The Last Dance

“Like Mike, if I can be like Mike”–Gatorade Commercial, ca 1992

The documentary series “The Last Dance” was intended to detail the 1997-98 season of the Chicago Bulls, the end of a dynasty.  It was touted as you being immersed into the collective experience of that team.  Yet for me, it obviously centered around one person: Michael Jordan.  It was an exploration in the present of his enduring legacy, spanning and delving into his childhood, high school experiences, collegiate career and into the NBA, culminating in his 6 NBA titles.  This post is about what I took away from watching this documentary.

I grew up watching Michael Jordan.  Admiring Jordan.  Amazed by his his inclination to not be affected by gravity which made him inhuman.  He transcended the limitations of what a human could do.  I wanted his success.  However, after watching “The Last Dance”, I don’t know if I want to “Be Like Mike”.  What I saw in the documentary is someone who is yet to find rest.  There is no peace.  To me, Michael Jordan played the game of basketball better than anyone, and he has the hardware to prove it.  But playing and winning at a game is different than cultivating inner peace through conscientious evolving of character and developing moral excellence.  The motivation that clearly drove Michael Jordan was pain–whether it was actual, perceived or self-created pain.  And the need to avenge pain to be the best and to maintain being the best.  Disrespect, disregard, “distancing from” fueled MJ.  And so Jordan begs us to ask: Is pain the predominant path to reach the highest pinnacle of sport achievement?  And for that matter, does that mean “success”?  Whatever your answer, in “The Last Dance”, Jordan displayed, intended or unintended, the cost to living that path.  You can see it in his eyes, in his speech, in his body language.  And in his tears.  But can you blame him for walking that path?  All that reward, recognition, and the unbridled adulation from millions can inform you that what you’re doing is “right”.  Then you become God in judging what is right when you stand alone at the top.  He wanted to share that success with others–that is clear.  But he projected what worked for him on to others, in effect saying “Do what is right and what works.”  For better, or for worse?  That is for each of his teammates to decide for themselves and perhaps share with us mere mortals.  This was somewhat explored with Pippen, Rodman, Kerr, Kukoc, Paxon and others more, but for me, I would like to have heard more.  In the end, and again, I am not sure if it was intended, “The Last Dance” portrays a man with a heavy burden who is alone with that burden.  It is hard to be a god.

 

 

 

Kobe

“You guys know that if you do the work, you work hard enough, dreams come true.  You know that we all know that.  But hopefully what you get from tonight is that those times when you get up early and you work hard; those times when you don’t feel like working–you’re too tired, you don’t want to push yourself–but you do it anyway.  That is actually the dream.  That’s the dream.  It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.  And if you guys can understand that, what you’ll see happen is that you won’t accomplish your dreams, your dreams won’t come true, something greater will”

Kobe Bryant was not only speaking to his daughters that night his jerseys were retired only two years ago.  He was speaking to all of us. Sadly, tragically, he is no longer with us.  His legacy remains.  Love him or hate him, Kobe is us too.  He had potential. We have potential.  There were growing pains and admitted bad mistakes along his path.  We make mistakes.   He had goals or “destinations”, and we have goals.  Kobe achieved much in his long career. MVP. NBA Champion x5.  18x All Star.  Icon.  However, at the end of it all, the night his jerseys were lifted high above us, he shared his secret of realizing his potential.  The secret was an every day, an every moment conscientious movement in a direction of his choice.  What did he choose?  He chose the cultivation of his talent through a fierce work ethic that was THE destination in and of itself.  And it showed on the court.  He invites us to cultivate our own potential and create our own legacy with this mindset.   Now the question is: What will you do with your day?

