Let’s find and develop the LeBron of entrepreneurship

Basketball star LeBron James recently founded the I Promise School in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. The 240 third- and fourth-graders who will comprise the inaugural class of the public elementary school will receive free bikes, free meals, and free college tuition.

After an interview where LeBron discussed his new school, and criticized what he felt was President Donald Trump’s divisiveness, the president posted a tweet categorizing LeBron as unintelligent, while stating his personal preference for Michael Jordan.

I first heard of LeBron in 2002, when as a high school junior, he landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated, under the title of “The Chosen One.” As a high school senior, all of his basketball games were televised on ESPN. Soon after his high school career, he was the first pick in the 2003 NBA draft.

At the time, I was not surprised by the attention LeBron commanded, but was intrigued. LeBron’s story was like many other black NBAers. Humble background. Incredible talent. Significant sports-related investments of time and resources from others. Development into a star basketball player. I wondered why such investments were not made into the intellectual development of young black men, specifically in business and entrepreneurship.

This question, and my subsequent research, led me to a phenomenon I dubbed the Jordan-Gates Effect. Named for Michael Jordan and business icon Bill Gates, the theory traced the nearly simultaneous trajectory of their careers from talented young prodigies in the early eighties to global icons in the nineties — and how that impacted the racialized ecosystems that formed in their images to find the next Jordan and Gates.

As an entrepreneurship professor, I see the impacts of Jordan-Gates daily. Since 2016, I have surveyed over 500 young people from high school freshmen to college seniors. These respondents, most from North Carolina, represent all racial, gender, geographic, educational, and economic backgrounds. I ask them to identify diverse leading entrepreneurs.

No matter the background of the student respondent, Oprah, Beyonce, Jay Z, Jordan and LeBron are named as black entrepreneurs while Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are named as white entrepreneurs. This suggests youth associate black business success primarily with sports and entertainment and white business success with technology and intelligence. All students have a hard time naming successful entrepreneurs of color or women outside of sports and entertainment.

I have advised several school districts across the state over the years, including both high- and low-performing districts. What is common across those districts is that a black kid who can dribble a basketball, score a touchdown, or string two rhymes together over a hip-hop beat knows exactly where to sell that innovation. A white kid who can write technology code knows exactly where to sell that innovation. A black kid with a patentable idea has no idea.

I hope that can change here in North Carolina. We need to give more young people of diverse backgrounds alternative futures for themselves, especially the types of young people targeted by LeBron’s school. We need to do more to diversify our state’s entrepreneurial ecosystem across race, gender, geography and income by educating our kids to be more entrepreneurial, especially those in our state’s public schools.

Entrepreneurship sharpens the mind, gives focus, and offers better futures not only for young people, but their families, and potentially North Carolina, the United States and the world.

As a former athlete at UNC and former chairman of CarolinaPros, a charitable organization founded by former UNC basketball players Rick Fox and King Rice, I met Michael Jordan several times over the years. He is a nice guy, a friendly guy. And I think a good role model.

Identifying the greatest basketball player of all time will continue to be debated. As a graduate of UNC, I like Mike too. But if LeBron keeps doing what he’s doing, the legacy contest won’t be close. Investments in education are always a winner. Contrary to what the president says, I think this makes LeBron brilliant.