Basketball player Elijah Bryant answers 25 rapid-fire questions about his life. He's married, expecting a child, and plays professionally in Tel Aviv while finishing his degree at BYU. His main goal is bringing people to Christ, and he's learning Spanish and Hebrew.
Chapters
Hey, what's up guys? Welcome back to the channel. I'm Elijah Bryant and we're all about helping you on and off the basketball court. Today I'm gonna tell you little guys about myself. I'm gonna do 25 questions, random things, so you can get to know me. Here we go.
You got a chance, but I don't see how. Got a real tight grip when I hold that crown. My life been good and bad and all around. More things—
here he goes again, Elijah Bryant, dazzling dribble dancing. Athens, Georgia, which is like an hour outside of Atlanta. Then I moved in 9th grade to Gwinnett, Georgia, where I was actually born. Yeah, I love Athens, man. I— my dream school was UGA.
Shout out to Coach Felton.
That's a funny one because actually I'm homeless if I'm not overseas working. I currently live right now, I'm in Israel, Tel Aviv, Israel, where I have the team I play for. When I'm back home in America, I live between Atlanta, Georgia and Draper, Utah. Honestly, like, I thought when this question came up, like, obviously you would say, oh, my wife, my best friend, but she wasn't my first best friend. I would say my first best friend, actually, like, when I really thought about it, was a kid named Montgomery Vanquitter. Shout out to him and his wife, they just got married. Elementary school, both like the, you know, two athletic, athletic kid, remember athletic kids? So we thought we were like super cool. We win everything at athletics and we just thought we were the coolest people ever. I am 6'4", which is 1.93 meters. 6'4" without the hair, so if you add the hair 7 feet tall. Dogs for sure. Dogs for sure. Something about cats— when I think about cats, it's just like I had this notion of like, if you have cats, there's for sure cat hair in your food that you're making. Anything someone makes, I'm like, do you have cats? And if they have cats, I'm like, kind of skeptical of the food. I would say just like one of my friends is a class clown and kind of getting him going, making him go at the teacher was hilarious because you get kicked out of class all the time. Those were the best moments, you know, when like you're not supposed to be laughing but it's so hard not to laugh. Like you're just seeing who laughs first.
Who laughs first gets kicked out of class.
I was born in 1995, April 19th. So yes, I've gone to college. First attended Elon University, which is in North Carolina, and I went to BYU and I transferred. So if you're interested in hearing about my transfer, let me know. I actually technically have 2 more classes to finish, which I plan to finish sometime soon.
I should be finished.
My all-time favorite drink actually is Sprite, and I don't drink it that often. I think, I don't know, the flavors just go so well together. Like, when you haven't had a Sprite for a while. It's so good. I don't know, something about it just tastes so good. I also like kombucha. Okay, so this one was kind of weird because like I've never done this before. Mine was a whale, which I don't know, because you have strong inner voice and always follow your own truth. Yeah, I would say that. Because you are so in touch with reality, you are self-aware and don't get involved in drama. You have strong bonds and emotional ties with those you love. I would agree, but when I thought whale, I'm like The first thing I thought is like, dang, I'm fat. Spiritual animal is fat. Yeah, I just did some random quiz online and I'm a whale.
What's your spiritual animal?
I wear YSL. It's like in a bluish hand bottle. I would say matcha tea. Matcha tea for sure. My number one goal in life, I would say, is to bring more people into Christ, just for them to understand that we have a Savior, that he lives for us, died for our sins, all that stuff. Like, that's so much more important than like basketball, money, school, like all that stuff, because like without him none of this would be possible. So that's my number one goal. I want to play in the NBA. I want to retire a certain age. I want to serve a mission with my wife one day, mission presidents, because I didn't have the opportunity. I did have the opportunity to serve a mission, but I didn't because I wasn't ready at the time. Oh, I play golf. Obviously I play basketball. That is my job. My part-time job to my full-time job is bringing people into Christ. I love self-improvement books. I'm always looking for a way to get better, gain an edge— nutrition, diet, mental, finance, whatever. Like, I like to listen to MMA fighters on their podcast just to hear their brain, hear their thoughts and what they go through. Power of the Subconscious Mind by Robert Murphy. It's, uh, it's one of those you can read like over and over and over and never— you always pick up something new. Now my other one would be Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill. It's like a conversation between Napoleon and the devil. He never released it and his family released it like 5 to 10 years after he died, which is super interesting because he was worried that something was going to happen to him if he did release it while he was living. It's a great concept of how the devil wants us to think, and if we can combat that and think the other way, then it'll make our lives 10 times easier. And obviously The Secret. The Secret's a great book about law of attraction. So those are my top 3: Outwitting the Devil, Power of the Subconscious Mind, and The Secret.
And Book of Mormon.
Funny thing is, I'm not really a movie guy. Maybe I can't focus for that long, but I would say favorite, favorite movie?
Hey, he's dead!
What?
You better not tell nobody, man. Man, I'm not— man, keep it on the down low. All right, I'm not like that. I'm gonna keep it down, bro. Hey, Smokey, back here taking this.
He's dead!
Well, I ain't gonna tell nobody else.
That's a great movie.
