Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Speaker 2: Hi everyone, thank you so much for joining us tonight.
Speaker 2: We're really excited about the conversation, and thank you Jalen
Speaker 2: for being here. You've had a particularly impressive season this year,
Speaker 2: breaking several Boston Celtics records, including recently tying with Larry
Speaker 2: Bird for the most consecutive games scored with at least
Speaker 2: thirty points. So congratulations, thank you. But you've been a
Speaker 2: passionate advocate throughout your career about both you and your
Speaker 2: colleagues on the court being seen as more than just athletes.
Speaker 2: You're a thinker, you're a social justice advocate, You're an
Speaker 2: entrepreneur and a philanthropist. Can you talk about that dynamic
Speaker 2: and what is it like for you to juggle all
Speaker 2: of those different roles.
Speaker 1: I think at this point is just it's kind of normal.
Speaker 1: You know, from eighteen when I first came in to
Speaker 1: the NBA, I kind of had my experience cultivated at
Speaker 1: Berkeley where I you know, I interned out a VC
Speaker 1: when I was at when I was at Berkeley Bay.
Speaker 3: Ventures with Eric Moore.
Speaker 1: On top of doing what I did athletically and then
Speaker 1: also challenging myself academically through graduate courses and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So I think UC Berkeley really prepared me for the
Speaker 1: journey that I'm going through like right now.
Speaker 2: And you're also you use your platform a lot to
Speaker 2: speak out on issues off the court. Can you talk
Speaker 2: about why that's important to you and why that's something
Speaker 2: that you choose to do.
Speaker 1: Sure, Yeah, I think having a platform I look at
Speaker 1: as a responsibility, like being able to affect households that
Speaker 1: you may not ever get to see or reach or
Speaker 1: families in the next generation in a sense. So I
Speaker 1: take that with a great responsibility. So anytime that I can,
Speaker 1: I try to push what's what I view is important
Speaker 1: and what I want the ne US generation to learn about,
Speaker 1: what I want them to emphasize, and what I think
Speaker 1: being an athlete is about. You know, it's not just
Speaker 1: about entertainment. It is about influence. To be able to
Speaker 1: have a positive influence on your community, to be able
Speaker 1: to have a positive influence on you know, society in itself.
Speaker 1: So I kind of try to live my life in
Speaker 1: that regard.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like since you've been doing that, the
Speaker 2: narrative around athletes has changed. Do you feel like it's
Speaker 2: it's starting to break through this multi dimensional aspect.
Speaker 3: I will hope so, I would hope.
Speaker 1: So I would like to think that, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes it feels like that's not the case,
Speaker 1: but you know, I would like to think that the
Speaker 1: next generation is going to be a lot more athletes
Speaker 1: or you know, understanding their value, thinking about how to
Speaker 1: use their platform, also developing themselves outside of just being
Speaker 1: you know, entertainer sized lead in developing how they can
Speaker 1: have a positive role influence on society and the community
Speaker 1: in itself. I would think there's in the future there
Speaker 1: will be a bunch more athletes that will be coming behind.
Speaker 1: And I've talked to a lot of them, you know,
Speaker 1: I just think the courage is what they just need.
Speaker 1: Like once things become popularized and normalized, like it becomes
Speaker 1: mainstream for athletes to be in a certain way, I
Speaker 1: think you'll see a lot more.
Speaker 2: And you turn down endorsement offers worth fifty million dollars
Speaker 2: over multiple years and shows instead to launch your own
Speaker 2: sneaker brand seven forty one. Can you talk about what
Speaker 2: motivated that decision and why you chose to do it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, probably some delusion.
Speaker 1: You know, most people will probably, you know, scratch their
Speaker 1: head about decisions like that, and probably some people that
Speaker 1: I know that are close to me probably still scratching
Speaker 1: their head about some decisions that I've made. But for me,
Speaker 1: you know things, Obviously, money is important. I think that
Speaker 1: is a great resource to be able to do things
Speaker 1: that you know, you want to do, financial freedom. But
Speaker 1: there's things that I value more than money, you know,
Speaker 1: commitment to my community, I think, just integrity. It means more,
Speaker 1: being able to have an input, you know, creatively. All
Speaker 1: these things are things that I would weigh when I
Speaker 1: make my decision. And if you are taking away all
Speaker 1: those things and only wanting to give me money, you know,
Speaker 1: or you know, limiting my voice or something like that,
Speaker 1: then it doesn't sound like something that might be for
Speaker 1: Jalen Brow.
Speaker 2: What's it been like running your own sneaker parent. I mean,
Speaker 2: you're essentially a small businessman at that point. And what
Speaker 2: lessons have you learned from that that you might want
Speaker 2: to pass on to that next generation of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've learned so much. It's been so many ups
Speaker 1: and downs. We've had delays, you know, we've had you know,
Speaker 1: we've had things to go in different directions. We had,
Speaker 1: you know, we had great victories and things that we
Speaker 1: were super proud of and things that we want to
Speaker 1: continue to get better at, just like any company, you know.
Speaker 1: But to be able to go through that process I
Speaker 1: started at twenty six, twenty seven years old. I'm twenty
Speaker 1: nine now, to be able to understand like kind of
Speaker 1: the ins and outs of you know, the sneaker industry.
Speaker 3: I've learned a lot about and what I would like to.
