NBA welcomes 2026 HBCU Fellowship class

Over the course of the 10-week internship, HBCU Fellows will work within the league office and NBA and WNBA teams across a variety of departments.

Creating opportunity within the business of basketball — this was the overarching goal the NBA Foundation set forth when establishing the NBA HBCU Fellowship Program in 2022.

Five cohorts later, the program has stayed true to its mission statement by providing 335 Fellows from Historically Black Colleges and Universities career development opportunities via hands-on internships across the NBA ecosystem, resulting in 204 job placements to date. Seventy-four of those 204 fellows have secured NBA employment in the league or with teams, while 130 fellows have gone on to work in the general sports industry.

The fifth annual NBA HBCU Fellowship class features 70 fellows from 23 HBCUs, hoping to be the next group of young professionals to benefit from the program after officially being ushered in following a two-day orientation at the NBA offices.

“The HBCU Fellowship has grown tremendously since our first year,” said Lauren Sills, NBA Foundation Head of Operations & Strategic Programs. “We’re seeing high interest from HBCUs and students wanting to work in the business of basketball and the larger sports industry.”

Hearing their name called

During Day 2 of the orientation festivities in New York City, fellows experienced a rite of passage similar to what players go through when starting their NBA careers — getting drafted.

One by one, and sometimes in pairs and trios, the fellows walked up on a stage to energetic anthems, proudly sporting the caps of the teams they’ll be interning with in the Summer, and smiled for their photo ops.

That was just a sample of what the fellows are set to experience over the course of their 10-week internships across a variety of departments with NBA and WNBA teams and at the league office.

Creating the fellowship was one of the many ways the NBA Foundation — which celebrated its 5th anniversary in 2025 — committed to its mission of providing school-to-career opportunities to youth in underserved communities.

An HBCU alumna herself, Sills thought up the HBCU Fellowship to provide opportunities that were harder for her to obtain as a young professional.

“It was really ensuring that students from HBCUs could have opportunities and access to work in sports,” Sills said. “Personally for me as an HBCU alum, there’s a lot of pride because I know there’s a lot of talent at any of our HBCUs, but there’s not a lot of opportunity, so the fact that the NBA is uniquely positioned to provide those opportunities is very special.”

Opening doors to new opportunities

Since its inception in 2020, the foundation has partnered with over 300 nonprofit organizations to help set up young professionals for success in fields ranging from tech, marketing, media and more.

Two of those partner organizations —

Fearless Dialogues

and

Management Leadership for Tomorrow

— were at the league offices to help administer the orientation, which featured workshops and panels in which Fellows learned from league employees and industry leaders.

“We try to be as innovative as possible with every orientation program,” Sills said. “It’s an opportunity to do community building and share leadership, career development and best practices of what it takes to be a top talent, not only within the NBA, but within the sports industry.”

One of the main goals of the orientation is to give the fellows a glimpse of what’s to come over the summer.

NBA Foundation Partnerships Lead Genisha Metcalf says she encouraged the fellows to soak up knowledge from league employees during the Business of Basketball Luncheon, regardless of their area of expertise. Metcalf stressed the importance of cross-functional relationships and drew from her own experience transitioning to the NBA after cutting her teeth in the tech industry.

“Even if you’re talking to someone who isn’t in the same department as you, stay open-minded,” Metcalf said.

Metcalf’s wisdom especially resonated with Howard alum and incoming Portland Trail Blazers event services & special events intern Deanna Baskin, who said she believed she could benefit from the program despite not having a sports background.

“This is an entirely new experience for me and I’m excited to see what it has to offer and to tap into the corporate side of sports in addition to being a fan,” Baskin said.

Baskin said her passion for sports was reinvigorated by the recent success of her hometown Chicago Bears and felt motivated to apply when she came across the Fellowship online. She said she hoped it would help kickstart her career in event coordination.

“I just felt so inspired to dive back into sports and I had never had a role in sports before, but I wanted to gain good experience from this and learn more about the industry, so I went for it,” Baskin said.

Staying in ‘anticipation mode’

The HBCU Fellowship may not have always been in Baskin’s plans, but for her fellow Howard alum, Harmony Bailey, it was a dream realized after years of manifestation.

“Since I entered college, I’ve always known that I wanted to work in sports media and basketball has always been my favorite sport,” Bailey said.

It was always a matter of when, not if, for Bailey — an incoming corporate communications intern with the Oklahoma City Thunder — who applied to the Fellowship four times before finally making the cut. Bailey remained persistent throughout her application journey and encouraged potential future fellows to do likewise.

“For students who’ve applied in the past and didn’t make it and felt like this wasn’t for them, keep trying. If it’s something you’re really passionate about, you’re not going to take no for an answer,” Bailey said.

A key area of focus during orientation was ensuring the Fellows developed skills unique to the NBA and learning the business of basketball. One of the ways that was applied was through a DTC Innovation Session featuring Head of NBA App Experience Jay Lee, Senior AI Technical Lead Sydney Saracheck and AI Software Engineer Ian Allen, along with Connected Engineering Team Leader Shannon Rhodes, who moderated the panel.

Lee, Saracheck, Allen and Rhodes all played integral roles in developing the Next Gen NBA App, from early-stage ideation to its full launch in 2022 and beyond. They gave the Fellows insight into their day-to-day operations, the strategy behind building new product features and their journeys to their current roles.

Sills urged the fellows to stay in “anticipation mode” and not let opportunities pass by. Baskin and Bailey followed that advice during the Innovation Session, asking the panelists insightful questions about their business practices.

Baskin and Bailey said they plan to take advantage of many more opportunities over the summer and remember to soak it all in along the way.

“Being able to elevate my skills at the professional level and learn from the best basketball organization in the world is a blessing,” Bailey said. “I know this is where I want to end up, and to get my foot in the door at the highest level feels like a dream.”

* * *

The NBA x HBCU program is administered by the

NBA Foundation

, the league’s first-ever charitable foundation. The orientation was organized in conjunction with Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) and Fearless Dialogues, both nonprofit partners in the endeavor. Founded in the Summer of 2020, the NBA Foundation, a joint collaboration between the NBA, NBPA and NBA Governors, has pledged over $300 million over 10 years to create economic empowerment in under-resourced communities.