Mario West, Former Georgia Tech & NBA Player

05/04/20 • 57 min

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.
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Please subscribe to the show and rate it on Apple Podcasts, and follow the show on Twitter and Instagram at @TWAwesomePod. And you can follow me on Twitter at @steven_little.

Previous Episode

Will Pugh, Cartel Lead Singer

Today’s guest is Will Pugh, who is the lead singer and main songwriter for Cartel, and he also plays guitar, bass, and piano. He’s written two top 40 hits with Cartel, and he’s now a producer and mixer in Nashville, where he’s worked with several artists including New Found Glory, William Ryan Key from Yellowcard, Vista Wolf, The Foxies, and Lonely Benson. And a couple of weeks ago, Will released his first music since Cartel, an EP for a project called Taurids.
Will and I discussed the formation of Cartel, how they got signed, the success of Chroma, his thoughts on Cartel’s appearance on MTV’s Band in a Bubble, his favorite Cartel album and songs, the future of Cartel, his work as a producer and mixer, and his new music from Taurids.
The interview was a little long, so I’ve added chapters that you can use to jump to sections.

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Next Episode

Tommy Siegel, Jukebox the Ghost

Today’s guest is Tommy Siegel, who is the guitar and bass player and one of two vocalists and songwriters for my favorite band, Jukebox the Ghost. Tommy is also a prolific cartoonist who takes doodle requests while in the band’s tour van and turned a comic a day for a year project into 500 comics in 500 days. Now he has a book of his comics being published.
Tommy and I discussed the formation and naming of Jukebox the Ghost, how they’ve achieved their unique sound, their Queen influence, their in-progress album, his favorite Jukebox the Ghost songs, and Tommy says I can play the drums with them next time they’re in Atlanta (kind of?). We also talked about his comics hobby turning leading to a publishing deal.
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Please subscribe to the show and rate it on Apple Podcasts, and follow the show on Twitter and Instagram at @TWAwesomePod. And you can follow me on Twitter at @steven_little.