7. Kareem Maddox - USA Olympic Hopeful, 3x3 Basketball FIBA World Champion, Pan AM Game Gold Medalist

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Former Professional Basketball Player Kareem Maddox joins to tell us how he went from public radio show host to current member of the 2019 Team USA 3x3 World Championship team and Olympic 3x3 qualifying team for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. For those who say there’s not enough time to balance work and a fulfilling athletic career listen up and prepare to have your mind blown at what Kareem and his teammates have pulled off in the last few years. A co-captain of Princeton’s 2011 Ivy League Champion basketball team, Kareem was honored as the Ivy League’s Defensive Player of the Year and a Unanimous All Ivy Selection. Kareem shares what his experience was like helping lead the Princeton Basketball team on a miraculous run into the NCAA tournament. He shares the moment he realized that he had what it took to play professionally. He recounts his first experience playing overseas, his eventual “retirement” and the subsequent move back to a small Colorado town working for a public radio station. Rising rapidly through the ranks over three years at the local radio station Kareem was promoted to host of his own radio show. Reaching a professional milestone he’d worked for, his basketball career seemed to be over. Amazingly, this is where the journey only begins. Kareem takes us through the circumstances that lead to his return to professional basketball. Why the risk of betting on himself was one he had to take. What playing professionally so far from home is like. His ascension back to being a dominant European Professional Basketball Player in Poland and the Netherlands. His subsequent second retirement and return to the USA to work as a podcast producer for an up and coming podcast startup. Excited to have landed in what felt like a dream job after years of again being out of the traditional workforce, Kareem share’s how he was introduced to professional 3x3 basketball and the culture of this rapidly growing international sport. Still Working a full time job, Kareem describes how during long stretches of traveling throughout Europe and Asia on back to back to back weekends he would lose track of what city and time zone he was in. We talk through the necessity of becoming comfortable with the unfamiliar and unexpected. He recounts the road that lead him to winning a USA 3x3 Basketball National Championship and subsequently a 3x3 FIBA World Championship. He’s since also won a gold medal in the 2019 Pan American games and was selected as one of four members of the team USA Olympic Qualifying Team. The team, manned by 3 former NBA players and Kareem was training to go compete in India during the recording of this podcast, but since this has been recorded the Olympics have been postponed due to the Coronavirus crisis. We talk a bit at the end about how his past experience with dealing with the unexpected is helping him stay focused during this uncertain time. Whether you’re an athlete, or someone who is just looking to be inspired I hope you take as much away from this show as I did.

Mentioned In the Show:

The Concept of Thin Slicing is covered in Malcolm Galdwell’s book: Blink (https://amzn.to/2UDKTzO)

Follow Kareem Maddox:

Instagram: @kareemmaddox

USA Basketball Profile: https://www.usab.com/basketball/players/mens/m/maddox-kareem.aspx

Follow The Professional Athlete Podcast with Ken Gunter:

Instagram: @the_professionalathlete

Website: Kengunter.com

Produced By: Justin Gunter, Ken Gunter

Music By: Justin Gunter, Ken Gunter