Tina Charles — WNBA Superstar Gives A Voice for the Voiceless & Leads a Life That Goes Straight to the Heart
The Game PlanShow Notes
Hearing Tina Charles recount the emotions she felt when meeting a man whose life had been saved by one of the 425-plus portable AED devices that her foundation has purchased and installed to date, it's easy to forget that she’s in the middle of what is surely a Hall-of-Fame basketball career.
Charles, 31, is the Center on the Washington Mystics. A two-time national college champion at UConn, she was the first pick of the 2010 WNBA draft and won Rookie of the Year that season. Two years later, she was league MVP. She’s a seven-time All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist.
Her impact goes far beyond the hardwood. She’s active with her non-profit organization, speaks out for social justice reform, and has even produced her first film. She shares the encouragement she received from famed New York filmmaker Spike Lee, leading to her eventual premiere of the film at Tribeca Film Festival. You can follow Tina Charles on Twitter (@tinacharles31) and Instagram (@tina31charles). To learn more about her production company, visit Thirty-One Enterprises.
Slight Correction: We noted in the intro Tina's high school Christ The King was in Brooklyn, it's actually in Queens, NY
Click here to listen >>>
About The Game Plan
The Game Plan is a weekly SportTechie podcast hosted by venture capitalists Jay Kapoor and Tim Katt. The show features professional athletes and their business interests beyond sports.
You can follow us on Twitter (@thegameplanshow) and Instagram (@gameplanshow) for show news and updates, to recommend guests, and for bonus content! Follow co-hosts Jay Kapoor (@JayKapoorNYC) and Tim Katt (@Tim_Katt) for all things sports, media, tech, and venture capital.
Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at [email protected]
More from The Game Plan
Human beings have been collecting non-utilitarian items for millennia. It just so happens that with the advent of the digital age, we're now able to collect items from around the world and display them digitally for fellow collectors all over the world to admire as well. Add to this Digital Collectibles, like NFTs, and you've got a space ripe for tech innovation.
If you listen to this show regularly, you know that the shifting interest of athletes from endorsement to ownership is something we talk about a lot. Well, it turns out that in the last few years, athletes aren’t the only ones that are thinking about how to get ownership in the brands, companies and financial institutions they help build as early adopters, micro-influencers, or simply as customers.
In many ways, Bennie Fowler's story is the epitome of resilience and exactly the kind of journey we love sharing onThe Game Plan every week. Bennie had tremendous success in college at Michigan State and like many of his fellow players, expected to hear his name called during the NFL Draft. Unfortunately, that announcement never came.
Podcasting and social audio as a viable business has seen explosive growth in the past decade, the last few years especially. With Spotify having spent over $1Bn to acquire both tech and talent, apps like Clubhouse raising at multi-billion valuations, and even platforms like Twitter launching their own social audio Spaces, we felt this topic deserved a deeper dive.
In this week's episode of The Game Plan, we venture into the wild, wild west of the internet: Digital collectibles, NFTs and Web3. What does it mean for athletes, how is it changing how athletes think about their personal brands and ability to monetize their work on and off the field, and who the key stakeholders in this new tokenized world are and will be.