FORMER San Beda star Davon Potts has opened up on his decision to leave professional basketball while he was still in his prime, saying he chose to pursue entrepreneurship rather than spend the rest of his playing career without a clear path for life after basketball.
Potts, a Filipino-American from Los Angeles, arrived in the Philippines after earning his basketball opportunity through San Beda. He made an immediate impact with the Red Lions in the NCAA, becoming one of their key scorers and helping the school capture the NCAA Season 93 championship in 2017. He scored 15 points in his final collegiate game as San Beda swept Lyceum in the finals.
His time with San Beda also included a championship in the PBA D-League with Cignal, before he entered the PBA Rookie Draft. Alaska selected Potts with the 18th overall pick in 2017, giving him opportunity to play professionally.
Potts spent his first PBA season with the Alaska Aces before later moving to the Phoenix Fuel Masters. He played alongside established names including Calvin Abueva, Vic Manuel, Chris Banchero, Sonny Thoss and JVee Casio during his Alaska stint.
But despite reaching professional basketball, Potts eventually decided that remaining in the sport was not the future he wanted.
In a vlog, he explained that he believed he still had potentially a decade left to play, but staying in the Philippine basketball industry would have prevented him from chasing his bigger ambition.
“I still had at least 10 years left to play if I was still healthy. So why? The real answer: if I stayed longer playing professional basketball in the Philippines, I wouldn’t have been able to chase my ultimate dream. That’s being an entrepreneur,” Potts said.
He also described frustrations with the basketball environment, saying he wanted organizations to prioritize winning rather than relationships and popularity.
“I play to win. And if your organization is in the business of selling what’s cute to fans instead of what wins basketball games, I’m not with that,” he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic eventually became another turning point. With professional basketball disrupted and contracts placed in limbo, Potts said he was forced to reassess his finances and his long-term plans.
“I was asset-rich and cash-poor,” he said.
Potts said he had already invested in property in the Philippines, including condominiums and land, but the pandemic pushed him to seek greater financial independence.
“I went all in,” he said.
He moved deeper into business and finance, taking on a variety of jobs while learning different industries, including work at a sandwich shop, commission sales, management of adults with special needs and security at a major casino in the United States.
“I went from playing professional basketball to making sandwiches at a sandwich shop. Embarrassing, right? I didn’t think so,” Potts said.
Those experiences eventually led to the creation of his own financial education platform, The Wealth Curriculum.
Potts said his decision to leave basketball was misunderstood by people who saw it as a failure. For him, however, walking away was a calculated risk designed to give him control over his future.
“If you’d rather struggle for five years and be free for the next 30 or 40, that’s the life I chose,” he said.
The same competitive mentality that shaped his basketball career, he added, also shaped his approach to business. Potts said he was never afraid to challenge people in positions of authority when he believed there was room to improve.
“Most people with more authority than me saw me as a threat because they knew I challenged their expertise,” he said.
Potts ultimately chose to leave professional basketball because he did not want to reach retirement without a second career or financial foundation.
“So I quit playing professional basketball because I refused to retire later in life unprepared for what’s next,” he said.
“I left. I took the risk. I sat with the pain. And that pain became my greatest joy.”
From an NCAA champion and PBA rookie to an entrepreneur focused on financial education, Potts now considers basketball only one chapter of a much bigger journey.
“The ultimate dream I could have asked for: living on my own terms, answering only to myself, and teaching others how to do the same,” he said. (Jesus Nathaniel Valdez)
