Mind the Game - The Luka Doncic Interview (Part 2)

Episode Date: June 8, 2025

Welcome back to another episode of MInd the Game with LeBron James and Steve Nash. Today is Part 2 of our Luka Doncic interview where we get deep in the weeds about youth basketball. In our previous conversation we talked about Steve, LeBron and Luka's upbringing around the game and today we'll discuss what's working and what's not in youth basketball in America and around the world. From the commercialization of youth basketball programs to finding joy in the game, no topic is left uncovered. And be sure to check out the Luka Doncic Foundation to read the study Luka commissioned on youth basketball in Europe and the United State. This is such a rich conversation about the sport we love and passing the baton to the next generation. Thanks for listening and subscribe wherever you get your pods!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What was that the wind? Or it's raining? The AC unit, I think. Yeah, AC. Because it was snowing a little bit today, right? It's crazy. It was 89 last week. I lived in dollars.

It's the same. Yeah, you get it. What they say in Texas, if you don't like the weather, come back tomorrow. Sure. It would be different. They say it would be totally different tomorrow. Welcome back to Mind the Game, brought to you by Uninterrupted and Wondry. This is another conversation with Luca Donchich centered around the study he commissioned

through his foundation called Inside Youth Basketball. Stick around to the end of the episode where I'll talk a little bit more about why I'm on Luca's Athletes Council, why it's important to me, and how we can all help improve the landscape of youth basketball. Learn as much as you can just as I have and enjoy this episode of Mind the Game. You know, one of the things nowadays is that it's an arms race. My kids got to get ahead. You know, it's like we saw Tiger Woods with a perfect swing on Johnny Carson at two years old.

And we think that every kid's got to be great, you know, early. You know, I started playing at 13. I didn't get into the league. I was 22. wasn't really great or a good player until like late 20s. Bullshit, but okay, it's okay. But it's, you know, like, I feel like the pressure on the parents

is that your kid's gotta be an early adopter, they gotta be better early, when really like we all develop at our own rate, right? Yeah, you can still be great. That's social media too, because you're seeing everything right now, you're seeing everything over there. Like, when we were growing up,

our parents didn't know if this kid was had a trainer, or if this kid was doing, you didn't really see that shit. Yes. You know, our parents only knew that, okay, this is, you want to play soccer? Okay, cool. You want to play football? Okay, cool.

You want to do something else now? You don't want to do it? Okay, relax. It was not like, we have to, we see this kid. He's being trained five, you know, five days a week. Oh, shit, well, my kid's not being trained five days a week. He's not going to make it. Right.

It wasn't, we didn't, we didn't see that. And now it's not the kid's journey. Right. It's the parent's journey. Whereas you are, when you're growing up, you're thinking, Randy keeps pushing me left. I hate that. I'm going to learn to go left, right? And now it's just you and him know that we're in this little battle every day all summer.

Instead of it's on social media, parents are talking about a coach, you know what I mean? It's like this high performance thing. I'd love to know from you what the transition was. So you played a lot of informal basketball growing up, other sports, you're on the playground, outside school. What was it like when you went to Madrid? 13 years old? 13. Real Madrid.

Yeah. I mean, it was a difficult decision, honestly. First, I didn't know the language yet. I know a little bit, just like, hello, how are you? But then nobody spoke my language. I was learning a little bit English, I knew a little bit. But it was hard. So that's basically that when almost everything moved to basketball.

I was playing a little bit soccer because I used to go with the players that were their soccer players. We went to the same school. So we used to play a little bit. They were soccer players, but I couldn't do nothing. But it was a lot. You know, I think first two, three months, I almost didn't spoke to anybody.

Yeah. You know, but that's how I learned spending so quickly. And after that, it was an amazing journey, man. It was something that changed my life for better. How long was you there for? How long was you in Madrid for? Seven years. That's amazing.

