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If there were any doubts about Master P’s connectivity to New Orleans, they were dismissed the moment I heard his pronunciation of the word “joint.”
This is not to say there were doubts about his NOLA bone fides. Master P, born Percy Miller, has been representing the Crescent City since he first burst onto the national music scene in the mid-90s as the CEO of No Limit Records. The music label, unique in everything from its sound to its marketing to its distribution to its album artwork, became the vehicle by which millions of people were first introduced to Black Louisiana. P, ever the savvy businessman, was able to parlay his music industry success into even greater influence and an ever-growing empire, extending into real estate, TV, film, sports management, publishing, and even snack foods. In 1998 alone, according to Black Enterprise magazine, No Limit Enterprises grossed $110 million.
But even nine figures worth of revenue couldn’t keep Master P away from one of his life’s biggest passions: basketball.
In February 2025, Master P was named President of Basketball Operations for the University of New Orleans, bringing full circle a basketball journey that had seen him go from the streets of New Orleans to a mentor for future basketball superstars to even a brief stint in the NBA himself. “As a kid growing up in New Orleans, I can honestly say that basketball changed and saved my life,” he said in a press conference announcing his new position.
But how can passion and savviness help a music executive and businessman fare in a uniquely high-pressure Division I basketball-focused role? How will Master P’s leadership transform a UNO basketball program which finished 4-25 this season and had multiple players suspended amid an NCAA investigation reportedly tied to sports betting? Broadly—how is all of this going to work?
BET spoke with the legendary 54-year-old “Make ‘Em Say Ughh!” rap mogul to find out.
[This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
On How This Opportunity Came About
Well, I’ve been doing a lot of stuff in the community, and people know my basketball history, and the university has been going through changes. Coach Tim Floyd was probably one of the best coaches there—they had one of the most winning programs when I was growing up. A conversation came, he knew that I loved basketball, I love coaching kids, and he just brought it to me like, “I think I got a great opportunity. Would you be interested?” And then he ended up connecting me to the head coach and to the [athletic director], and I guess God led me on this journey.
It’s a blessing and it’s an honor to be able to be the President of Basketball Operations at our university. I went from Master P to Coach P! I’m on this journey, man. It’s a blessing.
On Working with Deion Sanders
I didn’t know I was gonna go in this direction, but [I talked] to Deion Sanders on the phone, and he told me his journey and how to go about this and how to take this and create future leaders and just do what God put me on this earth to do.
[Deion] opened the doors for me, and we can’t be afraid to celebrate the people that open the doors. What he did in football was incredible, and he started out at Jackson State, which is an HBCU. I mean, I would love to have done that, right? That’s my dog, man. I’m proud of him, and I’m happy to be able to celebrate him, and I think that’s what we need to be able to do—celebrate each other. That’s how we win, because when they see [our community] together, they know we are unstoppable, man. We unstoppable.
On Prioritizing Education and Student Success
This is bigger than basketball. This is about student athletes, so the education piece is first. We focus on that. That’s the lead in for us. This is our culture, this is our city, this is our community and our team. Think about it: imagine kids getting an education to be able to turn into multimillionaires [from] this university. I mean, there’s so many endless opportunities. You’re talking about bringing more students to the university. Man, like, growing up, I always wanted to go to University of New Orleans. Basketball saved my life and changed my life growing up as a kid.
What about the kids that don’t wanna leave? We want kids to know that you could come here, graduate, go to different countries, go to different cities with this degree, and go and be great. The basketball program is what feeds the school—so if the basketball program is successful, that means the school is successful. We don’t have a football team.
We’re a Division I basketball school. This is the city’s school. This school is run by the state of Louisiana. And so that’s what’s so great about this opportunity. And education—who could say no to education? [Laughs.]
The more successful the players are, the more successful the school will be, the more successful the city can be.
I went from Master P to Coach P!
On Being an Unconventional Leader
I’m an untraditional coach. I’m an untraditional businessman, right? Because I don’t think what I’ve done 20 years ago matters with what’s going on now.
Thinking outside the box, creating these NIL deals…I just got off the phone speaking to Steph Curry‘s team [about being able] to take this team to another level because we are sponsored by Under Armor. And so imagine me and Steph Curry together.