Speaker 1: See differently and kind of what I want to provide
Speaker 1: for the next generation, just so they can have an
Speaker 1: option that's alternative to like what's being prisoned out there
Speaker 1: right now right now. Largely, you know, artificial metrics dominate
Speaker 1: our industry. Bots, you know, fake viral moments, clickbait. It's
Speaker 1: kind of what they use as a as almost a
Speaker 1: substitute for influence, right like we see it all the
Speaker 1: time through these accounts mostly you know, large organizations. They
Speaker 1: have a job description where your job is to go
Speaker 1: find the most popularized accounts, work with them in order
Speaker 1: to use their influence in order to push your product
Speaker 1: or push your whatever. But we've gotten away from storytelling
Speaker 1: in the industry, and that's like a true way to
Speaker 1: you know, galvanize influence like storyteller testimonies like someone went
Speaker 1: from here to here that inspires people. The industry has
Speaker 1: largely got away from that because they think technology has
Speaker 1: somehow become a substitute for human influence. And I think
Speaker 1: that was the wrong decision and I would like to
Speaker 1: see it go back and actually engaging with that consumer
Speaker 1: of your products. Yeah, you know, I think people are
Speaker 1: inspired and motivated when they hear other people's stories, and
Speaker 1: they hear when they get to see them visually come
Speaker 1: together and you get to see someone's testimonies that are
Speaker 1: now it's a budget behind it, and now you get
Speaker 1: to like I used to grow up seeing Lebron running
Speaker 1: down South Beach and in him in Cleveland and everybody
Speaker 1: like you know that as a kid, that was inspiring.
Speaker 1: Now you just see clickbait on Now you just see
Speaker 1: you know, clickbait and fake viral moments and see the
Speaker 1: accounts that are trying to create and make me feel
Speaker 1: like this is important, and it just don't feel the same.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, like it's like artificial light versus
Speaker 1: the sun.
Speaker 3: You know, it's a difference.
Speaker 2: And you're also an investor in happy which is a
Speaker 2: tech wellness company, and I wondered if you could talk
Speaker 2: a little bit about what that company does and why
Speaker 2: you chose to get involved with it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, science is one of my loves.
Speaker 1: I love science, also love history, so you know, I
Speaker 1: look forward to going back to school and potentially getting
Speaker 1: my degree in the scientific field, maybe physics, maybe astrophysics,
Speaker 1: et cetera. But frequency technology is something that I've always
Speaker 1: been fascinated with. Like, you know, everything that's around us
Speaker 1: is frequency and vibration. That's just how matter is formed,
Speaker 1: you know. So to be able to you know, have
Speaker 1: a device or be able to learn about how these
Speaker 1: frequencies and vibrations can have an impact on your daily life,
Speaker 1: it's kind of what Happy is about. So I since
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, I've been the chief Innovation Officer of Happy,
Speaker 1: which is this technology company that utilizes these frequencies, and
Speaker 1: it's been my role to come up with what the
Speaker 1: future of frequency technology could look like for this company.
Speaker 3: So I've been enjoying that role.
Speaker 1: I've learned a lot in that role, and we have
Speaker 1: some cool announcements to make in the future regarding you know,
Speaker 1: rebrand this up and cooming year and also some more
Speaker 1: products that we would like to push out. But science
Speaker 1: is always something that I've been fascinated with that kind
Speaker 1: of makes me feel like a kid again.
Speaker 3: So it's been cool with being the CIO of.
Speaker 2: Happy And We've talked about some of your endeavors and
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about more of them. But I
Speaker 2: did want to ask, I mean, even just the ones
Speaker 2: we've already talked about, how difficult is it to do
Speaker 2: things like that with a season that stretches as long
Speaker 2: as the NBA. How do you devote enough time to
Speaker 2: these different ventures.
Speaker 3: It's a balance.
Speaker 1: It's a balance, and I'm very talented at the game
Speaker 1: of basketball and I always have men and maybe I
Speaker 1: could have diverted more focus in my younger career to
Speaker 1: being all in on basketball, like and kind of just
Speaker 1: these other things that I've also been interested in and
Speaker 1: I've kind of like cultivated and groomed alongside of my
Speaker 1: basketball career because I just always looked at things from
Speaker 1: a big picture kind of approach. But most athletes, they
Speaker 1: just it's just, you know, this is the main thing.
Speaker 1: Let me just focus on this. I kind of focused
Speaker 1: on everything, and I think I've just had the privilege
Speaker 1: that I've been. I've been blessed with talents and I
Speaker 1: work hard, but I've always been naturally just very good
Speaker 1: at this game.
Speaker 3: So where you know.
Speaker 1: Someone else would be might be difficult for them to
Speaker 1: juggle one or two things, I could juggle three or
Speaker 1: four over these, you know. So this season I focused
Speaker 1: more on basketball than I ever have, I think in
Speaker 1: my career, just because my team needed me to do
Speaker 1: and be this every single nay. But you know, throughout
Speaker 1: my career, I've always kind of had this approach where,
Speaker 1: you know, I love basketball, but I love science, I
Speaker 1: love education, I love philanthropy, I love giving back. I
Speaker 1: love all these things as well, so I would divert
Speaker 1: my time as such.
Speaker 2: When you signed your five year, three hundred and four
Speaker 2: million contract extension with the Boston Celtics, you announced another
Speaker 2: kind of long term investment, and that was your vision
Speaker 2: to build a modern day version of Black Waltster here
Speaker 2: in Boston. Can you talk about why that particular issue
Speaker 2: is one that you've chosen to focus on and ultimately
Speaker 2: what you do hope to achieve here in Boston.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, for those who are unfamiliar, when I signed
Speaker 1: my last contract, it was one of the largest contracts
Speaker 1: in NBA history, and I was in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, right, So I thought at that moment
Speaker 1: it'd be fitting to talk about since wealth and financials
Speaker 1: was a topic of discussion, I thought it would be
Speaker 1: great to bring up like that. I live here in
Speaker 1: Boston and one of the things that doesn't get discussed
Speaker 1: enough is the wealth gap here. It was an article
Speaker 1: that came out, i think in the Boston Globe that
Speaker 1: went viral that's very popular, talks about the average means
Speaker 1: for households and demographics, and a lot of people were
Speaker 1: disturbed by that, including me. So I thought, using your platform,
Speaker 1: you know, at this stage where we're talking to about
Speaker 1: you know, what are you gonna do or what would
Speaker 1: you like to do with the financial freedom and the
Speaker 1: financial games that you just you know, signed for in
Speaker 1: this city, I thought it would be fitting to make
Speaker 1: a commitment to the city that I play in to
Speaker 1: you know, attack some of the things that I feel.