Yeah, that's incredible. Six years. Six years. That's incredible. Yeah. Six years. Yeah. And how, what was a structure like at Madrid?

there is 13 years old, you're in a dorm, you're with a family. Yeah, no, it was in the dorm. For my first three years, they were building a new dorm. We were in the dorm of the school. So it was three people per room, it was very small. Don't speak Spanish. Don't speak Spanish. I had a Brazilian guy, I think, can remember.

I can't remember who I was, because we always changed. But first, it was cool. So first few years. But then we went to a nice. It was then Ramajit built his own dorm. It was super nice. It was like living in the hotel. Nice.

That was different. And how was the day? Like did you go to practice then school or school then practice? What was the day like? Yeah, we started at 7.30, something like that to 8.30 we had practice. And then from 9.15 to 5.30 was cool. 9.15 to 5.30. Yeah.

No wonder you're so smart. Thank you. And then from six to nine was practice. Six to nine. On Wednesday, we didn't have practice, but every other day. And then Saturday, Sunday games. Well, that's a good point because, you know, I feel like here, and you can attest this, LeBron, is like, we play a lot of games.

Yeah, it's different than you. Yeah, explain the difference. Like, I think the AAU stuff has gotten where it's showcase, showcase, showcase game game or as it feels like i mean i don't think real madrid's unique in this way that in europe in general you're practicing more than you're playing yeah talk a little bit about that yeah i would still say ralmadit is unique okay no offense madrid is madrid it's great okay we get it we get it but i think like in slovenia you're not playing five games a week yeah no no it's the same i think the whole europe is the same uh we didn't play that but same on the weekends it's only

game two maybe even one yeah so it was a lot of practices but I love practices you know we had a lot of skill set first but that was like that was like half an hour 45 minutes fundamental skills just to warm up and then and then we would play play but that's a lot of different like exercise playing it's not just five and five three and three it's advantage four and three two and three it's just learning to read yeah learning to react like that was an emphasis in Europe. Yes. That's the biggest difference between youth basketball in Europe and America is that it's the

development skill, the fundamentals are not expressed. It's like just play, play, play, just play, just play, you know, and a lot of guys and a lot of kids are not developing their skill, they're not developing the fundamentals. You know, like he just said, you know, there was times during practice that it was all about, you know, advantage basketball, four on three, three on two. You know, if I, if I can create two on the ball, then I know we have a numbers advantage, you know, instead of reading a game that way, a lot of kids think, you know,

if I have two on the ball, then I have to figure out a way how to get around this guy or split the double team. You know, I still have to be able to score, you know, and that is just, you know, it stops you from reading the game, you know, And you get, you can, you can make it through trade school playing that way. You can make it through high school. You can make it through college. And some guys figure out a way to even make it through the NBA.

But as far as how to, to be great. Right. To be great and transcended and being able to inspire your teammates. Inspire yourself. Inspire your family. Inspire the game. Yeah. You know, being able to be on that wavelength.

And I think that's the kind of different, you know, the difference between, you know, how they how they grow up in Europe teaching the game and how we you know teach the game here. I think it's a loss it's a lost It's a lost arc here. It goes back, you know a little bit to your point about This competitive pressurized system. It's about the kid showing how good he is instead of making the right plays making the game simple Something you guys have done naturally and it's probably not all naturally you've learned because you had good coaching along the way to make the right play like you can make a spectacular play but make the right play more times and not you know like they're going to put two on you guys and if you go against the two all the time you're not always going to have success whereas if you make the right decision like you said you empower your teammates you make them feel better you make the game easier for yourself feels like that's different in europe because coaches aren't all about this kid's going to raise my profile it's like our team has got to learn to play together did you feel that in Madrid where it's about of course we want to develop luka but we want to develop a team here that knows how to play the right way Yeah, definitely. Especially when I was, let's say about 15, I had a coach that was hard. It was hard on me, but hard on everybody. Like from 1 to 12, he did the same thing to everybody. It wasn't like just one person.

