Thaddeus Young

Sam Smith

Thad Young talks about the challenges of educating his two boys during this historic period in America, the new leadership team, and more during his end-of-season conference call with the media on Friday afternoon.

Thad Young has seen more than most in the NBA, certainly more than his Bulls teammates. He's been with five NBA teams. He has played in more than five dozen playoff games, has built a successful financial career for his post playing days and has been regarded as a veteran mentor to young players throughout the NBA. No one among the Bulls players can claim those attributes. Nor can they claim what is most important to Young, his family with two school-aged sons.

The Bulls roster, as young as it is, predictably is filled primarily with single young men. Lauri Markkanen has an infant child, but most of the players are unmarried and still sticking a toe in the murky waters of life. So Young also understood the most worrisome element for him in the current crises roiling the country. How and what do you tell your children when they are treated differently merely because of the color of their skin?

"When they come up with a question, it's very hard to answer that question because I don't want them to have to grow up and fear for their lives or have to grow up and understand that they can't do the same things that other people are doing," Young said Friday during a conference call for media set up by the Bulls. "You want to give your kid the world. You want to get them to understand, ‘Hey, you can do whatever you want to do.' In these times, it's just not the same. You can't do everything that somebody else is doing. If I'm going to be specific about it, the black kid can't do everything that a white kid is doing. Those are things that are very, very tough to talk about. It's a harsh reality and we have to talk about them. My kids are still young, six and nine. They understand certain things that are going on, but not entirely everything.

"For me as a father, that's probably one of the toughest conversations to ever have with your kids," Young acknowledged. "They are having questions because there's so much stuff on social media and so much stuff on YouTube, which is what all the kids are watching now. My youngest son, he asked the other day, ‘Why did they kill that man, daddy?' It's hard for me to answer that question because you don't want to push him into the harsh reality of what it is. But you have to answer all those tough questions and you have to have those tough conversations with your kids. It's definitely hard. What happened is definitely saddening for me, but it also scares me to death because I have two young boys."

Thad Young finished the season averaging 10.3 points per game.

Young acknowledged he wished he and the Bulls were going to Orlando with the chosen 22 teams and was confident he'd be fine. He said his health worries are about family.

"Everybody has a concern about contracting the virus, but you have guys that understand we have to play also in order to keep the league moving forward," Young said. "For me, I worry more along the lines of my family's aspect. We have a young league and a lot of these guys in the league they don't have kids or they don't have a family. They may have a girlfriend that they're dealing with. Besides that, it's just kind of them. My worry is more along the lines of me being with all the other guys and then coming back home to my family. Like what was the exit strategy? I think the league is doing a good job as far as trying to make sure that they keep it as safe as possible as far as going in and getting testing and making sure that guys are social distancing even when they're having leisure time. Making sure that some of our older coaches in the league are wearing the face masks and staying away from everybody else. Some of the questions they said, ‘Look, COVID is here and it's going to be here for awhile until we get some type of vaccine for it.' This is life right now.

"I wanted to play. I wanted to be a part of it," Young reiterated. "But another side of me was worried about being away from my family or if they were to even come down, just me being around everybody, playing basketball and then going back to my family and not knowing if I've contracted the virus or not knowing if my family has contracted the virus. Me personally, I think I can fight it off. But I don't know if my kids would be able to do that. I don't know if my wife would be able to do that. I don't want to put them in harm's way."

Young also discussed other issues, including the fate of coach Jim Boylen:

"That's not really a question for me to answer," Young said. "I think that's more up to the front office. Obviously, Jim is very energetic. He's probably one of the most energetic coaches I've played for. My job is to go out there and basically help lead this team to try to win games and play to the best of my ability each night. That's something you'll have to ask Marc (Eversley) and Arturas (Karnisovas) and let them answer. For me, my job is to go out there and whatever coach I have at the time, let him lead and we follow. He's giving us the game plan and go out there and execute the game plan to the best of our abilities and make sure that we're playing as hard as we can. And for me, make sure the locker room stays together and make sure I help lead the guys and be very encouraging towards the guys."

