My son is a star basketball player at Colorado College. He averaged 18 points per game and was an all-conference performer as a sophomore. He was the only Latino on his team and on the all-conference roster. Latino surnames are rare in college basketball and even more rare in the NBA. For decades, Latin America has incubated some of the greatest baseball and soccer stars in the world so there is no logical reason to believe the same can’t be true for basketball. Currently, almost 30% of Major League Baseball players are Latino. Yes, it helps to be tall in basketball, and there are more tall Latinos than you may think.
The NBA has seen a surge of players from Europe, Africa and a handful of other regions, but the number of players from Latin America remains near zero. Retired superstar Manu Ginobili, is from Argentina and is the last star from Latin America. The NBA has become global in the last few years and would be able to expand its reach into Latin America if there were a few more Ginobili’s. While there a several pro leagues in Latin America, quality training for young basketball players is hard to come by. Now, what if I told you that there is a new prep school in Southern California that trains high school players from Latin America, and ten of their players have division one scholarship offers. It’s true. And, while the details of that school will be forthcoming in a future blog, it’s time for the NBA, NCAA and Los Lakers to start waking up to Latin America. ¡Los Lakers!
The incomparable NAHREP at L’ATTITUDE (NAL) event in Miami. This year, the crowd will be bigger and the speakers will be even more impressive! If you are not familiar with some of the names, let me provide some additional color: Eddy Cue is a Cuban-American and the second-ranking executive at Apple, Orlando Bravo is the wealthiest Latino in America with a net worth of more than 8 billion dollars, and Priscila Almodovar is the only Latina CEO of a Fortune 100 company. Beyond this incredible list of headliners, the hallways at NAL will include…
I think most Latinos would agree that at our core, we are a generous people. If a member of our family is in need, Latinos as a rule, won’t hesitate to help financially. Family is central to Hispanic culture: our generosity has few limits. Maybe that explains why when it comes to making political donations and writing checks in support of actual philanthropic activities, Latinos come up short….When I interviewed Barack Obama last year at NAHREP at L’ATTITUDE, I pressed him about politicians not prioritizing issues that are important to Latino voters, he politely pushed back by saying…
Problems aren’t fun. Because of this, most people run away from problems rather than confronting them. The ability to deal with problems and stressful situations is a key component of strong leadership…one of the reasons NAHREP is one of the most successful business organizations in America is that many years ago…