“Juan Responded”

Amazing.  In game 1 of the 2019 World Series, Washington Nationals’ Juan Soto responded to the force of power that is the Houston Astros’ pitcher Gerrit Cole.  In Soto, we’re talking about someone who can’t even legally buy a beer in this country facing a 29 year old 3 time all-star who likely will win the American League Cy Young Award and hitting a home run and a double off the veteran pitcher.  He even added a single after Cole left the game.  But it started out with a first-at-bat strikeout.  Then he settled down.  He made adjustments.  He changed his approach.  Mid-game. The response afterwards was fearlessness and enjoyment.  Home Run.  That’s the place to be in in order to perform at your best: fearlessness and enjoyment. One key to getting there is what Soto mentioned in an ESPN interview: “most of the times just take a deep breath and just focus on the picture of me.  Everybody around I forget about; it’s just you and me. And that’s how everything comes down, try to enjoy it”.  Physiologically he has a brain that isn’t fully mature being all of 20 years old, but Juan Soto has worked at optimizing what he has, and the results are prodigious.  It is about honing a present moment focus.  It is about having a routine.   It is about clearly articulating goals to aim for in a particular moment that makes distractions minimal if non-existent.  It is experiencing success and feeling the enjoyment of it and wanting more.  More challenges.  More success.   This drives the desire to continue to work to get more success.  That’s the promising start of a career.  That’s Juan Soto.

“It’s been a long journey, Tiger”

It’s been 11 years since Tiger Woods won his last major, the 2008 US Open in which a Tiger with a broken leg gutted out a playoff in dramatic fashion to win.  Since that time, Wood’s seeming invincibility had been rocked by scandal and character assassination of his own doing.  There have been injuries, multiple surgeries, rehabilitation.  Don’t you remember the video of an impaired Tiger Woods swaying unsteadily on his feet as he’s questioned by a cop?  And now….redemption.  No matter what your opinion of Tiger Woods, no matter how you feel about this man, you cannot deny his incredible composure as he methodically marched to his 15th Major at the place where he won his first, the Masters.  How can a person, given what they have gone through, keep their emotions in check knowing what has preceded before and now, facing a life defining victory that is so close?  Yet this is what we saw: a calm, collected human being who did not outwardly reveal the white hot burning intensity of desire mixed with possible emotions in such a situation: anxiety, elation, frustration, anger, excitement, anticipation.  You did not see the emotion until it was all over.  And when it was over: joy.  Relief from the monumental restraint he exercised throughout the day.  A triumphant roar.  Let this be a master lesson of emotional regulation.  You can have emotions (there’s nothing wrong with them).  And you can display them…up until a point.  That point is where the outward expression of emotion adversely affects your performance (eg. anger tightening up muscles leading to mistakes).  That point is where your emotional display is seen by your opponent who then regains confidence to beat you.  Ask yourself, “what is my breaking point?”.  The ability to direct and redirect focus requires training and experience.  From two years ago saying “I’m done” to being the 2019 Masters Champion, Tiger Woods is as legendary as can be….and he is as human as can be.  Today he demonstrated for us what is possible.

