Young Athletes Mismanaging Money? Angel Reese joins forces with Billionaire Magic Johnson to Rectify Financial Mistakes

Angel Reese hasn’t even begun her second season in the WNBA yet, but the Chicago Sky star is already finding ways to give back to her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. The All-Star center is using her platform to team up with Magic Johnson’s foundation to help teach financial literacy to high school seniors.

Teaching basic financial tools is often not a priority in most schools across the United States, leaving recent high school graduates without a clue on how to build – or even manage – their assets. Especially for those who decide against college as a post-graduate path and immediately join the workforce, it’s imperative to have financial literacy.

As a self-made billionaire who built his immense fortune long after his playing days were over, Magic Johnson is certainly a good name to spread financial wisdom. Meanwhile, Angel Reese has managed to become a multi-millionaire in her own right despite making only a small percentage of that fortune from her basketball career.

The partnership, alongside community response team, Pull Up Neighbor, launched the Wealth Playbook—a 4-session financial literacy program built to help high school seniors understand the basics of financial literacy and how to build and maintain wealth for the long term.

The first session proved to be a success as students energetically learned about budgeting, credit, and how to take control of their financial futures. In the eyes of Magic, Reese, and their foundations, it’s never too early for someone to become financially literate. Sometimes, that knowledge can be the difference between having stable finances and living paycheck to paycheck.

Both Magic’s and Reese’s foundations prioritize helping out underprivileged youth and communities. According to its website, the Magic Johnson Foundation’s mission includes providing economic empowerment in ethnically diverse urban communities, while the Angel Reese C. Foundation shares a similar mission, with a specific focus on girls.

“The Angel Reese Foundation is dedicated to fostering equity for girls and underrepresented groups through innovative and impactful initiatives. Our main objective is to ensure equal opportunities for all girls in sports, education, financial literacy, and other areas where girls have been historically overlooked,” a statement on the Angel C. Reese Foundation’s website reads.

“We aim to develop practical solutions to overcome these challenges and provide comprehensive resources that empower a new generation of girls to excel in sports and successfully transition to the real world.” With this recent effort, both foundations have been able to do what they were built to accomplish.

While the first rendition of the Wealth Playbook only features a four-session class to this year’s Baltimore high school seniors, this project wasn’t created to be a one-year endeavor. In the words of Pull Up Neighbor’s recent Instagram post, ‘This isn’t just a program—it’s the start of a movement.”