Charlotte, NC – February 20, 2019 – NBA All Star Weekend was a homecoming for Baron Davis, who was the Charlotte Hornets #1 Draft pick (#3 overall) 20 years ago in 1999. The Hornets organization, NBA and Michael Jordan himself welcomed Baron to the Queen City with open arms. Between Baron’s commitments as a NBA legend and TNT On-Air Personality, his weekend was filled with honoring basketball royalty both past and present while being totally immersed in numerous NBA All Star Weekend festivities.
But Baron’s true passion is empowering, educating and ignite the entrepreneurial spirit of athletes and entertainers through his company Business Inside the Game (BIG). On Saturday, BIG was a primary sponsor of the NBA Wives Women’s Empowerment Summit. In addition, Baron served as the host and shared the stage with dynamic wives in business such as Ayesha Curry, Gabrielle Union and LaLa Anthony. In addition, powerful trailblazing women participated such as Debra Lee (former CEO BET Networks), Valeisha Butterfield Jones, (VP Google), Sandra L Richards (VP Morgan Stanley) and Jada Pinkett Smith.
On Sunday, BIG hosted a brunch with NBA and NFL Athletes, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, influencers and entertainers who discussed issues concerning the business aspect of being a player, celebrity and talent and parlaying popularity into profit and equity. Baron started BIG as a platform to assist athletes, artists, entertainment professionals, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and investors with insights into how business dealings work behind the scenes.
Speakers included:
- Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner
- Chloe Pavlech, Digital Content Manager, Overtime Sports Network
- Chris Lyons, Chief Of Staff, Andreessen Horowitz
- Josh Luber, CEO, StockX
- Noah Lichtenstein, Advisor at Teamdom
- Jon Stewart, NFL Pro Bowl Running Back
- CJ Anderson, NFL Super Bowl Champion
- Robert Smith, Venture Capital Consultant & Impact Investor
- Ro Parrish, NBATV
This year’s panel was filled with experts in building businesses, brands and platforms that utilize tech resources that have become more readily available — social media, branding tools, venture capital, and digital marketing. The Commissioner of the NBA Adam Silver also made a special appearance and dropped some knowledge as an impromptu panelist, where he called the event “fantastic.”
Robert Smith, Venture Capital Consultant, said it best, “people are stingy with the true knowledge behind the business inside the game,” and that’s exactly why BIG was created. The conferences, brunches, experiential events and more help facilitate those conversations and lift the veil — so many more can succeed off the court.
As a panelist, Noah Lichtenstein, Advisor at Teamdom, added, “athletes and entertainers, their brands are so much more powerful than they were years ago, and that’s because of technology. You look at who’s driving culture, who’s driving the value creation for these platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, etc… Yet, these content creators are not actually seeing the value — the equity, the ownership, in what they’re helping to create value around.” BIG works to bring awareness around these opportunities and help athletes rise out of just the influencer role and start becoming stakeholders in the value they create. Watch the attached video for highlights.
BIG aims to help those in entertainment create wealth, understand branding and provide insight into how the business side actually works. The ultimate goal is to help athletes establish themselves entrepreneurially, even after they leave the league.
About Business Inside The Game
Business Inside the Game (aka BIG), was founded by 2-time NBA All-Star, Entrepreneur and Master Connector, Baron Davis. He had a vision to create a disruptive, traveling power summit that brought together elite athletes, celebrities and entrepreneurs to explore what synergies were unlocked when diverse perspectives collided. For more information, visit BIGSummit.com.
