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The Lead

The Tragic Demise Of A Basketball Phenom

The Lead

Wondery

Cfb, Uefa, Mls, Ncaa, Daily News, Olympics, The Athletic, Sports New, Sports, Sports News, Nfl, Nba, Tokyo2020, Wnba, Fifa, Nhl, Cbb, Mlb, News

3.92.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At age 14, Mikey Williams was considered by some to be the best basketball player his age in the country. He had millions of followers on Instagram and celebrities like Drake asked for his jersey and invited him backstage. He even had LeBron James serving as a mentor. But questions about his basketball abilities began to pile up. And then, earlier this year, his life took a very dark turn. Today, we bring you a cautionary tale about pressure, fame, and basketball in the age of social media.

Guest: Jeff Eisenberg, Yahoo! Sports

Read Jeff's full story about Mikey Williams here

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Everyone leaves a legacy.

0:02.0

a legacy.

0:03.0

I like Mr Gorbachev.

0:04.0

We can do business together.

0:06.0

For some, the shadow falls across decades, even centuries.

0:10.0

It is unacceptable to have figures like roads glorified.

0:15.0

But it also changes.

0:18.0

Reputations are re-examined by new generations who may not like what they find.

0:23.2

Picasso is undeniably a genius, but also a less than perfect human.

0:28.4

From Wundery and Goldhanger Podcasts, I'm Afuahush.

0:30.8

I'm Peter Frankapurn. I'm Peter Francopern.

0:33.0

And this is Legacy.

0:35.0

A brand new show exploring the lives of some of the biggest characters in history.

0:41.0

To find out what their past tells us about our present.

0:44.0

Nina Simone was constantly told to sit down and shut up.

0:48.0

You're the angry black woman.

0:49.0

The name of Napoleon still rings out in the patter of the guides who thrive on the tourist trade.

0:55.0

Binge entire seasons of legacy ad free on Amazon Music or listen weekly wherever you get your podcasts.

1:09.7

Jeff Eisenberg, there was this video that got quite a bit of attention when it was posted online a few years ago a basketball video of a kid doing a pretty incredible dunk can you describe what's in it?

1:21.0

So Mikey Williams was going into his freshman year of high school and he's alone or pretty close to alone in a gym and he throws a lob pass up to himself, lets it bounce off the floor, catches it in the air,

1:37.0

does a 360 behind the back move, and throws it down just effortlessly,

1:42.0

and at the end of that video he says give me my mill he was hoping that that

...

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