So that's really when I started to playing like when I was 15, I started my first practices with the first thing. You know, I was scared. I was nervous. But, you know, at some point you get used to it. So I debuted when I was 16. That was shaking. I still remember the moment. But, you know, I think in Europe, like, watching Euro League now, watching League before, it just, like, it's more about the team, you know, team-wise, team work.

But it's different rules in NBA. I always said that when I said it's easier to score in NBA is because it's just different rules. You have a lot of more space and you have more minutes. It's eight more minutes. Anything happened in eight minutes. So it's just because of that. Like in Europe, you get a big guy, like, for example, like Eddie Tavares, he plays in Madrid. He's just standing in the paint.

He can stand in the paint. He's 220. It's hard to score. It's impossible. Here you can't do that because it's a three-sight in violation. Yeah. Again, I mean, the NBA is trying to make as entertaining as possible, too. So the game's slightly different than in Europe where it's still maybe the roots of the game are still there.

But it is like it's an interesting point to think about the way our kids grow up learning the game, the culture around the game, and that difference is really important. I think you see it so often, you know, just the thought process. And unfortunately, I think there's something to be said for that creeping into the system and the parents too, right? They're worried about their kids' position here. Let me make a comment that I have to take some. I have to part of this too, but my generation of parents, being 51 now, you know, the last kind of 20, 25 years of parenting, we've been all over our kids, trying to protect them. You just mentioned you had a coach that was all over you.

Yeah. You know, my high school coach, college coach, all my coaches were all over me. Your high school coach was on you. Like he's not putting up with, you know, poor decisions, not playing the right way. That has become so hard nowadays because the commercialization. Yeah. So whether it's a skills trainer, an AAU coach, you can't, you don't feel one that your business can suffer losing the kid. So you're, oh, you know, there's not, it's not as frequent that we're going to tell the kid the truth and be tough on them all the time.

Yeah, because you're afraid they don't leave. And in college too. Yeah, for sure. Right. And now for money. Right. You get on the street for a few more bucks. But at some point I think you need that. You got to have it. Yeah. Or I'll say it's a disservice to our kids because we have to let them suffer and struggle, right, and feel that pressure that's going to make you better, not the pressure that's going to make you not love the sport. Yeah. I've never got involved with my kids, coaches.

That's for them. From Brownie growing up to where he is now and Bryce, you know, on his way to Tucson to Arizona, I've never got involved. I've never went to a practice and sat through practice the whole time and see how my son was being utilize. I never got on the phone with the coaches. Listen, he's there, coach my son, coach him however you want to. And I think you need to hold him accountable. I hope you hold him more accountable than any other kid here, you know, and say what the fuck you need to say no matter, you know, no matter how it's being said, because it's not sometimes it's not.

If you could just take the message, not as about how he's saying, just take the message out of it. You know, I think that builds character as well, you know, and I think it's part of the reason why they are where they are at this, their stages in their lives. You know, baby and your kid and always, you know, thinking that your kid is this and think of your kid is that and not allowing coaches to coach them or not allowing people to be hard on them. And as soon as a coach or someone says something to them, you pull them and go somewhere else or, you know, or as soon as someone says something bad about your kid, you're the first

person to go talk to his face. It's like, all right, you fucking go coaching them. Yeah. Like, you know? It's like really life is way more knows than yes. If our kids aren't used to hearing no, like how are they going to survive when they're adults, right? I think that's what, right, as parents are my generation of parents putting myself in this picture, we're so scared to let our kids fail, let them struggle, let them learn from that failure.

