Brooklyn Nets’ Rondae Hollis-Jefferson: Winning Off the Court

At the age of 21, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Brooklyn Nets’ shooting guard, has his eyes set on a few ambitious goals — one of them includes him being a billionaire by the age of 25. To Hollis-Jefferson it’s not far fetched. “This is something that’s definitely possible, but it’s extremely hard! And, honestly you have to be at the right place and meet people at the right time,” said the Chester, Pennsylvania native. “If you have the right heart and the right mindset, anything is possible.”

Inspired by Kobe Bryant’s latest announcement, where back in August 2016 when he debuted his $100 million venture capitalist fund called Bryant Stibel, an investment platform that will be investing into tech, media and data companies, this inspired Hollis-Jefferson to make some investments of his own: two of them being agriculture and his education.

“If you have the right heart and the right mindset, anything is possible.”

Recently, at Chase Slate sponsored event held at the Chase Brooklyn Trust Bank, Hollis-Jefferson had a one-on-one conversation with finance expert Farnoosh Torabi, where they talked about topics like the financial lessons he’s learned as a kid to his most expensive purchase.

The Man Defined spoke with the billionaire hopeful at this event about his philanthropic efforts, meeting Kobe Bryant for the first time and some of his money lessons he’s learned post NBA draft.

The Man Defined: Tell me a little bit about why financial literacy is important to you?

 Hollis-Jefferson: I did an event for JP Morgan Chase talking to college students about finances, which we felt it was a good direction just talking to them. And with me being a NBA player, a lot of people love the NBA and love basketball, me just being able to talk to them kind of helped. They said ‘Hey! I think it would be a great idea if you came and talked about credit!” I said that’s pretty cool and it’s amazing how that came into play. One of my friends didn’t know why their balance was raising, and why they wanted their credit score to go up, and I had to explain to him why.

TMD: Let’s bring it back to back in the day, what was your first job?

HJ: My first job I worked at a local Boys and Girl’s Club, as a supervisor watching over the kids. They played in the game room and I was assigned the game room.

TMD: So, that’s why you felt that it was important to give back to The Boys and Girls Club?

HJ: That and that’s where I grew up. When I was their age, that’s where I went and played. It was my sanctuary. If I wanted to yell, I could yell as loud as I wanted. It was fun being there as a kid.

TMD: Are there any other philanthropic efforts that you’re a part of  now?

HJ: I have a basketball camp every summer. It’s called the Hollis-Jefferson Camp. My brother and I do it every year for free. We take the kids from 9 am to 5pm or till the parents come get them for one week and pretty much show and teach them a lot. I stress a lot about us not just being a basketball camp, but us actually showing and teaching the kids life lessons. You can call anyone that was on my team— I stress it! If you see someone doing something wrong, because I feel it’s on us to help change and impact these kid’s lives because they think we don’t care, say something!

TMD:  You met Kobe Bryant for the first time this year, what was it like? Can you tell me two things you felt you’ve learned from him from a basketball player perspective and financially as a businessman?

HJ: First, as a basketball player, everything he’s done. His competitive spirit, his high IQ, his love for the game is what draws me to him. His passion and how much he wanted to be great. I know people that’s known Kobe since he was a kid and the one place where they always could find him was playing basketball. No matter if he was outside or at the gym, he just had to play basketball. I’d hear these stories, and I’m just like ‘Man, that’s inspirational!’ And, I look up to him with the upmost respect because of that. And then as far as wealth wise and finances, I’ll definitely say creating an atmosphere that is beyond himself and inviting people in. Like how he has Black Mamba collection and how he’s branching off to China, that took his finances to another level and took his fan base, too, which causes his finances to sky rocket.