Chris Paul Aspires to Own an NBA Team
HBCU Supporter Chris Paul Aspires to Own an NBA Team
A lot of athletes, when they retire, aspire to do different things that will keep their competitive nature going. For the Phoenix Suns’ Chris Paul, that would be owning a team.
According to AfroTech, the future NBA Hall of Famer discusses his plan as he sat on a panel at Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Summit. “I would like to be a part of an ownership group after I’m done playing.”
The popular NBA player, who was the president of the National Basketball Players Association up until last year, has his sights set to continue to be a leader. His leadership through 2 four year terms will be an asset when he does become a part of an NBA ownership group.
Paul who is an avid HBCU supporter also expressed that these black colleges need the funding that these non-Black universities get that may have the same educational standards.
“I was born and raised in Winston Salem, North Carolina and I actually attended Wake Forest University,” he said during the summit. “Wake Forest was an amazing school, but in my hometown, you have a Wake Forest University over here and you have a Winston State Salem University over here, which is an HBCU. And Winston-Salem State never recruited me. Not saying that I would’ve went there. Not like that, but at the time honestly, there was sort of a blueprint to try to make it into professional sports. You would try to go to one of these big D1 schools so that you could be seen.
“The world that we live in now with social media with access and exposure, whatever school you go to they’re gonna find you. For me, I became more aware and I was like ‘Man, these HBCUs are underrepresented. They don’t get the same funding.’ I started to do my research to find out why these schools are offering things at this school but not at these HBCUs. For me as a kid, you just see it as school. You don’t understand the funding. You don’t understand all the nuances of it. I really try to champion HBCUs as much as possible.”
Earlier this summer, Koia, a 100% plant-based beverage company, collaborated with Paul and his nonprofit clothing line, Support Black Colleges, to present a limited-edition release of Koia Protein Cinnamon Horchata. 100% of the profits from the protein drink were designated to go to the Chris Paul Family Foundation to support student scholarships at HBCUs.
HBCU Supporter Chris Paul Aspires to Own an NBA Team
