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Celtics’ Jaylen Brown to host ‘Tech Hustle’ during All-Star Weekend
Private event will include people from sports, business and entertainment
1:08 PMBoston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown wants to help his fellow NBA players off the court during NBA All-Star Weekend.
Brown told The Undefeated that he is hosting “Tech Hustle,” a technology and networking lunch, with the Base Ventures and the National Basketball Players Association on Saturday in Los Angeles. The private event during All-Star Weekend will include people from the sports, business and entertainment worlds who will be speaking about their experiences and offering words of wisdom. Attendees are expected to include NBA players, entertainers, venture capitalists and startups.
“My thought process is to just educate athletes and people around you about what is really going on, especially basketball players,” Brown said. “A lot of people wait until the end of their careers to really get things going. I thought it would be more beneficial to start early, put your foot in the door and start educating yourself, because technology investments are where the real money is at.”
Brown is only in his second year in the NBA, but the outside-the-box thinker also hosted a mentoring and fellowship event during the Vegas Summer League last July. Speakers at “Tech Hustle” are expected to include Brown’s mentor and former NBA star Isiah Thomas, former NBA star Dominique Wilkins, Uber’s Bozoma St. John, Beyond Meat’s Ethan Brown, Google Ventures’ David Krause, Empire Distribution’s Ghazi Shami, Spotify’s Troy Carter, rapper Too $hort, Blavity’s Morgan DeBaun and Base Ventures’ Erik Moore. Brown will also be playing for Team USA in the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday.
“A lot of people are real excited about ‘Tech Hustle,’ ” Brown said. “I already have 150 to 200 RSVPs. It’s just something to educate. I thought it would be dope to put together an event like that so not only I can network, but put myself, other athletes and whoever finds it interesting in an avenue to network. I have a Rolodex for it. Whoever shows up, it will be great for them.
“I can’t wait. I’m super excited not only to be hustling in sports but besides sports as well. The theme is education through technology, but also hustle.”