Welcome to the Very Well Mind podcast. We've interviewed over 100 authors, experts, entrepreneurs, athletes, musicians, and others to help you learn strategies to care for your mental health.

This episode is hosted by psychotherapist and bestselling author Amy Morin. Now let's get into the episode.

Okay. My guest today is a three-time NBA All-Star Steve Francis.

He played for the Houston Rockets, the Orlando Magic, and the New York Knicks.

He's especially known for his speed, his ball handling skills, and his extreme ability to dunk the basketball.

But as you'll hear in our conversation, his rise to the NBA was kind of an unusual one.

He had to overcome a lot of adversity to succeed.

Some of the things Steve shares include what helped him overcome the obstacles in his life,

how he became so good at basketball, even though his real love was for football,

and how he continues to stay mentally strong.

Make sure to stick around until the end of the episode for The Therapist Take.

This is the part of the show where I'll break down Steve's mental strength building strategies and explain how you can apply them to your own life.

So here's Steve Francis.

He's mentally strong.

This is his story.

Steve Francis, thanks for being on the Mentally Strong People podcast.

Thank you for having.

I appreciate it.

So I recently wrote a parenting book, and I get a lot of questions from parents.

They'll say things like my eight-year-old didn't get enough playing time, and now he's not going to be the all-star on the team, and he'll never get a college scholarship, and he's not going to make the NBA. You're one of those people who have sort of a non-traditional path to the NBA.

I understand you only played a couple of high school games. How did you go from only playing a

couple of high school games to ending up in the NBA? I think exactly what your show is about, mental toughness. You know, nobody knows,

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