{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Breaking Precedent","title":"Break the Backboard: Festus Ezeli on Championships, Reinvention, and Life After the NBA","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":4199,"description":"What happens when the kid who scored his first basket on his own team becomes an NBA champion, and then has to start over again?\nOn Breaking Precedent, Leah Solivan talks with former Golden State Warrior Festus Ezeli about a journey nobody could have scripted. Festus grew up in Benin City, Nigeria, finished high school at 14, and moved alone to Yuba City, California, to live with his uncle and chase a dream of becoming a doctor. Strangers kept asking the 6'4\" teenager if he played basketball. He didn't, until he scored his first basket on his own team and got cut from his high school team. With a mentor who believed in him before he believed in himself, he embraced being a beginner, turned down Harvard for Vanderbilt, switched from pre-med to economics, and became a first-round NBA draft pick. He shares what he learned from Steph Curry's early-morning work ethic and a Warriors team where nobody cared who got the glory.\nThen came the injury: early retirement and six months in a wheelchair, a year after playing in the NBA Finals. Festus opens up about his mom's lesson on moving mountains, finding his voice again in media and storytelling, and the work he's building now: schools in Nigeria and Sacramento, leadership and basketball camps in Africa, Festus Feasts and The Vision Table supporting local restaurants, and his push to rewrite what life after sports can look like.\nKey Insights\nBeing a beginner can be a superpower when it makes you listen and do whatever it takes to improve.\nSometimes you have to believe in someone else's belief in you until yours kicks in.\nGreatness lives in small daily habits that nobody sees.\nIt's amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares who gets the glory.\nA career-ending injury doesn't have to be a life-ending one. The skills transfer.\nPrivilege comes with a responsibility to create opportunity for others.\nTimestamps\n00:00 Cold Open: “God Gave You Your Mountains”\n 01:10 Leah’s Introduction\n 02:40 Welcome and Reunion\n 03:10...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/ZnB7esk3hxfFIoNnysnaXcdcNStXN6Vgj5GFpWxsycY/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9hZTZl/N2FhYTdlYjFlYjNj/MjZjZjU3MGMxYWM0/YWVlZC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}