Turning Into a Professional Basketball Player – With Luke Nelson – Ep. 32

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In Episode 32 of the Hoopsfix Podcast, we got the chance to sit down with Great Britain and Real Betis guard Luke Nelson.

The Worthing Thunder and Reading Rockets product has just turned professional in Spain’s ACB after a successful college career at UC Irvine which culminated in him ending up being named the Big West Conference Player of The Year in his Senior year.

Signing a two year rookie deal with Gran Canaria before being loaned out to Real Betis, in this interview, Luke Nelson goes into detail on what it’s been like to turn professionally along with everything that has taken him to this point.

Note that this interview was recorded before GB’s recent FIBA World Cup 2019 qualifying campaign.

In this hour episode, here from Luke Nelson on:

• How he has found the transition to being a professional basketball player
• Life off the court, downtime and living arrangements
• Being in a foreign country and the language barriers
• The process of signing with an agent and the involvement of his Dad in the process
• How it was to do NBA workouts this summer
• His lack of pre-game nerves and mindset before playing
• How he reflects on his college career feeling both extremely proud and disappointed about it
• Being named the Big West Conference Player of the Year in his Senior year
• His connection with British fans and those following his career
• Representing the Great Britain Senior Men over the summer of 2017 at EuroBasket
• The mental side of basketball versus the physical side of play
• Staying in touch with other British guys over the course of the season
• The American game vs the European game
• Being ‘clutch’ and where his late-game heroics come from
• His early junior career in Worthing and deciding to go to Reading
• Making the jump to UC Irvine directly from England instead of doing a prep year
• The college recruitment process and other schools he was considering
• Being an English basketball player at college and the perception from others
• His thoughts on potentially playing in England and the BBL
• His toughest British junior opponent
• His most memorable moment from his career so far
• What he would do if he was in charge of the British Basketball Federation
• His feelings about the NBA and whether or not he still has an eye on the world’s top league
• Advice he would give to a young British player looking to go pro

As always, I’d love to get your feedback, come back after you’ve listened and lets get some discussion going in the comments.

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