The difficulties of growing up in a family with a single mother are nothing new to Jayson Tatum. Being one of the most well-known NBA players right now, he wants to use his position to support others going through similar difficulties. SoFi and the Jayson Tatum Foundation have partnered to provide low-income single-family homes with over $1,000,000 to support their efforts to accumulate wealth for future generations.
Growing up in a single-parent home is not easy on either the parent or the children. In fact, in many ways it puts the family behind the eight ball in a world where inflation is on the rise and incomes are struggling to keep up. Aside from just dealing with inflation, about 31.7% of single-parent households are living in poverty, which makes it impossible to build a savings.
Adaptability in the Face of Difficulties
Life was not easy growing up in a family with a single mother and as a lifetime Boston Celtics fan. My mother never gave up even though we had financial difficulties and frequently moved. She always managed to provide for me, even though she was doing the best she could.
Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics, an all-star player, and I are similar in that regard. Tatum was born when Brandy Cole-Barnes was just 19 years old, fresh out of high school, but that didn’t stop her from providing the best life she could for him.
Much like with my mom and I, Cole-Barnes and Tatum struggled to keep the bills paid. There would be days without food or having to share a single meal, months with no heat, no electricity, etc… However, all those sacrifices Cole-Barnes made were because she knew Tatum would make his dream of being in the NBA come true.
“There were times when, yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have paid for him to travel with this team or go to this tournament,” Cole-Barnes told the Boston Globe in a 2018 interview. “There were times if I hadn’t done that, we would have had the electricity on. But I knew that’s what he wanted, and I knew he was special”.
“I remember the nights we didn’t have anything to eat. Two doors down, I remember our neighbor named Donna, she fed us many of nights.” Tatum said during an episode of “Up Close with Sage Steele” in 2022. “I would walk out and go over there, knock on her door, and she’d give us a chicken pot pie. We heat it up, and my mom would let me eat the middle of it, and she’d eat the crust on the outside.”
It’s no secret that Tatum turned his dreams into a reality, and became one of the NBA’s most elite players. However, it’s what he’s been doing off the court that really separates him from the rest.
Tatum and his foundation, the Jayson Tatum Foundation, are partnering with SoFi Bank to help low income, single-parent families to not struggle the way he did. SoFi is committing over $1,000,000 to the cause in order to help these families begin the process to achieve generational wealth in the form of homes and savings.
The Significance of a Star’s Humanity
Moving around a lot was one of the hardest things I had to deal with as a youngster, and I wonder how much different my life would have been if my mom and I had something similar in place. But for me, the past is behind me, and even if it may appear uncertain now, I have a future to look forward to. Kids like him and me will also have a better future to look forward to because of Tatum and his enthusiasm for improving the world.
As humans, we often find ourselves drawn to those we find relatable. Coming from a single-parent household, having a close relationship with my mom, and loving the sport of basketball the way I do, I have that relatability with Tatum. No, I don’t know him personally, but his story resonates with me. The same way I think it resonates with a lot of you.
That’s why we cheer for him. It’s why we win when he wins. It’s why we struggle when he struggles. Tatum is part of Boston. And, if he’s part of Boston, he’s part of me. He’s part of all of us.
As a native Bostonian, I can tell you, myself, my friends, my family, and my city couldn’t be prouder of Tatum. He has adpoted Boston as his second home. He’s spoken of his connection to the city. He envisions a future where his jersey is hanging from the rafters of TD Garden.
With this SoFi deal, he’s proving to the world that he’s more than the Celtics superstar, he’s an All-Life caliber human being. He embodies what it means to be a professional athlete. He gives back, he cares, and he just so happens to be a Celtic.
