Jaylen Brown and Jason Kidd have a heart for the Oakland community.
Each has ties to the city, which also catalyzes their bond. NBA Hall of Famer Kidd’s hometown is Oakland, CA, while Boston Celtics player Brown attended the University of California, Berkeley, and his college roommate was from Oakland, CA.
“Oakland is like the second home to me. I went to Berkeley. Jason also went to Berkeley. Jason is one of my mentors,” Brown told AFROTECH™. “One of my roommates when I was in college was from Oakland. So I spent a lot of time in Oakland,”
Giving Back To Their Communities
While Brown and Kidd are connected through their ties to Oakland and their prominence in the world of basketball, they also share a passion for investing back into their communities.
As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Kidd showcased this when he participated in a $2.6 million raise to become co-owner of Oakland, CA-based soccer teams Oakland Roots SC (men’s) and Oakland Soul SC (women’s) in 2023.
“I grew up playing soccer, basketball, and baseball here in Oakland. So, trying to give that platform to our next generation, giving them heroes,” Kidd explained to AFROTECH™. “Out of the As, when you talk about different players, Ricky Henderson, Dave Stewart, those are my heroes. I want to be them. So, with the As leaving, understanding that all the roots and the energy that they bring to the city are just a great thing to be a part of.”
Brown has also laid the foundation in Boston, MA, after signing a five-year supermax contract extension valued at $304 million in 2023, the most lucrative contract in NBA History at the time, according to a previous AFROTECH™ report. He followed up the announcement with a bold commitment to bring back Black Wall Street.
“When I signed my contract last year. I announced that I wanted to bring Black Wall Street to Boston. Why? Because Boston has top five in wealth disparity,” Brown explained. “It’s an article that came out not so long ago that said the average white household [net worth] is $250,000 and the average Black household’s [net worth] in the city of Boston is $8. So that was glaring.”
Brown wanted to be part of the solution, so he announced the launch of his nonprofit, Boston XChange, to drive $5 billion in wealth to the city for underrepresented communities — with support from partners including MIT Entrepreneurship Centers, Roxbury Community College, and Harvard — through investments, coaching from seasoned individuals, and resources and workplaces for creators, as AFROTECH™ previously reported.
“It was hard for businesses of color to get started in the city,” Brown said. “All of these different things are all types of hegemony that you just notice that goes on in the city. So, in response to that, I launched an initiative there, trying to help balance and even that out, to give opportunities and resources to our community, allowing me to be in these places that they’ve been shut out of over time, through the build-up or operations of the system. That was kind of the driving motivation.”
Oakland XChange
Kidd, impressed by Brown’s vision, wanted to replicate those efforts in Oakland, CA. Now, the pair are following up with the launch of The Xchange, a national strategy designed to drive economic growth by laser-focusing on real estate development, business education, technology, and cultural competency, per a press release. The XChange locations in Boston, MA, and Oakland, CA, are intended to be organization hubs.
“If you can keep some of those relationships going, you’d never know when you’re gonna cross paths in an endeavor like this or something else that you can help in your community. So, being able to have that relationship with JB has helped me be put in this position to help give back to my city,” Kidd expressed.
The Oakland XChange is led by Oakstop, a social enterprise that has been diligently empowering underserved Oakland, CA, communities for at least a decade through commercial real estate and in their pursuit of supporting creatives and diverse business owners with capital and technical assistance through its nonprofit arm, The Oakstop Effect, according to information provided to AFROTECH™.
Oakstop will now house the Oakland XChange (OXC) in its four existing buildings, totaling 65,000 square feet. The organization will be connected to its partner organizations and emboldened to build on its work in light of this shared commitment, per the press release.
“The beautiful thing about community is that you don’t have to do it alone,” Brown said. “To be able to pair with people who have already been doing great work and have already built those resources and just need someone to come in and amplify and shed the spotlight makes it a whole lot easier. It makes things a whole lot faster than trying to start things from scratch. We’re not coming in here just trying to start our own thing like Boston XChange. Oakland XChange is all about listening to the community, people doing things in the community, and bringing the resources.”
Partnerships To Promote Business Education
Like the Boston XChange (BXC), the Oakland XChange (OXC) aims to work with local institutions to champion business education. It plans to partner with UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business to create resource and investment gateways.
Brown and Kidd hope this blueprint will energize athletes, teams, business leaders, philanthropists, and influencers to replicate their model in the cities they love and are in need. They are setting the tone with personal investments totaling $10 million (Brown) and $2 million (Kidd), according to information provided to AFROTECH™.
“We think more of our peers should do the same. And Jason is one of one,” Brown said. “For him to be able to do that sends a signature, a stance for us to be able to do that with others and start to do that with other people who are doing that in other places, in other cities, and other teams are getting involved. We’d love to see the Warriors get involved here with Oakland in the building and wrap their arms around the enhancement and development of Oakland, and I would love to also see other places in the world, other athletes to be able to do the same thing in their cities.”