Casey Neistat and probably David Dobrik. Seize from the Sixers. He just started a YouTube channel and he's killing it. I love his content. It gives the viewer a great idea of what goes on behind the scenes in the NBA life, because I know it goes on behind the scenes in like, let's say, Summer League, overseas, but it really humanizes the players, which I think they need to do more often, because at the end of the day, we, them, we're all humans and we make mistakes. So understanding that they're humans, they're not robots, I think it helps a lot. Helps the league, it helps the image of the league, it helps everyone.
I would like to say I speak Spanish.
Spanish, but I don't speak Spanish. My wife speaks Spanish. I want to speak Spanish. I need to learn more Hebrew, honestly. You guys know that I am married for 3 years and a little man on the way. I'm so excited. I, I— it doesn't seem real yet. I see my wife's bump all the time, but it just doesn't seem real. Like, it would definitely seem real when I'm waking up grabbing that bottle at night. What is your idea of a dream date? So my idea of a dream date, I want to go to my favorite restaurant, I want to get some ice cream, and I, I'm just always like on go. Like if I'm resting, I feel like I could be doing something to get better, whether it's reading, whether that's studying, whether that's learning something new, whether that's— no matter what, I'm always trying to find an edge to get better, not just in basketball, but just like in life, how to be a better husband, better dad, or son. I'm always trying to learn. I would say Houston's. That was a tangent. Why did they even— where did— I would say Houston's, the Hawaiian ribeye. If you haven't had it, just let me know when you have it. It's so— it's the best steak I've ever had. Like, it has the most flavor. Every time I land back in Atlanta, that's my first stop. Hawaiian ribeye, the loaded baked potato. Add everything, no chives, but then also double my sides— sour cream, cheese, bacon, butter, all that— put that on the side, because you know you run out of the stuff. So let's say you heat up the next day, you have fresh toppings on that. Let's go! Oh, I can't wait to get back there. Obviously, 5 years with my wife. We dated for a while. If you wanted— if you want to see what happened with her, how we met. Go watch that video. I have two siblings, Shea and Kai. Shea is currently a freshman at UCLA. He's gonna kill there. Go follow him, he loves the clout. And then Kai, he's an up-and-coming basketball player. He's 13 and, you know, he's just— he's in grind mode right now, you know. At that age when you're working hard, you know, to get that Division I scholarship, it's grind mode in my opinion. You guys don't know, but you'll know soon. My mom is—
tap, tap, tap, tap! What is up, Kai?
On top of it, I'm telling you. I mean, it definitely pays off, and my brothers can attest to this.
Go-to fast food order?
There's only one option really to me. Chipotle.
I love Chipotle.
Fast 2, it's somewhat healthy, right? I mean, chicken and rice. I mean, chicken, rice, veggies. Like, I mean, pretty— it's pretty healthy, right? It's my go-to order when I'm really hungry. I get a bowl with double rice, double chicken. Don't say anything, I know, fat boy props. But before I get there, I need to tell you guys a hack. If you want more food— this is me, this is me, I'm cheap— if you want more food, you tell them to put the chicken first, right? And then the rice, because it looks like less chicken, so they put more chicken. See? I'm helping you out on this channel. Veggies, corn, green salsa, light cheese. Try to limit the dairy in my life. 3 dressings. And you're asking yourself, what is a dressing? You don't know about the dressing? That's like you not knowing about the ribeye or the extra sides on the side. The dressings make it go crazy. I'm telling you, like, it's the vinaigrette.
Crazy.
It's fire. When you get to the cash register, say, may I get a dressing? Might as well ask for 2 because you're gonna want 2. You pour over, but don't— let's Don't soak it in it. You gotta like season it, you know what I mean? Like, don't go crazy on the thing because then it's gonna be soupy. You're not gonna want that. You have leftovers, season that joint. Crazy. And then I usually add a chicken quesadilla. The chicken quesadilla, obviously chicken and cheese. You dip the quesadilla in the dress, man.
Chipotle is my life.
Chipotle needs to come to Israel. That would be fire.
Mac all day, every day.
I've been Mac for a while. Why wouldn't you be Mac? Obviously for gaming, I think PC is like what they use. I don't know, I don't game unless it's on the Xbox. I would say that would be last year. We went to, we went to so many places. We had so much time off just because we played one game a week and we had certain breaks. Either Cairo, Egypt, or Petra, Jordan. I mean, those are one of the two of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was amazing. It was such a great opportunity just to see other cultures and experience all those sites. I mean, it's just like, I think they made like Petra with no modern-day tools like a hammer and a chisel. But if you guys want to see how that was, you can go check that out up there. With me, I mean, I pretty much know everything about me. I would say one day I want to live off the ground. Not a better bedroom in the world. Wake up in the morning, have breakfast. I've been talking to my wife about this. I want to be self-sustainable, energy efficient. No one knows where I live. I would do a tiny home type guy. Like, that's where I'm right now. It's minimalist. I want to be a minimalist, and wanting to be one and actually being one is two different things. I'm working on trying to be one. Everything tastes like chicken out here except chicken. Ask my wife, can we do this? She's like, yeah, let's start with you camping in the backyard.
He sleeps in tree stumps.
And me sleeping in the bed. But we'll see how that goes. That is it. I hope you guys got to know me a little bit better, and thanks for watching. I'll see you in the next one. Peace.
I ain't trying to bring you down, but for real, you might as well give up now. Think you got a chance, but I don't see how. Got a real tight grip when I hold that crown. My life been good and bad and all around. The more things
