Zevi Samet | "No High School Wanted Me"
Meaningful People
Meaningful Minute
4.8 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 11 April 2026
⏱️ 82 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From struggling to sit still in class to becoming one of the most impactful voices on and off the court, Zevi Samet's journey is anything but typical. In this episode, he shares how sports gave him confidence, how failure fueled his growth, and how a relentless work ethic during COVID completely transformed his life. What started as a drive to become a better basketball player turned into something much deeper,discovering purpose, discipline, and a connection to something bigger than himself.
But the real story goes beyond basketball. Zevi opens up about building a platform to inspire others, creating a movement within his team, and using every moment, wins, losses, and everything in between, as an opportunity for impact. From emotional Shabbos experiences to leading teammates toward something meaningful, this is a story about growth, identity, and what it means to use your talent for something greater.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A lot of people got to know you from this stage that you've been on, |
| 0:03.0 | being this incredible basketball player and using the platform to make a condition shine, which is awesome. You probably would have never thought you'd be who you are today. 100% not. I was in three schools before I got to high school. I just had so much energy and I couldn't control myself. And then I was looking for high school. My parents went to them and said, listen, can you take off twice a week and go playing sports leagues? and they were like we can't do that so my parents finally heard about the school called |
| 0:22.9 | t a bc it's in tnec i went and went to them and said, listen, can you take off twice a week and go playing sports leagues? And they were like, we can't do that. So my parents finally heard about the school called TABC. |
| 0:23.6 | It's in TNEC. I went and I barely make the team. Freshman year, I don't touch the court. It was so ashamed. That was so, like, embarrassed that I put so much work in and I'm a bust. COVID was the best thing that ever happened to me in my life. I was working out five to seven hours a day. |
| 0:35.1 | We're really to get that discipline, that drive, especially at such a young age. |
| 0:37.8 | I just wanted to get good. |
| 0:39.0 | So I played all over New York City, especially at such a young age. |
| 0:37.8 | I just wanted to get good. |
| 0:38.8 | So I played all over New York City, and then one game I went, I hear like a big boom. Next day I know everyone says, run. I hear a guy yell. I got hit. Someone got shot on the court that I was playing at. Can't breathe. I call my coach. I'm gonna call my parents are gonna have a heart attack. |
| 0:50.1 | I'm like, never coming back here again. |
| 0:52.6 | Did you? |
| 0:53.3 | No. |
| 0:54.1 | So I get to YU and I'm just so confused. |
| 0:56.5 | Red hair afro. Earrings. Another guy tattoos. I said, I have two options right now. I either go to my chavrusa and learn by myself or I show these guys more about Yiddish guy. Come championship game, we go down 16 with 14 minutes left. minutes left a guy came over to me and said zevi if anybody could promise me that we will win this game |
| 1:13.8 | i will keep shabbas for the rest of the Come championship game, we go down 16 with 14 minutes left. A guy came over to me and said, Zevi, if anybody could promise me that we will win this game, |
| 1:13.6 | I will keep Shabbas for the rest of my life. |
| 1:15.6 | And I said, Hashem, if we win, I promise I'm going to use my platform to inspire as many people as I can. |
| 1:20.6 | Go back in, I started making some crazy shots. |
| 1:22.6 | Other guys on the team started making shots. |
| 1:24.6 | We're down about one with 20 seconds left. 20 seconds. |
| 1:29.3 | I'll let it fly. Fall away three. We are back. Yes, here is another episode of the meaningful |
| 1:37.9 | people podcast. Took a break of Khalamai, but here we are a brand new episode with Zevi Samet. |
... |
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