Wednesday, May 4, 2011

JORDAN ON PRACTICE AND LOSING

One of our favorite books in past seasons to assign to our players to read is "How To Be Like Mike," by Pat Williams.  It is a wonderful book with great insights and stories as to what made Michael Jordan great.

One of the stories shared by Williams was an annual meeting held by Phil Jackson the night before he started training camp. Jackson would bring his team together on the eve of the first practice and close by asking each player to give his individual goals. Jordan was always the last player to speak and he always had the same thing to say:

“I have no individual goals. We play for one reason and that’s to win the title. Practice is more important than the games, and I will practice when I’m hurt, when 95 percent of the players in this league would sit out. I expect all of you to do the same thing. You will follow my lead.”

In terms of handling a defeat, Jordan said, “Accept a loss as a learning experience and never point fingers at your teammates.”