Dan Grunfeld on Hope and Thriving

Dan Grunfeld is a former professional basketball player, an accomplished writer, and a proud graduate of Stanford University. An Academic All-American and All-Conference basketball selection at Stanford, Dan played professionally for eight seasons in top leagues around the world, including in Germany, Spain, and Israel. Dan’s writing has been published more than 40 times in media outlets such as Sports Illustrated, The Jerusalem Post, and NBC News. Dan earned his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2017 and lives with his wife and son in the Bay Area, where he works in venture capital.

In this episode, we discuss Julie Elion and how she has impacted Dan’s career (9:10), if his dad was an analytical player (10:38), why his dad could transition to this other side of his career (12:39), if his analytical mind helps him in the venture world in the way that it hindered him on the basketball court (13:45), how he thought about expectations (15:49), why he went down the venture route (17:42), more on why he didn’t ultimately pursue a career in sports today (21:04), what tearing his ACL was like as a player and the mental challenges that came along with it (24:30), his mom (27:02), what it was like improving so drastically as a player (27:53), if he plays the “what if” game (29:15), if his game would have translated to today’s style of basketball (30:34), playing in Israel (33:10), Jerusalem (34:37), if he is spiritual (37:18), his family’s story (43:57), what his grandma was like (48:14), his grandfather (50:40), being a victim, a survivor, or a thriver (56:30), his father’s experiences with anti-Semitism (58:30), being Jewish and the challenges that come along with it (1:03:48), Peace Players (1:06:38), and some more on basketball (1:09:17).

Make sure to check out Dan’s website here, as well as his Twitter and Facebook pages! Lastly, I would encourage you to purchase his book By the Grace of the Game anywhere where books are sold!

Thank you so much to Dan for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.

-Brian