Latest / The David Rubenstein Show / Clara Wu Tsai

Transcript

Clara Wu Tsai · The David Rubenstein Show

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Traditionally, sports teams in the professional world have been owned
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: by men. But now, increasingly, women are owning these teams
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: as well. One of the most influential of these owners
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: is Clara Wu Tsai, who is a co-owner of the
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Brooklyn Nets and a co-owner of the New York Liberty.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: And she helped the New York Liberty get to a
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: championship in the WNBA not long ago. I had a
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: chance to sit down with Clara recently to talk about
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: her journey from Kansas to the professional sports world. We
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: are in Brooklyn doing this, and we're at a Brooklyn
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: basketball center.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: What is this center?
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: I think it's so important what sports can teach you. Teamwork,
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: discipline for kids, for their own physical and mental well-being,
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: and also for learning leadership skills to be able to
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: have a place.
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: And it should be equitable.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: So we have this here and we make it available
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: to everybody in the community. And it's also a way
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: to develop a pipeline of fans, of course.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Did you ever expect growing up in Kansas as the
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: daughter of academics in Kansas at the University of Kansas,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: that one day you would be a major sports owner.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: Absolutely not. It was could never have dreamed it.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: Well, first of all, whoever thinks that they're going to
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: have enough money to, you know, to buy an NBA team.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: But especially me, because I was the daughter of immigrants,
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: professors from Taiwan. So it never crossed my mind.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: What is the life of a sports owner like? I mean,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: is it more fun than you thought it would be
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: or is it more aggravation than you thought.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: It would be?
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: I can't think of anything more fun than owning a
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: sports team when your team is winning. People come up
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: to you, they thank you, they tell you how much
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: the team means to them and their family and they're
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: really grateful and you realize when they do that that
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: you're bringing people together and you're helping people create memories
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: that are going to last a long time.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: There's nothing more gratifying than that.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: How did you compare the challenges of being in the
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: business world with the challenges of being a sports owner?
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: You know, in a traditional business, you're focused on quarterly earnings.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: And I think for sports team owners, you're thinking about
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: decades and you're thinking about generations. And instead of thinking
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: about earnings, you're really thinking about increasing the value of
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: this institution.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: The Brooklyn Nets were owned at the time, your husband
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: and you bought it by a Russian businessman.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: And he, I guess, decided to maybe sell a piece
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: of it. Ultimately, you have a chance to maybe buy
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: a sports team. And one that came available was a
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: partial interest in the Brooklyn Nets basketball team in the NBA.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: And why did he want to sell a partial interest,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the owner?
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: I don't know how much of it was, you know,
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: his own business. decisions or decisions that he felt were inevitable.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: But the fact that there was a path to majority
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: control and a path to be able to own an
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: arena made the Brooklyn Nets particularly attractive to us. Let
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: me tell you why it was so important to us
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: to have majority control. It goes back to being a decision-maker.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: And I think that for us, when you have majority control,
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: you can make decisions and you can set the direction and.
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: Set a vision for the company.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: And for us, that meant how it played out was
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: we were able to get.
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: Into women's sports and buy a WNBA team.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Now, at some point, the NBA came to you and
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: your husband and said, we have a WNBA team called
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the New York Liberty. And languishing a bit. Why don't
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: you buy that? Did you consider that from the start
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: as a good idea or not?
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: I think we were a little wary because we knew
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: that it had somewhat been orphaned in a way. It
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: had been moved to Westchester County and we knew that
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: the numbers had been, all the business metrics were declining
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: naturally since it moved out to Westchester and lost a
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: lot of the fan base. You know, as I started
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: to get to know the players and I also produced
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: a movie, a documentary called Unfinished Business, which looked back
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: at that time, the 25-year history of the WNBA, and
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: then it followed the young players of 2021 in their
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: first year at Barclays Center. And through that experience of
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: making the documentary, I learned a lot about these women
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: and found them really impressive. And I realized that the
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: talent was there and the heart was there, the competitive
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: fire was there, but there really wasn't enough visibility.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Now, did you say to your husband, look, you can
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: focus more on the Brooklyn Nets, let me focus more
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: on the New York Liberty?
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: Is that how you divided it up or not?
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: No, I think at one point it just naturally seemed
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: that I would take the lead on the New York Liberty.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: There was a point when I realized that owning the team,
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: it meant to me it was more than basketball. It
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: was also about increasing the visibility of women and giving
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: women more opportunity. And so it was something that I
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: felt a personal connection to and I could tell that
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: story authentically. So we just decided that was a pretty
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: good division of labor.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Now, when you bought the New York Liberty, you personally
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: got involved in helping to turn the team around. What
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: were the steps you took to really enhance the team?