Now how do they face, you know, moments, adversity, resilience? How do they build those scars? So, you know, I think all three of us were fortunate. like it changed like it was pivotal in my journey that my college coach was on my ass every day I would say the same yeah and that in particular that coach when you were 15 was like the one of the main ones like give me examples because I don't think kids today understand like they're going to say oh I'm sure Luca this coach never yelled at him yeah no no he did I think one example was we were up it was quarter finals or around 16 we were about like 30 a half time but I was bullshitting a little bit

no he yelled at me he made me cry I'm a half time yeah and but that's like this coach like changed a little bit of how I view basketball like during the time and like that year I think we didn't lose the game and we won in finals by 30 points And just, I mean, I think everybody needs it to be like a really good player. You need the guy like they'll tell you everything, especially coach. And, you know, I love him for that. He did it for me. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

I mean, especially you two guys come in to the NBA straight. I mean, you coming obviously from a professional team, but as a teenager and you're not going to college. Like that experience was pivotal for me. So you're lucky, right? You had a high school coach that was like, this is how you're going to play. Absolutely. I mean, he was on my ass from day one, you know, and I had a, my high school coach was a college coach at Eastern Michigan at one point. And so. He knew what you were going to see. Yeah. Yeah. So he knew, you know, what I was going to see. He actually coached a couple pros that made it to the NBA, you know, while he was in college. But, you know, from day one, when I, when I stepped foot, you know, as a freshman, you know, he was literally like on me, crazy, you know. And, like, one story, you know, Coach D was, he was out of his mind. He was a lunatic.

He just finally retired from coaching last year at Duques, finally was retired. But, like, you know, my freshman year, you know, I made, you know, all county, all city, all state. We didn't lose a game my freshman year. We won the state championship. I was state championship MVP for the tournament. And, you know, so I come in. first practice my sophomore year i'm kind of filling myself a little bit we want it all i'm getting little praise whatever first day of practice my sophomore year he kicked me out of height he kicked me

out of practice just to just to put the mark yeah just to put the mark he said he said best sophomore in the country my ass get the fuck out of it and kick me out of practice my my sophomore year you know and i was obviously pissed off like what the fuck the fuck the fuck is wrong why he picking on me they were picking on me but he set the tone he set the tone for that that season it's like I'm not going to even allow you to even think about getting overly confident or having a big head coming to here because this shit is not about you. You know, it's about what we're trying to build. And he knew, like, you are the guy, but I'm not about to give you no indication that you are.

So, you know, and I still, a lot of the things that I learn from him, I still, like, just used to this day, just like being held accountable and, you know, being a player's coach, being able to be coachable, you know. And, you know, so absolutely. just having that, that tough love. Yeah. You know, it's... He gave you a gift that day.

Absolutely. But you don't realize it at the moment. Yeah, I mean, you know how many practices I've been in? We've been in? And for us to be able to remember two moments in our careers, you know, that let you know that that shit is instilled in our brain and it played a part of who we are today, you know? And unfortunately, you know, going back to this again, like how many parents are allowing that these days?

Yeah. Right? That's the tough part. How was your dad with you? of being a, you know, a great player in Euro League. Like, how, what was his part of your basketball journey? I mean, I don't think... He didn't get involved.

Yeah. Like, you say, you know. There's a great lesson. Like he said, with his kids, you know, he didn't, don't talk to the coach. You know, he was just, you know, being there to support, but didn't do much. Yeah. Like, what I'm saying, being involved. That's your journey.

Yeah. Right. It's the same, like, you know, if I went home and told my dad, you know, coach, Motherfuck me today. Oh, it will be good for him. Yeah, is that my dad would have said to me, what'd you do, you little shit? You know, what'd you do? You must have done something, right?

Let's you go and figure those things out, right? Yeah, I think it's, um, look, it's, it's not like we're gonna put it all back in the bottle. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Right? But things like your program can help, like just make headway. I think it's awesome. Step by step. I think that's awesome.

Step by step. Step by step. Continue to just make a little influence on the way we think about it. I do think, I keep bringing up the parents, but I do think we have to help educate parents. Because a lot of them don't know. You know, how would they know? They're told, you know, you got to sign them up for this, dad.

