South Bend Clay alum and former NBA player Lee Nailon was back in town today, visiting kids at Beacon Children’s Hospital. Nailon now plays for the Ghost Ballers of the BIG3 basketball league.
Nailon was a star at Clay High School, leading the team to the state championship in 1994. He went on to play in college at Southeastern Iowa Community College and Butler Community College, before settling at TCU.
In 1999, Nailon was drafted in the second round by the Charlotte Hornets, and played six years in the NBA for the Hornets, New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks, Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Philadelphia 76ers.
He then played for a number of teams overseas, before playing in the inaugural season of BIG3, a 3-on-3 basketball league created by rapper Ice Cube.
“Everyday we live our life, thinking that everything is tough, but there’s always somebody on the other side that’s going through a togher battle than you,” Nailon said. “For me, it was more of a wake up every day happy, don’t try to be stressing yourself out, you know make sure everything that you can control you do your best at doing it. Me going to the hospital was really just an eye-opener for me and kind of a slap in the face, like ‘you don’t have it so bad after all.”
Nailon plans on visiting a children’s hospital in Chicago on Thursday, and hopes to do the same in every city the Ghost Ballers play in.
With the Ghost Ballers, Nailon is coached by Hall of Famer George “The Iceman” Gervin and plays alongside fellow former NBA stars Mike Bibby and Carlos Boozer.
The Ghost Ballers next game is Friday, June 29th in Chicago against the Killer 3’s. That game can be streamed on Facebook.