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: People do ask, what were the moves we made to
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: improve the team and to take it to a championship level?
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Because it happened pretty quickly. Like within five years, we
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: won a championship. The most important and first move that
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: we made was to move the team from Westchester County
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Center to Barclays Center. After that, we started to invest.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: And we invested in player health and performance. We invested
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: in management talent. And we invested in facilities. Then we
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: recruited a team that could compete. And that started with
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: recruiting the top free agent in 2023, Brianna Stewart. And
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: at the same time that this was happening, the marketing
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: team was busy thinking about the fan experience.
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: And so we built an experience in.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: The arena that was frankly rooted in the culture of Brooklyn.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: So all of the fan experience and the music and
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: the dance and the art around what goes on in
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: the fan experience was really Brooklyn related. And since Brooklyn
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: is so artsy, it naturally sort of had a cool factor.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: And the players themselves are not obviously as highly compensated
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: as I think the men's teams are, but there's been
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: a challenge about that. And has that been resolved in
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: terms of compensation and so forth?
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: Yes, we just signed a historic collective bargaining agreement a
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: really large step change in player compensation. And the WNBA
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: salary cap went from 1.4 million to 7 million in
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: one year, with a path to 10 million by the
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: end of the term of the agreement. So now the
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: players are well paid, as they should be, because it's
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: what they do that on the court that makes fans
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: want to buy tickets and why sponsors want to invest
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: and why media companies want to acquire rights.
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: So they got a big step change. And what that
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: means is the WNBA.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: Players can now make a career out of playing in
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: the WNBA and they won't have to go overseas to
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: make a living. I think this agreement is so important
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: is it reflects an incredible confidence in the commercial potential.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: of this business. And the story isn't written, right? That
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: we know that there's a lot to do, that economics
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: need to mature. But if things continue to proceed along
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: the trajectory that we think that it will, it could
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: be a really powerful proof of concept for other women's sports. Meaning,
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: you know, you can sustain a business and you can
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: also sustain player compensation at a rate that allows them
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: to make.
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: A good living.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: So you put a lot of time and energy into it.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: You got to know the players pretty well and you
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: won a championship.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So what was it like winning a championship?
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: I think a joy that makes any other business success
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: that I've had, you know, pale in comparison. I think
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: you experience, you taste it. It is so sweet that
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: you automatically feel like you want to do it again.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Now, the WNBA players sometimes, like the NBA players, are
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: very public about their positions on political or other economic issues.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Has that been a challenge for you as a WNBA
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: owner to kind of deal with players who are publicly
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: visible on certain issues that may or may not be
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: similar to yours?
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: We've been very clear that we support our players and
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: their ability to express themselves. But we do in New York,
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: you know, we live in a very diverse community. community
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: with very many different points of view. We want players
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: to be able to express themselves, but we also want
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: to set an environment where we encourage dialogue, conversation, and
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: really respectful conversation if there are differing points of view.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: You are pretty involved in player selection or other kinds
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: of things now with the team?
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: It's very important when you're an owner to.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: Hire the best executive talent that you can on the
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: business side and also on the business operations side. So
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: your CEO and your general manager. I think for an owner,
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: it's really important to create an environment where players want
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: to be. And players want to be at a place
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: where they feel valued and where they think they can win.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: So that's my job, is to just create an environment
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: where players can be the best basketball players they can be.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: And how close do you get to the players?
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: I know it is said that sometimes owners think they
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: shouldn't get too close because they might trade these players.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: and it's difficult to become too close to them socially.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Do you get to know the players or how close
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: do you get to these players on your WNBA team?
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: You know, in sports, it is true. Your roster is
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: always changing. So it actually limits how close you can
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: get to a player. We're very fortunate that in this
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: last year, our core team, decided to stay together with us.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: So it's a blessing and a joy for our staff,
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: but also our fans, to be able to have that
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: continuity because we know them and love those players so much.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: I think you want to make sure that they know
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: that you value them and you.
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: Are there to support them.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: But you also aren't there to be a part of
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: every aspect of their daily lives.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about your background for a moment. You
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: grew up in Kansas. Your parents were both academics at
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: the University of Kansas?
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: No, my dad was a professor of econometrics at the
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: University of Kansas. My mom got a master's in math
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: at the University of Wisconsin, but she sacrificed her career.
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: For the family.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: So you grew up in what city then?