They got to be with me all year around. You know, they don't understand. Let the kid run his own or hers own race. Let them figure it out, find the joy and passion on their own, all those things that are so important. I think that your program is giving us a chance. One, like you committed money and resources through your foundation to commission a study.

Like it's not just us three talking, you know? Hopefully we know a few things through our experiences by you commission a study. Like that's an amazing, amazing commitment to the landscape, right? Congrats. Yeah, congrats. You're involved as well, right? I'm here to help. Here to help.

That's pretty fucking good. We'll be calling you too. Yeah, you know. I got a couple of ideas. I bet you do. I mean, you've seen it firsthand already, right? For sure. For sure.

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Terms apply. For more information, visit Americanexpress.com. slash travel. But going back to like, in Europe, in Madrid, they're teaching to play and think through the prism of team game, making the right decisions. You know, our kids are a little bit corrupted, partly by social media,

that it's about his bag, he's got this, what can he do here, what can he do that? What does this even mean? Right, bag of tricks. But, you know, like, think about it. Like, you guys both made some, made, you made a couple tonight. crazy shots.

You made a couple tough fadeaways tonight. But the reason you guys are great players is because most of the time you can do the easy shit. Get to the rim, finish. Make your free throws.

Make your open threes. Okay, then you get to the step back, boom. The game is won on making fundamental plays, not your bag, right? I know they don't talk about that in Europe when you're growing up right. I never heard the thing bag

since I can, I mean, until I came to the AMU. Right. And when I was growing up, it wasn't talked about it. Like, my, the least amount of dribbles to get where you need to get to, was when I grew a lot. Efficiency. Michael Jordan wasn't out there dribbling a thousand times, you know, to get to the spot.

You get to a spot. Right. And raise, you know, Isaiah Thomas, it's greater than a handle Isaiah Thomas had. Isaiah get to a spot and raise, you know, all these guys that I grew up, Grant Hill, get to a spot. I'm bigger than you. Straight line. You know, big dog, Robinson, you know, I'm bigger than you.

Allen Houston, you know, all these great players, you know, that I grew up watching and admire and Penny Hardaway. Yes, they could dribble the basketball. But there's no, Tracy McGrady, even as great as Tracy's handle was, it was, I'm bigger than you. I'm going to get to the spot and at least amount of dribbles, Kevin Garnett. You know, it's good for work. Just good for work, get over the top. If I get, if I'm bigger than you and I get you on my shoulder, I get you on my hip, I'm going to use my size. You know, I see it all the time. It's like, you know, I'll be on social media. Like, LeBron has no bag. It's like, I'm sitting over here with you. What is that? Lebron has no bag and I'm sitting there like a 50 billion points. Right. Leading score all time in the NBA, no bag. That proves the point.

Yes, just play the, like play the game the right way. And I hope that our generation, you know, our younger generation don't get, you know, swamped by saying, okay, I need a bag, I need a bag, I need a bag. Like, you know, work on your game. know what you're going to be good at in order to help the team and prove the next year to be a better player. You know, if you come in as a guy that's my offensive game has not developed, come in, you defend, you get extra possessions,

you get extra rebounds for the guys. Okay, and then next year, you work on your game in the offseason. It's only one or two, if you want to, three guys maximum. That's going to be handling the fucking ball anyways. We don't need you to have a back. It's only going to be, you know, we have the luxury of having three guys. you know, us two and AR, but not many teams have three guys that's going to be having the ball like that anyways. You know, you can make $200 million in the NBA if you defend and shoot a corner three-pointer.

Let's say, you're going to play. But that's the biggest point. And I'd love to hear your perspective on this, but like all the time you're doing this that you're never, ever going to use as the levels go up, if you can just make open shots, space the floor, play smart, like you can go up a level. Yeah, I mean, 100%. I mean, like he said, I don't have nothing more to end. Yeah, I mean, well, that's the thing, right? But it's true, yeah. But the thing is, like, you know, you guys are creators.

