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“There’s a lot of talent here, so I’m excited to bring it out.”
Terance Mann of the Los Angeles Clippers looks to pass during a game against the Dallas Mavericks. AP Photo / Tony Gutierrez
Outside, it’s a seemingly quiet Thursday night in Lowell. Every now and then a car idles by, and the air is humid and sleepy from a recent downpour.
But inside Lowell Memorial Auditorium, the backstage area is anything but lifeless.
The space is bustling with activity, dozens of people rushing to make final preparations before the imminent start of a fashion show. Some rush in clutching piles of clothes, others shoulder expensive camera gear. As music blares from the speakers, a buzz of anticipation fills the air. There are models, makeup artists, photographers, designers, and at the center of it all – a NBA player?
Wearing a sleeveless Skechers hoodie, Terance Mann stands with lights and cameras trained on him. guard for the LA Clippersand Mann’s foundation — the “Terance Mann’s Complete Player Foundation“—organized and brought this entire production to Lowell, the athlete’s hometown.
The foundation has hosted a series of charity events over the past week, from a basketball tournament to a backpack drive and more. But the program kicked off on Aug. 15 with the “No Limits” fashion show, featuring local Lasell University students.
The three main designers in the show were Taylor Lane and Lauren Swift, both Lasell graduates last spring, and Hazel Nichol, a senior. One of them will be chosen to design a piece that Mann will wear in the tunnel during the upcoming NBA season.
“Fashion is a big part of my life,” said Mann, who spoke with Squire in December to discuss his interest in clothing, his basketball career and his views on style in different parts of the country, including Boston. “When everyone sees me now, they look at me and wonder what he’s wearing. So I feel like a walking billboard almost half the time.”
The partnership between the foundation and Lasell began a few months ago when a mutual friend introduced Terance’s executive director and mother, Daynia La-Force, to the program’s administration. In April, La-Force and her team attended the university’s annual fashion show, Runway. They arrived “very serious with their notepads” and sat in the front row, looking for student designers who created versatile pieces that seemed to best fit their theme, said Ken Calhoun, associate vice provost of the Lasell School of Fashion.
It was difficult to choose just three to participate in their fashion show, La-Force said, so they ended up selecting 10 additional students for the installations.
“There’s a lot of talent here, so I’m excited to bring it out and bring it to life,” said Mann, who earlier in the day, Lauren Swift announced as a winner.
“I’m really looking forward to learning more about him and his fashion sense,” Swift said.
Her collection, largely influenced by her trip to Paris, consisted of pieces that could be mixed, matched and worn in a variety of ways, she said. Mann loved her designs and identified with her style.
“It’s an opportunity for students to not only showcase their work and become fashion designers, but also to immerse themselves in a culture that wants to give back,” Calhoun said. “The lesson here is not just that celebrity helps students achieve the level of visibility they want. It’s also that this is a person who is devoting their energy, time, money and attention to helping others.”
The show took months of planning, including finding a venue, hiring models, finding backstage staff and more, said Darran Matthews of ADMP Events in Los Angeles, who helped organize the show. But it was incredible to see their vision finally come to life.
“Yeah, he’s an LA Clipper,” Matthews said. “But this is where he grew up, so this is where his heart is.”
The foundation’s programming continued over the next few days. From August 16-18, they hosted the Billy G Classic, a basketball tournament with a $20,000 cash prize in honor of Billy Gilmore, who was the director of the local Boys & Girls Club and a mentor to Mann. At the tournament, they held a backpack drive and distributed school supplies to local students. They also hosted a basketball camp from August 19-22 at Mill Works in Westford, with an academic fair on Wednesday where families were able to meet and talk with more than 60 prep schools.
Mann recently became a brand ambassador for Skechers, which donated 175 pairs of Skechers basketball shoes, branded T-shirts, custom bibs and uniforms to support the foundation’s weeklong program. Mann is the first NBA player to launch his own basketball shoe line.
THE Terance Mann’s Complete Player Foundation aims to help underserved communities nationwide, particularly minority students, access academic opportunities. Partnering with the educational organization Inspiring Young Minds to help place minority students in the preparatory school system, they offer assistance with applications and essays, the SSAT entrance exam, and tuition funding.
“We just want to give kids the opportunity to get involved in positive activities and prevent them from making bad decisions and ending up on the streets,” La-Force said.
The foundation also emphasizes the importance of sports, hosting athletic camps and clinics across the country, where prep schools also come to meet with families to promote their unique programs.
“Sports can be a really important vehicle to teach kids not only teamwork and resilience, how to fail and get back up, but also how to really hone their talents and focus on the important things in life,” La-Force said.
Earlier this year, the Clippers point guard received the NBA Cares Award for his work mentoring young people. The award wasn’t just for him, Mann said, but also for his mother and everyone behind the scenes who organizes the foundation’s events.
And now, with this platform, they want to give back to the Lowell community.
“It truly took a village to help me raise Martin and Terance,” La-Force said of her sons. As a former Division I basketball coach, her job required her to travel often while her children were growing up. Without the Lowell community, with friends who could pick them up from school and practice or take them to games on the weekends, La-Force said, “my boys wouldn’t be where they are today.”
That’s why giving back to the community is so important to him, said Mann, who has wanted to start the foundation since he was in high school. Over the years, he’s maintained close ties with those who helped him as a kid and pointed to a man behind the camera he’s known since he was 12 or 13.
“We want to make sure we do the same for others,” La-Force said. “It’s very, very important when you get to that level of life to look to those who come after you and support them.”
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