THOUGHTS FROM CELTICS' BRAD STEVENS

For those of you that compete, here are some great concepts to keep in mind from Brad Stevens, head coach of the Boston Celtics:

"You have to earn your right to win the game with effort and togetherness."

"The game honors toughness."

“My goal is win the next game one possession at a time.  That’s it.  I don’t have any other goals.”

“The deal is, you can’t play basketball without a clear mind. And so you’ve got to do your best to control what you can, clear your mind, and not get too overly concerned about things that are not confirmed by people in the position that are ultimately going to make decisions.”

 

NO EXCUSES

WHAT CHAMPIONS KNOW AND DO

The following comes from Jim Afremow as a contributing editor for The Sporting News.  He also has wrote an outstanding book The Champion's Mind: How Great Athletes Think, Train, and Thrive." Follow him on Twitter @goldmedalmind.

1. Champions know that vague goals lead to vague results. They know exactly what they want to accomplish and think of each day a golden opportunity to chip away at their big-picture goal.

2. Champions don't care what the obstacles are because they love to battle and get back on top again. Tough times make them even tougher!

3. Champions always play to the max, whether in practice or games. They go out and ball out with their best attitude and a complete effort.
 
4. Champions learn to make every play (or shot, etc.) count. They relish the poor ones as much as the powerful ones. 

5. Champions keep their attitude and work ethic constant throughout the ups and downs that are part of every season. They never let up or give up.

6. Champions understand that the better they get, the harder they need to work. A true champion never thinks in terms of, "Well, I've got it made."

7. Champions take as much pleasure in the journey as the destination, the process as much as the product. 

WHAT'S MORE IMPORTANT? YOUR TEAM OR YOUR MINUTES?

What type of attitude do you have as a player in regard to what's best for your team?  Are you most worried about the success of your team or the minutes you are going to play?  Here is the greatest of stories about sacrificing individual minutes for the good of the team by possibly the greatest collection of players to ever compete -- the ORIGINAL DREAM TEAM!

The following comes from the Dream Team’s first meeting and is one of the reasons they were truly a dream:

“Look, there are twelve of you, and you’re all All-Stars and future Hall of Famers,” said Coach Chuck Daly, “and there is no way I can get all of you the minutes you’re used to having on—-

Magic and Jordan interrupted him.

“That isn’t going to be a problem,” said Jordan.

“We’re here to win, and nobody is going to care about playing time, Chuck,” Magic said.

Taken from “Dream Team” by Jack McCallum

The original DREAM TEAM included the best that have every played:
Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, David Robinson, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, Clyde Drexler, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Chris Mullin

 

    

 

PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DECISIONS

 

"I go to bed early because I rise early.

The decisions I make always center

around performance enhancement."

-Tom Brady

This is the mindset of a champion.  If you are determined to be the best you can be, you have to understand that every choice you make will help or hinder your performance.  This is true of the student as much as it is an athlete.  When it comes times to make a decision the simply yet effective question is "How with this help me improve."

THE LEADERSHIP EXAMPLE OF HARD WORK

One of the mantra's utilized by Coach Don Meyer is "if you best player is your hardest worker then you have a chance to have a good team."  The concept is the important of the leader to create a culture of work ethic for his/her followers.  Another Coach Meyer's favorites: "You example isn't the main thing in leadership, it's the only thing."

Which brings us to a case in point --  Dak Prescott, the quarterback at Mississippi State who has the Bulldogs in the top 5 in the nation -- unfamiliar territory.

This from an article that ran in the Columbus Dispatch:

"We saw a guy with an unbelievable work ethic, a guy who works to get better every single day," said head coach Dan Mullen of Prescott, who has turned into one of the top players in the country as a redshirt junior. "We saw a guy with great potential for growth, a player we could get in here and really develop. This is a development program. And with his work ethic, we knew he was one of those players who would get better every single day, and those are the players you want." 

THE GREATS ARE CONTINUAL LEARNERS

I loved this story from "The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth" by John Maxwell:

I recently read an anecdote about a meeting between Ted Williams and Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach in the 1950s.  As the two greats discussed their sports, Williams asked, "What do your guys eat on the day of a game?"

"What do you want to know for?" Auerbach replied.  "You seem to be doing all right with what you're doing."

"I'm always looking for new ways to improve what I do."

Auerbach said of Williams, "He thought of the little things, what's important to being great.  When you're great and you excel, some athletes would coast on that...Here's the best hitter in baseball, and he's trying to get another little percentage point."

YOUR MOST IMPORTANT SOCIAL MEDIA RULE

This is short and sweet but critically important -- more so than ever in today's world of social media and instant communication.  This actually came from an article written by Geoffrey James for Inc.  The title of the article was: "The 1 Personal Branding Rule Everyone Should Know."  You can read his entire article here -- but this is the most important part -- and one we will share with our team:

Every day, people screw up their personal brands by not following this absurdly simple rule:
Never go online if you're angry, upset or otherwise impaired.

