Power Broker

As a backup center for the Pacers, Mark West is a galaxy away from Planet Shaq when it comes to fielding endorsement offers and prospective movie roles. But if West's financial portfolio hasn't been bolstered by his marketability, it has burgeoned because of his market ability. West has seen 14 seasons worth of NBA earnings mushroom as he has played Wall Street with the same contained aggressiveness as he plays low-post defense.

"I majored in finance in college (Old Dominion) so I wasn't starting from scratch, but when I first got into the league, I wanted to learn more about the market and how to invest my money," says West, 37, who has been a licensed broker since 1992 and will earn a reported $1 million this season while playing with his sixth NBA team. Surprisingly, he credits former Suns teammate and infamous flake Joe Barry Carroll, a student of finance, with piquing his interest in investment strategies.

A broker with Prudential Securities' office in suburban Phoenix, where he played six seasons for the Suns and where he makes his off-season home, West spends the bulk of his NBA downtime on-line with his Toshiba 730 laptop. "Luckily this is the information age, so I can get quotes and make trades for myself and for clients by using my modem," he says. "Sometimes I'll get back to the hotel after a game and there'll be all sorts of messages and balance sheets for me to look at."

West, who won't reveal either his net worth or the details of his portfolio, has no overriding investment strategy. "I don't do many high-risk trades, and I don't buy on the margin," he says. Befitting a man who stands nearly 7-feet tall, West adds, "I'm not the type to short the market, either."

His reputation as a savvy speculator notwithstanding, West has no interest in soliciting teammates' business. He is, however, more than happy to share his expertise with his colleagues, rookies in particular. "When you don't grow up with this kind of knowledge or exposure—and a lot of the guys in the league didn't, myself included—it's easy to lose your shirt trying to win the world in a hurry," says West. "I just try to explain that if you keep a level head and try to be aggressive without being frivolous, you can do well in a short amount of time."

—L. Jon Wertheim