Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: Hi everyone, welcome to the deal. I'm Jason Kelly alongside
Speaker 2: my partner Alex Rodriguez. All right, Ar, you are headed
Speaker 2: to the Olympics. I'm very excited for you, a little
Speaker 2: bit jealous. Tell me your mindset sort of going into this.
Speaker 2: I mean, you're an excellent athlete yourself. I mean this
Speaker 2: is literally the pinnacle of athletic achievement.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I'm very, very excited, Jason, because look, I've only been
Speaker 3: retired eight or nine years, and my mindset is I'm
Speaker 3: going to go back to being a ten year old
Speaker 3: and I'm a novice here. Yeah, and we're talking about swimming,
Speaker 3: track and field. Obviously basketball. We have a lot of
Speaker 3: our guys there from the timber Wolves. I'm going to
Speaker 3: go there just as a fan.
Speaker 1: And that's it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Historically, just speaking of basketball pacifically, some of the most
Speaker 2: iconic moments, especially for American athletes, have been around basketball,
Speaker 2: men's and women's. You know, you think about the Dream Team,
Speaker 2: you think about the ninety six women's team. It's a
Speaker 2: big deal for basketball because EDBA is a pretty big stage.
Speaker 2: But the Olympics, there's something different to play for, especially
Speaker 2: because oftentimes you could be playing against a teammate or
Speaker 2: certainly playing against a rival in an entirely different context totally.
Speaker 3: And what I'm really excited about is, at least thinking
Speaker 3: from being part of the Timberwles family, is I remember
Speaker 3: Jason nineteen ninety six was my first All Star Game.
Speaker 3: And there's one thing about being one of seven hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty players in the big leagues. The other one
Speaker 3: is being one of fifty that made it to the
Speaker 3: All Star Game and being in that platform where the
Speaker 3: whole baseball communities watching. And I remember when Kyle Ripken
Speaker 3: came to me for the very first time. Oh my god,
Speaker 3: I felt like I met Messiah. And I was so
Speaker 3: excited and I was just so giddy. But what it
Speaker 3: did for my confidence it was like a four or
Speaker 3: five X. Leaving that place, I felt like, Wow, now
Speaker 3: I belong. I saw that a little bit with Anthony
Speaker 3: Edwards last year, coming up the Olympics, playing with great coaches,
Speaker 3: great players, a great atmosphere, very competitive. I saw his
Speaker 3: growth and I'm really excited to see how well he
Speaker 3: plays there, how he contributes, and even more importantly, how
Speaker 3: he comes back and keeps developing his great young career.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and as you said, I mean basketball is only
Speaker 2: a piece of what you're going to see. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, I did this piece last year about Alison
Speaker 2: Felix and hearing her talk about, you know, running a
Speaker 2: race and then having to wait essentially four years to
Speaker 2: prove yourself again.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a crazy amount of pressure.
Speaker 2: You played in this for where it's like, well, there's
Speaker 2: gonna be another at that, you know, probably in twenty minutes.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine having to wait four years before you
Speaker 2: prove yourself again.
Speaker 1: It's just crazy.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: You know, I've talked to a lot of the stars
Speaker 3: that run track and I thought it kind of hit
Speaker 3: home when one of the stars that I spoke to said, look,
Speaker 3: I trained four years for ten seconds, and that really
Speaker 3: brought it to perspective. You can't trip false start, you
Speaker 3: hurt yourself and it happens all the time, and the
Speaker 3: amount of pressure is just like none other in any
Speaker 3: other sport than going to the Olympics every four years.
Speaker 2: And then I think about what a game changer either
Speaker 2: being successful in the Olympics, you know, winning a gold
Speaker 2: medal obviously changes the entire trajectory of your life and
Speaker 2: certainly in the in the short and midterm, but also
Speaker 2: just like having a memorable performance can put you at
Speaker 2: a level you weren't before in terms of making deals,
Speaker 2: in terms of, you know, the rest of your career.
Speaker 2: If you are a gold medalist or a medalist, probably
Speaker 2: you have a different path. There's a moment for athletic excellence,
Speaker 2: but there's also a moment too, I mean, not to
Speaker 2: be so crass about it, to grow your brand, you know,
Speaker 2: to sort of put your yourself out on this global stage.
Speaker 2: You know, hundreds of millions, billions of people watching you perform,
Speaker 2: not just in your home country but around the world.