I played with his dad when Steph used to come in the gym just bouncing the ball, little bitty kid—but me and his dad played with the Charlotte Hornets together. And to now to be able to do a deal with him and give back to these communities in New Orleans and make this the Curry brand and Under Armor brand, like, man, this is a blessing. How we are coming together as Black men—successful Black men—and to do something [like that], that’s incredible. But I’m always seeking knowledge and information.
On Unique Opportunities for Black Coaches
So my son (Mercy Miller) plays for the number three team in the country in college basketball. He’s a freshman. He go to the University of Houston and they have one of the greatest coaches in the world, Coach Sampson. To be able to get information from people like that [is an advantage]. I seen John Lucas’ son (Jai Lucas) just got the job at Miami. So it’s a lot of Black coaches and leaders getting opportunities that we normally wouldn’t be getting. And that’s because we can relate to this culture. We can relate to these kids. Think about it.
On Building for the Future
NBA teams are gonna make this a hub knowing that we are creating real NBA-caliber players. I’m going after the next generation right now. [We] just offered the class of 2026 no. 1 basketball high school player in the country a scholarship to UNO, and I’m looking at the number one eighth grader in our city, New Orleans. I’m thinking about the future. We can’t just think about right now.
And then we gotta get into this portal and get some of the top players in the country. … I’m also going after the best of the best. And I have some of the best alumni. I have billionaires in this city, in New Orleans, that wanna see us win. And so this is the way we are creating our Big Blue Collective to be able to compete with all the major universities, [so] that the University of New Orleans can compete with these NIL deals. Almost like me buying a used car, putting some wheels [on it], the new paint job on it, and taking over.
[Laughs.] But we’re starting humble, because as long as we win more games than we won last year, then we grow from that.
On Under Armour and Innovative NIL Approaches
Like I was telling you with Steph Curry, talking about NIL, we’re going to do collabs with local clothing lines, fashion people in the community, because we have a lot of talent in this culture. So, imagine, now we’re making a uniform that every hood kid wanna wear the same way you wanted to wear a Michael Jordan jersey or doing deals with these jacket companies.
Doing a big deal with Under Armor. And then getting the local business people that are successful, men and women, bringing them [into] this because this is our school. This is our university.
So, the good thing about it, the car lot sponsorships and all that stuff is gonna always be there. But all the local businesses, like the energy companies and those things [are next]. We have Gail Benson, she owns the Saints and the Pelicans. We got so many millionaires and billionaires that we can tap into in the city of New Orleans, because our culture is different, man. Like, we a big city, but we stick together. It’s a group here of people that are successful that really want to see the University of New Orleans win.
On Bringing New Orleans Culture to College Basketball
And I mean, it’s things that when a kid comes here to visit the University of New Orleans and see our culture, it’s different, man. We have the Mardi Gras, we have the Jazz Festival, we have the Essence Festival. We got so many great artists. What I’m gonna do is at every game, I’m bringing out Kevin Gates, or Rob49, or Lil’ Wayne, Juvenile, Silkk the Shocker, Mia X. Like, we’re gonna have fun! We’re gonna put the culture in these stands. We’re gonna bring out those second line bands, man. Nobody has done this before. Like, we’re gonna play hard basketball. We’re gonna bring the cheerleaders, the Dancing Dolls out. We’re gonna invite the community to be a part of this. We want the young people to see, “This is where you could be at.”
So we are gonna have Battle of the Bands at our games. We already got Anthony Mackie here. We’re gonna turn this up for the culture. We’re gonna invite celebrities and stars.
What I’m gonna do is at every game, I’m bringing out Kevin Gates, or Rob49, or Lil’ Wayne, Juvenile…we’re gonna have fun!
On Emerging Opportunities for Black Entrepreneurs
In New Orleans right now, when you talk about culinary school and getting into the restaurant business, we’re creating millionaires overnight. Like, just small, little hamburger joints(!), where a kid could do this from college and grow and open up a restaurant. I know a kid that went from having nothing, sleeping on the street, to opening up a wing shop and making $3 million a year.
Like, we have opportunities that we never had before. And starting with a little money, a little investment to do this. And that’s what I was saying about the NIL deals. Think about it, right? Now we have an opportunity to show these kids when you get these NIL deals, you can take a little of this money and invest it in something and build something while you’re still in school.
