Q&A
INTERVIEWED BY PETER KERASOTIS
U
ndrafted by the NBA out of college, Jamahl Mosley traveled the world playing professional basketball. But his mother’s cancer diagnosis and subsequent death in 2005 sent him on a trek that eventually led him to becoming, at 42, the Orlando Magic head coach.
After your college career at the University of Colorado, the NBA didn’t draft you, so you played in other leagues around the world. Tell us about that.
I first played two years in Australia, then a year in Spain, then South Korea. I also brief ly played in Mexico and Finland. But when my mother got sick with multiple myeloma, I needed to decide whether I was going to continue to play overseas or stay stateside and be closer to family and friends. The latter became the priority.
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W H E R E T R AVE LE R ® GU ESTBO O K
What was that experience like, traveling the world playing basketball?
I love to travel. I love to explore. I love to learn about different cultures, about different people. It was a great journey to explore all those things that I really enjoy and get paid to play basketball on top of it. The experience opened my eyes to so many things. You don’t even have to speak the language to understand how many things you have in common. No matter the place or culture, people want the same thing. They want to enjoy their family, they want to enjoy their friends, they want to go have a good time, and they want to be around good people. I took that from every place I went. What were some of your favorite dishes in your travels?
They have a great Little Italy section in Melbourne, Australia. I would go there and eat chicken
parmesan until I couldn’t see, and fettuccine Alfredo too. I also ate a ton of lamb there. In Spain, I fell in love with the salads, the unbelievable salads. They were incredible. In Mexico, the meats are just different. I love the carne asada there. I also like how they use real cheese versus queso on everything. It’s a different taste, and I love that version of Mexican food. You ended your playing career to be with your mom. How did that change your life?
That was the crossroads of life, deciding what was most important. My mother was an amazing woman, a teacher, a philanthropist, she wrote a book, did social work, and she was a big dreamer. Her dream for me was that I teach and help people become better versions of themselves. As I got into doing that, into coaching, it made the most sense. Everything fell into
place. It was a blessing. Even in the sadness it was a blessing. I understand that’s when you went back to Colorado and became an unpaid intern for the Denver Nuggets?
For two years I was an unpaid intern. George Karl (the thenNuggets head coach) gave me some money out of his pocket in order to sustain me. I also had put some money away from playing. It wasn’t enough, but I was living with one of my roommates from college. I’d drive 45 minutes to the Pepsi Center and try to figure out a way to earn my way into the NBA. Whatever they needed me to do, I did. Mostly I learned player development, what it looked like and how it should be. What did you think the ultimate destination was going to be? Becoming an NBA head coach?
