{"id":154008,"date":"2025-11-03T13:52:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T18:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/?p=154008"},"modified":"2025-11-03T13:52:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T18:52:05","slug":"nba-jayson-tatum-gifts-nccu-hbcu-basketball-team-jt4-sneakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/2025\/11\/03\/nba-jayson-tatum-gifts-nccu-hbcu-basketball-team-jt4-sneakers\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Star Surprises HBCU Hoops Squad Ahead of Season Tip-Off"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>North Carolina Central University\u2019s (NCCU) men\u2019s basketball team just got a surprise straight from the NBA elite. Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum dropped a full set of his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nike.com\/t\/jordan-tatum-4-basketball-shoes-9hMB5Csj\">new JT 4 sneakers<\/a> on the HBCU program, turning what might\u2019ve been a normal practice day into a viral moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Eagles gathered in the gym expecting a team meeting. Instead, a video from Tatum appeared on the screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DQmEI-4DnV2\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\"><div style=\"padding:16px;\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DQmEI-4DnV2\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;\" target=\"_blank\"> <div style=\" display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;\"> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; 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font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;\">View this post on Instagram<\/div><\/div><div style=\"padding: 12.5% 0;\"><\/div> <div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;\"><div> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);\"><\/div> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;\"><\/div> <div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);\"><\/div><\/div><div style=\"margin-left: 8px;\"> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;\"><\/div> <div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)\"><\/div><\/div><div style=\"margin-left: auto;\"> <div style=\" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);\"><\/div> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);\"><\/div> <div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);\"><\/div><\/div><\/div> <div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;\"> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;\"><\/div> <div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;\"><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div><\/blockquote><script async src=\"\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBest of luck to the season starting up,\u201d Tatum said with a grin. \u201cI got a special gift from myself to y\u2019all\u2014new JT 4s for everybody on the team. Just wanted to show some love to the squad. I\u2019ma check y\u2019all out this year, best of luck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When his message ended, the shoes were wheeled in on a cart. Players shouted, clapped, and jumped as they ripped open boxes, revealing their fresh kicks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For a program built on pride and tradition, this moment meant more than shoes. It was about recognition\u2014from one of basketball\u2019s biggest names\u2014to an HBCU program just miles from where his own college journey began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-durham-ties-run-deep\"><strong>Durham Ties Run Deep<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Before winning an NBA Championship with the Boston Celtics, Jayson Tatum made his name at Duke University, only a short drive from NCCU\u2019s campus. His connection to the city of Durham, though, runs even deeper\u2014thanks to NCCU head coach LeVelle Moton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their bond started in 2015, when Moton <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usab.com\/staff-members\/levelle-moton\">served as an assistant coach for USA Basketball\u2019s U16 National Team<\/a>. Tatum stood out from the jump. Moton challenged him daily, and when the young star responded, Moton said, \u201cThey want to be coached.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That was the beginning of a relationship built on mutual respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since then, the two have stayed close. Tatum still checks in with Moton after major playoff games, and Moton proudly calls him \u201cnephew.\u201d Their connection shows the lasting power of mentorship in the basketball community\u2014especially within the HBCU circle that Moton represents so strongly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-full-circle-moment-for-coach-moton-and-his-eagles\"><strong>Full Circle Moment for Coach Moton and His Eagles<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Moton has built his reputation on developing men, not just athletes. His message has always been about building relationships that last beyond basketball. Seeing one of his former players give back to his current program proved that point again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tatum\u2019s gift arrived just in time for NCCU\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/2025\/06\/22\/acc-hoops-squad-will-reportedly-host-local-hbcu-in-opener\/\">season opener against NC State<\/a>, a game that will test the Eagles early. But now they\u2019ll take the floor with an extra spark\u2014and a reminder that their hard work gets noticed by the best in the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"146653\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/2025\/06\/22\/acc-hoops-squad-will-reportedly-host-local-hbcu-in-opener\/moton-ncstate-feat-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/moton-ncstate-feat-2.