Our biggest guest yet! Spoiler alert: he’s 6’10.”
I’m talking about former BYU basketball star, Eric Mika. Mika’s had a long and winding basketball career beginning at Lone Peak High School in Utah where his team won the Utah State Championship and was subsequently named the 2013 National Champions by MaxPreps, a stunning outcome for a basketball team from Utah Valley.
After high school, Mika attended two years at BYU where he was the team’s starting center, averaging 20 points and 9 boards his sophomore season, and was named to the All-West Coast Conference team.
After his sophomore season, Mika declared for the NBA draft and has since had a productive career playing professional basketball overseas in places like Italy, Germany, China, Serbia, and France as well as playing on the USA Basketball scout team in 2023 and with the now-defunct G-League Las Vegas Ignite team. Mika recently hung up his sneakers and hosts a podcast of his own called the “Now For Later” podcast where he interviews former professional athletes–such as the likes of Deron Williams, John Stockton, and Danny Ainge–about their transition to normal life after a career in sports.
Mika served his LDS mission in the Rome, Italy mission from 2014-2016 and currently resides in Utah with his family. In this episode, we talk some basketball (with a little easter egg on the NBA’s ascendant star Anthony Edwards); the constancy of change–and successfully adapting to change–in a mission setting mirrored in a basketball setting; the broad perspective gained through selfless service as a young adult; doing what you need versus what you want; and a lot more.
Theme Song:
Adventures by A Himitsu / a-himitsu
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