Mario West, Former Georgia Tech & NBA Player

Today’s guest is Mario West, who started his basketball career at Georgia Tech in 2002 as a walk-on. He later earned a scholarship and was a member of the 2004 team that made it to the National Championship game. In 2007, he won the college slam dunk contest and earned a spot on the Atlanta Hawks roster. After four seasons in the NBA, he played professionally abroad for five years and played one season in BIG3. He then worked for three years as the Director of Player Personnel on the Georgia Tech basketball staff and wrote a book, Defend the Dream. He is now the Director of the Off the Court program for the National Basketball Players Association.
Mario and I discussed going from being a walk-on to the NBA, challenging Chris Bosh to a game of one-on-one to wear the number 4, the 2003-04 season and run to the National Championship game, the rest of Paul Hewitt’s tenure at Georgia Tech, the toughest player he guarded in the NBA, playing professionally abroad, his new job with the NBPA, and his book, Defend The Dream.
Mentions include:

• Georgia Tech’s 2004 win at Duke
• Georgia Tech’s 2004 Final Four win vs. Oklahoma State
• Georgia Tech at Kansas, 2005
• Photos of Mario West guarding LeBron James and Kobe Bryant
• Highlight of Mario West guarding Kobe Bryant
• Defend the Dream
• mariowest.com
• @mariowest6 on Instagram
• @mariowest5 on Twitter
• Mario West on Facebook

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