Through his own school, former NBA star Jalen Rose aims to 'bridge the education gap'

In the early 90s, Jalen Rose was one of the iconic “Fab Five” freshmen of the University of Michigan’s basketball team. He then went on to play in the NBA for 13 years, before becoming a star at ESPN.

If you ask the average sports fan, those are the career highlights they’d likely point out on Rose’s resumé. 

Much less known, but just as notable, is the fact that Rose has had a long-held passion besides basketball and sports media.

“I was also an honor roll student in high school and made the Dean's list while I was at Michigan,” Rose told LinkedIn News. “So education was always important to me.”

That passion is now exercised most prominently in Rose’s other career: He is the co-founder of the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy (JRLA), an independent, tuition-free charter high school that's based in his native Detroit and caters to students with what the former athlete refers to as the grade “9-to-16” model. 

“Once they graduate from high school, the job isn't done,” Rose said. “... And so we now serve also as their support to make sure that we're aligning them with schools that are a match, helping nurture them while they're on campus, whatever support they might need, and fundraising for them, to make sure they’ve got the finances they need.”

Check out the video above, in which Rose explains why he opened a school, and the specific ways in which JRLA is 'bridging the education gap." And, if you haven't already, follow Jalen Rose on LinkedIn here.

The Starting Five

Each edition of this newsletter will share five sports trends, stories or figures on LinkedIn that are worth following. Check out this week's Starting Five below.

Biles, other Olympic stars, file suit

Approximately 90 women, including record-breaking Olympian Simone Biles, are suing the FBI for over $1 billion for what the plaintiffs say was a failure to sufficiently act after the agency initially received allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015.

Nassar, who worked as a sports physician for both USA gymnastics and Michigan State University, was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison in January 2018, a sentence which concluded a high profile slate of court proceedings that saw over 100 gymnasts, including Olympic stars like Biles and Aly Raisman, detail allegations of abuse against the disgraced doctor. 

To see how people on LinkedIn are reacting to the suit against the FBI, click here.

A record franchise sale

A group led by Walmart heir Rob Walton is buying the NFL’s Denver Broncos, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

While it was clear for months that the Broncos were the next big American sports franchise up for sale, it was unclear how costly the price tag would be. The reported fee of $4.65 billion is nearly double the $2.4 billion that investor Steve Cohen reportedly paid to purchase the New York Mets in 2020.

To see how others on LinkedIn are reacting to the record-setting sale of the Broncos, click here.

Billionaire ‘Bron

Last Thursday, Forbes reported that LeBron James had become a billionaire, making him the first NBA player to achieve that milestone while still playing in the league, all according to the publication's estimates.

Forbes also reported James had raked in over $120 million in earnings over the previous 12 months, included revenue generated by the Space Jam sequel, the movie for which he starred and co-produced.

To see how people are reacting on LinkedIn to LeBron James reaching billionaire status, click here. 

NBA player scores big investment

Calaxy, an app that allows creators to social tokens that can be exchanged for different types of interactions between themselves and fans, raised a new round of funding worth $26 million dollars, according to Tech Crunch.

The app was co-founded in 2020 by NBA player Spencer Dinwiddie, who, in an interview with LinkedIn News that year, explained his ambitions for the company.

“It's kind of a one-stop shop in terms of personal tokenization,” Dinwiddie said. “What we aim to do is become the ‘HTTP,’ basically the standard, of personal tokenization.”

Check out the video above to watch Spencer Dinwiddie’s interview with LinkedIn News’ Next Play.

Cheers to the summer

Do you have advice for the wave of young workers who are just getting their summer internships underway? Well, tennis star and former U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens wants to highlight your pointers, and her own, in a forthcoming article.

“I'd love to incorporate some of your advice into my article and make this thread a helpful tool for these young hires! Please share some of your tips, advice, and stories for summer interns in the comments below,” Stephens wrote on LinkedIn earlier this week.

To share feedback with Sloane Stephens, click here.

On Deck

The upcoming edition of Next Play will feature Lia Neal, a two-time Olympic medal-winning swimmer who retired in 2021, ahead of the delayed start of the Tokyo Olympics. 

Neal is now a strategist at Red Antler, a marketing strategist in her native New York, and said networking online played a huge part in helping her figure out how best to transition to a new career during the pandemic. 

“I did a lot of, just like, informational interviews, talking to people from different industries, trying to learn more about, like, their day-to-day,” she said. “I think that's the most efficient way to  figure — or to learn more about different careers and industries, and figure out what you like and what you don't like, just asking people who are in it or who have done it.”

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