You know, in the way the game's played today, we put shooters on the floor to create space for the creator. They make you better by creating space. You make them better by being a creator. The minute one of them starts doing this, they're going out of the game. Yeah. Right?

So it's interesting the way we perceive or we allow our kids to perceive that. I don't know where that, why that has been able to have a louder voice than coaching than fundamentals and team play. Right. You know. Yeah, one more important thing is like for guys, know your role. Know what you do good and do that, you know. Don't do something that you're not good at.

It's going to, it's not going to help. It's an exposure. Such an important part of winning teams is knowing your role. No, you know, right? Starring at your role, being able to be good at your role, right? When guys start to have the wrong perspective on their role, play outside themselves, the team is going down the other way.

How do we get kids to appreciate the fundamentals rather than the highlight reels, the mixtapes? We have to teach them. Talk. There has to be teach. That's a great word. You know, I think, unfortunately, there's not enough teaching.

It's not enough teachers. Right. Not enough teachers. Great point. It's hard to teach if the teachers don't know what the hell they teach it. Right, right. Now it's more about scheduling tournaments

and games. Yeah, it's a lot. Running your social. It's a lot of games here. A lot of games. They play a lot of games, last practice. Yeah. But in the end, like, the greatest players come from America, so it's doing something good.

Well, let's talk about that for a second because, you know, you could make a case that of the top players in the league, there's got to be five of the top, five to ten are from Europe. Correct. Right? Now. Yeah. Right? But why? Why?

I think what we're talking about plays a role in this. You know, I'll make a statement that will probably be aggregated, and I'll be a meme for this. But America's not great at player development. I'm not saying there's not great coaches, great coaches here. But not enough. I think one of the problems with America in all sports to defend America is it's too big. There's no one way. There's no one system.

There's no one idea. We're all competing. And I think that's allowed the commercialization to. Yeah. Yeah. To kind of influence the game. That's a good point. Like think about the Slovenians.

They get no small. Right? It's not getting small. It's not getting small. Well, it might right now, but that's another topic. Yeah. But like, Slovenia, 2 million people wins a Euro. Yeah.

Like that's crazy to think about. Right? But that's because it was fundamental. It was team play. Like you guys, you could say, I mean, you were what, 18, 17? 18. 18? You'd say, okay, well, we didn't know.

We didn't know that Luca was Luca completely yet. Maybe going to that tournament, we knew you were going to be an NBA player. We didn't know you were going to be what you are. You kind of announced. I didn't know either. Yeah. But you announced yourself there in Madrid and the Euro League, all that stuff. But the teamwork, right, 2 million people, you see it all over the world.

I think sometimes we forget like America is so big, so many opinions, so many regions. There's also such a pride thing too. You live in Slovenia, you live in some of these countries that's not as big as. that's not as big as obviously, you know, American cities. It's a sense of pride to be able to go out there and represent your country. You know, everything is city-based here, you know. And it took a while for us as far as the Olympics

to get that sense of pride back, you know. You know, when we got our ass kicked in 2004, you know, and then we lost in the World Championship in 2006, it took us time to be like, oh, like, this is real. Right. You know, the rest of these countries not only are getting better with the game of basketball, but it's a sense of pride, too. You know, and when you have that sense of pride, you have a sense of work ethic that goes a lot longer.

You have a sense of accountability that's a little bit longer. You have a sense of just like just wanting to be there, like, because you know what you're representing. And I think a lot of that has to do with it too because it's just cities. Yeah, it's like everybody's talking about, where you from? I'm from Chicago. I'm from Houston. I'm from L.A. It says America.

Yeah. Yeah, no one says, yeah, everyone says the city they're from. You know, and you got, it's country-based all over the world. It's like, and it's a sense of pride. Yeah. And you see that, like, I've obviously been a part of four USA teams to be able, and then you see that, you feel that, you know. You actually really feel it.