Serena Williams and Fusion

The US Open Women’s Championship won by Naomi Osaka of Japan, her first major title ever, was overshadowed by Serena Williams emotional outburst and argument with Chair Umpire Carlos Ramos.  This will not be a discussion of who is right and who is wrong but rather how lack of acceptance likely affected Serena’s focus and thus, her athletic performance.  Things seemed to have settled between Ms. Williams and Mr. Ramos after a warning was given to her for possibly receiving coaching from the stands.  The accusation that she was “cheating” did not sit well with Serena who stated out loud her career never involved cheating.  In the argument with the umpire, she also brings up her relatively new role as a mother which implies that she is very aware of the kind of person and player she commits to be and what values she wishes to impart on her daughter .  Although the controversy seemed to have been “let go” mentally by Serena, this does not seem to be the case as seen later on in the match.  A point was taken away from Serena by Mr. Ramos when Serena slammed her racket on the ground out of frustration.  On finding out a point was taken away, her anger resurfaced and need “to be right”, to challenge the cheating accusation takes center stage again.  She becomes “fused” with the identity of how she wants to be perceived: an accomplished tennis player who has never cheated.  It is a state of rigidity. Of inflexibility.  As a result, she is carried by a tidal wave of emotion, hurling back verbal insults “you’re a thief”, threats “you’ll never [umpire] another one of my games” and accusations of sexism.  And the only way she could see how things may be corrected is to demand an apology from Mr. Ramos. Serena could not accept the reality of the situation.  She could not accept “what is”.  Here is “what is”: she received a warning from the chair umpire who suspected that she was receiving coaching from the stands.  “What is” is that she lost a game on serve and the score is 3-2, 2nd set and she destroys her racket.  “What is” is that she had a point taken away from her for this violation.  “What is” is the feeling of frustration, anger.  Granted she could be right in her accusations that Mr. Ramos is sexist or that there is a bias against her as experienced in past US Open tournaments.  These interpretations are not facts.  They are perceptions that are believed to be facts by Ms. Williams and it leads her down a path of emotional upset.   What is clear is that she wanted what she did not have and she did not have what she wanted.  She could not accept  the”what is” of the moment.  In this refusal of “what is”,  an athlete’s mind is not present.  This is a dangerous state to be in the midst of competition.  When you are not playing in the present moment, if you are thinking of “what could have been” or “what needs to be” then the quality of your performance goes down.  It goes down to the degree of how badly you want “what could have been” or “what needs to be” and you focus on that instead of what is in front of you.  Emotions take over.  With sports that require complex motor movements where inches matter (like pretty much all sports) then mistakes get made because your mind is not present–it’s absent, thinking of either what just happened or what consequences are to come.  From this mindset, what follows is less joy, less creativity, less relaxed play.  The decreased quality of actions affect performance and outcomes.  They affect others around you including your teammates and in Serena’s case, Mr. Carlos Ramos, the fans, and unfortunately Ms. Osaka as her once in a lifetime chance to ceremoniously celebrate her first major tennis championship is lost.  To her credit, Ms. Williams did address the crowd to place Ms. Osaka rightfully in the spotlight of recognition of superior performance that night.  However, we don’t pay attention as much to the positive when there is drama.  And Serena created drama.  How do you avoid rigid fusion when you don’t have what you want?  Know where you heavily invest your emotional “eggs in one basket”.  Decide ahead of time if it makes sense to do so.  Consider goals of mastery rather than outcome goals.  Value sportsmanship and let your playing do your arguing for you.  Know that not only do you have a responsibility for yourself, but that your actions affect others.  Focus on putting quality out there.

The Masters and Jordan Spieth

Not to take away from Danny Willet’s win at the 2016 Masters, but who are we kidding? The biggest story is of course Jordan Spieth’s collapse.  A score of 7 on the 12^th hole was a crowd silencing finality in erasing a 5 stroke lead on the final day of the Masters.  This was a tragedy, played out on Amen Corner.  I know good intentioned people want to preface it with “well, it’s only a golf tournament…it’s only sports”, but doing so also is in a way a form of denial.  It tries to take away the suffering from the sufferer.   It undermines the acknowledgement of such a life altering event and the acceptance, not liking, but the acceptance of the situation and the ensuing feelings that understandably will be present: sadness, regret, shame, anger….pain.  Such a loss can bring a mortal to his knees, his soul shattered.  But acknowledgement and acceptance is the first step in creating a resume of resilience.  Acceptance, you see, paves the way for important processes to occur.  For growth.  And for this to occur, Jordan must believe there is something meaningful to be had from the experience.   Not just an understanding, but a pure belief.  What is there to learn from what just happened?  And finally what is essential  (I heard this in spades from Mr. Spieth as he was being interviewed walking off the golf course) is that Jordan has faith in himself.  He believes it is up to him to control his destiny.  He believes he has the competence to make changes, to improve and shape how he will handle a similar situation in the future.

It would be ideal if this process of acceptance-meaning-learning-competence occurs in the moment when the course of events may still be changed to a favorable outcome, but this process requires teaching.  It requires experience for the process to be earned.  Hard enough for a mature adult individual, even harder for a 22 year old whose frontal lobe, the seat of executive functioning that reins in emotion,  has yet to fully mature despite a preternatural maturity that Jordan has.  Young people tend to still think and act according to intense emotions.  This hurts, but “Smooth seas does not a master sailor make”.   Will this new experience for Jordan Spieth serve an important crossroads milestone on the road to excellence or will it serve as a detour to a winding path of dark uncertainty?   What I hear and what I hope for this young man is an assured confidence, at least for now, to get up and keep walking.

