This month, Las Vegas hosted three major events: the NBA Summer League, the WNBA All-Star Game, and the first-ever National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) Foundation Las Vegas Golf Invitational. The one-day golf outing included many current and former NBA players.
NBPA Foundation Executive Director Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, a former Baltimore mayor and city council president, talked to the MSR after the event. “The National Basketball Association Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the players’ union,” said Rawlings-Blake.
A longtime public servant, Rawlings-Blake was the first, and at one time the only, Black woman elected president of the US Conference of Mayors. She admitted that what initially drew her to the NBPA Foundation was after she watched the four-part basketball documentary, “Game Change Game,” released in June 2022.
The film showed NBA players addressing social justice issues in this country. “I realized that the players, like me, wanted to make their communities better. I also saw that they needed support, getting the right people in the right place to help,” she acknowledged.
The NBPA Foundation was established as a global nonprofit organization in 1997. It distributes millions of dollars in grants to organizations around the world on a regular basis.
“Primarily we were set up to do the matching-grant program that allows the players to get the most out of the defined split [of gross revenue] between the NBA and the players union,” explained Rawlings-Blake. “The players have a chance to match up to $25,000 in giving every season. So it’s a way to do something good.”
The foundation also gets a portion of the players’ fines for technical fouls levied by the league. “When I watch the game, I have mixed emotions,” joked Rawlings-Blake watching players getting called for technicals during basketball games.
Current and former players can apply for NBPA Foundation grants. “There’s no specific requirement. It could be for a small start-up, a small business or nonprofit, or something of that nature,” noted Rawlings-Blake.
Her vast experience in establishing and fostering strategic partnerships is invaluable as she takes on her current duties in guiding the NBPA Foundation in its mission, as well as overseeing its agenda, which includes childhood nutrition, disaster relief, mental health, social justice, and other areas where NBA players’ influence is needed and can have an impact.
“I spoke at the UN recently,” said Rawlings-Blake. “I looked around at the different countries that were listed, and I realized that players in our league probably have more followers than all the leaders in the UN combined. There’s not as much faith in elected officials or even religious leaders,” she added, in helping to solve current problems in our country.
“We’re just getting started,” Rawlings-Blake said of her NBPA Foundation leadership, stressing that the recent golf invitational will be an annual fundraising event. “I think that there’s so much more that we can do. I would say look for us to be more impactful across the board when it comes to philanthropic leadership and social justice.”
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