Speaker 2: That could really change the trajectory of your business career,
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I can just think about as you're speaking,
Speaker 3: I'm thinking about being a kid and looking at Mary
Speaker 3: lu Gymnastics, and then you know, for the next four
Speaker 3: years she was in every cover. We were eating her cereal,
Speaker 3: we were drinking her milk. It was just incredible. Whether
Speaker 3: it's Carl Lewis, whether it's Jackie Joyner, Kersey. I can
Speaker 3: just think about all these icons that were really born
Speaker 3: out of these Olympic games, and not only that, Jason,
Speaker 3: but something for athletes to watch.
Speaker 1: A lot of them are.
Speaker 3: Known for what they've done on the course or on
Speaker 3: the track, or on the field or on the court.
Speaker 3: But also you've got to be careful off the court
Speaker 3: or off the field because there's been some controversial stuff
Speaker 3: that you have to be able to represent the United States.
Speaker 3: And never forget that while your name is in the back,
Speaker 3: you're also representing those three letters across your chest, and
Speaker 3: is really important to be dissip and your best behavior
Speaker 3: and focus on the sport at hand, because there's a
Speaker 3: lot of eyeballs to your point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, here's hoping that the Paris goes okay.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 2: So when we talk about the world and we talk
Speaker 2: about basketball, a guy who you and I both know
Speaker 2: very well, I just spent a bunch of time with
Speaker 2: over the past year. He's the subject of a new
Speaker 2: episode of our power Player series here at Bloomberg Originals.
Speaker 2: The stuff that I do when I'm not talking to you,
Speaker 2: Messiah Jerry so Massa's name is synonymous with excellence and
Speaker 2: really pioneering in the world of basketball. So he was
Speaker 2: named general manager of the Denver Nuggets back in twenty eleven,
Speaker 2: becoming the first African GM in pro sports, and then
Speaker 2: in twenty thirteen, Massai became the executive vice president and
Speaker 2: GM of the Toronto Raptors and now he's the president
Speaker 2: of that organization. His impact there has been profound. He
Speaker 2: revamped the team, brought in key players, and his most
Speaker 2: notable achievement, of course, came in twenty nineteen when the Raptors,
Speaker 2: under his leadership, when their first ever NBA championship. But
Speaker 2: he's actually using basketball to extend his influence. He's also
Speaker 2: a dedicated philanthropist and through his Giants of Africa organization,
Speaker 2: he's empowering African youth through sports and education. He is
Speaker 2: well known to you, but I'm more interested in your
Speaker 2: view of Massai because you've seen him do his thing.
Speaker 3: I have, and that's why I thought your piece was extraordinary. Congrats.
Speaker 3: It felt like you were there for a month. I'm like, Jason,
Speaker 3: when did you spend a month there? It was really
Speaker 3: well done. I'm sure you had great partners help you
Speaker 3: to produce that as well. But that's why it's so
Speaker 3: important to show and not just tell. And I think
Speaker 3: you and your producers did a fantastic job of showing
Speaker 3: us all the promise how bullish.
Speaker 1: People are about it.
Speaker 3: I recently had a conversation with Michael Milkin actually in Atlanta.
Speaker 3: We were doing a philanthropic event, and he told me
Speaker 3: that he is most bullish in the continent of Africa
Speaker 3: that is growing at a pace that reminds him of
Speaker 3: Asia and China a little bit ago and some of
Speaker 3: the limitations that they have in China, as he said,
Speaker 3: has really made Africa like the top growing in population.
Speaker 3: And if you're an investor, whether it's basketball or baseball,
Speaker 3: sports or infrastructure or real estate, Africa is the right
Speaker 3: place to be because one of the most growing places
Speaker 3: in the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, one of the things that Massi is
Speaker 2: clearly working on is how do you use basketball for
Speaker 2: economic good on the continent of Africa. It's building courts,
Speaker 2: but it's also being very embedded in the community. And
Speaker 2: one of the things that Massi says in this piece,
Speaker 2: there are very few people who ultimately can be professional athletes.
Speaker 2: It's like a percent of a percent of a percent,
Speaker 2: and yet there are more people who can be in.
Speaker 1: Jobs like Massi's job.
