Max Landis is a pro basketball player from Indianapolis, currently signed with FC Porto in Portugal through 2025. After a great high school career at Perry Meridian, Max decided to go to Gardner-Webb to start his college career. After 2 seasons there, he decided to transfer closer to home and finish his career at Purdue Fort Wayne (IPFW at the time).

The catch? He was going to be a walk-on at Purdue Fort Wayne.

Max decided to bet on himself and take that walk-on spot over other offers at different schools and earn his way into a scholarship. He not only did that, he worked his way to being conference player of the year and an NCAA All-American honorable mention player.

After college, Max played several seasons in Belgium and Germany before landing in Portugal. Porto became home. Even through the adversity of two torn ACLs and a torn Achilles, FC Porto has not only extended Max’s contract, but Max has decided to continuously battle back from these devastating injuries.

Currently rehabbing his Achilles, Max joins us to discuss his recovery process, the journey of his basketball career and what he’s looking forward to when he gets back on the court.

Enjoy this episode and make sure to hit up Max on Instagram to wish him a speedy recovery!

Kelsey Barlow — aka Stambi — is much more than a pro basketball player. Growing up in Europe, Kelsey didn’t specialize in basketball — or sports — at a young age. First it was piano, then horse-back riding, then way down the line basketball eventually became his passion. And that passion has taken him back to Europe & all around the globe over the last decade+ of his pro career.

Kelsey was a standout high school player at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis before going to Purdue and later transferring to UIC. After college, he began his career in the NBA D-League (now G-League) before moving on to play in France, Greece, Lebanon, Turkey, Argentina, Mexico and more.

During the podcast we talk about his unique upbringing moving from Europe to Indiana, his basketball & personal development, his off-court interests such as writing & art, and a variety of other interesting topics. He even tells us the story behind his nickname, Stambi, and what is means. Tune in, this is a great one!

You can catch up with Stambi on his website or social media here!

Tony Hicks is currently in his 7th professional season, having played in countries like Hungary, Germany, Venezuela and more, but this basketball career wasn’t always a dream of his. Tony actually grew up in Chicago wanting to be the next great NFL quarterback, modeling his game after Chicago legend Donovan McNabb.

Tony mentioned that this “late bloomer” timeline actually helped his basketball career by helping him avoid the mental and physical burnout that many early basketball specialization athletes run into during their careers.

Tony’s basketball started to take off as a sophomore at Chicago [football] powerhouse St. Rita High School, where he began to draw major interest on the court from D1 schools around the country. After a summer injury that took him out of that football season, he began to prepare for that basketball season and next looked back. The rest was history, and the story is still being written as his 7 year professional basketball career continues to blossom.

In this episode, Tony takes us through his dominant career at Penn, his grad transfer year at Louisville with the legendary Rick Pitino and the different stages of growth throughout his pro career. Tony is currently in the top league in Hungary, coming off the best year of his career and looking to continue to take the leaps he has over the past few seasons.

Check this episode and make sure you follow Tony on IG at @1of1Tone!

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