A Family Legacy of Resilience with Dan Grunfeld

In this interview about grit and determination, author and former professional basketball player Dan Grunfeld tells the harrowing story of how his grandmother escaped the Holocaust during World War II. Dan goes on to describe the challenges his grandmother, grandfather, uncle, and father faced as they moved to the United States to begin a new life for themselves after the war. Unable to speak English, Dan’s father, Ernie Grunfeld, used the resilience he inherited from his parents to turn himself into a high school basketball phenom who went on to become a collegiate All-American, Olympic Gold Medal winner for Team USA in 1976, and an NBA player and executive.

Dan describes his personal duty to honor his grandmother, father, and their family legacy by honing his skills, body, and mind so he could be the best athlete and person he can be. He wraps up the conversation by describing his own path to becoming a standout college basketball player and his unrelenting willingness to overcome a brutal knee injury that nearly ended his chances at a professional basketball career.

Dan Grunfeld is a former professional basketball player, an accomplished writer, and a proud graduate of Stanford University. An Academic All-American and All-Conference basketball selection at Stanford, Dan played professionally for eight seasons in top leagues around the world, including in Germany, Spain, and Israel. Dan is the author of the critically acclaimed book, By the Grace of the Game, and his writing has been published more than 40 times in media outlets such as Sports Illustrated, The Jerusalem Post, and NBC News. Dan earned his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2017 and lives with his wife and sons in Northern Virginia, where he works in venture capital.

“I had her as my guide, and also my dad as examples of what they overcame, what they went through. So, I cried, I mourned it, I was disappointed, I was upset, but then I was motivated. It took a little bit of time, but pretty quickly I started thinking what’s next? How do I get over this? How do I get back? How do I recover? You fall down and you get up. I know that, of course, from my family. That was my mentality. So I just started getting to work.” Dan Grunfeld talking about how his grandmother’s and father’s examples of resilience helped him overcome a knee injury that nearly ended his chances at a professional basketball career.

A Family Legacy of Resilience with Dan Grunfeld

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