Basketball player wants youth to reach high levels of success

George Blakeney, Jr., is a professional basketball player and entrepreneur who founded You Can Foundation as a way to increase opportunities for young people to reach their goals. PHOTO PROVIDED BY AILEEN BEDEAU
George Blakeney, Jr., is a professional basketball player and entrepreneur who founded You Can Foundation as a way to increase opportunities for young people to reach their goals. PHOTO PROVIDED BY AILEEN BEDEAU

 Basketball player wants youth to reach high levels of success
By Tia Carol Jones
George Blakeney, Jr. founded the You Can Foundation because of his love for people in general, but children specifically. He loves giving back. He would give the shirt off his back to help other people have a better day or make people smile.

Blakeney wants to help people reach their goals. He founded the organization in 2021 with the goal of sending high school seniors to college. The North Carolina native is aware that not many people where he is from have the funds to go to a four-year college or university. He wants young people to reach their highest levels of success.

Blakeney is a professional basketball player who has played around the world. Now he is playing as part of NBA Africa. It is his eighth year as a professional basketball player. He has been a lot of places and seen a lot of things. Seeing the world has opened his eyes to what he really wants to do and strive to be.

When You Can Foundation began, Blakeney never imagined it would go as far as it has. In the year since it was founded, it has been able to accomplish a great deal. Some of those things include hosting shoe and food drives, a basketball skills camp, back to school giveaways, as well as going in and speaking to students in schools. You Can Foundation has also participated in panels about mental health.

Blakeney believes it just goes up from here. His upbringing in North Carolina helped shape him into the man he is. His mother instilled in him the importance of giving, helping and taking care of the people around him. He learned to be grateful for the things he had and the opportunities he was given. It is the approach he takes when it comes to the You Can Foundation.

Blakeney believes it is imperative to identify what is needed in the community. In order to do that, he and his team communicate with the community to find out what they want and need. From there, they create strategies.

Blakeney and his co-founder Brandon Richardson are best friends. They have been best friends since high school. That connection has always been organic. They can identify what is needed to help communities.

Whenever Blakeney walks into a room, he tries to be himself and makes himself relatable. It has enabled him and You Can Foundation to create new lanes.

“The new lane that we’re trying to build, or the new lanes we’re building right now, there’s a lot of underground work that people don’t see … When you put your head down and do the work and create the right connections and make everything so organic, then it makes everything fall into place,” he said.

Some of those new lanes and partnership Blakeney has built were because of his spirit and the energy those people felt from him. He also believes having the right morals, right ethics and right codes helped him.  Those things didn’t come from basketball, the opportunities came from You Can Foundation. Those things have a greater influence for him. His goal is to reach millions of people.

Outside of the You Can Foundation Blakeney also owns the Legacy Cleaning Service and is starting a fashion line. His ultimate business is basketball. Blakeney knows he couldn’t do any of what he has accomplished without God.

“With the world we are living in today, we need all the positivity, energy and work and help that we can get,” he said.

For more information about the You Can Foundation, visit www.youcanofficial.org.

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