Former Kansas All-American Wayne Simien on basketball as ministry and serving others like Jesus
Sports Spectrum Podcast
Sports Spectrum
4.9 • 685 Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2023
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Wayne Simien is a character coach with the Kansas Jayhawks. He played his college ball with KU, where he was a consensus All-America selection and Big 12 Player of the Year in 2005. His success in college led him to become a first-round selection in the 2005 NBA Draft by the Miami Heat (29th overall).
Simien played two seasons with the Heat, and earned an NBA championship ring his rookie season as Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal helped Miami to its first-ever championship in the 2006 NBA Finals. In October 2007, Simien was traded to Minnesota but never played another game in the NBA. He played a few more years overseas before retiring in May 2009 at the age of 26 to pursue ministry work.
Today he is serving with Kansas as their AD of Engagement and Outreach and his number 23 is retired at Allen Fieldhouse.
On this episode of the podcast, we talk to Simien about his new role with Kansas, growing up a Jayhawks fan, why he considers his work as ministry and lessons learned from Roy Williams, Bill Self and Pat Riley.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey guys, this is Jason. I want to tell you about our friends at Compassion International, |
| 0:04.3 | our partners here at Sports Spectrum, faithful partners, amazing partners. And I got to go down |
| 0:10.1 | to the Dominican Republic last December with compassion and see the work that they're doing. |
| 0:15.1 | And I'm telling you, everything I've been saying for the last few years about compassion, |
| 0:20.1 | when I went down there and I saw |
| 0:21.5 | in action, these kids having hope, these kids, having an opportunity, these kids learning about |
| 0:27.7 | Jesus because of sponsors like you and I, man, I can't hold it in anymore. I want to tell the world |
| 0:34.7 | about Compassion International and what they're doing, giving these kids an |
| 0:39.5 | opportunity to hear the gospel, giving them a chance to be released from poverty. |
| 0:44.0 | Are you kidding me? |
| 0:45.1 | Like, that's what it's all about. |
| 0:47.1 | And so I can't recommend enough that you consider sponsoring a child and getting involved |
| 0:53.4 | with Compassion International. |
| 0:55.4 | Go to the website, Compassion.com slash Sports Spectrum. |
| 0:59.6 | That's the website. |
| 1:00.8 | You'll see a list of children there. |
| 1:02.6 | Pray about it. |
| 1:03.3 | And I'm telling you those sponsorships, those sponsored opportunities with those children, |
| 1:08.3 | they make a legacy and a lasting impression that truly is |
| 1:13.4 | eternal for these kids. I saw these adults who went through the program in the Dominican |
| 1:18.8 | Republic come back and share their testimony and you're making a difference when you sponsor |
| 1:24.3 | a child. You are changing their lives forever. So please go to |
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