ORLANDO, FLORIDA – OCTOBER 23: D.J. Augustin #14 of the Orlando Magic signals to a teammate while … [+]
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D.J. Augustin does not quite know when it happened. It doesn’t seem that long ago that he was 19 years old, being drafted by the Bobcats after a decorated career at Texas, where he won the Bob Cousy Award as the top point guard in the country and was an Academic All-American. He’d look around with some curiosity at the old folks in Charlotte, the 30-something veterans like Raja Bell and Juwan Howard.
Now, he is just a few weeks out from his 32nd birthday. His teammates with the Magic are now the 19-year-olds, and it’s Augustin who is the long-in-the-tooth veteran.
“I just don’t even know when it happened, it just went by so fast,” Augustin said in a phone interview this month. “I am definitely the old guy on this team and they definitely let me know it. They me know all the time, the music I listen to, how I dress. Video games and stuff like they do. I’ve got three kids. I can’t play video games and take naps and all that kind of stuff. They let me have it.”
What his young teammates might not know is that while they’re poking fun at Augustin and hacking away at some game or another, Augustin is taking advantage of his downtime to plan out his future. He’s already gotten himself deep into a post-NBA career, one that figured to be lucrative over the long-term: real estate.
“I love everything about it,” he said, “from finding properties, renovating them, all the details, it’s something I love to do. I get involved. I mean, I don’t do any ‘labor’ labor, but I walk the property, I get my hands dirty, I check on everything. I’ve learned a lot about construction and all that goes into renovating a property, all the way down to the numbers. There’s a lot that goes into it, you can’t just jump into it without doing the research and learning as much as possible.”
A Budding Real Estate Empire
Already, Augustin owns six properties in New Orleans, where he grew up (he was displaced to Houston because of Hurricane Katrina and still lives primarily in Houston). He’s not merely buying and flipping them, either. Augustin is playing the long game with his purchases, using them to generate continuous income.
“They’re different triplexes and duplexes, some commercial spaces,” Augustin said. “I do the Air BnB. New Orleans is such a touristy city—Jazzfest, Mardi Gras, all those different things. So I am really taking advantage of the Air BnB platform, it’s great, a lot of people are doing that instead of getting hotels. It’s not only a chance for me to build wealth for me and my kids and leave a legacy, but it’s a way I can give back to my city.”
Few players in today’s game have been given a chance to view real estate across North America quite like Augustin, who has played in eight cities over the course of a 12-year career. The Magic play in Toronto on Monday, in fact, which was the site of one of Augustin’s shortest NBA stays. Augustin played 10 games for the Raptors in 2013 before he was released and signed by Chicago for the remained of the 2013-14 season.
But that was just the start of a nutty three years. Augustin signed a two-year deal with Detroit the following summer but was traded to Oklahoma City five months into his tenure with the Pistons, as part of the trade that sent Reggie Jackson to Detroit. He closed out the 2014-15 season with Oklahoma City, but was traded again the following February to Denver.
If you’re keeping track at home, that’s Toronto to Chicago to Detroit to Oklahoma City to Denver in a span of 27 months. It was a grind on Augustin but an even bigger grind, he said, on his wife, Brandy Augustin.
“At that time, she was pregnant and we had our daughter, she was young,” Augustin said. “She was almost two and my wife was pregnant with my older son. She handled everything as far as packing and the move. I had to get up and go to the next city and meet the new team. My wife held it down for the family. When you come into the NBA, you don’t expect that, you don’t expect that you are going to be moved around a lot.”
Augustin’s children are now older—his daughter is seven and his two sons are five and three—and it’s with them in mind that he has gotten deeper into the real estate business. “I am going to keep building my portfolio,” Augustin said. “Real estate is one of the greatest investments to build generational wealth. I want to be able to pass these things down.”
Augustin Pondering Retirement And His Post-NBA Life
At the same time, he has been weighing how much longer he wants to keep playing in the NBA. He’s out on the road in the regular season and, in doing so, has missed out on day-to-day time with his kids.
But Augustin can still play. He averaged 11.7 points and 5.3 assists last season, making 47.0 percent of his shots and 42.1 percent of his 3-pointers. As much city-hopping as he has done in his career, Augustin has found a niche as the veteran running the show in Orlando. He is in his fourth season with the Magic and, barring any injuries or unexpected stints on the trading block, he likely will play more games for Orlando than any other franchise in his 12-year career by the end of the season.
He’ll weigh his options going forward.
“I want to play until I am about 35, 36. I mention my family, my kids a lot. They’re the most important thing in my life. At the end of the day, I want to be there for them. I have sacrificed a lot, I am away from my kids a lot. They’re getting older. I think 35, 36 would be a good age for me to be done and just spend time with them and be more involved with their lives. My wife and my kids, they sacrificed a lot for me to be able to do what I do.”
Augustin still loves basketball, of course. He is the veteran leader on a young Magic team expected to return to the playoffs this year and hopeful that they can advance past the first round for the first time in 10 years. He is a mentor to players like Mo Bamba, Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Isaac, potential stars who all are 22 or younger.
If they really want to listen to him, though, Augustin would tell them to put down the Fortnite and pick up Rich Dad, Poor Dad, the first real-estate book he read. It’s never too early to plan ahead.
“A lot of my teammates, they play video games and things like that,” Augustin said. “But I am reading books and listening to podcasts and things like that. … I hope I can play as long as possible. But at the end of the day, I know I am going to have to be done soon. So I am starting now.”