The new management team: "They've been great. They've both been keeping us abreast of each and every thing that's going on, especially during the time where we were trying to figure out if we could get back in the gym or not or during the time where they were figuring out who's going to Orlando. Calling me each and every day or every other day and just making sure they were very informative. Obviously this is a situation where they can't really do their job because we're not playing basketball and I'm sure they're anxious to really get on the job and get a grasp of things. They've been reaching out and talking to us all and making sure they're staying in sync with us."

Effect of the long layoff: "Just continue to try to work out as best as you can. Like yesterday, we just moved into a new house in Texas. So I was literally putting together a whole floor to get my weight room going. Just doing things that can keep you in basketball shape, which is running outside, running on the treadmill. If you can get into a gym, get into a gym and get some shots up. Obviously, being out for 10 months, rest is always good. I've had a lot of time to rest, so you have to find a way to get some type of work in. For me, being in my 13th season, it's probably added a couple years onto my career being able to sit out for 10 months."

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Thaddeus Young opens up on raising sons during this time in America

Bulls.com

Sam Smith checks in with Bulls forward Thaddeus Young, who is using the hiatus to focus on his business ventures

Thad Young is out of work. So it was time to get back to work.

At his side job. The one that probably will eventually make him more than the approximately $100 million in NBA contracts he's earned already.

"We're all anxious to get back," says the senior Bull, a veteran of 13 NBA seasons. "Continue to try to get better as a group and try to uplift the guys and try to make sure when we can to lock in and focus on the the things we have to do. For me personally, I'll always be optimistic regardless of the situation and be the guy who will be there for my teammates whether I have differences with somebody or not. I'll bring it to the forefront for the most part and be there for my guys and the franchise."

Young has done that this season, albeit quietly, often raising questions and concerns behind closed doors, concentrating on a united front amidst one of his most difficult seasons. The Bulls are in the midst of organizational changes just as it has been a change for Young this season, coming off the bench for the first time in eight years before injuries elevated him back to starting.

Thaddeus Young has averaged 14.2 points as a starter this season.

Even in the reduced role, Young often has excelled. He's averaged 14.2 points as a starter after fewer than 10 points through January. And then shooting 52 percent on threes in February once he became a regular starter. It's the equity Young brings as an NBA veteran with the most playoff experience on the team.

Young knows something about equity both on and off the basketball court.

With this shelter-in-place NBA hiatus because of the virus, Young has shifted from the basketball court not only to his role as home school math teacher—"not bad so far because they're doing double digit multiplication"—but the multiple exponents for Reform Ventures, his private equity and investment company that finances startup companies.

An exceptional student/athlete with a plus-four high school GPA and now a master's degree after one year at Georgia Tech, Young is among a growing cadre of NBA players who are investing in a future beyond the game. Many of the Golden State Warriors players, like Draymond Green, Steph Curry and Andre Iguodala became involved because of their professional proximity to access to the Silicon Valley investors in the Bay Area. Young is from Memphis, where he still resides on the offseason and has his Young for Youth foundation for at-risk youth.

And so beyond his NBA travels through Philadelphia, Minnesota, Brooklyn, Indiana and the Bulls this season, the 6-8 forward has been equally aggressive off the court.

"Just being in the house with the kids," says Young. "The kids (TJ first grade, Taylor fourth grade) are doing fine. They don't have to go to school, so they are happy about that. But over the course of time they do get a little bored and we have to figure out things for them to do. So we started to put together our own little schedule. The teacher will send some work. Once they get done with that we add our own. Me and my wife. Well, my wife, Shekinah, mostly. She prints work sheets out. Our oldest, TJ, he can sit and play video games for seven days straight without coming out of his room; he'll forget to eat. Taylor, the younger one, he'll play but doesn't have the attention span. He asks a million questions. So we keep them busy with projects, also."

Thaddeus Young is currently in his 14th NBA season.

"We'll go outside (Lakeview townhouse with a deck on the garage) and shoot a few hoops," says Young. "Just trying to get them outside moving around a little bit to try to stay active."

And then Young keeps active with some workouts the Bulls have passed on and, as always, keeping his mind active with his business ventures.