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1600,960\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1586885505&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"moton-ncstate-feat-2\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/moton-ncstate-feat-2.jpg?w=300\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/moton-ncstate-feat-2.jpg?w=1024\" height=\"614\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/moton-ncstate-feat-2.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"NBA HBCU Boston Celtics Jayson Tatum\" class=\"wp-image-146653\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/moton-ncstate-feat-2.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/moton-ncstate-feat-2.jpg?resize=300,180 300w, https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/moton-ncstate-feat-2.jpg?resize=768,461 768w, https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/moton-ncstate-feat-2.jpg?resize=1024,614 1024w, https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/moton-ncstate-feat-2.jpg?resize=1536,922 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-bigger-than-basketball\"><strong>Bigger Than Basketball<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether they wear the JT 4s tonight or save them for later, the moment itself lights a huge spark for NCCU. Although it&#8217;s only a pair of shoes, it captures what makes the HBCU experience powerful: community, legacy, and love beyond wins and losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From Duke to Durham to the NBA Finals\u2014and now back to NCCU\u2014Jayson Tatum\u2019s journey continues to inspire. For Coach Moton and his Eagles, the message is clear: greatness recognizes greatness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum  celebrated his bond with NCCU coach LeVelle Moton by gifting the HBCU squad new JT 4s before their season tip-off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":154015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ml_titleColor":"#000000","_ml_titleFont":"Roboto","_ml_titleFontSize":1.136,"_ml_titleFontWeight":"400","_ml_titleLineHeight":1.3,"_ml_metaColor":"#708090","_ml_metaFont":"Montserrat","_ml_metaFontSize":0.6785,"_ml_metaFontWeight":"400","_ml_metaLineHeight":0.92,"_ml_bodyColor":"#a9a9a9","_ml_bodyFont":"Open Sans","_ml_bodyFontSize":0.85,"_ml_bodyFontWeight":"400","_ml_bodyLineHeight":1.2,"_ml_wooPriceColor":"#666","_ml_wooPriceFont":"Open Sans","_ml_wooPriceFontSize":0.9,"_ml_wooPriceFontWeight":"400","_ml_wooPriceLineHeight":1.27,"_ml_headingColor":"#000","_ml_headingFont":"Merriweather","_ml_headingFontSize":2.02,"_ml_headingFontWeight":"700","_ml_headingLineHeight":1.47,"_mlglobal_userfontcolors":{"headingColorUser":[],"titleColorUser":[],"metaColorUser":[],"bodyColorUser":[],"wooPriceColorUser":[]},"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[573627536,573627545,573627592,573628746],"tags":[76531,573627544,244895,573635918,1373,37141],"class_list":["post-154008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-culture","category-north-carolina-central-university","category-latest-hbcu-news","tag-boston-celtics","tag-featured","tag-hbcu","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-nba","tag-nccu"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.4 (Yoast SEO v24.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NBA Star Surprises HBCU Hoops Squad Ahead of Season Tip-Off - HBCU Gameday<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum showed love to NCCU, as the NBA star gifted the HBCU squad new JT 4s before their season tip-off.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/2025\/11\/03\/nba-jayson-tatum-gifts-nccu-hbcu-basketball-team-jt4-sneakers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NBA Star Surprises HBCU Hoops Squad Ahead of Season Tip-Off\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum showed love to NCCU, as the NBA star gifted the HBCU squad new JT 4s before their season tip-off.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/2025\/11\/03\/nba-jayson-tatum-gifts-nccu-hbcu-basketball-team-jt4-sneakers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"HBCU Gameday\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hbcugameday\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-03T18:52:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-03T18:52:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/tatum-nccu-shoes-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joshua Williams\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" 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Gaither","date":"December 31, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Sam Jones, a North Carolina Central alumnus and 10-time NBA Champion with the Boston Celtics, has passed away according to his son.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;CIAA&quot;","block_context":{"text":"CIAA","link":"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/category\/ciaa\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sam Jones","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/SamJones.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/SamJones.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/SamJones.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/SamJones.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/SamJones.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfOCUc-E40","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154008"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154016,"href":"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154008\/revisions\/154016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbcugameday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}