Speaker 2: You know, he's the first to say he wanted to
Speaker 2: be a basketball player, he ended up being a scout,
Speaker 2: and then he ended up being an executive and now
Speaker 2: he's running a team.
Speaker 1: And so this notion of, you know.
Speaker 2: A career path built around sports. You and I see
Speaker 2: it all the time in these massive ecosystems are building up,
Speaker 2: and so it's interesting to see that ecosystem applied to
Speaker 2: a massive economic project, as you say, like Africa.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think what Massia is really kind of going
Speaker 3: to school on is he's seeing what the Lakers have
Speaker 3: done with La Live, you know, basically building an entire
Speaker 3: infrastructure around the Laker brand and the King's brand. In hockey,
Speaker 3: You're seeing what West Sedens and Mark Laswy have done
Speaker 3: with the Milwaukee Bucks and building that great stadium. You
Speaker 3: see what's going on in your hometown with the Atlanta Braves,
Speaker 3: I mean, is an absolute juggernaut what they've built around
Speaker 3: that stadium, selling out every day. Obviously they brought a
Speaker 3: world title. But I also think that what he's doing
Speaker 3: that is really smart Jason, is he's bringing greatness to
Speaker 3: these young people out there. It gave me truendous hope.
Speaker 3: And Messiah is doing that exact same thing in Africa,
Speaker 3: by bringing the Obamas, by bringing some of his players,
Speaker 3: some retired players. That's even as important as building. As
Speaker 3: he said on that piece, the goal he's got twenty
Speaker 3: nine courts. The goal is to build one hundred. My
Speaker 3: prediction is who build a thousand in the next decade.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And I think that this notion of using sports
Speaker 2: for economic development but also for diplomacy.
Speaker 1: You know, this is a guy you alluded to it.
Speaker 2: He's tight with Obama, and Obama been together on the
Speaker 2: continent unveiling courts. He is friendly with Prime Minister Trudeau
Speaker 2: in Canada. He's obviously tight with Paul Kagame, the president
Speaker 2: of Rwanda, has done a lot there, and his relationships
Speaker 2: across the continent and candidly at the United Nations and
Speaker 2: elsewhere are unparalleled.
Speaker 1: So Power Players, Messiah Jerry, check.
Speaker 2: It out and I'm glad you enjoyed it, Alex, Welcome
Speaker 2: back to the deal. Well, as I was just telling Alex,
Speaker 2: I was really excited to do this episode of Power
Speaker 2: Players about Messiu Jerry. This is a legendary figure in
Speaker 2: the the NBA, and he's legendary not just for what
Speaker 2: he's done with the Raptors. He won a championship in
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, the only international franchise in the NBA. But
Speaker 2: along the way over the past twenty years, Massai has
Speaker 2: set up this organization called Giants of Africa. I wanted
Speaker 2: to know what it was all about, so I actually
Speaker 2: went to Kagali, Rwanda, and in part because he was
Speaker 2: putting on a twentieth anniversary festival, he brought together players
Speaker 2: from all across the continent. There was a massive concert,
Speaker 2: there was a big community service element, and we went
Speaker 2: to all of it. So here's my conversation with Messiah Jerry.
Speaker 2: You're gonna hear some traffic and people passing back and
Speaker 2: forth in the background. I started off by asking him
Speaker 2: how it all came to be.
Speaker 4: We started this thing, you know, doing basketball camps, and
Speaker 4: that was it. We did basketball camp. We tried to
Speaker 4: come and affect kids in Nigeria. This thought for me
Speaker 4: came from being a director in the Basketball Without Borders
Speaker 4: program and that program brought one hundred kids from all
Speaker 4: over Africa to Johannesburg for basketball fundamentals camps and then
Speaker 4: community work. And I started to think, okay for doing
Speaker 4: this whole big thing, let me take it to my country,
Speaker 4: which was Nigeria. It really started Giants of Africa then,
Speaker 4: and my eyes began to open a little bit. You know,
Speaker 4: you do basketball camps and clinics, but there's so much
Speaker 4: around it, and you come and you start to teach
Speaker 4: the kids life skills, you know, beyond time, all the
Speaker 4: things respect women and respect women and all the things
Speaker 4: that we want to really like embrace and teach this youth.
Speaker 4: But how are you teaching this youth? These boys, You're
Speaker 4: telling them to go do something when there's no girls.
