Danny Ourian

There was a piece in The Athletic recently making the rounds, that argued Victor Wembanyama is changing the NBA by proving that caring is cool. The evidence is hard to miss. After the Spurs eliminated Oklahoma City in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, Wemby was in tears on the court, embracing Stephon Castle, pulling his teammates into a group hug. When a reporter asked him why expressing emotion so openly was so rare among elite athletes, he said: “I refuse to carry the burden of...

On team fandom, love of the game, and the New York Knicks Where do I put my fandom? How do I think about my sport team fandom being this...

I had some time recently to reflect on why I chose this path to be a mental performance coach and here, now, I’d like to share it with you (long piece that I hope our @dominican_aspp students and @hoopsminded athletes will enjoy). So often we do what we needed, to retroactively fill in the gaps that were left in our lived experience. When I was 9 years old my eyes first properly set eyes on the game of basketball and my jaw was on the floor with what I was seeing, for about a full year. It...