> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Koubek passes Duke b-ball principles to Santa Monica
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/koubek-passes-duke-b-ball-principles-to-santa-monica/
- Published: 2005-05-23T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:11:21.000Z
- Author: Ryan Hyatt
- Tags: Sports, Santa Monica, #archive-import

The first person in NCAA basketball tournament history to play four times in the Final Four has brought the skills learned from his college career at Duke University to Santa Monica, where he now lives.

Greg Koubek, 36, was born in Clifton Park, N.Y. Raised Catholic in a family of 11, Koubek was the youngest of four brothers who learned early in such a large household the importance of paving your own way in life. Playing basketball since the age of 5, Koubek realized by high school that his favorite sport might be his ticket to a free college education. Graduating from Shenendowa High School in 1987, he and his family were visited by top recruiters from around the country, who talked up their great collegiate basketball programs. Koubek decided to attend Duke University, where he believed coach Mike Kryzewski, also known as “Coach K,” offered him the best opportunity for a successful basketball career and college education.

After playing forward on a championship Duke basketball team his senior year, Koubek graduated in 1991 with a degree in sociology. Not sure a professional basketball career was in store for him, he worked for a Tokyo trading company for four years and continued to play basketball in the Japanese league. Then he traveled the world and worked for three more years in parts of Asia and Africa.

He returned to the United States in 1997 and took a position as the director of the Albany, New York YMCA. There he met his future wife, Dr. Natalie Shum, who was pursuing her medical degree.

Koubek and Shum directed a weekend, evening co-ed recreational program at the YMCA. Koubek taught the youth — mostly young men — basketball skills. Shum taught a group of young women how to dance. Although they spent every weekend together, Koubek said he didn’t muster the nerve to ask Shum out until three months after having met her.

“Finally, I asked her out,” he said. “She said, ‘Sure, I’ll see you this weekend at the Y.’”

Koubek and Shum have been living in Santa Monica for two years, the time in which they’ve been married. Shum is pursuing her residency at Santa Monica- UCLA Medical Center. Koubek works as the YMCA’s executive director in Gardena. He also is an assistant coach for Brentwood School, a private high school.

In June, Koubek will be directing a basketball camp at Brentwood School, along with others he runs with his family in New York.

How did you get started playing basketball?

“We had a hoop in our driveway. I’d go out there and shoot. I used to play with my older brothers, and they used to always kick my butt. My goal was always to be able to kick their butt, and I think I was able to do so by seventh or eighth grade.

“Basketball was always something I could do on my own. I played other sports, like baseball, but basketball is one of those great sports where you can practice and improve by yourself, go out and shoot by the driveway and work on your shot and get better. You don’t need someone else to practice with you. You can recognize your improvements in basketball, and you start to fall in love with it. It becomes addictive. You think, ‘I want to get better and better and better and keep working on it.

“I played against Kenny Anderson for the state championship against Archbishop Malloy, a school in New York City. I was 6 feet, 6 inches tall in high school and weighed 185 pounds. A suburban team never won against a team, even in their section, until in 1985\. My brother Tim was on that team. Then in ’87 we won the section again and went all the way to the state championship, a pretty big accomplishment for a small-town school.”

Tell us about the recruitment process. “Duke, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Wake Forest, Syracuse, Villanova, Northeastern and Stanford were some schools that wanted me.

“Some of the coaches had awesome personalities. They came over, talked, but they didn’t talk a lot about basketball. They were more concerned about just having fun, getting to know you, and very entertaining. My mom didn’t like basketball, and she didn’t want me to go to Duke because we’re Catholic and they’re the ‘Blue Devils.’ But my dad thought Duke was a great school, and that motivated me.

“My four visits were to Villanova, Georgia Tech, Syracuse and Duke, but it was Coach K at Duke who really narrowed it for me. There is a part of you that wants to believe anything he says. If he said we were going to win the Final Four, or win the championship, he spoke with such passion you believed him. When he got excited about something, he’d get goose bumps talking to you. The hairs would stand up on the back of his head. You knew that if you did what he said, you were going to win.

