2025 Main Stage Speaker

John Thomas Salley  is an American former professional basketball player. He was the first player in NBA history to win championships with three franchises (since joined by Robert Horry, Danny Green, and LeBron James), as well as the first player in the NBA to win a championship in three different decades (since joined by Tim Duncan).

After being drafted in the first round out of Georgia Tech in the 1986 NBA draft, the 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)-tall Salley played both power forward and center for the Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Panathinaikos, and Los Angeles Lakers. He was a long-time host of the former Fox Sports Net show The Best Damn Sports Show Period. He is a vegan activist, chef, and wellness entrepreneur.

Salley is a vegan activist and has appeared on PETA's testimonial videos, as well as in promoting alternatives to practices of massive factory farming.

Salley is also noted for speaking at Michigan's Vegfest since 2009 and appearing on VegMichigan's billboard campaign. He also appeared before the U.S. Congress to advocate for vegetarian options to be served in public schools in Nov ’09 and May ’10 as part of the Child Nutrition Act discussions.

On May 4, 2010, it was announced that Salley had joined the Simply Raw team. The group of individuals who produced the documentary Raw for 30 had approached Salley with their video about reversing diabetes, and "it instantly got his attention" since his father had the disease.

Salley teamed up with Farm Sanctuary in 2010 to host their New York City Walk for Farm Animals on Sunday, October 24, 2010.

In June 2012 Salley became the official spokesperson for a natural supplements line called VirMax that is developed by Natural Product Solutions, LLC.

In December 2015, Salley encouraged US First Lady Michelle Obama to go vegan "for the planet" – setting a lifestyle example of reducing environmental impacts from greenhouse gas release.

"Vegan eating is not just a slam dunk for human health; it's also the most effective way to combat climate change." ~ John Salley

Salley is an entrepreneur in the cannabis industry, launching his own cannabis brand Deuces22 and taking an ownership stake in the cannabis testing company GreenSpace Labs. Salley is also an advisory board member with cannabis social networking platform BudTrader.

Salley is an ambassador for Operation Smile.