"I've had the chance to focus on everything outside basketball, which is my family first and second the business ventures I'm into. It's given me a chance to take a lot of the meetings I'm not able to during the season," Young explained. "When we get into a city we have team meetings after flying in and then there's practice, preparing for practice; it's about basketball.

"So for now it's given me a chance to dive into the business stuff I have going," said Young. "I can sit on the phone with my team and advisors and be on the calls as opposed to them doing all the due diligence and giving me a report. I can ask my own questions and have meetings with officials of those companies."

Which is not insignificant or a hobby. Because Young's firm is investing in these nascent enterprises, the engines that drive the U.S. economy. And perhaps even more significantly now with the economic retreat in the wake of the coronavirus.

Young's company invests in these startups hoping, as many do, for the next Uber, Instagram or AirBnB. Reform Ventures has had investments in DraftKings, Pinterest and SpaceX, among others.

"We do it in early stage growth or late stage companies," says Young. "The same stuff people in Silicon Valley are doing. But I also have a real estate portfolio where we're invested in apartment complexes, condo buildings, hospitals, strip malls, single and multi-family housing. A lot of different things across the board."

Young goes up for a contested shot at the hoop vs. Phoenix.

We knew Young with his defensive agility and developing shooting range was versatile, but perhaps not like this. Young's mother died of breast cancer in 2014. He always promised her he'd finish his college degree, and recently added his master's from online courses.

He says his first investment was as a rookie with the 76ers in 2007-08 in a strip mall.

"No brainer deal," recalls Young. "All the leases were signed by tenants. A main investor was secured. Collect residuals and wait for appreciation value and sell."

"Still collecting residual checks," Young said. "Then I started dabbling more and four or five years later got into the tech stuff and the startup game and things like that. I'm just motivated by business in general."

Though this isn't some kid—19 when he started in the NBA— who all of a sudden came into some money and started playing Monopoly for real. Young has a professional business manager who is an MIT graduate and investment analyst staffers. They analyze target companies over months for potential investments.

"We'll look at five we want to attack that make the most sense, the broad late stage opportunities, growth stage opportunities, early stage opportunities and try to be very diverse on what we do," said Young.

Young said he doesn't promote to teammates, but explains his process if they are interested. "I'll give them a sense of what they could be doing," he says. "The thing is you want to have something you can dive into once you walk away from the game because once the ball stops bouncing you don't want to start to start figuring out what you want to do. You want to already know what you want to do."

Back on the basketball court is the immediate hope, says Young. But first there's some numbers to crunch that he hopes is not long division.

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Thaddeus Young using break from basketball to focus on the game of business

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Thaddeus Young Top Plays 2018-19

The Chicago Bulls announced today that the team has signed forward Thaddeus Young. In accordance with team policy, terms of the contract were not disclosed.

Young (6-8, 221) was the 12th-overall selection by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2007 NBA Draft. In his 12 seasons, he has played in 901 games (671 starts) with averages of 13.4 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.46 steals per game, and shot 50.1 percent from the field, 32.9 percent from three and 67.3 percent from the free throw line. In 51 career playoff games (33 starts), Young has averaged 10.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.18 steals per game while shooting 46.7 percent from the field, 26.8 percent from the 3-point line and 61.9 percent from the free throw line. The native of New Orleans is one of six active NBA players to have recorded at least 12,000 points, 5,000 rebounds, 1,200 assists and 1,200 steals in his career.

In 2018-19, Young played in 81 games (81 starts) and averaged 12.6 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.52 steals (14th in the NBA) with a field goal percentage of 52.7, 3-point percentage of 34.9 and free throw percentage of 64.4. In Indiana's playoff series against Boston, he started all four games in which he played and averaged 10.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.75 steals, and shot 42.9 percent from the field, 25.0 percent from three and 57.1 percent from the free throw line.

Young has been a Conference Player of the Week twice in his career, most recently last season for games played from Dec. 10-16. He helped the Pacers to a 4-0 record during that timeframe with averages of 18.8 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists. Upon the conclusion of his first NBA season in 2007-08, Young was named to the All-Rookie Second Team.

In another move, the Bulls have waived guards Shaquille Harrison and Walt Lemon Jr.

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BULLS SIGN THADDEUS YOUNG

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