For Pat, it opened his eyes to what he could achieve in real estate, regardless of how his athletic career turned out. He had a mind for math growing up and a long-term vision for his life that aligned with Notre Dame’s “4 for 40” (“That's four years, but it's a 40-year decision for your life,” Pat explains). But now he had tangible proof of what that could be, beyond the case studies he had conducted and presentations he had given en route to his degree in management consulting.

So when the Brooklyn Nets made him the No. 41 pick in the 2015 NBA draft, and subsequently traded his rights to the Trail Blazers, he saw the potential of what he could create even with the relatively modest contract of a second-round rookie.

Once again, Len was there to help. He dissolved his own company and helped his son start his own called Beach House LLC, with Joseph Stanton, Pat’s close friend since the age of two, serving as the director of project management.

“The name of it just kind of came from everyone wanting a beach house,” Pat says.

Despite playing in the NBA, Pat didn’t quite have the means to develop beachfront property—certainly not on his own. Instead, his company started with a handful of quick projects remodeling kitchens and bathrooms in Portland and South Bend, with Len overseeing day-to-day operations while Pat pursued pro basketball with the Blazers.

“He’s old enough now where he could probably retire, but he loves it,” Pat says of Len. “And doing it with me is even better. For me, quite frankly, it’s better than probably it is for him.”

Not that Pat left it all to his dad and his best friend. Along the way, he used the resources and network made available to him by both the NBA (including the Crossover Into Business program at Harvard Business School) and the National Basketball Players Association (like the union’s Real Estate Symposium) to further educate himself on real estate and build his contacts in the business world. Like fans waiting for autographs outside the team hotel, Pat found people in the corporate world also wanted to be in close proximity to pro athletes.

“That might get me in the door, but what’s going to keep me in the door is you understanding I’m an articulate young man that wants to learn from you, wants to be mentored,” he says. “So I found myself networking my way into plenty of different doors that I probably had no business being in.”