Speaker 3: I could also make it a better boss.
Speaker 1: Like I've been here for ten years now, and so
Speaker 1: I view myself as a part of their community. So
Speaker 1: when I'm listening to the people and that I work
Speaker 1: with the students, the families, et cetera about some of
Speaker 1: the things that they would like to see different, you know,
Speaker 1: some of the things that they you know, wish they
Speaker 1: had opportunities to or access to that you know, nobody's really.
Speaker 3: Talking about or bringing up.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, from my platform being a a
Speaker 1: athlete here, being one of the faces of the franchise. Uh,
Speaker 1: I found it fitting for me to do that. So
Speaker 1: that was a few years ago. Now we're where, we've
Speaker 1: launched Boston Exchange. We've had a cohort you know that
Speaker 1: I've invested in. I've had a great partner in Drew
Speaker 1: Holliday through his jailh Fund, one of the greatest teammates
Speaker 1: that I've ever had partner with me. We both contributed
Speaker 1: about a million dollars into investing into startups here in Boston,
Speaker 1: into an accelerated program that you know, gives the talented
Speaker 1: group of people that exist here that are minorities an
Speaker 1: opportunity to win here in the city that they're born
Speaker 1: and raising. The companies that we select often are the
Speaker 1: solution based, Like they deal with sustainability, they deal with
Speaker 1: food and securities, they deal with you know, mental health
Speaker 1: or just staying healthy in the environment. So I feel
Speaker 1: like you're like solving two problems in one. Not only
Speaker 1: are you investing in the talent that's already there in
Speaker 1: your city, you're also investing in something that's a solution
Speaker 1: within the community as well. So I'm a firm believer
Speaker 1: that investing in the talent here, talent would invest back
Speaker 1: into the city that they were born and raised in.
Speaker 1: So I think in the future we would like to
Speaker 1: see you know, more companies, you know, more talented groups emerge,
Speaker 1: and hopefully they emerge from our telebrated program.
Speaker 2: Are there is there a particular success story from that
Speaker 2: first round of applicants to your incubator accelerator program that
Speaker 2: you're particularly proud of.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have a few, even so far, it's only
Speaker 1: been a year or so. We've had you know, some uh,
Speaker 1: one of our groups or one of our companies that
Speaker 1: we've invested in Land a large government contract at the
Speaker 1: Children's museum.
Speaker 3: They deal with like, you know, food quality.
Speaker 1: For Yeah, she deals with food quality for like you know,
Speaker 1: you know, infants and adolescents and things like that.
Speaker 3: And they were addling uh uh, they applied for According
Speaker 3: to them, they applied to.
Speaker 1: Get this you know contract through the museum a few times,
Speaker 1: and then they got denied. And then once you know,
Speaker 1: people saw that we were connected through our accelerated program,
Speaker 1: that got the contract got approved. So now you know,
Speaker 1: that puts them in more doors, gives them more visibility,
Speaker 1: and I think they're on the way to being successful.
Speaker 1: It's also a hair care line that's doing really well.
Speaker 1: I think they're probably doing the best out of all
Speaker 1: of our groups. I forget the name, you know right
Speaker 1: now of the company, but it's a haircare group that's
Speaker 1: from Boston that we've also invested in in the last year.
Speaker 1: They were already you know, they were very, very talented,
Speaker 1: but they're starting to emerge and other they're able to
Speaker 1: get other people to invest as well, And that's a
Speaker 1: part of it, Like we wanted to just create the
Speaker 1: motion for other people to be able to see the
Speaker 1: talent that's here, because then now they're getting some notoriety
Speaker 1: and now they're able to go and get into doors
Speaker 1: that maybe they weren't able to get into before. That's
Speaker 1: a part of it. Just creating that social capital is
Speaker 1: a step of it. Like we don't want to just
Speaker 1: give companies money and just disappear and just think like like,
Speaker 1: we have programming that they come and sign up how
Speaker 1: to better their business. They did programming at Harvard that
Speaker 1: they had to go through. They had programming at MIT
Speaker 1: that they had to go through, how to develop and
Speaker 1: correlate their businesses, how to make it more profitable, and
Speaker 1: et cetera. They use AI and technology to make things
Speaker 1: a little bit easier for them to in house, bookkeep,
Speaker 1: or whatever the case may be. And then you know,
Speaker 1: we we try to give them that social capital on
Speaker 1: top of that so that they can, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of write their own destiny rather than rely on anyone.
Speaker 1: So it's been it's been fun. We're looking forward to
Speaker 1: maybe the next court. We're looking to We're making some
Speaker 1: processes with our foundation and things like that to be
Speaker 1: able to accelerate the next court. You know, we'll get
Speaker 1: there and we'll have some announcements coming soon. But no,
Speaker 1: it's been fun, and I'm very grateful shout out to
Speaker 1: Duraliday the JLH Fund for him that he's only here
Speaker 1: for two years. I've been here for ten, so it
Speaker 1: makes more sense he was only here for two and
Speaker 1: invested that type of capital into the City of Boston
Speaker 1: and that just says a lot about him and Lauren
Speaker 1: and their character, which I speak very very highly of.
