We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kevin Williams a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kevin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
The HBCU Movement is the first professional basketball team in history that features all players from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The mission is to give these athletes a platform to showcase their skills to NBA, NBA G League, and International professional basketball teams. The HBCU Movement is a collection of high level professional basketball players looking to represent HBCU’s across the United States of America and abroad.
Kevin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I started East Houston United Professional Basketball Team with my partners Cedric Washington, AJ Bocard, Jason King, Chris Butler, and Chris Jones in 2018. We are all from East Houston and attended Northshore Highschool. We were able to bring the first professional basketball team to East Houston. Our team was the 2018 Independent League Champions, 2019-2020 NBL-United States Champions, 2020-2021 NBL-United States Champions, and the 2023 National Basketball League-United States Champions.
Over the last 11 years, I have helped multiple basketball players with International Basketball opportunities. I was selected in 2019 to be the Head Coach at the Highschool All-American Game which our team won.
Currently, I am the President of International Basketball Operations/ Head basketball Coach of the East Houston United. I am the founder of the National Basketball League-United States an exposure basketball league for basketball players looking to play Internationally, NBA- League, or NBA. Our age group is for aspiring athletes 16-30 years of age.
My passion is about helping my community and giving athletes the opportunity to be a professional. I always wanted to give back and in 2022, God placed a vision in me to start the HBCU Movement. The first professional basketball team featuring HBCU athletes. This is my biggest business opportunity to date and I am excited to get started!
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
What I learned in this business is relationships matter. Relationships in the community, relationships with your partners, and relationships with the athletes. I have been able to meet great people in my community. I will like to personally thank Charlotte Jackson. If it was not for her there would be no East Houston United. Her commitment to me and my partners, was instrumental in bringing the first professional basketball team to our area. Brandon Taylor, Taylor Brimmer, Dontae Johnson, Josh Anderson, Jerrod Tillmon, Shawn Toran, Casey Jones, Decorey Young, Christian Sonier, Chris Rios, Corey Alpough, Jesse De la Torres, Maurice Redmond, CJ Calhoun, and Xavier Howard. That original group believed in me and our vision for the Eastside United and those guys will forever be my brothers. Tim Gutierrez my assistant coach who was always there for support, and my partners Cedric Washington, Chris Butler, Aj Bocard, Chris Jones and Jason King. I couldn’t do this without these people.
Any advice for managing a team?
My advice for people just starting off in professional sports or business in general is that it takes hard work and dedication to achieve your goals. You will have times that you will want to give up, you will get frustrated, there will be people that do not support your vision but you have to keep working. No one will work harder at achieving your goals than you will.
I wish I knew when I first started that it was so many people who want you to fail so they can succeed. I always wanted to work with everyone and make everyone happy and I see now that is not possible. The only person I need to make happy in the end is me and I am comfortable with that now.
Also surround yourself with great people that want to help you to achieve your goals. Everyone cannot be the star you have to work with people that is ok with playing a role for the overall team success.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thehbcumovement.com, thenblus.com
- Instagram: hbcumovement, theus_nbl
- Facebook: The HBCU Movement
- Twitter: @TheHBCUMovement