Jayson Tatum Aiming to Help Young Basketball Players Navigate Financial Literacy

Last week, days after word leaked that Jayson Tatum had agreed to an NBA-record five-year, $315 million extension and a few more days before the Boston Celtics made it official, Tatum gathered a group of kids together to talk about money.

For years, the Jayson Tatum Elite Camp has been a magnet for top prep prospects. They run drills, learn techniques and take part in intensive film study run by NBA coaches. This year’s camp, moved from St. Louis to Las Vegas, added a new wrinkle: a financial literacy seminar taught by Brian Walsh, a notable certified financial planner who goes by “Dr. Money.”

The course, part of Tatum’s partnership with SoFi, a financial services company, is the latest step Tatum is taking toward providing athletes with the tools and information to create a strong financial future. Last February, SoFi gifted Tatum’s foundation to create generational wealth that will help St. Louis–area home buyers with down payments.

In Vegas, Tatum’s goal is to provide financial guidance to young athletes. Walsh’s lecture addresses the relationship young athletes currently have with money. He asks them to embrace the grind of personal finances. And he encourages them to make decisions that put them in position to control their own destiny.

“When you start to get money, it’s like you become a target,” Tatum says. “You’re a young kid with this new-found wealth, and people want to take advantage of that. Your ignorance or you being young, and you really got to surround yourself with the right people to help look out for you.”

Tatum has been lucky in that respect. His mother, Brandy Cole, was a teenager when she got pregnant. To support Tatum, Cole sold cellphones, worked in an office at UPS, underwrote workers compensation policies for Travelers Insurance, did grant writing for nonprofits—anything to make ends meet. When food was scarce, Cole would send Jayson to a neighbor’s home to pick up leftovers. Chicken pot pie was a favorite. He would eat the filling. Cole would make do with the crust.

Watching Cole, Tatum learned the value of a dollar. When Tatum, then 19, turned pro, Cole became his unofficial financial adviser. As a rookie, Tatum signed a four-year, $30 million contract. Cole insisted he didn’t spend a nickel of it.

“I’m very grateful that I had my mom in my life,” Tatum says. “She didn’t have money, but our whole idea was like, ‘Yo, we’re going to save this first contract. We’re going to live off endorsement money.’ So even to this day, I save all my NBA money and live [off] all my endorsements. And I understand that I’m one of the few guys that may be fortunate enough to live like that. But just having that mindset when you get to the NBA, that it’s not going to last forever. You still have to save for the rest of your life when you get done playing.”

Tatum knows it’s difficult to believe an athlete can blow through the kind of money being paid out today. “But I’ve heard some sad stories,” Tatum says. One of them came from ex-Celtics forward Antoine Walker. In 1999, Walker signed a six-year, $71 million extension with Boston. Former head coach Rick Pitino declared Walker “would never have to worry about money again.” In 2008, Walker retired with $108 million in career earnings. In ’10, Walker filed for bankruptcy.

“You hear a lot of stories about guys that mismanage their money or put their money in the wrong hands and people take advantage of them,” Tatum says. “So trying to have those conversations earlier in a space where they feel comfortable asking questions. Because that’s a big part of it. Not the ignorance but just the embarrassment of not knowing so you don’t want to ask questions. But you really need to. And I feel like this is a great space to be around your peers and guys that are your age that you can learn things like that.”

Throughout the years, veteran players have offered Tatum financial guidance. Marcus Morris, Tatum’s teammate during his first two seasons in Boston, was one of them. “He would talk to me, stuff like, ‘This is how things are going to go, and this is how maybe your environment or your family, your situation might change and what you need to prepare for,’ ” Tatum says. He knows many won’t absorb these seminars. But he’s hoping at least a few will.

“Everybody [is] not going to listen,” Tatum says. “Some will think they’re too cool to ask questions. But you just hope you can get through to the ones that are receptive and are trying to learn and listen. And that’s all you can hope for.”