NBA All-Star Rookie Challenge MVP and NBA Coach, Daniel ‘Booby’ Gibson, Teams With The XChange Place Secured Investment Fund’s “The NIL Fund” To Disrupt Sports Investing and Sports Marketing…

For Immediate Release
New York, NY and Houston, TX • September 19, 2024
Contact: Kevin Hall – Strivers Row Media, Inc.
MediaAlerts@StriversRowMedia.com
NY: (917) 912-0603
LA: (323) 816-3790

September 19, 2024 – New York, NY/Strivers Row Media/:

Who: Basketball Star and NBA Coach, Daniel ‘Booby’ Gibson and XChange Place Secured Investment
Fund Managing Member, Leland Hardy
What: Strategic Partnership Between Daniel ‘Booby’ Gibson Sports Marketing and Leland Hardy’s
XChange Place Secured Investment Fund (www.XChangePlace.io) for the Launch of “The NIL Fund“
When: Monday September 9, 2024
Where: The Houston Sports Marketing Symposium
Why: To Permit Small Private Investors and Institutions Alike to Invest In Tomorrow’s Stars, Today™

Daniel ‘Booby” Gibson, the Founder & CEO of Daniel ‘Booby’ Gibson Sports Management, is a former standout NBA point guard who, after leading Houston, TX’s Jones High School to its first State Championship in thirty-eight years, enjoyed a record setting collegiate basketball career at the University of Texas at Austin en route to an All-Star NBA career with the Cleveland Cavaliers who drafted him with the 42nd pick in the second round.  Gibson was the MVP of the 2008 NBA All-Star Rookie Challenge game during which he set the all-time record for most 3-point field goals made with 11 threes.  “I’m incredibly pleased to establish myself as a leader in the business of sports after having enjoyed success on the basketball court at every level at which I was involved, from high school, to college, to the NBA, both as a player and as a coach” stated Gibson.  “Even more importantly, I strive to show young people by example that the pursuits of excellence in sports coupled with excellence in the classroom can, and in most cases, WILL translate into much longer term success in business and philanthropy than is likely to be achieved by devoting oneself to sports alone,” Gibson continued.  Gibson was an outstanding high school student who graduated in the top 2% of his graduating class, earning him National Honor Society honors as a high school senior.  “With all that’s going on in today’s cold, cruel world, I’m focused on inspiring families and kids to be Hug Dealers, not drug dealers,” Gibson effused.

Gibson’s talents extend far beyond basketball.  He is an accomplished songwriter and his exploits in media and entertainment are well documented. His 2011 wedding to R&B superstar, Keyshia Cole, was filmed and aired to tens of millions of viewers on their hit BET reality TV series, “Keyshia & Daniel: Family First.”  Gibson has been a regular on the uber popular VH1 reality series, “Love and Hip-Hop: Hollywood,” and he was a star on MTV’s “The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars.”

Gibson has excellent role models in the venture capital investing, NIL marketing, and business development worlds. His college teammate and close friend, active venture capital investor and perennial NBA All-Star, Kevin Durant, and his friend and Cleveland Cavaliers teammate, active venture capital investor, Lebron James, are both first ballot NBA Hall of Famers.  “With the kinds of exposure and access I have been blessed to enjoy, it was a perfect segue for me to partner with 19 Star caliber Wharton School pioneer, Leland Hardy, and his XChange Place Secured Investment Fund in my effort to be the unquestioned leader in the new, white hot NIL space via The NIL Fund,” enthused Gibson.

“The $100 million XChange Place Secured Investment Fund is currently being funded and levels the investment playing field through fractionalization, i.e. in layman’s terms, breaking up high dollar investments, like NBA Teams, NFL Teams, exclusive fine art pieces, real estate deals, biotech investments, feature films and TV shows, Broadway plays, venture capital investments, music catalogs, etc., into small pieces, permitting smaller accredited investors as well as institutions to invest in these alternative assets that might otherwise be unattainable to them due to their high investment minima,” stated Hardy.  “By democratizing investing, especially investing in sports, teams, NIL deals, and even in individual athletes through fractionalization, we’re dramatically expanding opportunities for investment by those who otherwise couldn’t or wouldn’t invest. We’re simultaneously dramatically increasing the level of fan engagement by those who can now invest in their favorite teams, or in or alongside their favorite athletes,” Hardy explained. “Moreover, we aim to empower and strengthen the NIL collectives of colleges and universities so as to increase their ability to be competitive in attracting top tier student-athletes vs. their competition,” he continued.

For both Gibson and Hardy, educating investors is at their core.  Hardy is the Founder and Creator of B.I.C.E.P.S. – the Business Institute for Continuing Education in Professional Sports – which he launched at Wharton and which became the Official Business Education Program of the NFL and NFLPA as taught at Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern’s Kellogg School, and Wharton.  (see: https://bit.ly/LelandHardyBICEPS).   Early in his career Hardy worked at Bear Stearns followed by multiple boutique investment banking firms.  

Soon after Muhammad Ali petitioned the Wharton School for Hardy to be granted a leave of absence so that he could serve as Ali’s Official Chinese Translator and Interpreter for his famous 1985 goodwill trip to China,  Hardy enjoyed a Hall of Fame worthy career fighting out of Madison Square Garden, first as “The Fighting Stockbroker” and later as “The Hedge Fund Heavyweight.”  Hardy spent some thirty years as one of Ali’s closest friends and advisors until the time of his death.  Because of Ali’s influence, Hardy is the only man in history to have boxed professionally AFTER earning an MBA from Wharton and a  Master’s Degree in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania’s Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies MBA/MA dual degree program where he was the first ever African-American Fellow and was its youngest ever Fellow. (see: http://bit.ly/HardyTrueInsideStory).  Among other languages, Hardy speaks, reads, and writes Chinese and Spanish with native fluency.  

###