Speaker 2: So do you plan to do another rounded applicants for
Speaker 2: the incubator and is there a timeline for that?
Speaker 3: I think we do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we don't have a timeline as of yet, you know,
Speaker 1: but soon we'll be able to release some details about
Speaker 1: like what's coming next. But you know, it would be
Speaker 1: great to be able to do another coard and continue
Speaker 1: to build out, you know, the vision throughout you know,
Speaker 1: over a span of time. But you know, we're we're
Speaker 1: working out the strategy and always trying to figure out
Speaker 1: how to make and improve things and make it better
Speaker 1: and more.
Speaker 3: More efficient. So that's what we're working on now. Uh.
Speaker 2: And you touched on this event and this may be
Speaker 2: the the research that you were referencing, But in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 2: the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston published a very influential
Speaker 2: study that found the typical white household in Boston has
Speaker 2: a median wealth of nearly two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
Speaker 2: compared to just eight dollars for US born blacks and
Speaker 2: zero dollars for Dominicans non white households were significantly less
Speaker 2: likely to own homes or stocks than white households. How
Speaker 2: have you seen that kind of wealth disparity reflected yourself
Speaker 2: when you're out and talking to people in Boston and
Speaker 2: meeting with people.
Speaker 1: It reflects outside of the city even more like that,
Speaker 1: because that becomes the perception of Boston. Because like when
Speaker 1: you talk about you know, when people start using words
Speaker 1: like racism, like most people think that it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: a color dynamic, but it's a power dynamic more than anything.
Speaker 1: Like you know, the analytics of opportunities and resources, the
Speaker 1: analytics educationally, the fighting, the wealth gap, the incarceration rate,
Speaker 1: you know, the acquisition to housing, who's available. These are
Speaker 1: the things that kind of make up that dynamic. So
Speaker 1: when you look at the analytics of something like racism,
Speaker 1: these are the type of things that you gotta look at,
Speaker 1: not just like what's being said online or whatever the
Speaker 1: case may be. And these are the things that I
Speaker 1: want to push Boston to continue to be betteran But
Speaker 1: because of those things, because of the articles like that,
Speaker 1: Boston gets the perception that it does before you even
Speaker 1: get to the city. These are the things that you
Speaker 1: hear so to be able to work with the mayor
Speaker 1: or the governor, be able to use my platform in
Speaker 1: order to build a solution to some of the issues
Speaker 1: that are going on in the city. In any way
Speaker 1: that I can contribute to my society or any way
Speaker 1: I can contribute to the community, I'm always looking for ways.
Speaker 3: To do that.
Speaker 1: You know, That's just kind of how I was raised.
Speaker 1: My grandmother kind of raised us to be like that.
Speaker 1: I'll watched her, you know, be community driven and things
Speaker 1: like that, go knock on people's doors and fight for people,
Speaker 1: to help the people that she was fighting for. You know,
Speaker 1: like if that made did I said, all right, So
Speaker 1: so anytime I can make a contribution to my community,
Speaker 1: I'm looking for I'm looking.
Speaker 3: To do that.
Speaker 2: And in recent years, we have seen, to your point,
Speaker 2: a number of organizations announce commitments to economic equity, but
Speaker 2: we have also seen organizations pull back from or recast diversity,
Speaker 2: equity and inclusion initiatives, particularly recently with President Donald Trump's
Speaker 2: crackdown on such programs. Can you talk about what you're
Speaker 2: seeing in the broader investment community and do you feel
Speaker 2: like you're seeing tangible forward momentum from you know, financial
Speaker 2: institutions in particular and making the economy more equitable and
Speaker 2: helping to close that racial wealth gap.
Speaker 3: Asked me that question one more time.
Speaker 2: Just as you've seen, you know, different organizations pull back
Speaker 2: from DEI, how how are you seeing that manifest or
Speaker 2: are you still seeing positive forward momentum from financial institutions
Speaker 2: in particular.
Speaker 3: So I've heard a lot of things.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen anything personally, because in my line of work,
Speaker 1: you know, DEI doesn't It's it's not an I don't.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say that it's something that is I I
Speaker 1: guess it is to some degree from staffing, et.
Speaker 3: Cetera, but I would I don't know. I I don't know.
Speaker 1: What financial institutions are are are looking to do. You know,
Speaker 1: from everything I've heard, they just kind of want to
Speaker 1: wait it out until it goes Two things changed, But
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if I'm best equipped to answer that one.
Speaker 2: You're also the vice president of the National Basketball Players
Speaker 2: Association and you've been in that role since twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: Why is it important to you to to stay in
Speaker 2: a leadership role in that organization?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it's one of my favorite roles that I've
Speaker 1: been in from I became the vice president at twenty
Speaker 1: years old and I'm twenty nine now, so I've been
Speaker 1: on the board for nine years and I've learned so much,
Speaker 1: the ins and outs, what goes behind closed doors and
Speaker 1: major corporations, the NBA, etc. I can tell you at all,
Speaker 1: you know, I've sat on calls, I've been across I've
Speaker 1: been in a room. But with Adam Silva, the team
Speaker 1: of lawyers, they got one hundred plus lawyers working on
Speaker 1: the next CBA we got two, So the amount of resources, etc.
Speaker 1: But the players are more involved than they've ever been
Speaker 1: in terms of past. I think they understand the importance
Speaker 1: of player value. I think this generation is finally starting
Speaker 1: to understand the power of like group economics and understanding
Speaker 1: like your value and how much value you obtain. Because
Speaker 1: in the past that just that knowledge has been kind
Speaker 1: of obsolete or the care just hasn't been there. But
Speaker 1: I think that's changing. So I've learned a lot from
Speaker 1: my ten yere at the union and things like that.
