LaPhonso Ellis - Former NBA player on living his life for Christ
Sports Spectrum Podcast
Sports Spectrum
4.9 • 685 Ratings
🗓️ 18 August 2023
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
LaPhonso Ellis is a former NBA player who was selected fifth overall in the first round of the 1992 NBA Draft by the Denver Nuggets. He would play 11 seasons with Denver, Atlanta, Minnesota and Miami. In his first NBA season, he was named to the 1992-93 All-Rookie First Team.
The Notre Dame graduate had a stellar career in South Bend and was named to Notre Dame's Ring of Honor in 2021. After retirement from playing basketball, Ellis joined ESPN in 2009 and was a college basketball commentator and analyst until June of 2023.
Today on the podcast, we talk to LaPhonso Ellis about living his life for Christ and growing spiritually after becoming a believer early in his NBA career. We also ask him about the experience of seeing his former team, the Nuggets, win the NBA Championship in 2023.
(Today's interview was recorded a few days before LaPhonso lost his job with ESPN on June 30, 2023 and the death of his daughter on July 1, 2023)
Listen HERE to our conversation with LaPhonso's former chaplain Bo Mitchell on Sports Spectrum's Podcast from August 4, 2017
Sign up for our Sports Spectrum Magazine and receive 15% off a 1-year subscription by using the code PODCAST15
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey guys, coming up on today's episode of Sports Spectrum, Lafonso Ellis, former NBA player 11 |
| 0:06.5 | years in the NBA with the Nuggets, Hawks, Timberwolves, and finished his journey with the Miami |
| 0:11.8 | Heat. Went to ESPN as a college basketball analyst from 2009 to just a couple months ago. |
| 0:18.2 | At the end of June of 2023, he was let go out of his contract with ESPN. |
| 0:24.0 | The reason I share that is because right before that, about a week before that, Lafonzo Ellis and I |
| 0:30.2 | had this conversation that you're about to hear. Oftentimes, the conversations we have at |
| 0:34.9 | Sports Spectrum are turned around within a week or two. |
| 0:39.7 | Sometimes we hold them for a month or two. |
| 0:43.9 | This was a case where we were planning on holding this interview for a month or two. |
| 0:45.7 | And of course, news happened. I would have asked him about losing his job at ESPN, of course, and kind of what God was |
| 0:52.1 | showing him through that. |
| 0:53.3 | But we recorded this right before that. |
| 0:55.0 | So if you're listening and you're wondering, why didn't Romano ask Lfonzo Ellis about the ESPN |
| 1:00.1 | position? That's the reason, because we recorded this right before ESP had had informed him that he |
| 1:06.3 | was no longer of service there to the company. But this was a really, really powerful conversation. |
| 1:12.6 | I thought it was really poignant, I think, to hear Lafonso Ellis share about coming to faith |
| 1:18.3 | during his MBA career, early in his MBA career. I loved talking to Lafonso Ellis. It's coming |
| 1:26.2 | up in a moment here on Sports Spectrum. |
| 1:28.2 | I just want to remind you about our Sports Spectrum magazine. You can go to Sportspectrum.com |
| 1:32.7 | and find out more about how you can subscribe. You can learn more about the content that we have. |
| 1:37.9 | It's clean content. It's faith filled. It's perfect for kids. It's perfect for the families that love Jesus and love sports. |
| 1:44.5 | Consider subscribing or getting Sports Spectrum's magazine as a gift for someone that you love or care about in your life. |
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