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At Large with Alex Wong: Cleveland Cavaliers forward Larry Nance Jr.

Welcome to “At Large with Alex Wong,” a podcast where I’ll be sitting down with athletes, celebrities, media personalities and generally interesting people to dive beyond the surface and find out who these people really are.

My favourite NBA stories are usually the ones that have nothing to do with what’s happening on the basketball court. A few years ago, I read one of my favourite off-the-court NBA stories. Larry Nance Jr., a member of the Los Angeles Lakers at the time, reconnected with his pen pal Bianca Campbell, who was stationed in Saudi Arabia as a member of the U.S. Army when a 10-year-old Nance used to write letters about his NBA dreams.

Larry Nance Jr. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
Larry Nance Jr. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)

Almost 15 years later, Nance invited Campbell to visit the Lakers practice facility and attend a game. I’ve always wanted to talk to Nance about this experience and we finally got a chance to do so recently.

On this episode, Nance and I chat about pen pals, being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease as a teen and how he manages it day-to-day, his favourite in-game dunks, playing with Kobe Bryant in his final season, making the NBA Finals with LeBron James, and more.

Episode Guide

Episode 1: Jeremy Lin

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