Speaker 4: So we started now incorporating girls into the camp, and
Speaker 4: you start preaching equality. Same shoes, same gear, same everything
Speaker 4: to play on the court. You see it here, it's
Speaker 4: the same. And that became big for us. Then we
Speaker 4: started to go into communities. Communities were not so privileged,
Speaker 4: whether it's slumps, whether it's war torn areas, a lot
Speaker 4: of places where the youth are playing or trying to
Speaker 4: play the game, but they're not encouraged as much. I
Speaker 4: had some issues, a little bit of issues with facilities
Speaker 4: in Nigeria at the time, and one year, I think
Speaker 4: two three years later, I got a little bit agitated,
Speaker 4: you know, and I said I'm going to go do
Speaker 4: it in another country. So I chose my mom's country,
Speaker 4: Kenya and went to do camps in Kenya. It just
Speaker 4: became so fulfilling to go into these countries and to
Speaker 4: be welcomed, you know, like through sports. And once I
Speaker 4: went into my mom's country Kenya, we found out that,
Speaker 4: you know, it's not difficult actually to like go into
Speaker 4: these countries because you are coming in the name of sports.
Speaker 4: And so we started going into different countries and that's
Speaker 4: how like Giants of Africa started to grow and become bigger.
Speaker 2: So this notion of going country to country was not
Speaker 2: the initial idea, but then it gains momentum.
Speaker 5: It feels like it gained like incredible momentum, and you know,
Speaker 5: social media is now starting to really become popular and
Speaker 5: people see that Yura in Kenya, you're in Nigeria, all
Speaker 5: of a sudden, everybody wants you to come to their country.
Speaker 4: Then it starts to get bigger. Now we're going to five, six,
Speaker 4: seven countries, while going into all these slumps, while going
Speaker 4: into all these refugee camps, we're going into a lot
Speaker 4: of war to one areas and really like encouraging the
Speaker 4: youth which are so fulfilling for us, and that's how
Speaker 4: it started to grow.
Speaker 2: It's interesting too to think about today you're the president
Speaker 2: of the team. You have a lot of influence across
Speaker 2: the NBA and across global basketball, including through Giants of Africa.
Speaker 2: But then your scout, you know, it's like you're an executive,
Speaker 2: but you're not sort of a big wig in the NBA.
Speaker 2: What gave you the confidence that, like, you could do this,
Speaker 2: that you could affect this change.
Speaker 4: Well, maybe the best thing I ever discovered, like that
Speaker 4: helped me in my career was the confidence in the
Speaker 4: continent and the confidence in the talent in the continent.
Speaker 4: And if we grew the game, you know, the spotlight
Speaker 4: will start to come to this continent, but we have
Speaker 4: to grow it. There are no courts, there are no facilities,
Speaker 4: coaching is it's okay, it needs help. And I combined
Speaker 4: that so that was almost my day job, and the
Speaker 4: nighttime was studying the NBA and learning the NBA. So
Speaker 4: the business side of the NBA, salary cap of the
Speaker 4: NBA side of the NBA, how it works, you know,
Speaker 4: in the league, and then you pour your passion into
Speaker 4: the game. Yeah, and when it all combines, I think
Speaker 4: you find more where you see that. Yeah, growing slowly,
Speaker 4: but the ultimate is what you say is the eye
Speaker 4: for the talent is that thing that keeps you in
Speaker 4: every gym for hours watching trying to figure out these
Speaker 4: guys good enough to play in the MBA. And a
Speaker 4: lot of my focus was that when we first started,
Speaker 4: how do you find talent for the NBA, because that's
Speaker 4: my number one job. This is the one that has
Speaker 4: to pay for the camp.
Speaker 2: Talk to me about that, I because I mean clearly
Speaker 2: that's the talent and talent assessment, talent discovery, that's your
Speaker 2: through line. Talk to me about discovering that in yourself.
Speaker 2: You started as a player, go to Europe. You realize
Speaker 2: I'm using your own words that like, you're not going
Speaker 2: to make it as a as a player in the NBA,
Speaker 2: but you've got something.
Speaker 4: It takes networking with people, It takes one to learn more.
Speaker 4: You have to be a listener, you have to watch.
Speaker 4: You almost have to give yourself up, and I gave
Speaker 4: myself up. But the passion, if you show more passion
Speaker 4: than ambition, you'll go places, especially if you because you
Speaker 4: try to be good at it and God study a lot.