On Overcoming Stereotypes and Creating Pathways
A lot of people not gon’ believe. Think about it. To see a Black man in this position that I’m in—we don’t normally see this, especially coming from hip hop where I come from.
So I had to do right a long time to be able to make these people understand who I am, what my character is and what my mission is. So I had to stay out of trouble. They got to do background checks on you. [Laughs.] Like, let’s be honest.
This is why you don’t see a lot of us. When these doors opened up for me, I could run through it ’cause I’m not into all the negative stuff. I’m focused. I’m about building for my family. I’m about giving back. And it’s not pretty, man, because a lot of people normally don’t do stories on this type of stuff ’cause they only waiting for the negative stories and those are the things that outshine [everything else]. But look what we doing now by staying focused, doing the right thing. Look where we at now.
I got all these insurance companies, you know, these car companies that wanna do business with me now that I’m in the educational part of this. They probably wouldn’t ever even want to do business with me when I was on the music side. “He’s gonna get in trouble.” Now they look [and say], “Oh, he has matured. He’s grown.” I got more opportunities. But I never would have got those opportunities unless these corporations had seen my growth.
I want Black youth around the world—y’all don’t have to wait til y’all get to our age. You guys can do this now. You guys don’t have to have second and third chances. All of us are not gonna keep getting those second and third chances.
Think about it, we lost a lot of special Black people. We lost some young talented people. They died young. So all of us are not gonna get to where you get those second chances to start over in life.
On Practical Business Advice for Black Students
I think teaching structure, how to structure your business, how to create these trust accounts, how to understand the importance of insurance. Like, other cultures are investing into insurance, and also other cultures are investing into their kids’ future by creating credit for their kids while they’re young, while they’re babies.
Like, we don’t think about that. Like, we’re not building credit because a lot of us think that we just need cash. No, you have nothing without credit. And so if you could build your kids’ credit now while they’re young, imagine once they get to college, and then they ready to go open their own business. Then you take this personal credit to be able to use it to get business credit. And then you’re using their money to fund whatever ideas you have.
And that’s what I’m gonna teach these kids on campus in my master classes on campus with these kids. And those are going to be the things to make enrollment go up, because kids want to come.
On Building Family Legacies
Think about it—we’re not focused on entrepreneurship. We’re not focused on building family brands. When you look at Kelloggs, you look at Gucci, you look at Versace, you think these are clever names they came up with? These are all last names. These are family names. So where, us, as African Americans, when are we gonna open our eyes and say, “It’s time for us to create some family names.” And that’s why I created Miller Family Foods. And so these are the things that we could pass down from generation to generation. And so I’m able to get with these kids now. Think about it, Elon Musk created PayPal in college. I’m gonna push these kids, these athletes, to say, “What are we gonna create while we’re in college?”
We have to believe and trust each other in business. And the ones that’s not on the same page with us, they shouldn’t get these opportunities to be around us.
On Creating Pathways for the Next Generation
That’s what this is about for me as being Coach P, preserving the next generation. And you don’t have to be perfect, ’cause none of us are perfect. We look at Deion, his confidence, I’m confident, we both believe in God, but we also want the next generation to win. So we need more people like us. So I feel like we definitely gonna have to go on a circuit. And I would love to do that with BET, to sit down and go to some of these schools and touch the kids in our community at schools all over this country, to be able to show people that this is what success look like. This is what it look like, you know. We don’t have to be beefing and doing all the stuff—we can grow up and mature and get better.
And I feel like we’re gonna create a better culture at the same time. And [not] be afraid to give back and create change, because that’s what this is.
On Faith, Hard Work, and Perseverance
You know, I thought I was gonna probably be coaching an NBA team. See, no, God put me on my journey to be an educator at the same time. So now I feel like I can go and educate these kids and show them what success is, what hard work is. You can’t just pray and walk around and hope it’s gonna fall out of the sky. You still have to put the work in. So I’m gonna push these kids on this team and in this university to be great. I want them to know all the times I done failed. Everything ain’t just go my way. Like, I had to keep getting up. I had to crawl through that window. I had to go through the chimney.
You have a businessman, you have a coach, you have a leader that wanna see change and growth, and pass that down to the next generation. That’s what it’s about with me.
Source: https://www.bet.com/article/o2qov1/master-p-uno-basketball-steph-curry-partnership-deion-sanders-blueprint
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