Mirin Fader on "Giannis", her New York Times Best-Selling Book, Motivations behind Antetokoumnpo's Legendary Work Ethic & Development, Impact of Kobe, Carmelo, Durant, Hakeem + Sportswriting Process

Ep. 30 Learning Basketball with Mirin Fader 

 Mirin Fader is a New York Times Best-Selling author of "Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA Champion" and just published her new book "Dream: The Life and Legacy of Hakeem Olajuwon”

 Mirin is a sports writer with The Ringer, formerly of Bleacher Report and the Orange County Register.

 Today, we learn about Mirin's writing process with the challenges in a good lead that hooks the reader before diving into her NYT Best-Selling book "Giannis", focusing on the motivations that led Giannis to development, legendary work ethic, and greatness. Timestamps 


0:00 Introduction & Background 
2:20 Book Author Lifestyle & Challenge of Writing Opening Hook Leads
 4:48 Feeling and Process of adding the storybook ending of Giannis winning the championship as an Epilogue to a book already on its way to New York Times Best-Seller 6:57 The 2015 Inaugural NBA Africa game where Hakeem & Mutumbo play with rising international players like Giannis & How Hakeem paved the way for the world as Basketball’s first international superstar 
9:27 Giannis’ inspirations of Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony to facing them as peers
 14:00 What Family means to Giannis as a motivational factor in his life and work ethic 
17:45 Development in Greece and Important People who helped the Antetokoumnpo family along the way, from Coach Spiros Velliniatis finding and convincing Giannis and brothers to try basketball with the Filathlitikos team, teammate Rahman Rana being like a brother, to Tzikas the owner of the Kivotos Cafe making a small yet giant gesture of providing an apple or fruit smoothie to the brothers every time they walked to practice
 20:18 Other motivational factors for the Rise of Giannis - how nourishment could have made him a higher draft pick to scout, the fear of loss coming from nothing, playing emotionless, what defined his drive and work ethic