C.J. Watson spent his playing career preparing for what came after it. Every offseason, he used his time to explore what a "second act" could look like — angel investing, conferences, books, anything that kept his mind engaged beyond basketball. That habit paid off: he's since made 32 angel investments across sports and tech. But two of his most meaningful moves as an investor and advisor didn't come from a cold outreach or a LinkedIn message. They came from PAC.
2 years, 2 deals
C.J. joined PAC two years ago. Since then, PAC connections have led directly to an advisory role at Synergy Sports Capital and a seat backing AirPlay.
C.J. joined PAC two years ago after a referral from fellow member Cory Higgins, and he's been a fixture at PAC events ever since — from his first PAC combine in Scottsdale to the most recent PAC Accelerate in Phoenix. It was in Phoenix where a conversation with fellow PAC member Terrence Murphy, sparked by the fact that the two were already invested in the same pickleball team, turned into something bigger. Weeks later, C.J. came on as an advisor to Terrence's fund, Synergy Sports Capital, a private equity firm investing in emerging leagues, sports real estate, and sports-adjacent businesses.
"I met him at PAC — before that, I had no idea who he was," C.J. said of Terrence, a reminder that the connection wouldn't have happened without the room PAC put them both in.
That same PAC network put C.J. on stage in a different way. At the PAC Investment Deal Flow Forum, he joined fellow PAC members and NBA athletes Greg Oden and Larry Hall to present AirPlAi, an AI-powered sports video intelligence platform already trusted by the New York Liberty, EuroLeague, Overtime Elite, and Google. Rather than just investing, C.J. used his own network to help bring AirPlay new investors and connections — the same value-add approach he brings to every company he backs.
For C.J., both moments point to the same idea he's come back to again and again about PAC: it's not just a network of athletes, it's a room full of people who've been exactly where you are and are figuring out how to build what's next. As he put it after his most recent PAC event, "athletes never know when the game will leave them. But everything we put INTO the game, THAT never has to leave... PAC helps you see that. They connect the dots between who you are as an athlete and who you're becoming as a business person, investor, and leader."
In practice, that's meant turning conversations made at PAC events into an advisory role at a growing sports-focused fund and a hands-on seat at the table for one of the sports industry's most-watched AI platforms. The goal, in his words, isn't just to survive the second act — it's to be better in it than the first one.
