‘Basketball saved my life’: How Tamar Slay is opening a nearly $45 million sports facility
Basketball is everything for Tamar Slay, and he has big plans to give back to the game in Charlotte.
Slay, who played in the NBA and now coaches Carmel Christian, is opening a sports medicine facility in the Rea Farms area. In addition to its full-size basketball courts and a world-class weight room, this sports science laboratory in south Charlotte will have psychiatrists, therapists and doctors. While expected to be used by NBA players, it’ll also be a home for local kids and youth basketball teams of all ages.
The project costs between $35 million and $45 million, Slay said, and the 80,000-square-foot facility will also house Taylor Capital, anchor tenant Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates and Architech Sports and Physical Therapy. Its opening is anticipated in late 2025.
It’s personal for Slay, who’s lived in the Queen City since briefly suiting up for the Charlotte Bobcats during the 2004-05 season.
“I grew up in Beckley, West Virginia, and I’ve come up from some humble beginnings,” Slay said. “It was either (basketball) or nothing at all. I was homeless when I went to college. We had a lot of family struggles. Basketball saved my life. It’s always been my outlet, my sanctuary. The game gives me joy and peace.
“That’s why I played with so much passion. That’s why I coach with so much passion. Because basketball is more than just winning games for me. This is why I have my wife. This is why I have my kids. I have everything through the game of basketball.”
‘The perfect role model I can ask for’
Tamar Slay played in the NBA Finals after being drafted by the New Jersey Nets.
A standout four-year starter at Marshall University, Slay appeared in eight games for Charlotte before playing overseas. He’s been inducted into his alma mater’s Hall of Fame and owns the record for most 3-pointers in program history.
Slay’s son, Bryce, is a 6-foot-6 senior on the Carmel Christian boys’ basketball team. The Marshall-bound combo guard entered this season as the No. 13-ranked athlete in The Charlotte Observer’s Top 25 boys’ basketball players in North Carolina.
He’s a strong scorer for the Cougars (11-4), who recently won nine games in a row and are coming off an appearance in the state quarterfinals.
“Growing up watching (Tamar) play in Europe, that really just established a love for the game,” Bryce said. “Just the perfect role model I can ask for in basketball: Being able to see him play, and for him to be able to teach me all the little stuff and tricks and moves he’s learned while playing.”
The Slay family has made Charlotte its home
Living in Charlotte been a great fit for the Slay family.
Beckley, West Virginia, is roughly three hours away; the drive to Slay’s wife’s hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, is of similar distance. They’ve been able to see each other’s families and get to each other easily, while building their own lives in their new home city.
Slay hosted his first basketball clinic 10 years ago — when one player showed up.
Social media has been pivotal in the growth of Slay’s basketball program, which is currently located in Waxhaw. It’s 10 miles south of the central location where the new facility is being built, near the Rea Farms and Waverly neighborhoods off Interstate 485.
Hunter Tyson, the Monroe native and NBA champion with the Denver Nuggets, and former Tar Heel and West Charlotte Lion Kennedy Meeks were among those from whom Slay heard after posting the new facility’s groundbreaking ceremony, which exceeded 20,000 views.
“(Charlotte) is home now,” Slay said. “I’ve been here for 20 years. Both of my boys were born here in Charlotte. The basketball piece that started — I retired, my son is playing, I’m in the gym doing summer camps and different things like that — I did realize that this was my passion.
“Basketball is much more to me than just about wins and losses. Every kid who walks into my door, I look at them as being a young ‘Tamar Slay.’ If I don’t give them everything that I’ve got, they may end up homeless or in the streets somewhere.”
