NBA's Giannis Antetokounmpo and investor John Koudounis are launching an ETF to make investing more accessible, with 10% of profits going to charitable causes. Both joined Cheddar News to discuss their partnership and explain the importance of their venture.

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NBA's Giannis Antetokounmpo, Investor John Koudounis Launch ETF

All right, this is an exciting moment. Two time M V P and NBA champion Janis, one of the brightest stars in the basketball world. And now he's taking his talents to Wall Street teaming up with Calamos investments is Ceo John Kani to launch an EF aimed at making investing more accessible with 10% of profits going to charitable causes. I'm joined now by Yanis on the coo and investing partner, John guys. Thank you so much for joining me here at the New York Stock Exchange as we are here at the NYSC Yanis. I'll start with you as a professional basketball player still in the midst of your season. Why is investing something that you wanted to lean into? You know, growing up? It was that a lot in my household, you know, my father not know about financial literacy and he could not teach me and going into the work when I was 18, you know, got a lot of money and you see a lot of athletes with an 80 year old, 20 year old athletes get a lot of money and they don't know what to do with it. Usually they end up bankrupt. And I didn't want to have, you know, the same outcome. So I wanted to put myself around people that can educate me, guide me through that journey and learn how to allow my money to work for me. And I realized how important that was. I wish I knew that earlier and it's something very important for me that I want to give back to my kids. And then I thought why just my kids, why cannot have a platform that people can learn uh have a platform that they have access to invest their own money. Uh and then that scared of the risk. Well, Yanis good for you for leading into investing for the right reasons. John, I want to bring you in here as well. Talk to me more about what investors can get out of this fund and who exactly this fund is for. Well, the fund is an ETF and we wanted to make sure that not just we're also launching an open end fund, which is more of a big ticket fund and for institutions as well. But we wanted to make sure that anybody that wanted to invest can invest the sizes, you could buy one share. So for $25, you can be invested in this fund. So Yanis fans that are walking around with a jersey that are young in age, they can start getting financial literacy, get involved in the markets. So the is accessible to everybody we're also going to launch a use it so people can buy it overseas, well overseas. I know probably Key here, Yanis is you hail from Greece. How involved are you in this? I'm really involved with 5050 in the board board meetings together. Um And it's something that, you know, we came together and we realized that we, we share the same value. So I wanted to be as involved as possible. Um And it's something that I'm really, really passionate about. Uh and the big part of what we do is that we're able to give back 10% to the community back to charity. That's big for me. You know, I try to use this platform that I have to be able to use it for good and try to give back as much as I can. And John, what are some of the sustainable plays in this fund? I know obviously it has a sustainable edge to it in the space. And what are some of the companies that it holds? Well, the companies are all screened with a proprietary process that the team that we hired. We're very fortunate to have, that's been doing this for over 25 years. And so they were actually the first people to do a fossil free fund. So they put them through their screening and we want to make sure that the companies that we buy are environmentally friendly, that for society we want to make sure things like there's no child abuse, you know, they have young kids who are over working them or what not and also diversity in the boards and what have you. So all the companies are screened in a certain proprietary way that's very, very well documented. And for the, it's a global ETF, so at least 40% of all the securities, publicly traded securities that we're going to invest in are companies overseas. Yanis leaning into investing as the playoffs are right around the corner. How are you gearing up for the playoffs? It's hard, it's hard to balance both roles. But at the end of the day, you know, I realized that I wouldn't be here if God had blessed me with the talent playing basketball. So I'm trying to stay Latin as much as I can to help my team win a second championship. But in every free time I was on the phone, try to talk with Mr John and the team to see how this is going. And John, of course, talk about a champion here. You got to have a champion mindset to be a good investor, right? Talk to me more about that. How important is mindset when it comes to investing? Well, it's very important and I'm proud to be part of a huge, great team and traditional Calamos investments for over 45 years. And last year, we actually won the Lipper Award for the best performing money manager in the world for under $100 billion. So that's something that they take over a three year average of all our funds. And it's a huge honor and it's a huge honor to be part of that team. And I'm really, really proud to have Janis join that team so we can do some great things together. Well, certainly this market has been no stranger to volatility this past year. And Yanis, you're someone who deals with the ups and downs of basketball on a daily basis. Do you feel like you're prepared for the ups and downs that can come along with investing as well? I try as much as I can not to look at it. It depends what kind of person you are for me. I always think long term, you know, when you join us, you join a partnership and long term, we hope that we can create wealth for people in terms of the returns that you're expecting. What's the short term and the long term goals with this fund? Well, both long and short term goals is to beat the index that it's performed against. So it's really important that if we can do the right thing in terms of screening properly for bye. I think it's something that's going to be very, very attractive, but we're going to attract many, many investors across the world and point to this. And I think it will be a great thing to have and leverage someone like Giannis that can speak to a lot of people. And on top of that, the JB is going to give that 10% of the profits. We're going to pick charities that share common values and financial literacy is one that Giannis and I and Calamos is very, very, very keen on and that will be contributing to that for sure. All right guys, NBA champion Giannis and Kalas Investment, Ceo John Kani. Gentlemen, thank you so much and congratulations on the launch.