“And what was different about him was that a lot of other coaches would kind of promise you something. ‘You’re going to be a starter, you’re going to be this, you’re going to be that.’ Coach K never did that. He said from the start ‘you’re going to have to earn every minute you get.’ I knew if I went to Duke I was going to be learning from a guy who didn’t just care about me as a basketball player. He cared about me as a person. I knew it was a good move to go to Duke University.

“So when I started out at Duke as a freshman, in ’87 and ’88, I show up for conditioning, and all of the former Duke players who were playing in the NBA showed up to scrimmage with us. Talk about competition. That was the best competition I ever faced in my life. That was in a gym with no air-conditioning. A sweat box.”

What were rivalries like? “When I played, I never hated Carolina. I hate them now. I think I was too young then to realize that they had something we wanted, or vice versa. The games were these huge battles, and you wanted to kick each other’s ass. It was a whole other level of competition, some of those games, with the fans screaming at you, they put all of the fans right there on the court, and they were all ready to kick your ass. Dennis Scott at Georgia Tech had a weight problem, so when they announced his name, the crowd would throw Twinkies at him.

“In 1991, Duke won the national championship for the first time. I was a senior. We were matched up with UNLV, who we lost to by 30 points the year before. When UNLV walked on the floor, they were like a pro team. They had that kind of aura about them. When they walked on that floor, you knew they were going to kick your ass and had no respect for you. Seriously, those guys were in a whole other league. But when we came on, Grant Hill had the first five points, and we knew right there we were going to take that game.

“When Grant Hill was a freshman, I was a senior. I thought I had the starting job lined up. I had heard when he was coming in he was highly talented, but I was thinking, ‘So? He’s a freshman. I’m going to get the starting job, and he’s going to have to wait his time.’ I can remember one of the first times guarding him at Duke. We were going to try to force him baseline. He had one fake base-line and turned around me and dunked it. I couldn’t even move. He was so quick and so good. The country didn’t know how good he was, but we knew in practice seeing him compete every day what a great, great player he was.”

What did Bobby Hurley do to get so fast, so quick and so good?

“I know in the off-season he used those strength shoes. He always wanted to dunk, so when he came in as a freshman he was in unbelievable condition, and I think that had a lot to do with his work ethic off the court. And his competitive nature was above and beyond anything I had ever seen.

“I think Christian Laettner was the only person who was more competitive. I’ve heard Michael Jordan is the most competitive person in the world, but I’d like to see how he compares to Christian Laettner. I mean he’d compete with the way you dress, the girls you dated. He’d compete with you at ping pong. I think he is the best player to ever play college basketball.

“They were both unbelievably competitive. When you’re competitive, you’re going to go out there and work on your weaknesses. Bobby worked on his shot, and by the time he was a senior he was unbelievable.”

What did you do after college? “I worked and played basketball in Japan. Took several hours of Japanese a day. Learned the language. I love Japan, Japanese people and sushi. There is so much order in Japan, and the public transportation system is incredible. I loved riding my bike to work. The people were accommodating and interested in learning about me.

“Every place I went I started up basketball camps. I opened up the first overnight basketball camp in South Africa. We had 60 kids there.

“It was great to see people in different countries with a desire to learn the game and not take things for granted. They had a real hunger and desire to learn, and I loved being in that atmosphere. At the same time, I’d go back to my camp in New York, which I have been running since 1991 and help the people in my hometown. My dad and brothers help.

“Then in Albany I got a job as the director for the YMCA, and I started a weekend night program to help those kids who needed it get some opportunities to learn more about the game.

“Then my future wife came in and started teaching the girls to dance. We had 150 kids come in every Saturday night. It was amazing.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 23, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/052305.pdf?ref=smdp.com)