Business Ventures and Philanthropy
Laettner founded the community development company Blue Devil Ventures (BDV) with former Duke teammate Brian Davis and Duke alumnus Tom Niemann. In 1995, BDV began developing a community in downtown Durham, North Carolina named "West Village." BDV's website describes West Village as a "mixed-use, upscale community consisting of the adaptive-reuse of historic tobacco warehouses built between 1899 and 1926 and located in the Brightleaf District."
In 2001, Laettner donated $1 million to his high school, Nichols School in Buffalo, New York to create a scholarship fund for students in financial need and to aid in the completion of a new gymnasium. In 2005, Laettner and Davis donated $2 million to Duke's men's basketball program to endow an athletic scholarship and support the construction of a planned athletics center and basketball practice facility. Their donation to the Duke Legacy Fund—which seeks to make the Duke basketball program financially self-sufficient—represents the largest donation by former Duke basketball players to the program since Grant Hill endowed a $1 million scholarship in 2000.
In October 2006, an investment group including Laettner and former teammate Brian Davis had agreed to purchase the 70% share of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies from majority owner Michael Heisley. Laettner considered coming out of retirement to play with the team, but the purchase fell through when Davis and Laettner could not come up with the $252 million needed to purchase Heisley's controlling share. Laettner and Davis (as minority owners) were successful in their bid to purchase operating rights for Major League Soccer's D.C. United. Laettner had previously joined Jason Kidd and other investors in the purchase of a AAA baseball team in Phoenix.
In July 2011, Laettner formed a training camp called the Christian Laettner Basketball Academy.
Read more about this topic: Christian Laettner
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