Speaker 4: I tell you that a lot, you know, instead of
Speaker 4: always looking at that position I want to be vice
Speaker 4: president or I want to be director, or I want
Speaker 4: to be this. How do you push yourself to be that?
Speaker 4: Where does that come from?
Speaker 1: Is that just something that's in you?
Speaker 4: Is something you learn from your parents?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: Where does that come from?
Speaker 4: I think my parents, I honestly think my parents. My
Speaker 4: dad was that way, is so passionate about what he did,
Speaker 4: so good to people, honest to people. And then my
Speaker 4: mom on her side, she was the same way, but
Speaker 4: she was a little bit more fierce, And I think
Speaker 4: that I kind of like figured out a way to
Speaker 4: balance both of them, because you need to be fierce,
Speaker 4: you need to command, you need to be confident, and
Speaker 4: you need to be bold.
Speaker 2: One of the things that falls under this sort of
Speaker 2: advantage that you clearly have that you bring to the table,
Speaker 2: this talent assessment, talent identification. It's especially interesting to think
Speaker 2: about the NBA because it's such a player driven league
Speaker 2: and so you have these big personalities, you have these
Speaker 2: sort of personnel decisions that literally fall to you and
Speaker 2: have for a long time.
Speaker 6: What do you make of that?
Speaker 2: Especially in the NBA as it has become so player
Speaker 2: driven and us seeing a lot of evidence of that
Speaker 2: in your career.
Speaker 4: I think it's a player's league, you know, like I
Speaker 4: truly respect that. It is about the players. They make
Speaker 4: the league. They play and so talented, they have unbelievable personalities,
Speaker 4: unbelievable style. They all come from different backgrounds and that's
Speaker 4: so unique. You know. We can never be in that position,
Speaker 4: and I never think about it like that, yea. So
Speaker 4: I really respect that about the NBA because we have
Speaker 4: an advantage, a huge, huge advantage. Think about the screens
Speaker 4: and think about the big screens that you have, and
Speaker 4: when you are watching sports, the NBA has the biggest,
Speaker 4: biggest advantage. Sometimes you have this big TV and you're
Speaker 4: watching Lebron James and now with technology, you almost feel
Speaker 4: like you're playing with him. You can't do that in
Speaker 4: any other sport. In hockey they have helmets. In football,
Speaker 4: they have helmets, so sometimes you don't even know who
Speaker 4: the player is. It's not a nock to them or
Speaker 4: you know, but that's just reality. And then in the
Speaker 4: other ones in baseball and soccer, they are so far
Speaker 4: out in the field, yeah that you know, sometimes it's
Speaker 4: not as interactive, you know, like as basketball can be.
Speaker 4: So it's about the players. For me, I really embraced
Speaker 4: at one hundred percent. There's no day any day I've
Speaker 4: ever thought, you know, Okay, let's do it this way,
Speaker 4: you know, like no, Yeah, the players are the focus
Speaker 4: of the NBA.
Speaker 2: So if you think about the place that maybe furthest
Speaker 2: away physically and almost figuratively from Kagali, Rwanda, it's Toronto, Ontario, Canada,
Speaker 2: And so I went there because that's massis natural habitat.
Speaker 2: These days, he's the president of the Raptors, and what
Speaker 2: he's doing there in the only international franchise in the
Speaker 2: NBA is creating a team that in some ways models
Speaker 2: what he's trying to create through all his work in
Speaker 2: Giants of Africa.
Speaker 4: When I came here the first time to work for
Speaker 4: Brian Colangelo as the RTOR of Global Scouting, and I've
Speaker 4: started going to games, you see the diverse atmosphere, not
Speaker 4: just at the games, but in the city. And then
Speaker 4: I looked at this platform and you see how unique
Speaker 4: it is that it's the only team that's outside the NBA.
Speaker 4: You can see the rest of the world, including the USA,
Speaker 4: you know, like from maybe a little bit above and
Speaker 4: depends on what lens you use, and you can use
Speaker 4: any marketing, branding partnerships, anything you look at. It's a
Speaker 4: gold mine, yeah, because we're almost competing with twenty nine
Speaker 4: teams from the outside, yes, and twenty nine teams are
Speaker 4: competing for the same thing, you know, like, and we
Speaker 4: just have this huge platform where we can look at Asia,
Speaker 4: we can look at Europe, we can look at the Americas,
Speaker 4: we can look at Africa, and we can really really
Speaker 4: like create a special platform here. I don't think it
Speaker 4: has been figured out by NBA players yet, but it
Speaker 4: will be. It will be. There's something special about here.
