NBA legend Metta Sandiford-Artest accomplished numerous accolades while playing professional basketball, but he was most proud of his own son, Jeron Artest, who was set to follow in his footsteps. Then something unexpected happened.
Jeron quit basketball and chose a completely different career path.
Artest became an entrepreneur, designed games, and invested in the tech industry. He’s currently the CEO of Test Jar Labs, a Web3 tech and game studio. Artest was involved in the tech space while he was still playing college basketball, but he knew where he truly wanted his career to go.
Many Black kids dream of a career in professional sports. But Metta Sandiford-Artest always supported his son to do things outside of basketball, which helped Jeron harness his outstanding game engineering skills.
We must continue to encourage our Black youth to find interests in other professional endeavors along with sports, so that they’re not creatively limited and can flourish in many industries like Artest. In a society that seeks to exploit us, we can never have too many options.