Entrepreneur’s goal is advance and train hoop dreams

TAMAR SLAY

Tamar Slay, a former NBA player, is developing a basketball training campus in southeast Charlotte.

Tamar Slay wants to help kids achieve their basketball dreams.

Slay, head coach at Carmel Christian School in Charlotte, played in the NBA with the New Jersey Nets (2002-04) and Charlotte Bobcats (2004-05). Over the last two years he worked on developing a premier basketball training facility.

“I felt it was a need for me to be able to share some of the knowledge I've learned,” Slay, 44, said. “I played in Europe for nine years, so I had such a wealth of knowledge. And I'm watching different programs, different coaches, work with these kids. They were doing a good job, but I felt, why wouldn't I? Why would I sit back and not share some of the stuff I learned to help these kids reach their potential? And it started with that.”

Out of this vision came Slay Basketball, which offers camps and clinics, personal training, travel ball and classes for diverse skill levels. Membership levels start at $125 a month, but Slay said the company will sponsor two kids every travel ball season at no cost.

“I had humble beginnings,” Slay said. “When I went to college my freshman year, we got evicted, so I was homeless there for a period of time, so I definitely would never lose touch with being able to give back. We also have a nonprofit organization, and this is something that I do quietly every year. We have 15 teams. We usually sponsor two kids each year to be able to participate in our programs for no cost at all, so we completely fund that. That will grow so that that’d be even on a larger scale, eventually.”

The 80,000-square foot facility will have two full-sized courts, world-class weight training facility and a sports science lab staffed by psychiatrists, therapists and doctors. Taylor Capital, anchor tenant Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates and Architech Sports and Physical Therapy will share the building in the Rea Farms community in south Charlotte. The Charlotte Observer reported the facility, which broke ground in December 2024, will cost between $35-$45 million and is expected to be completed by November.

“The Rea Farms opportunity came to me through training a kid playing on my travel teams,” Slay said. “One of the fathers, Bob Taylor of Taylor Capital, who’s responsible for putting this entire project together, asked me if I wanted to do something on a larger scale. We’ve been working on this for two years now, and we are super excited about it.”

Slay said the complex could be the best of its kind in the state.

“This is going to be a world class facility where we’re not just going to have basketball,” Slay said. “We're going to have a sports science lab. We're going to have the best training equipment, the best trainers that you can find. This is like basketball heaven for me. When I walk into this place every day, it's not going to be a job at all, because it has everything you need.”

Slay’s vision is lofty but confident it will come to fruition.

“Within five years, we want to be known not just in North Carolina, but throughout the country as one of the best sports medicine training facilities in the world,” he said.

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