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: I grew up in Lawrence, Kansas, home of the Kansas Jayhawks.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: And were you a basketball fan as a girl?
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: A huge fan.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: And that was also what brought the community together. So
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: early on, I recognized the impact that sports can have
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: on a community. And I think that influences the way
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: that I think about what it means to be a
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: sports owner today. But yeah, I think, you know, you
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: remember because, you know, your alma mater Duke is also
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: a perennial contender in the championships for the NCAA basketball tournament.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: But Kansas when I was growing up. I was making
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: it to the Final Four pretty regularly. I went to
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: school with Danny Manning and just was such a great
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: fan of the Jayhawk.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: So when you were growing up, I assume you were
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: a reasonably good student. Your parents were academics. You did
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: well enough to go to Stanford. What did you major in?
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: I majored in international relations because it was an interdisciplinary
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: degree and it gave me the flexibility to study politics
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: and economics, history, international affairs, and I could pretty much
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: create my.
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: Own course of study.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: And what did you do after you graduated?
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: So I went to a consulting firm called Windermere Associates.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: It was in San Francisco, and it was started by
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: a McKinsey partner. And this consulting firm specialized in consulting
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: to companies in industries in overcapacity.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: And then?
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: And then I went to Harvard Business School.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: When I graduated, I went to New York, and I
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: worked for the New York Times, and then I worked
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: for American Express. It felt like another good place to
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: be a training ground. And I quickly learned, though, that
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: corporate culture wasn't really that interesting to me and that
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: I was a lot happier when I was building something
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: and creating something new even within the organization.
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: So I.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: Just felt like I was a lot more entrepreneurial, and
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: that led me to go work for Taobao, which is
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: the C2C e-commerce site that was started by Alibaba. And
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: when I went there, I started the first cross-border sales
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: channel and enlisted Hong Kong sellers to sell to mainland consumers.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: And that was highly entrepreneurial, and you could see your
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: results in real time because if you made a single change,
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: you could see what the result was on your gross
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: merchandise volume. And I found that really liberating and exciting.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Now, did your parents live to see your success? I
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: realize your father passed away not too long ago, but
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: for a while, both of them saw your success.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: What did they tell you?
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: My father.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: was alive when we won the championship and he was,
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: he watched the finals on TV and he, he, I
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: know he saw me hoist that trophy. And I, so
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: I think they were very, they're, they're very proud.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: So are you interested in buying other sports teams?
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: I would say yes, but selectively, as you know, sports
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: has become like a, you know, a legit, a legitimate
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: asset class and they've become very good investments. And, you know,
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: it Who knew that we needed to develop an anti-AI?
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: And who knew that live experiences would become so valuable?
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: Who knew that something that was unscripted and unpredictable and
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: was something that caused people to come together in a
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: shared experience would be something that was monetizable and also
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: really valued? But that, in fact, has happened. And live
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: sports is a place where that can all be manifested.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: And did your children say to you, mom and dad,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: don't do anything bad to the team because we want
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: to inherit the team and we want to run it
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: ourselves and make sure you keep it for a long
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: time and make sure you keep it successful?
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: So do you intend to keep it in your family?
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we intend to have this asset be with our family, yes,
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: for generations. And so we are stewards of it and
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: we try to take care of it and we tell
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: them that they need to take care of it as well.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: But what I say to them, if they want to
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: be a part of the sports organization, that they need
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: to learn a skill that's valued in the sports business.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: So whether that's data analytics or media rights or negotiation
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: or deal structuring, they should learn that because Sports is
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: an emotional business. It is for fans, at least. But
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: on the business side, it really requires and rewards expertise.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: Can you explain what you've done to Barclays Arena?
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: Well, it's really the software.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: The hardware, it's the same arena where the Nets play
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: and where other events are held. It's sort of a
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: black box in that way. It can be configured in
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: multiple different ways. Let me first step back and tell
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: you why the arena was created.
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: Important. It's an operating company, right?
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: And it generates cash flow because there are hundreds of
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: events going on a year. And so it was attractive
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: from that standpoint. If you don't own an arena and
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: you have a team, then you're a tenant. And if
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: you own the arena, you can control scheduling. You can
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: oversee hospitality, including developing premium hospitality. So we felt that
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: owning the team and the arena together, the combination of
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: the two were more valuable than them standalone. You know,
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: when you think about fans and what brings fans to
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: a game, but then also what makes fans come back,
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: it's now, you know, whereas before you might think, well,
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: they're just coming to watch the competition on the court.
