Swen Nater - 2x UCLA National Champion & NBA Player On Forgiveness, Repetition Through Testing, & Lessons Learned From Coach Wooden

Building Excellence with Bailey Miles

#119: Swen Nater is a former NBA & ABA player. He is a two time NCAA national champion and played under legendary Coach John Wooden at UCLA. As a man of many talents he has been a championship player and coach, author, speaker, poet, and businessman.
Swen was born in the Netherlands and immigrated to the US after living in an orphanage for 5 years. Through a series of events he was reunited with his family through on a nationally televised show. Swen went to junior college where he eventually landed a spot on the basketball team. After many hours of hard work and practice, he became an All American and highly recruited player. He chose to attend UCLA where he was never promised a starting spot. Instead he was promised to practice again Bill Walton every day. Swen was drafted in the first round of the NBA draft after never starting a college game. He is the only player to ever do that. Swen had a long and distinguished career in the NBA and ABA with and was Rookie of the Year. He played for teams like the Lakers, Bucks, Clippers, Spurs, and Nets.
Swen is an author of multiple books and is speaker to businesses, teams, and organizations. On the show he shares his story of growing up, moving to the US, overcoming adversity with an abusive step father, playing basketball, repetition, UCLA, professional basketball, putting in the work, having dreams, testing, learning from others, and much more.
For more on Swen, his books, and speaking checking out the link in the show notes.
Enjoy the show!