Will Harper and Dr. Dick Barnett on Living Your Best Life with Genma Holmes

 Update: Audio can be found here of Will Harper and here of Dr. Barnett.

During the last several weeks more people have been discussing the NBA and  the actions of Donald Sterling than the NBA Playoffs. Living Your Best Life joins the dialogue by having honest conversations without punditry back and forth that will address issues that have not only plagued the NBA but our country for decades.

Will Harper

Dr. Dick Barnett

On Saturday, May 17, 2014 Emmy Award winner, CEO, producer, and director of The Global Touch Group , Will Harper and NBA legend, author, lecturer, and educator, Dr. Dick Barnett, will share their thoughts on sports and entertainment and how they are defining our culture today.

Nelson Mandela and Will Harper

Oprah Winfrey and Will Harper

Xernona Clayton and Will Harper

Will Harper will share lessons learned from working with Nelson Mandela, Oprah, Xernona Clayton, Issac Hayes, Lenny Krazit, Magic Johnson Enterprises, and ESPN to name a few and how he grew as a person from each encounter. Harper will share how the timing of Donald Sterling's debacle coincides with a future documentary that Harper is planning to produce. The documentary will explore the history of the NBA through the eyes of the original Harlem Globetrotters and NBA players like New York Knicks' Dr. Dick Barnett.

Walt Frazier, Phil Jackson, and Dr. Dick Barnett

  TSU, NAIA Basketball National Champions1957-59

New York Knicks 1970 NBA Champions

Dr. Dick Barnett, nicked named "Fall Back Baby" because of his famous jump shots, will weigh in on the Donald Sterling mayhem as well. He will share his thoughts about the ongoing systemic issues in the NBA from a player's perspective and share why he believes professional athletes must take ownership of not using their collective financial power to bring about more drastic changes in the NBA and in the communities many come from prior to becoming successful athletes.

Global Citizens, Will Harper and Dr. Dick Barnett, will empower, inspire, and motivate you to live your BEST life. Living Your Best Life,  can be heard on 760 AM in the Middle-Tennessee Region, military bases, and streamed live on U-Stream.TV from 9-10AM CST. This show will also air on WTST, a member of the HBCU radio network (XM 142).

More about Will Harper

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During the course of his production career Will Harper conceptualized, produced and directed a plethora of projects for Oprah, Clint Eastwood, Lenny Kravitz, Jamie Foxx, Warner Bros, Disney, Paramount, Universal, ABC, CBS, ESPN, Leo Burnett and others. Possessing a unique and diverse repertoire of skills collected from his experience from major studios to independent projects all over the world (Europe, South Africa, South America, Central America, Middle East, Asia, Caribbean & U.S.). Harper is one executive whose extensive production background bestows a powerful contribution upon each and every project.

Harper’s business acumen, market sensibilities, extensive knowledge that includes every aspect of production from inception to completion and his ability to combine effective story-telling with visually-stimulating images, have established him as one of the most comprehensive producers/directors in show business. He received an Emmy Award for creating original children's programming for Westinghouse.
  original children’s programming for Westinghouse.or creating
In 2002, Harper founded The GlobalTouch Group (GTG), an hybrid branding and marketing agency. GTG’s portfolio includes television shows on major networks and branding campaigns that have tremendously increased market share for businesses worldwide.

More About Dr. Dick Barnett

Dr. Barnett in the studios with Genma Holmes

Richard “Dick” Barnett began his basketball career playing for Gary Roosevelt High School in Indiana where he led his team to the state championship. In 1955, Barnett came to Tennessee State A&I (now Tennessee State University) to become arguably the best player in the university’s history. Today, he remains TSU’s all time leading basketball scorer with 3,209 career points from 1955-1959. He, along with the “whiz kids” were under the leadership of Basketball Hall of Fame Coach John B. McLendon. The Tigers won an unprecedented three consecutive NAIA National Basketball Championships in 1957, 1958 and 1959 and became the first historically black college to ever win an integrated national championship. During those championship seasons, Barnett was a three time All-American and was named the NAIA Tournament MVP for two consecutive years. His 1957 All-American honor marked the first time an African American was ever named to the National All-American team.

Barnett was a number one draft choice in the National Basketball Association with the Syracuse Nationals. He played in the American Basketball League with the Cleveland Pipers owned by George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees in 1962 and led them to an ABL Championship. Dick Barnett rejoined the NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers and played with the likes of Elgin Baylor and Jerry West for three seasons. He was later traded to the New York Knicks where he played on the only two championship teams in Knicks’ history (1970 and 1973). His number was retired and hangs in the rafters of Madison Square Garden. Dick Barnett retired as an active player in the 1970s after a long fifteen-year professional career. He continued to pursue his educational studies and received a Doctoral degree in education from Fordham University. Dr. Barnett is now President of ARM, the Athletic Role Model Educational Institute, a non-profit organization with a focus on education for at risk students. He has recently been named the Commissioner of the WBL, a professional basketball league in New York. Dr. Barnett has been inducted into the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame, the Tennessee State University Sports Hall of Fame (1983), Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame (2005) and the College Basketball Hall of Fame (2007). He is the first TSU athlete to ever have his jersey retired (#35).

Photo credits: Will Harper, Genma Holmes, Dr. Dick Barnett, TSU and New York Knicks Archives

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