Speaker 1: It's been an interesting journeys. Yeah, it's been frustrating at
Speaker 1: points of time, you know, and things that I still
Speaker 1: think that players should get access to. But I'm appreciative
Speaker 1: of my journey. I've learned a lot from a business standpoint.
Speaker 2: NBA franchise valuations have skyrocketed in recent years since that
Speaker 2: that last CVA was signed, including the six point one
Speaker 2: billion dollar purchase struck last year for the Boston Celtics
Speaker 2: the ten billion dollar deal for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaker 2: Do you think those rising valuations are appropriately reflected in
Speaker 2: how athletes are getting paid?
Speaker 3: No? Oh, Cia way.
Speaker 2: Do you think the rising valuations are appropriately reflected in
Speaker 2: how players are getting paid? Or do you think something
Speaker 2: needs to change in that formula to reflect you know,
Speaker 2: just how you.
Speaker 1: Answer, right, my answers knows what I think needs to change.
Speaker 1: I think players should and this is one of the
Speaker 1: things I was mentioning that causes some of the frustration.
Speaker 3: I think players should be able to.
Speaker 1: Invest alongside in in ownership groups and business opportunities. Like
Speaker 1: I don't understand why that's ever been a thing, but
Speaker 1: it's like your athlete, and it's they make it seem like,
Speaker 1: you know, they they can control how much wealth or
Speaker 1: growth that you could actually accumulate.
Speaker 3: I think that's wrong. I also think that, just like.
Speaker 1: Any other major corporation, like when you are if you
Speaker 1: work for Apple, or if you work for Nike, or
Speaker 1: if you work for any like if you're a CEO,
Speaker 1: if you're someone that's been on the board for a
Speaker 1: large amount of time, you get equity in the company
Speaker 1: at some point, like you are a part of it.
Speaker 1: And I think athletes should be looked at it in
Speaker 1: the same way, like you play for the Celtics for
Speaker 1: twenty years, like you should get you should get a
Speaker 1: a piece of equity. And because you helped accumulate the growth,
Speaker 1: you know, and that's the part that get lost in translation,
Speaker 1: is the growth from an organization, you know, a growth
Speaker 1: from a company or a corporation. You know, the sweat
Speaker 1: equity that you put in. You get compensated just like
Speaker 1: for doing your job, but you don't get compensated for
Speaker 1: the growth and the major corporations and companies you do,
Speaker 1: or at least some of the big ones, you know.
Speaker 1: So that's something that you know, I would propose, I
Speaker 1: have proposed, but you know, we'll see. We got another
Speaker 1: CBA coming up.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is an idea that's gained a lot
Speaker 2: of traction recently in private equity too, you know, Pete
Speaker 2: Staubras at KKR has been a big proponent of this
Speaker 2: that if you give rank and file employees players, whatever
Speaker 2: it might be, equity, they'll doyn't care more about the
Speaker 2: success of the company, they'll be more invested in it.
Speaker 2: You said, you know something you proposed. Do you feel
Speaker 2: like it is gaining more traction among others players? Do
Speaker 2: you hear it talked about more among your colleagues?
Speaker 1: No, I think the NBA shuts it down any chance
Speaker 1: to get I mean, when it comes down to it,
Speaker 1: it's all about leverage and as players, we're still building
Speaker 1: our levers getting on the same page.
Speaker 3: So you know, even if.
Speaker 1: It's the right idea, if it's the right thing to do,
Speaker 1: it won't matter to the NBA unless we all come
Speaker 1: on to the same page. They're not gonna do it
Speaker 1: unless we tell them this is what we want. So
Speaker 1: from a player standpoint, we just got to get more
Speaker 1: collectively on the same page. And I think it's the
Speaker 1: future is. You know, the possibilities are endless, but you know, nobody,
Speaker 1: nobody wants to pay anybody these days. Everybody wants to,
Speaker 1: you know, take as much of the piece of the
Speaker 1: pod as they possibly can. And that's just how business
Speaker 1: in America and capitalism has worked.
Speaker 3: So until we can kind of like.
Speaker 1: Get on the same page and formulate what we want,
Speaker 1: when we wanted, and how we want it to look,
Speaker 1: you know, nothing will change.
Speaker 2: So when the next round of negotiations does get underway
Speaker 2: and you have those other one hundred lawyers on the
Speaker 2: other side, is this something that you're gonna advocate for
Speaker 2: and push for as part of those negotiations.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, we would have some other steps that, you know,
Speaker 1: we would need to We would have some other things
Speaker 1: that we would need to do before that, because there's
Speaker 1: a you know, it's a lot of things that we
Speaker 1: have on the list that we talk about. We had
Speaker 1: a call today that we talked about some things, so
Speaker 1: you know, whatever comes next in that kind of pecking
Speaker 1: order of like arrangements, but that's something that's definitely big,
Speaker 1: you know that we would love to you know, be
Speaker 1: able to accomplish in the future the next generation of
Speaker 1: our NBA players and our athletes, be able to invest
Speaker 1: alongside ownership groups, especially.
Speaker 3: In the in.
Speaker 1: The development because it's already like the results are already
Speaker 1: baked in, you know, they already know it's gonna be
Speaker 1: people that's gonna be in these seats. You already know
Speaker 1: the game schedule, you already know what your return is
Speaker 1: gonna be. Players who are a part of that should
Speaker 1: be able to be included to some degree. Okay, see,
Speaker 1: just built a huge arena like recently, and those players
Speaker 1: that won the championship, they're a huge reason why you know,
Speaker 1: they were able to make that into like a top market,
Speaker 1: et cetera. It's a championship organization, So the players should
Speaker 1: be included to some degree. And I don't think it
Speaker 1: should be I don't think it should be rocket science either.
