NBA Champion and VP of the NBPA Jaylen Brown sat down with Boardroom to discuss this year’s Sanctuary event and his visions for investing in a brighter future for Black and brown communities.
Ever wonder what your favorite NBA players get into in the offseason? Beyond yacht-fueled adventures and perhaps a trip to the Paris Olympics, that is.
After nearly nine months of straight game play, the NBA offseason provides plenty of opportunity for rest and rehabilitation. For those searching camaraderie, enter the National Basketball Player’s Association Performance Summit. Held in Málaga, Spain in a venue referred to as The Sanctuary, the retreat creates an opportunity for players to travel together and own their offseason through advanced training and wellness techniques.
The NBPA curates an experience that caters to athletes’ holistic interests and potential. This year’s third version of the program in Spain included a multi-day program, which featured executives from diverse sectors of interest around the globe. There, participating athletes have the opportunity to explore the latest developments and advantages in the sports performance and tech space. Considering that some, if not most, of the athletes also boast their own investments off the hardwood, it served as a best-of-both-worlds opportunity, combining the benefits of mindfulness with a setting that enabled meaningful connections with potential future business partners.
This year’s festivities welcomed more than 20 athletes, including 2024 NBA Finals champion and Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, Bismack Biyombo, Javale McGee, Miles McBride, Immanuel Quickley, Jarred Vanderbilt, and many more.
Basketball and Beyond
Last summer, when Brown agreed to a five-year, $304 million supermax extension with the Boston Celtics, one of the first promises he made was to redevelop Black Wall Street in Boston. Brown added that his version of Black Wall Street would “create new jobs, new resources, new businesses, and new ideas” for Beantown, much like the original Black Wall Street did in the early 20th century for affluent Black residents in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Racial violence erased what took decades to build when hundreds of residents in Tulsas’s Greenwood neighborhood were murdered and their homes and businesses destroyed by heavily armed white mob of looters and arsonists in the span of 24 hours. A 2001 state commission report showed calculated the financial toll of the massacre is comparable to $1.8 million in property loss claims — about $27 million in today’s dollars.
More than a century later, we’re witnessing in real time changes to the wealth disparity in the Northeast U.S. corridor, with Brown at the helm of the evolution.
“It’s been fantastic,” Brown told Boardroom “It’s been a great opportunity working with the city of Boston and the local politics of Boston and mayor [Michelle Wu].”
When we sat down, Brown teased that something big was coming. Just a few days after the program’s conclusion, we have more context. Last week, Brown announced his inaugural initiative. Boston XChange looks to generate $5 billion in generational wealth in communities of color. Qualified entrepreneurs apply and, if accepted, the accelerator program awards each recipient up to $100,000 in grant funding over three years. It will also provide access to workspace and business services valued at over $150,000.
For Brown, Boston is only the beginning. He wants to expand his vision across the country, targeting California’s Oakland region next. “I went to Cal Berkeley, so we’re looking at making more announcements this summer … Continuing to use your platform to make the world a better place essentially is what I’m all about,” he said.
As a founding member of the Performance Summit, Brown also touched on what brings him back to Spain each year. From early morning yoga sessions to 5-on-5 scrimmages with elite competition. The Sanctuary also offers opportunities to test some of the best technology for recovery, from Hyperice products to Hapbee, a device Brown personally uses and invests in that utilizes ultra-gentle magnetic fields to naturally elevate your mood, boost productivity, or help you sleep better.
However, beyond the packed program, Brown sees a bigger benefit for himself and his fellow current players.
“Just being able to have players show up internationally. Cities like Córdoba don’t get a lot of NBA players come and just tour and explore,” he said. “[A]t the same time, we get the opportunity to put new information, new businesses, technology companies around sports to get some good positive feedback and just get a leg up and get some opportunities [while] here in Europe.”