Speaker 4: I always wonder from the championship year in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 4: how many young kids, including my son who's eight years old,
Speaker 4: now started to play basketball because of that championship and
Speaker 4: because of what it brought this whole country. A lot
Speaker 4: of programs have emerged, blowing up, and that matters a
Speaker 4: lot in sports.
Speaker 2: You mentioned several different players, you know who've been so
Speaker 2: meaningful to this organization.
Speaker 6: You have deep, long standing relationships with a lot of them.
Speaker 2: One of the things that's happened in the intervening times
Speaker 2: since we've seen each other is that you ended up
Speaker 2: trading at a player who was so you know, dear
Speaker 2: to this organization, dear to you in Pascal Siakam, tell
Speaker 2: me about that, not necessarily from a business perspective, but
Speaker 2: from a MESSI perspective. I mean, you were emotional publicly
Speaker 2: about it. What was what was.
Speaker 1: That like for you?
Speaker 4: Not just Pascal, but all these players, you know, like
Speaker 4: you almost serve as a mentor to them if you
Speaker 4: have been honest you try to be in this business
Speaker 4: is the way I've always dealt with them, straightforward, honest.
Speaker 4: And then I'll go back to the global perspective. Now.
Speaker 4: I think at the press conference, somebody asked me, you know,
Speaker 4: like what at the moment you remember, you know, like
Speaker 4: with Pascal and I think of, you know, the championship
Speaker 4: and US putting, or the Nigerian flag he wore, the
Speaker 4: Cameroon and young flag and Searge I had a flag
Speaker 4: of the Congo and I think of what it's meant. Yeah,
Speaker 4: two African youth, you know, to see this happen in
Speaker 4: real life and really really really happened to people that
Speaker 4: grew up on the continent, our dreams where the NBA
Speaker 4: we fulfilled it and even reached the highest level like together.
Speaker 4: That is incredibly meaningful, you know, like for me because
Speaker 4: some way, somehow I know myself and Pascal and og
Speaker 4: and Sergey Baka. We want the youth on the continent
Speaker 4: to come along, Yeah, to come along. And that's where
Speaker 4: I talk about winning on the court and winning off
Speaker 4: the court and how you bring people along. It's not
Speaker 4: easy and I understand business and trust me how I can.
Speaker 4: There's a ruthless yeah, but the human aspect of this,
Speaker 4: of everything in sports, I truly adore. Yeah, I respect,
Speaker 4: but it doesn't mean I'm not true ruthless businessman. Also, yeah,
Speaker 4: I see the youth. I see this basketball players on
Speaker 4: where they come from. It's meaningful.
Speaker 2: As we're talking about the NBA, there's also this massive
Speaker 2: global ambition. Of course we saw it obviously on display,
Speaker 2: you know, with the work that you're doing in Africa.
Speaker 2: We see the BA l we see NBA Africa, we
Speaker 2: see what's happening in other countries.
Speaker 6: What's next for that? From you?
Speaker 2: You're a primary architect ofness. You manage the only international
Speaker 2: franchise you have, Giants of Africa. What needs to happen
Speaker 2: next to really grow the NBA globally and what's the
Speaker 2: reasoning behind it.
Speaker 4: Well, if you're asking me for my dreams, yes, yeah,
Speaker 4: like teams outside the United States, I think in Europe.
Speaker 4: I think one day that's going to come, I hope,
Speaker 4: because the game has just grown incredibly well, I think
Speaker 4: over one hundred players from outside the United States in
Speaker 4: the NBA now. The NBA creating that league, the Basketball
Speaker 4: Africa League, to me is a huge eye opener because
Speaker 4: when you look at talent all over the world, there
Speaker 4: is a chance even if it's like this little yeah,
Speaker 4: I can't really think in my head that I saw
Speaker 4: Joel in bid sitting down the basketball camp in Africa
Speaker 4: and how many years ago and that same kid will
Speaker 4: be the MVP of the league and will score seventy
Speaker 4: points a couple of days ago in a game. You
Speaker 4: saw him when he was a kid, Yes, yes, he
Speaker 4: was in Basketball without Borders. But who are the top
Speaker 4: five players in the NBA now, you know, like in
Speaker 4: the in the MVP race, I think, you know, like
Speaker 4: it's indeed, it's your kids, it's Luca, it's Shay Gilchris Alexander.