Speaker 2: More broadly, do you see sports teams as something that
Speaker 2: you would want to invest in, even outside of the
Speaker 2: NBA sports teams?
Speaker 3: Me, I don't know. I'm a union guy.
Speaker 1: I don't you know, so I don't know if I
Speaker 1: could be on the other side, Well I'm taking you know,
Speaker 1: I'm taking the liberties.
Speaker 2: Or for further afield, NFL or hockey or soccer.
Speaker 3: What have you.
Speaker 1: Maybe you know, I love sports, so opportunities have come
Speaker 1: a board, you know, in different leagues and different as
Speaker 1: socially they run differently like and things like that. You
Speaker 1: have you know, Premier League is different from the Champions League.
Speaker 1: Like Barcelona runs their organization different from Arsenal. You know, Barcelona,
Speaker 1: they run their organization like a democracy where it's no
Speaker 1: like the fans vote for who gets to run, so
Speaker 1: like depends. But you know, every situations are different than
Speaker 1: how things are done.
Speaker 3: Here in the US and NBA.
Speaker 1: But I don't know if I could be an NBA
Speaker 1: owner or anything like that because I spend too much
Speaker 1: time on the union fighting for you know, to be
Speaker 1: weird to kind of switch up fair enough.
Speaker 2: The NBA expects to make a decision regarding expansion sometime
Speaker 2: this year, with Las Vegas and Seattle favored as potential
Speaker 2: new franchises. Do you think this is a good idea
Speaker 2: from a player's perspective.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I pitched in like twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: that we should have an expansion team owned by the players.
Speaker 1: I think it fell on deaf ears, but that would
Speaker 1: be a It's something that I would like to see
Speaker 1: as they're continuing to expand, an expansion team that would
Speaker 1: be owned the br would be split amongst maybe retired players,
Speaker 1: current players, and maybe even WNBA, et cetera. And this
Speaker 1: expansion team that will be able to, you know, correct
Speaker 1: a lot of the you know, the frustration and divisional
Speaker 1: stuff that we talk about from a br standpoint, et cetera,
Speaker 1: not being able to invest, not being able to be
Speaker 1: included when companies are, when organizations get sold, and things
Speaker 1: like that. And the athletes who put into work the
Speaker 1: sweat equity have an expansion team owned by the players.
Speaker 1: Could be could be something, could be something interesting. You know,
Speaker 1: I think that that could be cool. Obviously, the union
Speaker 1: or we have to push some parameters around some things.
Speaker 1: But you know, I've brought that idea up a few
Speaker 1: times over over the past few years, just I don't
Speaker 1: think we've had the leverage enough to execute it. But
Speaker 1: you know, things change over time. Maybe we circle back
Speaker 1: to it. But you know, that idea actually came from
Speaker 1: Andre Andre Woodalla. You know, we were in the meeting
Speaker 1: and we were kind of bouncing that off each other.
Speaker 3: But Andre.
Speaker 1: Pitch that I think maybe that's something that we should
Speaker 1: push for, and maybe now that he's in the executive
Speaker 1: director position at the union, maybe that's something in the
Speaker 1: next few years that we do push for.
Speaker 2: In the college arena, athletes can now earn money from
Speaker 2: endorsements and appearances, and they can also get paid directly
Speaker 2: by universities. What impact have you seen from that shift
Speaker 2: on the next generation of athletes coming into the NBA
Speaker 2: and how they view themselves as business.
Speaker 3: I think it's changing lives, honestly.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's uh, obviously a lot of uh, there's
Speaker 1: a there's a lot of yellow tape around, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of the the the aspects of amateur players, amateur
Speaker 1: athletes and their name, image and likeness and how it's
Speaker 1: being negotiated and deals and contracts that are taking place
Speaker 1: with families, et cetera. But like players that may never
Speaker 1: get to the NBA, are you know, becoming millionaires and
Speaker 1: starting their life with six plus figures. It's just, you know,
Speaker 1: before when players were going to college and they were
Speaker 1: graduating with a degree that had nothing to show for,
Speaker 1: they're probably in more debt than they were, you know,
Speaker 1: before they went to college. So to be able to
Speaker 1: have and navigate your experience and give yourself a potential
Speaker 1: avenue to make money while you're in college and take
Speaker 1: care of your family and more give yourself a like
Speaker 1: just a boost on life, you know. I think it's changed.
Speaker 1: It's changed the game for a lot of people. So
Speaker 1: obviously that comes with it comes with some things that
Speaker 1: aren't great because you see some things that are happening
Speaker 1: we were talking about today.
Speaker 3: You get players get taken.
Speaker 1: Advantage of because you know, maybe management or agency groups
Speaker 1: are offering them things when they're in college to take
Speaker 1: this deal in order for them to be their representation.
Speaker 1: Like they're signing like three sixty deals when they're like
Speaker 1: sixteen seventeen years old, which is problematic, But overall, I
Speaker 1: think being able to have financial security throughout your college
Speaker 1: experience is super important. Like you know, you know, being
Speaker 1: in debt after you graduate. I know it's a lot
Speaker 1: of people that probably had that feeling. It's not great
Speaker 1: and I haven't experienced it, but I know my family members,
Speaker 1: you know, and stuff like that, we've had to experience
Speaker 1: that the start on life and that hanging.
Speaker 3: Over your head.
Speaker 1: So as an athlete in different sports that you play,
Speaker 1: to be able to have an input and be able
Speaker 1: to make revenue, I think it changes the game for
Speaker 1: a lot of our athletes.