You feel it from not only the competition on the floor, but you feel it from the fucking chance of the fans in the cloud, how passionate it is, you know, so. That's what I play. That's what I play every year since. But that's an interesting point about the cities is that you see, like, if it's not, if there's a way out, like, that's a way out for a lot of American players, right? Or someone else can play. You can't not play for Slovenia, right?

Like, you all feel like we got to play. Yeah. Because we're all we have. True. Tell me about that feeling, though, and the connection with the fans, because I went back for Goran Draggich's retirement games sold out in like five minutes, two minutes. I mean, we had some great names coming. that's true that's true but still like yeah but still like for you know a country of that size like it's got to be there's a connection there's a way of we have to play this way we have to we need all

our guys yeah i mean that's why i was playing you know i was because of pride and i like to represent my country uh but you see you know there's the my country my country lives for like sports There's a lot of, for how small we are, I think we have a great sport, sports people. Oh, real. Bicyclists, we have ski jumpers. How? How do you say Pocachar? Pogachar.

Pogachar. We're close. How many Tour de France do you won? Oh, I don't know, but a lot, probably. He's won a few. You got NBA, you got soccer, you got ski jumpers, everything. You guys are from two million people, it's incredible. It's a lot of, yeah.

So, but that's when, like, the crowd is into it, you know. I think we give back a lot to our country. So that's why the crowd and the people are willing into sports. Awesome. Well, I want to salute you on this incredible, incredible inside youth basketball study. Thank you. I'm happy to be able for the journey. I can't wait for this.

Cheers to that, man. Congratulations. Thank you. Cheers to our youth. To our kids. Thank you for having me. many years in the game, both on court and off, I know all about high-stakes showdowns. That's why I'm hooked on Michael Crichton's binary on Audible.

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21 plus age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Voiden, Ontario, bet must win to receive reward. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuing. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.com slash audio. I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Luca Donchich. Being a part of his athletes' counsel for his inside youth basketball study

has been a pleasure for me. something that's near and dear to my heart. As someone that fought his way all the way through a long career of basketball, it always fascinates me, the landscape that kids have to navigate. How can we help them reach for their dreams? Of course, not all kids are gonna make the MBA,

but in all sports, kids should have joy, passion, support, belief, systems that allow them to learn the characteristics of teamwork, collaboration, learning how to succeed, fail, growing up at the appropriate times, resilience, there's so many things that sport affords us. And when his study came out and other studies similar that have said that 70% of kids have quit sports by the time of 13 because there's too much pressure in the system, there's not enough joy or fun, not enough childhood involved in youth sports, it's alarming. And it's something that I feel very passionate about, not just from the athlete development component, but from

developing the health and wellness of our kids and our communities. Sports is such an incredible tool that offers us a place to learn, to grow, to find out who we are, to make friends, teammates, to collaborate, so many gifts that allow us to succeed in life, whether it's with our families, with our careers, jobs, dealing and navigating with the adversity that we find, we all find in life. These are all things that can really be developed through sport. So when I hear kids are quitting sport, you know, I think it's important for us to really dig deep and find out why kids are quitting and why sport for life is not the goal here. Where joy and passion and being able to enjoy the fruits of a childhood being active, being healthy, being a teammate, having core memories around sport is so important to our communities, to our families, to our kids.

So I feel honored one to have spoken to Luca deeply about why he commissioned. this study, why he wants to affect youth basketball the way he does, and how we can all come together and learn, share best practices, and find a way to be more efficient and effective at helping our youth enjoy sports, whether you're a high performer or whether you're just participating and want to be a part of a team or learn a skill. So important for our communities to give our kids a place to learn, to grow, to fail, to bounce back, and to ultimately succeed in life. watching mind the game i hope you enjoyed this episode please subscribe if you haven't

look forward to seeing you next time actually get him on up out of here what you're doing next week yeah i get him up out of here get him get him up out of here playing um sound guy get his mic let him get up out of here You know,