CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A former NBA player is giving back to his community in a big way.
Tamar Slay, who played for the Charlotte Bobcats and New Jersey Nets, recently opened a 20,000-square-foot sports medicine facility in Charlotte.
In partnership with Taylor Capital, Slay Basketball Academy is housed alongside Carolina NeuroSurgery & Spine Associates and Architect Sports and Physical Therapy, creating the largest independent sports medicine facility in the country.
The facility is equipped with state-of-the-art technology, NBA-style courts, weight rooms, physical therapists and a sports science lab.
For CEO Slay, the facility will offer athletes of all ages the resources and opportunity to train like professionals, a mission that’s driven by his personal journey to the NBA.
“I won two state championships. I signed a Division I contract, but no one knew I was homeless that summer,” Slay said.
At 18, Slay struggled with homelessness, recalling moments where those in his community stepped in to help.
“I didn’t have it easy growing up, but I had, you know, schoolteachers, coaches. I remember sitting, looking look out my window, and I see my coach and principal walking up with boxes, and they were bringing canned food for us to eat,” Slay said.
The support carried Slay all the way to the NBA.
“We had others, you know, I had others like coaches and the community that was giving me rides, giving me money, providing food and even a few coaches. I mean, it was so many,” Slay said.
Slay had a long career playing professional basketball across the world before retiring in 2014. But despite retiring, his time on the court was far from over.
Looking to return the favor and give back to the community, Slay spent long nights coaching basketball at a small gym inside Marvin AME Zion Church in Waxhaw.
“This is more than just a gym to me,” Slay said. “For me to make it out of the community that I made it out of, I had a lot of people to pull me up. So every summer I would come back and do a summer camp right there. So making sure I was giving back right to the next generation, and I loved it.”
Pouring into athletes, even when he was struggling, is how Slay grew his passion for coaching.
“Even here, starting out, I was late on getting in some of the payments because, you know, just trying to figure out how to make ends meet with starting your business, and they were always generous enough to give me extra time,” Slay said.
Fueled by those who extended a helping hand when he needed it most, Slay worked alongside Taylor Capital to create a facility that is equipped with everything an athlete would need to train professionally in one location.
“We have professional coaching here. As far as performance goes, whether it’s getting bigger, faster, stronger, we’re going to be tracking the data. So we can hand the information over to the athlete and say, look, these are the areas you need to grow in,” Slay said.
Aside from the latest technology, Slay says the new facility is also about making resources available to everyone, believing sometimes the biggest obstacle is never getting a chance.
“I wouldn’t be sitting here in front of you guys if I had folks that just said, ‘He doesn’t have the money, so bye-bye,’” Slay said, “I just wanted to be able to impact kids’ lives and treat them right and make sure that I’m not selling them short each day.”
Aside from coaching, Slay Basketball Academy is also helping athletes with skills off the court, including time management, financial literacy and navigating name, image and likeness deals.
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