I thrive on challenges, and there is no more imposing challenge for someone in my profession than winning an NBA title.
I don’t believe in curfews, because you can’t treat men like they were boys without forfeiting a certain level of trust.
The road to freedom is a beautiful system.
Coaching is salesmanship. Coaching is winning players over and convincing them they have to play together. It takes a team conviction to play together to make things work.
Basketball is a simple game. Your goal is penetration, get the ball close to the basket, and there are three ways to do that. Pass, dribble and offensive rebound.
I’m not going to coach again. I’ve done my coaching, and I think I can put that aside.
The problem with trading dominant players of that size is you never get in return what you’ve bargained away.
For us tall people, the whole key is that your hips and your knees should form a right angle when you sit down. That’s where backs and hips get to be problems for big guys.
I’m a patient person. I think that’s one thing that I feel comfortable I can deal with – the downfall and the errors, as long as I see progress and people trying.
Everybody has an opportunity to play a role, a playmaking role, so it makes it harder to coach. It takes a little more time.
But trying to eliminate anger never works. The more you try to suppress it, the more likely it is to erupt later in a more virulent form. A better approach is to become as intimate as possible with how anger works on your mind and body so that you can transform its underlying energy into something productive.
Think lightly of yourself and think deeply of the world. MIYAMOTO MUSASHI.
Fall down seven times. Stand up eight. JAPANESE PROVERB.
As a leader your job is to do everything in your power to create the perfect conditions for success by benching your ego and inspiring your team to play the game the right way. But at some point, you need to let go and turn yourself over to the basketball gods. The soul of success is surrendering to what is.
The way you do anything is the way you do everything. TOM WAITS.
There’s a Zen saying I often cite that goes, “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” The point: Stay focused on the task at hand rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the future.
In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.
Edwin Markham’s “Outwitted”: He drew the circle that shut me out – Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in!
Suzuki had just finished giving a talk to a group of Zen students when someone in the audience said, “You’ve been talking about Buddhism for nearly an hour, and I haven’t been able to understand a thing you said. Could you say one thing about Buddhism I can understand?” After the laughter died down, Suzuki replied calmly, “Everything changes.
When we called time-out with twenty-five seconds to go,” he re-called, “we went into the huddle and Phil said, ‘Michael, I want you to take the last shot,’ and Michael said, ‘You know, Phil, I don’t feel comfortable in these situations. So maybe we ought to go in another direction.’ Then Scottie said, ‘You know, Phil, Michael said in his commercial that he’s been asked to do this twenty-six times and he’s failed. So why don’t we go to Steve.