Jaylen Brown Hoping to Develop 'Black Wall Street' in Boston After Signing Nearly $304 Million Extension

The two-time NBA All-Star said he wants to use his platform to inspire Boston's Black community

On the heels of signing his massive new contract, NBA star Jaylen Brown says he's hoping to use his platform to spread the wealth.

At a press conference on Wednesday after the guard signed a NBA record five-year, $303.7 million supermax contract extension with the Boston Celtics, Brown reportedly said that his aim is to use the "generational wealth" for good.

“I want to launch a project to bring Black Wall Street here in Boston,” Brown, 26, said, according to CNN and ESPN. “I want to attack the wealth disparity here. I think there’s analytics that supports that stimulating the wealth gap could actually be something that could be better meant for the entire economy.”

He added, “With the biggest financial deal in NBA history, it makes sense to talk about one year investment in community, but . . . the wealth disparity here that nobody wants to talk about is top five in the US (and) is something that we can all improve on it. It’s unsettling.”

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According to the outlets, Brown said he hopes that his version of a “Black Wall Street” would “create new jobs, new resources, new businesses, new ideas” for the Northeast U.S. corridor, much like the original Black Wall Street did in the early 20th century for affluent Black residents in Tulsa, Okla.

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“Boston could be a fully integrated self-sufficient hub,” he said. “I think Boston could be the pilot, not just for wealth disparity here in the US, but also for around the world.”

It’s not the first time that the two-time NBA All Star has opened up about helping the Black community.

In 2020, Brown spoke to PEOPLE about his participation in an initiative sponsored by Dove Men+Care called Commit to C.A.R.E. (Care About Racial Equity) Now. Brown teamed up with fellow NBA players Chris Paul, Donovan Mitchell, Aaron Gordon and Danny Green on the project.

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As an extension of their work to raise awareness around systemic racism following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the initiative aimed to change the stereotypes often associated with Black men.

"How Black men are looked at and represented in culture is important," Brown told PEOPLE at the time. "To try to change some of those narratives in media is a great effort."

He added, "It's important to get more positive roles [in movies and television] and things like that, and create a demand for people to see that, so they can see Black men and women in a positive light," he continues. "Those roles were far and few between, and while I think there's more now than before, you wouldn't see a lot of African-American movies or TV shows that were successful — there just weren't positive narrative [stories] for African-Americans."

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