John Amaechi on Leadership, the NBA, and Being Gay in Professional Sports

Conversations with Tyler

Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

John Amaechi is a former NBA forward/center who became a chartered scientist, professor of leadership at Exeter Business School, and New York Times bestselling author. His newest book, It's Not Magic: The Ordinary Skills of Exceptional Leaders, argues that leadership isn't bestowed or innate, it's earned through deliberate skill development.

Tyler and John discuss whether business culture is defined by the worst behavior tolerated, what rituals leadership requires, the quality of leadership in college basketball and consulting, why Doc Rivers started some practices at midnight, his childhood identification with the Hunchback of Notre Dame and retreat into science fiction, whether Yoda was actually a terrible leader, why he turned down $17 million from the Lakers, how mental blocks destroyed his shooting and how he overcame them, what he learned from Jerry Sloan's cruelty versus Karl Malone's commitment, what percentage of NBA players truly love the game, the experience of being gay in the NBA and why so few male athletes come out, when London peaked, why he loved Scottsdale but had to leave, the physical toll of professional play, the career prospects for 2^nd tier players, what distinguishes him from other psychologists, why personality testing is "absolute bollocks," what he plans to do next, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video on the new dedicated Conversations with Tyler channel.

Recorded September 15th, 2025.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University,
0:09.4	bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems.
0:13.5	Learn more at Mercadis.org.
0:15.7	For a full transcript of every conversation enhanced with helpful links,
0:20.4	visit Conversationswithtyler.com.
0:27.4	Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Conversations with Tyler. Today I'm happy to be chatting
0:32.9	with John Amici. He is a fellow and chartered scientist of the Institute of Science and Technology.
0:40.0	He is a professor of leadership at the University of Exeter Business School, a New York Times
0:45.2	and Sunday Times best-selling author. He has written several books on leadership, psychology,
0:50.9	management, and a memoir. His newest book is It's Not Magic, the ordinary skills of
0:57.2	exceptional leaders. And John is also well known for having played seven years in the NBA as a center
1:03.8	for the Orlando Magic and Utah Jazz and also for having played overseas in Europe. John, welcome.
1:11.3	Thank you. It's a lovely introduction.
1:12.6	I better be good now.
1:14.1	Some questions on leadership.
1:16.0	You wrote, and I quote,
1:17.7	culture is defined by the worst behavior tolerated.
1:21.0	What does that mean?
1:22.3	That is, as glib as it sounds,
1:25.3	it is the reality that when you go into a space, if you can observe poor behaviors that nobody challenges, then that is the thing that's defining the culture.
1:35.0	Even the small, weird things that people do.
1:37.3	So I worked in a company recently.
	...

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