Jay-Z, the NFL, Rucker Park and a billionaire’s possible endgame: by zogblog
at a press conference with Roger Goodell earlier this month. “Yet.”
Jay-Z’s history suggests more of an interest in being an owner than serving as a figurehead, and he has always approached business as a chess game; sometimes, individual moves make much more sense in the context of the ones that follow. To better understand his endgame with the NFL, it’s worth examining his pact as a midrange move in a chess match with the sporting world that began in 2003, when he assembled arguably the best basketball team to never win a championship.
That squad was Team S. Carter, a group he put together with the goal of winning the Entertainers Basketball Classic, a tournament that takes place every summer at Harlem’s Rucker Park. He lured NBA stars like Kenyon Martin, Tracy McGrady and Jamal Crawford, enlisting LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal as ringers for the final game that was eventually cancelled due to a blackout that swept across the eastern seaboard.
Jay-Z didn’t get paid for his efforts, which sometimes included personally calling players and arranging their transportation, but the EBC offered intangible value: It was a stepping stone toward more serious involvement with the sporting world. “Jay is a ravenous sports fan and a consummate businessman, as well as one of the greatest rappers of all time, so it was like, ‘Hey, why not expand your horizons?’” says Fred “Fab 5 Freddy” Brathwaite, the hip-hop pioneer who filmed a never-released documentary on the 2003 Rucker Park tournament. “In retrospect, that is the beginning of his foray into sports.”
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