Speaker 4: You know, they are international players, you know, And so
Speaker 4: look at the movement with Canada basketball and what they
Speaker 4: did in the Olympics, there's just an emergence and it
Speaker 4: can't be seen as a gimmick anymore. For me. We
Speaker 4: have to develop it even more. And it's going to
Speaker 4: come from I think the bottom, which is whether it's
Speaker 4: Giants of Africa or Seeds or any of these programs,
Speaker 4: the junior NBA, and then from the top, which is
Speaker 4: the league's the business of basketball, because in other parts
Speaker 4: of the world we have to see sports as a business,
Speaker 4: not just competition.
Speaker 2: Right, and that's seems to be such a critical piece
Speaker 2: of this, which is to ensure that it can be
Speaker 2: its own business. You know, bal has run in I
Speaker 2: mean they are showing it is a tough business to
Speaker 2: stand that up. You know, multi country, all the things
Speaker 2: that are happening. What needs to happen to ensure that
Speaker 2: business side really gets taken care of.
Speaker 4: We have to educate more on the continent. Yeah, we
Speaker 4: really do. And all people need to do is see
Speaker 4: something happen. People are not going to understand the benefits
Speaker 4: of the Basketball Africa League till three, four, five years
Speaker 4: from now because we can't talk about it as a template.
Speaker 4: We can't talk about it as a presentation. We have
Speaker 4: to talk about it, you know, like as something that
Speaker 4: is happening, and then people can see we have to
Speaker 4: build infrastructure. Yeah, what President Kagami did has done in Rwanda.
Speaker 4: Way he came here in twenty sixteen and watch the
Speaker 4: All Star Game and put his head down and said
Speaker 4: to me, you know, this is incredible. How do you
Speaker 4: get this kind of arena in Africa when you think
Speaker 4: about entertainment, when you think about music, sports, this whole ecosystem.
Speaker 4: We need infrastructure on the continent. And it's coming slowly
Speaker 4: because as soon as we get infrastructure on the continent,
Speaker 4: it's over. Yeah. Where these artists Da Vido and Tia
Speaker 4: Savage and Bruna Boy and Whisked and I can keep
Speaker 4: naming them, and where they can go and play and
Speaker 4: tour on the continent. Sports is being played home and
Speaker 4: away in different parts. Now you're building a business. Now
Speaker 4: you're building an ecosystem that has to sustain. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: now companies, partnerships, businesses start putting money into this, the
Speaker 4: eye is going to open. So the main step now
Speaker 4: for us is to build this infrastructure around the continent.
Speaker 6: Right, and so you obviously deeply believe this.
Speaker 2: Do you feel that the rest of the NBA is
Speaker 2: buying in, and not just from the league perspective, but
Speaker 2: other owners, other executives. Are they committed to this global growth?
Speaker 2: Do you think to the extent that they need to be?
Speaker 4: I think they are, and I think we need to
Speaker 4: educate more too. You know, like a lot of people,
Speaker 4: when you think about Africa, I say it in the
Speaker 4: most humble way and I say it in the most
Speaker 4: respectful way. A lot of people think about Africa. I
Speaker 4: think Safari. Yeah, they think, oh, we have to donate
Speaker 4: ten dollars of people suffering. Yeah, but you don't think
Speaker 4: about the rising population, the youthful population, the demographic organization,
Speaker 4: cities becoming bigger. There's so much going on, you know,
Speaker 4: like on the continent, real estate is growing, banking is growing,
Speaker 4: technology is growing. Yeah. I want sports to grow. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I want sports to be big up because we have talent. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Is there a world in the near future where Joel
Speaker 2: embiid Pscal Siakam you can be Matumbo of the next
Speaker 2: generation play in Africa. They don't come to you, They
Speaker 2: don't come to the NBA.
