After a few sad articles and news, I thought I would lighten it up a bit and talk about a player who lost his career to a knee injury…But, seriously, there is light at the end of this darkness.
Jonathan Bender was selected 5th by the Toronto Raptors in the 1999 NBA draft. He was 18 years old and straight out of high school in Picayune, Mississippi. On draft night, he was traded from the Raptors to the Indiana Pacers for veteran big man Antonio Davis. Bender was dubbed to be the next Tracy McGrady, but he never lived up to expectations due to persistent right knee problems.
In 2006, he decided to stop rehabbing and battling the damaging right knee and called it quits on his short-lived professional basketball life, but his career was far from over.
Conrad Brunner of Pacers.com writes about Bender’s life after basketball and the philanthropic work he has done. Bender’s hometown of Picayune was
- B/R Ticket Guide
“When I got everything down there and saw how everybody really appreciated it, it really made me think how far we were behind in that area. Since I was there anyway, I kind of put my foot out there and started doing the kinds of things I’m doing now. I’m a social entrepreneur. I’m able to make a living and help the people around me at the same time, so that’s great.”
He hasn’t done just a “dog and pony” show but created a full-fledged entrepreneurial venture. He owns four companies all of which give back to the devastated region. His investment company seeks community re-investment opportunities; his construction company builds sustainable housing replacing flood damaged homes; his property management firm leases the properties (targeting displaced residents) that his construction company builds; and a realty company that sells these properties to qualified families.
According to one of Bender’s builders he says that not only is Jonathan doing great work but is providing quality (not cheap) homes. The builder says,
“He (Bender) wants granite counter-tops, oak cabinets, quality flooring, nice light fixtures. I tell him he’s going overboard for rental property, but he says he wants it to look like something he’d live in himself.”
I highly recommend reading Brunner’s article on Bender. It is quite refreshing and seems to me that Bender is not just putting his money up, but he is really involved in the running of his companies for the good of the area.
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3 months ago
Jaime,
How dare you write an article like this, commending a Black player's Livelihood!!! Whats the matter with you, you need your head examined?? I'm petitioning for Zander to delete this, immediately! You obviously forgot what website you're posting on!
Anyway...I love the article, and love the courage you showed, to publish it.
Thanks to site-Admin...this is very pro-Racist Sports-information site, that doesn't take too kindly to Black players being given this magnitude of props & respect.
Afterall, what do have? Like, 25 reads----------and no comments, until mines? Including, one *peculiar* individual who definitely took time to "edit" your article but couldn't post a comment on your Efforts to profile a person who showed that LIFE is bigger than Sports and the mega-opportunity some folk get, to make million$ and be greedy with it.
Keep up the outstanding & courageous work, Jaime, and do be surprised if you incur alot of Hate for writing this article, or...alot of "ignoring" perhaps.
hahahahaha
PEACE
from 3 months ago
this was a very interesting and well written piece Jaime, it's good to remember Bender as an admirable philanthropist instead of as a world class bust (he was both but I'm not a Pacers fan so I can easily forget that he was a bust)
Yung: I gotta rebut what you just said, I think that this article, despite the fact that it is interesting, original, and well-written, doesn't get many reads not because the readers are racist but because not many people want to read about Jonathan Bender. Perhaps if the headline included the name of a team Bender had played on or something to generate search engine hits more people would have seen it.
3 months ago
Perhaps if you had a better picture as well.
It's good to see that Bender can help the world out after the amount of money he was paid but never got the chance to earn by playing. It is great that he is doing this, and it is even greater that we haven't heard about it, that shows he isn't just doing it for the publicity.
Great story.
3 months ago
Max,
You're a good dude, I've read your mindset here a few times so please please please don't tarnish it, by making excuses for the pro-Racists who command this website. Don't forget this is a Sports-information outlet. A place where folk take pride in swearing they have a respectable grasp on Sports knowledge. This piece was posted on the NBA page, a Community where writers pretends to "know it all" about that league. Bender was the 6th-pick in the draft. So, I'm not buying that line re: People don't want to read about Jonathon Bender.
This article has almost 60 reads. And yet, you and I are the only one's who've commented on it.
Yet, when articles that attack Black athletes like the article on "Stuart Scott's eye" or the one overwhelmingly denying "Mike Vick a 2nd Chance" or the one that mainly features Black players as the "The ALL-NBA Ugly Team" then, you had the pro-Racists types flooding each with over 25 comments---------before each even had 35 reads!!!
That ain't coincidence, Max, but it is that B/R.com peculiar culture when it comes to Black athletes.
3 months ago
Colin,
thanks for coming in *making excuses* for the tendencies of this pro-Racist culture of writers here, on this website...a better picture??
Man. please. stop embarassing yourself.
I can't wait to read how many more folk will come making *aimless excuses* for why this article was treated 'like kryptonite' when it was first published...let me get me some Popcorn
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