San Antonio Spurs forward Harrison Barnes bought an Iowa bank

Over a 14-year NBA playing career, Harrison Barnes’ polished and erudite demeanor has earned him the moniker “The Senator” from teammates.

This offseason, Barnes has perhaps required a new nickname: “The Banker.”

That appellation is a literal one.

In the months since the Spurs ended their run to the NBA Finals, their 34-year-old veteran forward went out and bought himself a whole entire bank.

Barnes committed $25 million to purchase Community State Bank in Paton, Iowa, a community bank located 40 minutes outside his hometown of Ames, Iowa.

The transaction affords Barnes direct ownership in the financial institution, which has been in business for the past seven decades.

“This is not a vanity project,” Barnes said, according to Yahoo! Sports. “We want to be Iowa’s next great bank.”

For Barnes, it is a different kind of bank shot than most NBA players attempt.

His interest in finance dates to at least 2012, when he and his wife Brittany established Barnes & Co., a family office to oversee his business affairs and philanthropic endeavors.

Through Barnes & Co., the one-time NBA champion has invested in numerous banks over the years, landing him on boards of the First National Bank in Ames and Triumph Bancorp in Dallas.

Last spring, with the NBA season in full swing, Barnes enrolled in the Iowa School of Banking, taking online classes backed by the Iowa Bankers Association.

A former member of the board of the National Basketball Players Association, Barnes – who earlier this summer signed a one-year, $8-million contract to return for a third season with the Spurs — told the American Bankers Association his experience with the NBPA helped prepare him for the banking industry.

“I had some sense of what to expect, and the bank boards were not much different than the NBPA’s player board,” Barnes said.

Barnes’ previous experience in banking allowed him to rub elbows with scores of movers and shakers in the financial sector, including former Iowa banking superintendent Jeff Plagge.

In 2024, Barnes tabbed Plagge to head Barnes and Co.’s investment strategy as managing director.

In an interview with the American Banking Association, Plagge said the discipline, commitment and ability to take a long-term view that have fueled Barnes’ NBA career serve him well as a banker.

“You don’t play in the NBA for over 13 years without a lot of all three,” Plagge said. “And as every banker knows, in community banking you have to have a commitment to your communities, employees and customers, as well as the discipline to play the long game.”

Indeed, the mindset Barnes has gleaned over the years in the NBA have proven useful in the world of finance, he said.

“Patience and risk management are huge pillars of successful banking,” Barnes said in the interview with the ABA. “These same concepts appear in basketball, with different names — for example, shot selection.”

When it came to his dream of buying a bank, Barnes found deep roots in the community to be key.

“Good community bankers, first and foremost, understand their community’s makeup and needs,” Barnes said. “Philanthropists without this knowledge are shooting in the dark, as I have done at times.”

Barnes’ interest in banking intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, as he witnessed local financial institutions come to the rescue of small businesses in his native Iowa.

“I saw community banks act as economic first responders during COVID,” Barnes told the ABA.

With ownership of his own bank in his portfolio, Barnes has put himself in a position to fill a similar need in his home community.

Not as a vanity project, but as an investment in the future.

“I’m motivated by developing a peer group with young Iowa bankers, with whom I can grow in this industry,” Barnes told the ABA.