Group Economics
(As explained by former Miami Heat forward Andre Iguadola)
It manifests the same way off the court. The back of his jersey
says "Group Economics," which isn't a concept most people are
familiar with. Ask him what it means and he launches into a brilliant
stream-of-consciousness treatise with all sorts of intellectual connections
that'll make your head spin.
"That was a term I
learned from David West," he said. They were interviewing
candidates for the players' union executive director job, and West asked how
they felt about group economics. Iguodala wasn't familiar with the term. But
when he and West became teammates with the Warriors, he circled back and the
two had long conversations about it.
"How do you bring more value to the Black community?"
Iguodala explained. "How do we get more value out of ourselves? How do we
build up our communities? How do we build up our communities so we don't rely
on government?
"People understand how powerful voting is, how powerful
government officials, their jobs are, and they start running -- and then how
important it is not just voting for the president, but local officials. Now you
have better funding for schools because your land's worth more. You know, you
have more home ownership because the land's higher. You have more commercial
development because the land's worth a lot. And then when you buy from your
own, you're essentially recycling money back into your own community.
"If we start building our own businesses and buying from
ourselves, then that's how we build our communities, and then that's how you
get school systems that are great, and that's when you start having better
relationships with law enforcement.
"And that stems all the way back to group economics. So
that was the meaning behind that and why I put it on my jersey."
Whew. That was a lot. But just when your head is going to
explode, Iguodala synthesizes it down into the perfect pass and slam dunk.
"Basically," he said, "group economics is what
fixes all the other things people have on the back of their jerseys."
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