Serial Entrepreneur Turned Pro Hoops Player Named CEO of New Team

Can anyone say Jackie Moon? He was the character from the movie Semi-Pro, played by Will Ferrell, who used the profits from his one-hit-wonder singing career (the song was Love Me Sexy) to buy a semi-professional basketball team—and then made himself a player.

Well, the Jackie Moon references can’t help but come to mind in relation to Adam House. He’s the Detroit native and serial entrepreneur (his last company, Velocitude, was bought by Akamai in 2010) who we reported last week at the age of 33 had signed a contract to play professional basketball for the Rochester RazorSharks and fulfill his hoops dreams.

Now, today word comes that House has bought a stake in the team and been named its new CEO. House says he had no idea that this might happen when he uprooted his family—wife and three sons—and moved to chilly Rochester. “I was trying to hide my business background because I wanted to make the team purely for basketball,” he wrote me this morning in an e-mail. “As I spent time with the owner, and being a part of the franchise, when the opportunity arose I thought it was a perfect fit. This is a dream opportunity combining my love for the game and my God-given business skills.” Still, House quips, “There have been several Jackie Moon references already.”

Perhaps more importantly, House played in his first game last Saturday. He grabbed three rebounds in a short span and reports that “coach was pleased with my play.” That’s good, because despite his ownership status, House says, “Coach still has total control over playing time.”

Author: Robert Buderi

Bob is Xconomy's founder and chairman. He is one of the country's foremost journalists covering business and technology. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT's Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT's Technology Review, then a 10-times-a-year publication with a circulation of 315,000. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign editions, electronic newsletters, and highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek's technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for The Quality Imperative. Bob is the author of four books about technology and innovation. Naval Innovation for the 21st Century (2013) is a post-Cold War account of the Office of Naval Research. Guanxi (2006) focuses on Microsoft's Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) covered a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness-sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC's Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation at many venues, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.