DEREK JETER: TOUGHNESS AND THE TEST OF TIME

I  came across an absolutely great article on Derek Jeter written by Joel Sherman for the New York Post.  It is possibly the best thing I've read about Jeter and some of the reasons he been so consistently successful.  I've written before but to me, the true test of greatness comes with the test of time.  There are many that are good, even great for a short period of time but it is the long haul that truly show us greatness.

I strongly suggest you take the time to read the entire article here -- until, here are some great excerpts:

On Friday night, Jeter started his 2,610th game at shortstop. That moved him past Omar Vizquel for the most in major league history. It might not be Lou Gehrig or Cal Ripken stuff, and it came and went without confetti and fanfare. But you do not start that many games in the middle infield — all those double-play pivots, etc. — without a sense of responsibility, a reservoir of pride and a steely constitution. The day-after-day mental and physical grind ultimately defeats every athlete. But some endure better than others. And Jeter is at the top 1 percent.

“We all consider rolling over and shutting the alarm clock off,” Joe Torre said by phone. “Jeter never rolls over. He gets out of bed. It is never a consideration to take a day off. It is a sense of responsibility to his team and to himself.”

I remember a conversation long ago with Gene Michael when he was still the Yankees general manager. We were discussing the traditional five tools — hitting, hitting for power, running, fielding and throwing.

That day I disagreed with the confines of the five tools. I suggested there were so many more than five tools. Aptitude was vital. You could have five tools, but if you couldn’t apply them, what was the use? Victor Martinez might only have two tools, but he has pretty much maximized them. That is so much more valuable than having five that excite scouts but never come out in games with consistency.

Grace under pressure is a tool. Again, you could have the physical stuff down, but if you can’t do it with 40,000 people in attendance or in October, what is the point?

Discipline is a tool. Are you going to keep working out, avoid perks that could drain your energy and skill?

And durability is a tool. Danny Tartabull used to tell me to project his stats over a full season and I finally told him, “Why? You never play a full season.” Mark Buehrle might not be blessed with the stuff that makes scouts drool, but wind him up and he gives you 200 innings. Every year. Year after year.

Because I believe it is in all these areas beyond the traditional tools that Jeter was an A-plus and took very good traditional tools to a Hall-of-Fame level.

His aptitude, his grace under pressure, his discipline and — for me — especially his toughness.

Chili Davis Code: If I am playing, I am healthy enough to play. He never played the “I am 80 percent” game to provide an alibi. Never told you off the record how he was really feeling, again, as a way to set up the excuse. “I’m all right.” That he what he told managers and media.

Jeter felt a responsibility to play, that the team was best when he did. Torre and Joe Girardi have known they could write his name into the lineup game after game, season after season. Do you know how much easier that makes the managing job?

“There was a playoff series in which he had pretty much a broken hand, got shot up for Game 1, couldn’t feel his hand and said he would rather just play with the pain,” Torre said. “There was never a consideration that he wouldn’t play. He came to the ballpark to play. It certainly made my job a whole lot easier. You talk about a guy who is a leader. You have someone who wants to rest, they look across the locker room and see him. He forced other people to play, not literally, but by example.”

YOUR'RE NOT GOING TO OUTWORK ME

"The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I'm not afraid to die on the treadmill. I will not be outworked.  Period.  You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all those things -- you got it on me in nine categories.  But if we get on the treadmill together, there's two things: You're getting off first, or I'm gonna die.  It's really that simple, right?...You're not going to outwork me."

-Actor Will Smith
From "The Rise" by Sarah Lewis

BE PHENOMINAL

SELF TALK -- "THINK GOLD"

We are a big believer in the concept of continual positive self-talk.  Here are some great thoughts from "The Champion's Mind" by Jim Afremow:

To perform at a champion’s level, you must have a winning off-field game plan that includes specific strategies-for instance, well placed environmental cues that you can use to achieve excellence and to remind yourself that you are working to win. Tape a note that says, “Think gold and never settle for silver” somewhere noticeable and make it the desktop background on your computer to motivate to start and continue your day with a winning mind-set.

Schedule automatic, electronic “think gold” or “personal best” reminders throughout the day; for example, set the reminder function on your cell phone to chime at certain times and display “Champion.”

YOU HAVE TO KEEP PUSHING YOURSELF

You can go through the annals of history and it will be documented that the vast majority of greatness came about as a result of long, hard, dedicated work -- at times unsupervised -- because of the desire of the individual to excel.

"I found this sandbank by the Pearl River near my hometown of Columbia, Mississippi.  I laid out a course of 65 yards or so.  Sixty-five yards on sand is like 120 on turf.  But running on sand helps you make your cuts at full speed.  I try to pick the heat of the day to run in, but sometimes the sand will get so hot you can't stand in place.  It'll blister your feet.  You get to the point where you have to keep pushing yourself.  You stop, throw up, and push yourself again.  There's no one to feel sorry for you."

-Walter Payton

THE ART OF TEAM WORK -- THE SPURS WAY

LIMITATIONS ARE ONLY IN YOUR MIND

A big thanks to Coach Dale Brown for forwarding this to me via email.  Coach Brown never misses an opportunity to motivate or inspire.