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: That's true.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: That's the main draw. But what keeps fans coming back,
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: which what really creates loyalty is you need your fans
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: to feel like they're a part of it, that they're
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: a part of the game and a part of the
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: whole experience.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: As you look back on your life, what are you
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: most amazed at?
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: That all of this happened. I could never have imagined it.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: You have to be very curious. You have to be
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: very open to opportunities. You have to see things in
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: front of you and think where you might be able
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: to make your own individual difference in the opportunity set
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: that's presented to you.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you and your husband, who I also know, you know,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: seem to retain your humility, which is often when you
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: have the kind of wealth that you have and the success,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: very often you see people in that situation not be
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: that humble. So how do you retain humility? Is that
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: part because of your background and the way you were
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: raised by your parents?
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: My parents... It was pretty hard.
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: You know, they left Taiwan to come to a country
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: where they didn't speak the language very well. And back
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: in the 60s, just imagine the kind of perhaps discrimination
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: that they might have faced. Because the kids grew up
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: in San Diego, we were living in quite close proximity
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: to my parents. And so my kids were very aware
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: of the way my parents lived and still live.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Talk about your own, I'd say, philanthropic activities. Which are
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: the principal ones?
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: Well, there's three main pillars. I would say science. art
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: and culture, and social justice. And my general approach across
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: the board is to find some sort of unmet need
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: and apply an innovative, evidence-based solution that's very impact-oriented.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: And you do it in the New York metropolitan area
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: or all parts of the country?
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: The social justice work is... concentrated in Brooklyn.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: And by the way, that was one of the reasons
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: that Brooklyn was attractive to us. Soon after we bought
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: the teams, we committed to a social justice fund, which
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: was a $ 50 million 10-year commitment to economic mobility in Brooklyn.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: And now we're five years through that 10-year commitment, and
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: we've supported hundreds of businesses, small businesses and entrepreneurs through
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: access to capital. So grants, loans, tech accelerators, equity investments.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: We've used every tool of capital that's available to support
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: these entrepreneurs and founders. And we've also, you know, we
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: run We've refurbished basketball courts in areas with high rates
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: of gun violence.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: So in your philanthropy, you've done a lot of work
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: with human performance. What are you interested in and why
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: do you give money to that area?
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: So the Human Performance Alliance is a scientific research initiative
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: that is focused on understanding performance. So how the body moves, adapts, fatigues,
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: and recovers over time. And the reason that we started
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: this is because as sports team owners, we realize that
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: there is so little that we understand about the human body,
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: even at the highest levels. Most health research is focused
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: on disease, and we study performance. And that is how
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: the body operates when it's at its very best. So
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: the goal is not just scientific discovery, but it's also translation.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: So what you know, what can the science tell us
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: and what kind of tools and therapies and techniques and
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: training protocols can we learn from the science that will
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: not only help athletes perform better and recover faster and
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: extend their careers, but what can we learn that will
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: help them but will also help all of us eventually.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: The main opportunities that we are focused on right now
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: in the Human Performance Alliance are injury prevention, so preventing
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: injuries before they happen, and personalized training and recovery. So
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: personalized according to your individual biology and also closing the
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: data gap on female athlete physiology. Because for the past
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: few decades, most of the research in sports science has
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: been conducted on men. Prevention, prediction, and women's health. Those
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: are the frontiers of human performance.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: What gives you the greatest pleasure now, being a successful parent,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: owning a successful sports team, being a successful philanthropist. What
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: gives you the greatest pleasure and what's the greatest challenge
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: in life for you now?
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: I can't choose one of the three because they all
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: give me immense joy. And I do think variety is
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: the spice of life. And I think it's wonderful to
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: have a breadth of things in your life that are
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: giving you joy. I would say for the New York Liberty,
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: we won one championship, but I would like the team
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: to have some enduring success. So I would like to
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: win another championship and set a culture of excellence that.
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: Will withstand the test of time.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: More broadly for women's sports, I think we are at
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: an inflection point. And I would really like to see
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: women's sports teams become a scaled, sustainable, durable business.
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: Profitable business.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: So as you look back on your career, which has
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: been very successful, is there anything you wish you would
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: have done differently?
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: I just want to make sure that I show and
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: express my appreciation to all the people and all the
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: opportunities because you can work hard, but there's also a
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: lot of luck involved, a lot of things that are
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: outside of your control that need to go your way.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: And so I think being very grateful for when luck
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: comes your way, I think that's part of it, is
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: working hard and making most of your opportunities, but knowing
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: that a lot of it was not in your control.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: To hear more of my interviews, you can subscribe and
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: download my podcast on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen.