Posts Tagged “basketball”
I was reading an article the other day on the Sports Illustrated web site about Larry Bird.
The article was an excerpt from “When March went Mad: The Game that Transformed Basketball,” a book about the 1979 NCAA basketball championship between Bird’s Indiana State team and the Michigan State team lead by Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
The article focuses on Bird and how he came to play basketball for Indiana State. He had originally signed and attended Indiana University, but went back home to French Lick, Indiana, after having a bad experience at the school.
Later, Bill Hodges, an assistant coach at Indiana State, went to Bird’s town to talk to him about coming to that school, according to the article. Hodges was talking to Bird about needing good players when Bird suggested a player from French Lick who had graduated from high school a few years earlier.
“He would have been a really good player if he had gone to college,” Bird told the coach.
Hodges replied, “You know, Larry, someday they’re gonna say the same thing about you if you don’t go to school.”
The article said that for the first time that day, Bird looked Hodges straight in the eye. He said nothing.
As you probably know, Bird went on to play for Indiana State where in 1979 he led them to the championship game that is the focus of the book. He went on to become one of the great NBA players of all-time.
Later, I couldn’t quit thinking about the comment the coach made to Bird. I thought of all the people who go through life in their own personal French Lick. They realize later they should have taken some chance in life to become who they were meant to be.
If that thought hits you, consider these questions:
• How are you still holding yourself back? Loosen up on the reins a little.
• What kept you from doing what you think you should have done? Make sure you don’t make the same mistake again.
• What feelings arise when you think about missed opportunities? If you feel bad, realize that it’s never too late to do what you should do.
Get in touch with your dreams, then focus on reaching them. Start today.
Steve DeVane
Last year, I got to coach my daughter’s recreation league basketball team.
I was really looking forward to it. I knew since I hadn’t coached that age level before that my team probably wouldn’t be as talented as many of the other teams, but I thought we’d be competitive.
I was wrong. We lost every game. There were only two games that we had any chance of winning. Most games we got our doors blown off.
By the end of the year, I was totally frustrated. To be honest, I felt like a failure. Looking back, I’ve tried to find lessons that I could learn from the season.
I think I made two big mistakes.
First, I overestimated what the girls could learn. I had in mind several plays and several defenses that I thought they could play.
We practiced our plays, and we practiced our defenses, but when we played our first game we looked lost. It seemed as if we’d never been on a basketball court before.
After a similar performance the next game, I decided we had to scale back on what we were doing. That was my second mistake.
When I tried to get back to more basic basketball, the girls got even more confused. It took me several more games before I realized that the shift had made things worse. By then, it was too late to do much about it. I tried several desperate moves, but nothing worked.
So what’s the lesson? Once you’ve decided on a strategy stick with it until you have to change.
Napoleon Hill analyzed hundreds of successful men for his book, “Think and Grow Rich.” He discovered “that every one of them had the habit of REACHING DECISIONS PROMPTLY, and of changing these decisions SLOWLY, if, and when they were changed.”
Sometimes adjustments are needed when things go wrong, but don’t be too hasty to change directions at the smallest bump in the road.
Steve DeVane