Digital Social Hour
Maxwell Lewis : He Almost Quit Basketball… Now He’s in the NBA | DSH #1560
09 Oct 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
I started late, late bloomer. Growing up, I really wasn't just playing A&U and traveling. I was just a regular kid playing outside and just doing basic stuff. I never really got introduced to it. Once I did, I was already kind of late, but I got introduced to it late when I was in high school.
Chapter 2: What challenges did Maxwell Lewis face transitioning from college to pro basketball?
I played A&U my ninth grade year, and I just got better once I played 15, 16, 17 U, and then just went from there.
Chapter 3: How does Maxwell handle pressure in the NBA environment?
I feel like I could play on any other team, any like the Rockets or the Spurs, but this is a good team to really learn.
Chapter 4: What insights has Maxwell gained from veteran players like LeBron James?
And they always say, if you can play on a championship winning team, you can play for any team. When playoffs comes, LeBron literally was like, that's when like, it's no mistakes. It's perfect. That's when whoever's good on the team, that's when it shows, you know?
Chapter 5: What are Maxwell's thoughts on the new in-season tournament?
So playoffs is the real deal.
Chapter 6: Who does Maxwell Lewis model his game after?
All right, guys.
Chapter 7: What was it like for Maxwell to start his basketball career late?
Max Lewis here today. Thanks for coming on, man.
Chapter 8: What were some memorable rookie year pranks and experiences?
Yes, sir. Not often a guest is taller than me. How tall are you? Six, six. Oh, wow. Right there. Six, six, eight. Yeah. Damn. Did you hit that in high school or did you keep growing after high school? I'll say I kept growing like college. I was like six, five when I came in as a freshman. And then like I left at like six, seven. Damn. You were still going to college. Pepperdine, right? Yes, sir.
How many years you play there? I did, too. OK, too. And you were out. Yeah. Was that the plan? That was initially the plan. I wanted to leave after my first year, but I had broke my wrist. It was like three games left of a conference. And I was I stole the ball, went up for a dunk and like landed like right on my wrist. And I was like. Got to go back another year.
So I did that and really took off after. Nice. How far did you guys make it in the tournament? We didn't make it to the tournament, but we were just pretty young. You know what I'm saying? It was just like six sophomores on the team, no seniors. We didn't really have like no real vets on the team. So it was really just us, but we didn't make a tournament run. We were solid.
So if you're not on like a big team, you could still get drafted though? Yeah, yeah. Mid-major is definitely where it's at. I feel like if you're good enough and the GMs and those guys, they know if you're a pro or not. I don't think it matters on the level. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, because it's hard to shine on an elite team because everyone's so good, right? Exactly.
It's just a better platform. If you are like a big five team, power five team, I meant like a Kentucky or Duke. Yeah. Was that your thought process when you were choosing a college? Like, okay, I might not get as many minutes at some of these schools. Yeah, no, that actually wasn't the plan. I don't.
No, if you you probably were going to ask me before, but around COVID after high school, I had had this opportunity come to me, this person. And it was like, do you want to work with me for a year? And it's called it was called Chameleon BX at the time. And it was me, Kyrie Walker, Marjon, Bo Champ and this other dude. But it was us. It was us four. And they were like, we'll pay you.
And, you know, you just you just work out with me for a year and put your name in the draft. And at the time, no one was getting like offered like that. Like, I don't even think Ignite was it. I mean, yeah, G League Ignite was a thing. And I'm like, like, yeah, like, let's do it. But before that, my offers, like my top five was like St. John's, Oklahoma, Baylor. Baylor is nice.
Yeah, I had had a good top five. So I wanted to go. I was going to go to Baylor, but I just thought it was the best idea for me since COVID. I didn't think like college was going to be a thing at the time. I thought they was going to shut like everything down. You know what I'm saying? So yeah. I took that and it didn't work. After four months, the whole business went bankrupt and it was bad.
After that, I went back to the drawing board and my AAU coach was like, you have to go to college. I didn't really have those offers I had at the time and only had like Pepperdine, San Diego State, UC Santa Barbara, those mid-major schools. And at the time, Lorenzo Romar was there. That's like the best coach I ever had. And he helped me get to the league for sure. Wow.
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