Speaker 4: I see that world in football and in basketball, and
Speaker 4: I'm hoping it happens before why I leave this world. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: I can't tell you when it's going to happen, but
Speaker 4: it is going to happen. Yeah. It's the same thing
Speaker 4: as everything you think of is the same thing as technology, phones, arena,
Speaker 4: Everything that's here is going to go there, right, Yes,
Speaker 4: every single thing. The most difficult part of all of
Speaker 4: this is talent. Yeah, so we can't do all of this,
Speaker 4: you know, like we can go and put a gym here,
Speaker 4: do everything we want to do, or where's the talent
Speaker 4: in Africa? It's walking around every single place you look. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, like that talent is not going anywhere. It's
Speaker 4: continuing to produce because of the demographic is continuing to grow.
Speaker 4: So every camp we go, there's brand new kids, there's
Speaker 4: brand new basketball players, there's brand new soccer players. It's amazing.
Speaker 4: Go watch American football now and tell me in any
Speaker 4: game you go watch now, how many African names And
Speaker 4: it's not even played in Africa. Yeah, imagine if it
Speaker 4: was a physical sport like that. Yeah, Africa's talent is
Speaker 4: its people, you know, like and I think, yeah, the
Speaker 4: jew on the continent is is people smart, intelligent, athletic, physical,
Speaker 4: everything that you can think of on all different parts.
Speaker 4: But we have to take care of what you are
Speaker 4: saying as the border's business. Yeah, eye opening, corruption, all
Speaker 4: those things that you know, like kind of set us
Speaker 4: back sometimes.
Speaker 2: So having watched you in Kakali, I mean you're all
Speaker 2: in there.
Speaker 6: You're, you know, the.
Speaker 2: The impresario, the master reminder of everything that's going on.
Speaker 6: It's easy to see your impact when you're there.
Speaker 2: How do you from here ensure that that is keeping
Speaker 2: going and that you're really drawing connected sort of creating
Speaker 2: connective tissue between your day to day here and Giants
Speaker 2: of Africa.
Speaker 4: It's only one word. Winning, Yes, win, Yeah. The last
Speaker 4: ten years. And opportunity the last ten years, the incredible
Speaker 4: opportunity that the NBA has given me out say twenty years,
Speaker 4: and the organizations I've worked with, whether it was Toronto,
Speaker 4: Denver here back in Toronto, the real vision of ownership.
Speaker 4: The Krunkies own Arsenal, so they see the world as global.
Speaker 4: They own a lot of sports teams and I worked
Speaker 4: with them here obviously see the world, you know, like globally.
Speaker 4: And so when we started to introduce Giants of Africa
Speaker 4: and the work while doing on the continent and how
Speaker 4: we hope this can translate to winning here. It's the
Speaker 4: Pascal Siakams, you know, like it's the O g On Nonobi's,
Speaker 4: it's the Joel Embiids. You know, like when you see
Speaker 4: this actually go from basketball camp to NBA All NBA Player,
Speaker 4: All Star NBA player, seventy point NBA player, a Championship
Speaker 4: NBA player, that's real. Yeah, that's real. But I have
Speaker 4: to win here and this is my job, you know,
Speaker 4: Like that gives me the opportunity, Yeah, to go grow
Speaker 4: the game, you know, globally in Africa, in Nigeria and
Speaker 4: all over the world. You know, I'm a representative of
Speaker 4: the NBA and I know that, you know, like and
Speaker 4: I believe that. But I have to give opportunity to
Speaker 4: others and it comes from winning. Whether it's the players,
Speaker 4: whether it's other people in my business, whether it's other coaches.
Speaker 4: I feel we have to be in the forefront that
Speaker 4: creates more opportunity.
Speaker 6: Because winning creates opportunity.
Speaker 4: Is that the idea one hundred percent, one percent you
Speaker 4: win on the court, you win off the court, and
Speaker 4: as you do that, it brings people along.
Speaker 2: The deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and me Jason Kelly.
Speaker 2: This episode was made by Victor Eveyes, Stacey Wong, Annamasarakus
Speaker 2: and Lizzie Phillip. Our theme music is made by Blake Maples.
Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Kelly Lafair, Ashley Honig, and Brendan Newnham.
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Speaker 2: of this episode featured in an interview from the Power
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Speaker 2: The showrunner was Tom Conners, the writer Kadiza Rivera, producer
Speaker 2: Vanessa Perdomo, editor Katerina Glanz, creative director Rubob Shakir, consulting
Speaker 2: producers Jennifer Zavazaja and Raymond Schillinger, editorial supervisor David E. Ravella,
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