Boston Celtics star Kyrie Irving enrolled in a program at Harvard Business School.
Boston Celtics star Kyrie Irving headlines a group of about two dozen professional athletes enrolled in the “Crossover into Business” program at Harvard Business School this fall.
The Crossover into Business program is designed specifically for professional athletes. Its stated goal, per Harvard’s website, is to help athletes be better prepared for business activities during and after their athletic careers. Athletes in the program sit in on one session of an MBA course titled, “Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports.” According to Harvard’s website, that course is among the most sought-after at HBS.
Each athlete is then matched with a pair of MBA student mentors that help them learn business fundamentals in a customized and flexible way. Athletes work primarily remotely with their mentors, completing case studies once every two or three weeks. They will give a final presentation in December. The program is entirely free to the athletes.
Professor Anita Elberse will be leading the semester-long program. Her research focuses on the factors that drive the success of products in sports, and how firms can effectively manage products and talent in the sports sector.
The pilot program was launched in the fall of 2017 in partnership with the NBA. Past participants include Chris Bosh, Al-Farouq Aminu, and Caron Butler. Butler told Bleacher Report at the time, “It’s a lot of work.” While the course was only officially launched last year, players have visited Elberse’s classes for about four years.
Other participants in the fall 2018 program include Paul Millsap, Zaza Pachulia, and Spencer Dinwiddie, all pictured in this Instagram post from HBS. There are also athletes from the WNBA, MLS, UFC, ballet, and the NFL, including former New England Patriots tight end Martellus Bennett.
Irving has always demonstrated interests beyond the basketball court. His non-basketball portfolio includes his famous Uncle Drew commercials for Pepsi and a summer blockbuster movie of the same name.
In a June 2018 interview with Boston.com, Irving reflected on his non-basketball interests. He said that he wants to continue to build his brand and that he intends to continue pursuing outside interests in spite of the rigors of a basketball season, saying, “I commit to myself that I’ll make up that lost time. When I am playing basketball or perfecting my craft, which comes with a lot of sacrifice, then the time that I’ve got outside of it I’ll use to develop a lot of interests and passions that I have, to make up for that.” He mentioned the HBS program by name.
Celtics fans must be encouraged that Irving discovered such a beneficial opportunity. With fans sweating rumors about Irving going to the New York Knicks, it certainly doesn’t hurt that he is establishing another tie in the Boston area. Perhaps while he’s there, he’ll get to talk to some astronomers about their work studying planets.
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