and Cannabis Products, and GRE3N. He is in various spheres and seems to be doing fairly well in them. We often hear about NBA players losing their way after retirement but Thomas, who has a reported net worth of $100 million, certainly doesn’t fall under that category.
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