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