# 294. NBA's Top Psychologist Reveals How to Thrive Under Pressure | Wayne Chappelle

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-learn-it-all-podcast-6700797/294-nba-s-top-psychologist-reveals-how-to-thrive-under-pressure-wayne-chappelle
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-learn-it-all-podcast-6700797/294-nba-s-top-psychologist-reveals-how-to-thrive-under-pressure-wayne-chappelle.md
Podcast: [the Learn-It-All™ podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-learn-it-all-podcast-6700797)
Published: 2026-05-07T16:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.learnit.com/podcast
Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/f5a17ca8-d3f5-4398-a19e-dd5abee528f4.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-learn-it-all-podcast-6700797/episodes/294-nba-s-top-psychologist-reveals-how-to-thrive-under-pressure-wayne-chappelle
Duration seconds: 2833

## Resource

What if your team isn’t underperforming because of talent, strategy, or effort, but because they’re mentally falling apart under pressure? In this episode of The Learn-It-All™ Podcast, Damon sits down with clinical psychologist and Oklahoma City Thunder’s team psychologist Wayne Chappelle to break down the emotional, social, and behavioral habits that separate good teams from elite teams. Drawing from his work with special operations, professional athletes, executives, and high-performance organizations, Wayne explains why talent and physical stamina matter, but are never enough on their own. Wayne shares the 4 warning signs that leaders and teams are starting to break down: blindness, complacency, distraction, and despair. He also explains why every leader needs a “wingman,” why difficult feedback is a sign of investment, and why the best performers learn how to compartmentalize emotion when pressure gets high. As Wayne puts it, if your emotional IQ is low, it does not matter how smart, talented, or experienced you are because eventually, it will hurt the team. This conversation is a masterclass in high-performance leadership, mental toughness, team accountability, growth mindset, emotional resilience, and building a culture that can handle the crucible before it arrives. In This Episode, You’ll Learn: Why natural talent and physical capability are important, but not enough to build an extraordinary team The 4 warning signs your team is mentally falling apart: blindness, complacency, distraction, and despair How elite teams use debriefs to normalize feedback, even after a successful mission or project How to compartmentalize emotion under pressure so you can make decisions based on facts, logic, and objective data Why past success does not earn you a permanent seat on…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-learn-it-all-podcast-6700797/episodes/294-nba-s-top-psychologist-reveals-how-to-thrive-under-pressure-wayne-chappelle/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-learn-it-all-podcast-6700797/294-nba-s-top-psychologist-reveals-how-to-thrive-under-pressure-wayne-chappelle.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.