Biography
John Amaechi is the only Briton to have enjoyed a career in the NBA. After a seven year contract with the most successful team in American sport, he was duly inducted into the US Basketball Hall of Fame.
John won great respect for his ability to overcome adversity, even life-threatening injury. He was once described as 'a player with little innate physical talent, who rose to remarkable heights on the back of terrific will and a tremendous strategy.'
Since retiring from professional basketball, John has pursued his PhD in psychology, co-authoring a paper on self-esteem and goal setting. He has also founded the ABC Foundation, to increase physical activity amongst youths. It mentors, encourages community cohesion and provides positive pathways. The first sports centre has opened in Manchester and there are plans for six more around the country, a rather unusual achievement for a man raised in Stockport near Manchester.
John was born in Boston, Massachusetts in the US to a Nigerian father and a British mother but was raised in Stockport.
John has always shown tremendous focus and application – in mind, spirit and in body. He understands motivation, personal development and the roots of success. His experience is immense and his formula applies to anyone - in any walk of life.
Aged seventeen, and at 6ft 10in, John first picked up a basketball…but he was considered to have arrived ‘too late to the game’ to have any chance of success. However, John’s personal drive proved his critics wrong. Twelve years later, he became the first and only Briton to earn a place in the revered US Basketball Hall of Fame.
Although now retired from the basketball court, John combines the knowledge of a demanding elite sport with successful psychological strategies for performance. He is a practised communicator whose experience is in demand across a range of different industries and organisations on both sides of the Atlantic.
In 2007 John released a best-selling book, Man in the Middle, which discusses his career and life as a closeted professional athlete. Amaechi is the first NBA player to speak publicly about being gay
John was one of the BBC’s main commentators at the Bejing 2008 Olympic Games. As a former Captain of the English Basketball squad and as one of the Ambassadors for the successful London 2012 Olympic Bid, John is uniquely positioned to inspire young people to new heights of achievement. As a Judge on The Speaker, BBC2, John is a serious advocate of structure and focus as a route to unlocking excellence. He will be aiming to fire up the Speakers, encouraging them to speak with passion, commitment and personality.
He is a champion of young people and passionate about their rights and needs in an ever changing world. His motivational style and coaching ability is what he brings to all of his professional encounters.
John is a multi-faceted speaker who has travelled the globe to speak on wide-ranging and influential topics.
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