Speaker 2: Part of the Boston Exchange when you announced it was
Speaker 2: to have physical space available to help support the entrepreneurs
Speaker 2: that came into that incubator accelerator program and their business
Speaker 2: aspirations and to really cultivate an innovation ecosystem. Can you
Speaker 2: talk about that goal and why it was part of
Speaker 2: the Boston Exchange.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think having a space is important, but it's
Speaker 1: not the easiest thing to culminate because you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of times, a lot of businesses are online, a
Speaker 1: lot of people are using technology and AI, so you
Speaker 1: don't want to pay for a space and it's not
Speaker 1: getting used. So you make decisions and you evaluate whether
Speaker 1: if that is a you know, if that is a
Speaker 1: great decision, or if it isn't.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: So I think we'll eventually have a space, it just
Speaker 1: wasn't the right time. Like right now, as we're continuing
Speaker 1: to get started, we find people have donated space and
Speaker 1: allocated space for some of our people of our core
Speaker 1: to use and things like that that have been fantastic
Speaker 1: and I appreciate our partners for that. But eventually, you know,
Speaker 1: it'd be nice to have our own space, but we
Speaker 1: just want to make sure it's on the right terms.
Speaker 2: You also expanded the Exchange to California's Bay Area, where
Speaker 2: you attended the University of California at Berkeley in partnership
Speaker 2: with Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd. How is that going
Speaker 2: and what insights have you gained when comparing the programs
Speaker 2: across the two coasts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Oakland is it's different. It's you know, a long
Speaker 1: flight from Boston, but you know some of the things
Speaker 1: that Boston has, you know, is dealing with or needs.
Speaker 3: Help or improving on. So it is Oakland.
Speaker 1: You know, major cities, not major cities all across the
Speaker 1: US are kind of all together.
Speaker 3: Kind of suffering the same thing.
Speaker 1: Like where the crime rate is higher in those areas.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of you know, abandonment and things like
Speaker 1: that for whatever reason. I'm not completely sure.
Speaker 3: Why, but.
Speaker 1: The the minority community is just the lack of opportunity
Speaker 1: and resources and things like that when it comes to
Speaker 1: these you know, major cities and things like that. So
Speaker 1: to be able to and to provide some resources to
Speaker 1: probably some partners that could you know, provide some opportunities
Speaker 1: and also provide that social capital so you know, they
Speaker 1: can start getting into different doors as well. It's important.
Speaker 1: Some of it, it's happenstance. I believe in some of it,
Speaker 1: I think might be a little intentional. Oakland is a
Speaker 1: little different from Boston.
Speaker 3: You know, I think that I don't I don't know
Speaker 3: how I.
Speaker 1: Would explain my words without you know, but I think
Speaker 1: it could be. You know, I think some of it
Speaker 1: is a little bit intentional. Those areas get diminished, the
Speaker 1: crime rate goes up, the property vale goes down, and
Speaker 1: you those buildings get turned into luxury homes and you
Speaker 1: know those that's kind of like the business model approach,
Speaker 1: where there is distressed asset, there is opportunity, and those
Speaker 1: distressed assets just happen to be people that come from
Speaker 1: communities such as mine, in communities that you know, unfamiliar with.
Speaker 1: So you know, that's capitalism, but it lacks the empathy
Speaker 1: that is needed for these communities. In these spaces that
Speaker 1: people have spent their livelihoods, people have born, they built connections,
Speaker 1: you know, they grew up, and that's the part that
Speaker 1: that's the story that doesn't get told.
Speaker 2: You started live streaming on Twitch last summer, and you've
Speaker 2: continued to do so through the season, and we actually
Speaker 2: streamed part of this conversation on your Twitch channel. Can
Speaker 2: you talk about what motivated that decision and why you've
Speaker 2: chosen to do that on that platform.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've said it before, I think, you know, I've thought.
Speaker 3: About it the past few days, like.
Speaker 1: Having your own Having my own Twitch this year is
Speaker 1: almost like having my own media platform. It's like I
Speaker 1: have my own media platform where I could put out
Speaker 1: the information that takes that I see fit and I
Speaker 1: think that's value. I mean, I think that's a tre
Speaker 1: menous value. People chime in. I have people from all
Speaker 1: over the world that come to just hear me talk
Speaker 1: about whatever, or you know, to come watch me play
Speaker 1: basketball or video games or what. So I've built a
Speaker 1: own form of media platform slash marketing where I can,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: Get directly to the people who want to.
Speaker 1: It just kind of gets rid of the middleman, right
Speaker 1: because the other media marketing companies, they have angles, they
Speaker 1: have agendas, they have quotas that they're trying to meet.
Speaker 1: They might not serve me, They might not be in
Speaker 1: the best interest in me, that might not care for,
Speaker 1: you know, for how I feel.
Speaker 3: So I kinda started getting.
Speaker 1: Tired of it, you know, so I just know what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start streaming, and then now I can talk
Speaker 1: to these people and now you can hear directly from
Speaker 1: me rather than you hearing a reporter asked me a
Speaker 1: question that I didn't want to answer in the first place.
Speaker 1: Now it comes off to you is if I have
Speaker 1: an attitude, or if I'm arrogant, or if I'm just
Speaker 1: not a nice guy. But in reality, is if I
Speaker 1: answer a question truthfully, They're just gonna take a segment
Speaker 1: of it and they're gonna put it on their platform
Speaker 1: as a headline, and that's the only thing you're gonna see, and.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be negative.
Speaker 1: And now I gotta deal with the negativity from that.
Speaker 1: And that's just a state of media of today, especially
Speaker 1: in sports, where it's just ridiculous. Everything is clickbait, everything
Speaker 1: is headlines, everything is negativity, everything is controversy. So it's like,
Speaker 1: maybe it's because nothing positive sales, nothing positive is interesting
Speaker 1: enough anymore, so everything is turned to just straight negativity
Speaker 1: and that's all people I'm looking for, and it is tiring,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm tired.
