Goldman Sachs Scores Big With New York Knicks Players
(Bloomberg) — The New York Knicks’ championship year is proving to be a boon for Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
The Knicks, which broke a 53-year drought to win the NBA championship in June, were together awarded more than $9 million, and star players often snag even more in sponsorship deals after such victories.
That’s a win for Goldman’s massive wealth-management business, which counts some of the Knicks players as clients, according to people familiar with the matter.
Scoring more wealthy clients has helped Goldman build out that operation, which is part of its broader asset- and wealth-management unit led by Marc Nachmann. The division manages more than $4 trillion of assets across public and private markets.
A team that works with some of the Knicks players also has a more unique asset: Matt Kennedy, a 6-foot-2 Villanova University graduate who spent years as a teammate of New York Knicks superstars Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges.
A spokesperson for Goldman said the bank brings its whole team to its clients and declined to comment on who it works with. Kennedy declined to comment. A spokesperson for the Knicks didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
During his time at Villanova, Kennedy won the NCAA Elite 90 Award at the Final Four, a designation now known as the Elite Scholar-Athlete award, which is given to the player holding the highest grade point average among the athletes competing in the event.
While Kennedy was on the court way less frequently than his more famous former teammates, his Villanova profile says he chose the college’s program “for its sense of community and the brotherhood of its men’s basketball team.” Indeed, Bridges served as best man at Kennedy’s wedding last year.
Kennedy has had a pass to Knicks games for a few years, he told The Athletic in June. “He’s never, ever, ever cutting corners,” Kennedy said about Bridges in the article. Brunson, he said, had a “maniacal” work ethic.
It’s not the first time former athletes have helped attract wealthy clients to Goldman. Two-time Super Bowl winner Justin Tuck, a former captain of the NFL’s New York Giants, joined its private wealth management unit in 2018. He has talked about the importance of long-term relationships in his business.
Football and basketball games are also perfect venues for the richest to mingle. Tuck has talked about how he has worked to court the high-flying executives who populate suites at MetLife Stadium. Knicks games in particular are packed with celebrities and executives, including Goldman Chief Executive Officer David Solomon, who attended a playoff game earlier this year.
Goldman’s athlete clients generally have a long-term investment horizon and are more comfortable with private and illiquid investments than some of their older counterparts, according to a person familiar with the unit who declined to be identified as the details are not public. Many of them retire young, meaning they’re seeking to put money to work into businesses or franchises that generate a steady stream of income.
After interning at Goldman and then working in its fixed-income business on debt products such as collateralized loan obligations, Kennedy made the jump over to the firm’s wealth-management business about two years ago. His current team helps manage money for a range of other clients as well, according to a person familiar with the matter.
