Spurs Veteran Harrison Barnes Wanted to Give Back to Iowa. So He Bought A Bank

SAN ANTONIO — You're understanding the following sentence correctly: Harrison Barnes, the San Antonio Spurs' 34-year-old veteran sharpshooter, is now a financier.

Barnes, who re-shared an announcement of the decision from The Bank State's Paul Davis on X, formerly Twitter on Aug. 28, bought Community State Bank in Paton, Iowa, about 45 miles away from his hometown of Ames with $25 million of personal money.

“This is not a vanity project,” Barnes told Davis. “We want to be Iowa’s next great bank.”

Barnes, who made the decision a few months following the Spurs' NBA Finals run in June — his second trip to the championship series — had been studying at the Iowa School of Banking dating back to last spring, according to the San Antonio Express-News. He's now ready to add another chapter to his off-court portfolio.

"You have to be where your feet are," Barnes said. "When I’m focused on basketball, and I’m in that lane, I’m 100 percent a basketball player. When I’m here trying to figure out how to support best and serve Community State Bank, I’m 100 percent in this lane."

Mar 21, 2026; San Antonio, Texas, USA; San Antonio Spurs forward Harrison Barnes (40) warms up before the game against the Indiana Pacers at Frost Bank Center. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

That mindset isn't new for Barnes. Tyrese Haliburton learned as much during his rookie season with the Sacramento Kings, where he shared a locker room with Barnes from 2020-22.

At the time, Haliburton was 20 years old and Barnes was already eight seasons into his NBA career. Barnes told him what he wanted to do after basketball.

“H.B. told me this was the plan," Haliburton recalled on X. “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. That was the first time I realized dudes in the NBA (had) real families, are real adults.”

For Barnes, the plan has always extended beyond a future job title. His career has taken him from Ames to North Carolina, Golden State, Dallas, Sacramento and San Antonio, but he has routinely found ways to invest in the communities around him.

Shortly after joining the Spurs, Barnes asked the organization who he could meet in the San Antonio community to make a difference. The answer has taken several forms.

Barnes and his wife, Brittany, donated $250,000 to the AlamoPROMISE tuition-free program and helped refurbish basketball courts with Boys & Girls Clubs in San Antonio, Austin and Mexico City. Barnes' relationship with the latter dates back to his childhood in Ames, where the Boys & Girls Clubs of Story County provided his first indoor basketball court.

“I’m a living example of the happiness and success that our young people can achieve when they’re supported and cared for,” Barnes said. “I wouldn't be here, not only without the Boys & Girls Club, but without all the people that helped me and poured into me.”

San Antonio Spurs forward Harrison Barnes (40) poses for a photo after making a donation to AlamoPROMISE. — Feb 18, 2025; San Antonio, Texas, USA; San Antonio Spurs forward Harrison Barnes (40) poses for a photo after making a donation to the AlamoPROMISE tuition-free program. | Photo courtesy of the San Antonio Spurs

Now pouring into Iowa in another way, Barnes hopes to build Community State Bank, which has been around for 70 years, on what he believes to be a crucial quality: trust.

“When you're talking about banking, you’re talking about trust,” Barnes said. “I think the leadership that those guys exemplify on a day-to-day basis makes it exciting to want to support and build upon the legacy that they can say that’s been here now for 70 years.”

The investment also gives Barnes another connection to the state that raised him. Ames celebrated “Harrison Barnes Day” in 2015, and his old high school now plays its games inside Harrison Barnes Gymnasium and Court. He has hosted camps there, helped finance a new gym and returned often despite an NBA career that's taken him across the country.

Barnes still has basketball to play. He remains under contract with San Antonio and, at 34, is coming off his second trip to the NBA Finals. Whenever the end does come, however, Haliburton already knows Barnes won't be searching for what comes next.

Buying into an Iowa bank, then, feels less like a pivot and more like an extension of a relationship he's long cultivated off court. He started figuring that out years ago.

“I think the biggest thing is that every time that you step into a room," Barnes began, "you step into a space, you are 100 percent where your feet are at. That’s how I find the balance.”

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