Speaker 3: So I just I started streaming.
Speaker 1: So now people can get a real feel of like
Speaker 1: what I'm thinking about a topic, or they can hear
Speaker 1: from me what I have to say about mental health
Speaker 1: or what I have to say about you know, current events,
Speaker 1: and it's new for me because I've always been a
Speaker 1: private person.
Speaker 3: But it's like I've actually enjoyed. It's almost been like.
Speaker 1: Therapeutic because I didn't realize how much like having your
Speaker 1: authentic self be able to be mirrored outwardly, how important
Speaker 1: that is and was for you. When you constantly are
Speaker 1: suppressing yourself because you have to protect yourself from people
Speaker 1: who want to portray you in a negative lens or
Speaker 1: or you know, create controversy that's not there, it kind
Speaker 1: of diminishes your life.
Speaker 3: It makes you smaller.
Speaker 1: So when I've started streaming, I feel so much more
Speaker 1: at peace than I ever have, especially here in Boston.
Speaker 3: So I'm very grateful.
Speaker 1: And I only do it like once a week, maybe
Speaker 1: twice a week, And I'm sure people probably want me
Speaker 1: to stop doing that, but right now it's helping me.
Speaker 1: So it's helping me on the course, helping us win games.
Speaker 1: To me, so y'all want me to stop or note
Speaker 1: what y'all want.
Speaker 2: Me to do? Well, We've covered so many different topics today,
Speaker 2: but I would be remiss if I didn't ask you
Speaker 2: about your Juice Foundation, which is to bridge the opportunity
Speaker 2: gap for youth and underserved communities, and we have a
Speaker 2: very business focused audience here, and of the areas you
Speaker 2: focus on with that is financial literacy. So I wondered
Speaker 2: if you could just address why that's one of your
Speaker 2: focuses and why that in particular is a area where
Speaker 2: you think will help the bridge the opportunity.
Speaker 1: So for sure, in the past, I've had two foundations.
Speaker 1: I've had the Boston Exchange, which the text the wealth
Speaker 1: gap and the wealth disparity and gives we have accelerated
Speaker 1: program that gives opportunities to startups and businesses, et cetera.
Speaker 1: And then I've had the Juice found I've had the
Speaker 1: the Juice Foundation, which has features the Bridge program that
Speaker 1: deals with educational opportunities.
Speaker 3: You know, I deal with Boston Public schools.
Speaker 1: Just reintegrating learning into you know, creating the curriculum that's
Speaker 1: it's just a little bit more advanced in the curriculum
Speaker 1: that gets provided by in certain areas. So education and
Speaker 1: wealth disparity two separate things, but now we're bringing them
Speaker 1: under one roof because that's uh, they're more connected.
Speaker 3: They're more.
Speaker 1: Things are more connected than you know, education and the
Speaker 1: wealth disparity. I think some of those things are more
Speaker 1: connected than they are a part. So I'm working on
Speaker 1: building into one foundation, the Juice Foundation. But the Bridge
Speaker 1: bridge is something that I uh, I guess like a
Speaker 1: family tradition.
Speaker 3: Education is very important to my family.
Speaker 1: So being able to take kids that come from certain
Speaker 1: area codes or certain districts that you know, get the
Speaker 1: maybe the short end of the stick to some degree,
Speaker 1: they get the least amount of resources, or they're understaffed
Speaker 1: from a teacher standpoint, or just just the opportunities are
Speaker 1: a lot slimmer in these areas. And we take students
Speaker 1: who have who wanna help their community, who who really
Speaker 1: that's really the the number one thing, they have, the
Speaker 1: the aptitude to wanna just make the world a better place.
Speaker 3: We find those students in those.
Speaker 1: Areas and we we bring 'em into the Bridge program
Speaker 1: and give them the tools and resources to go be
Speaker 1: whatever it is that they imagine to be in this world.
Speaker 1: But the reason for I was one of those kids,
Speaker 1: you know, I come from a single parent household. You
Speaker 1: grew up in a certain area codes and districts that
Speaker 1: don't get the same educational quality that schools that are
Speaker 1: in more affluent areas get.
Speaker 3: The resources are more limited and things like that.
Speaker 1: You got thirty students, thirty five students in the classroom
Speaker 1: one teacher.
Speaker 3: It just.
Speaker 1: Not great analytics for success educationally. But I've always had
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to help people. I've always wanted to
Speaker 1: make the world a better place, and I've always loved
Speaker 1: to learn. So those students exist regardless of the area
Speaker 1: code or the school district they come from. And you know,
Speaker 1: I wanna find those kids and I wanna give them
Speaker 1: the tools that they need to be successful because I
Speaker 1: feel like those are the those are the those are
Speaker 1: the type of students that will you know, they have
Speaker 1: the work ethic, they have the drive, and they have
Speaker 1: the empathy to go.
Speaker 3: Out and change the world.
Speaker 1: So that's what the Bridge program, that's what we are
Speaker 1: we're looking for, or we're looking to also find the
Speaker 1: students who, you know, we can push into that my
Speaker 1: frame as well, we can influence to want to change
Speaker 1: the world as well.
Speaker 3: Like So.
Speaker 1: That's something that I'm very excited about. In my TEA
Speaker 1: has been our partner for the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: We've also a partnered We've also done with UC Berkeley
Speaker 1: as well. But looking forward to what the future could
Speaker 1: be educationally, and I've enjoyed being able to to work
Speaker 1: with both of my foundations and now being able to
Speaker 1: bring them together in some capacity should be something that.
Speaker 3: So we have some great announcements to make in the future.
Speaker 2: Well we'll all be staying tuned. So thank you so much, Jalen,
Speaker 2: thank you.
Speaker 3: Yeah.