NBPA Holds Annual Program To Improve Players' Business Acumen

Richardson One Of Several NBAers Taking Part In NBPA's Entrepreneurship Program

The NBPA last Sunday through Wednesday held its annual High Growth Entrepreneurship Program at Northwestern Univ.'s (NU) Kellogg School of Management, "offering NBA players four days of intense business classes and workshops," according to Sean Deveney of SPORTING NEWS. The purpose of the program is to "get NBA players thinking about business issues and how they affect them now and in the future." Developing and maintaining a personal brand is "part of the approach, but the thrust of the four days of classes is making players better, smarter entrepreneurs," as big salaries and high profiles "make players easy targets for crooked financial advisers and harebrained investment schemes." Former NBPA President Antonio Davis: "We get hit up with all these so-called great ideas all the time." Deveney noted classes start at 8:30am CT, and there is a "three-hour workout window in the middle of the day, but when classes start back up, they go" as late as 10:00pm (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 7/30). SI.com's Marty Burns notes the program is an "MBA-like seminar for players who want to expand their business acumen for life after basketball." NU business professors taught players including Knicks G Quentin Richardson, Pacers F Maceo Baston, Pacers C Jeff Foster, Oklahoma City F Adrian Griffin, Bucks F Desmond Mason, Hawks C Zaza Pachulia and free agent F Austin Croshere. The program was held at Stanford Univ. in '06 and '07 (SI.com, 7/30).