“Let’s Have Fun”

15th seed Middle Tennessee was leading 2nd seed Michigan State by a fitting score of 15-2 at the beginning of their game yesterday. We’re all now recuperating from the shock today of tournament favorite Sparty being bested by…I don’t even know the name of Middle Tenn’s mascot. Quick google search, OK… the Blue Raiders. What kind of a mascot is that?! Although 15-2 was a sizeable lead, did any of you really think that Michigan State was going to stay down? It is amazing looking back that Middle Tennessee did not even relinquish the lead once against a team many thought would win the whole thing.

But late in the 2nd half, Michigan State did pull to within 3 with 2 foul shots awaiting. During the preceding time out, I would imagine that most 15th seeded teams would despair. Coach Kermit Davis: “We looked at each other, and said, ‘Let’s enjoy this. Let’s have fun right here’.” I want you to notice these words. “Enjoy this” “Right here”. Very present moment. Under the microscope of the NCAA tournament a lot of athletes in this particular situation would remain in the past: “How did we let a lead like that get away?” “Should have made that shot!” “Why did I make that turnover?!” Or think forward into the future: “We let this one slip away. All that we’ve been through this season…well, it was a good run” or even “We still have a chance to make history”. Nope. The players and coaches looked at each other and as one said “Let’s have fun right here.” Right now. Will this attitude guarantee a win every time? No.  Is this attitude difficult to have?  Hell, yeah. But with a mindset of being open to a present moment experience that is sitting in front of you, it does make it more likely to play the game, and I mean “play” in every sense of that word, “relaxed and real confident” as witnessed by Coach Davis.  No, you may not “win”, but you’ll sure have fun.

Anger and Fighting

I’ve been watching HBO’s Hard Knocks profile on the Atlanta Falcons, and the first two episodes have certainly shown a lot of fighting. Add this to the article written by Jeff Schultz in the Atlanta Journal Constitution Sunday 8/10/14 and you’ve got a team that looks like it’s on edge. According to defensive end Ra’Shede Hageman “Fighting shows how physical you are and hungry you are.” Make no mistake about it, this is a new Falcons team that has not forgotten last season’s humbling 4-12 record. No one’s position is safe. The August Georgia sun, fatigue, and uncertainty–that sets up a tense atmosphere where impulse control goes out the window. In a physically aggressive sport like football, violence is valued….until the whistle blows. I think arguably the most important thing in sport is discipline: discipline with practice, discipline to learn, discipline to train, discipline to remain focused, discipline to fight or to know when to back down. Anger can certainly fuel discipline, but it can also lead to wild, undisciplined physical fighting. There was no discipline or thinking behind some of the fighting seen on Hard Knocks, as evidenced by Hagemen nearly breaking his wrist after hitting his teammate’s helmet–there was no long term thought process in this act which could have ended disastrously for Hagemen and his team.

Anger is different from fighting. Anger is an emotion we all experience, serving an evolutionary adaptive purpose to socially communicate a wrong that needs to be fixed. Which method you use depends on your mental tool-kit. Aggression is a primitive tool, but can serve a purpose to communicate. Like when your quarterback gets a cheap shot. The message: “We as a team will not tolerate that.” And in football which is already physical, it’s no wonder that the communication style needs to be equally on par in order to get the attention of the person/team perceived doing the wrong thing…as long as it doesn’t get out of hand. It’s important to be mindful about what it is you are trying to communicate; is it about pushing (no pun intended) the agenda of the team, and what’s good for the team? Or is is self-serving? I can understand that the nature of training camp for many is to try to “win” a spot on the team, which is a very individualistic goal. When it comes to trying to make a roster spot, the other guy’s failure or lack of performance/enthusiasm assists your success. To relieve the tension, why not stand out and show you are “physical” or “hungry”. It is difficult to think “team” when there is a real possibility you may not be on it. But being injured in fighting and undermining team cohesion….not much of a future in sport in that either.

Values and Purpose

I know this is the second consecutive blog on Lebron James, and at the risk of appearing sycophantic, I feel compelled, moved even, to write on his return to Cleveland. His return home. I am impressed, and this is why: Here is still a young man in the prime of his career who seems to be mature beyond his 27 years. Who was able to look past the events of his departure from Cleveland to Miami, just 4 years removed from the hatred, the letter and vindictiveness of Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, the boos and the burning of his jerseys despite giving all he could to that city. Where most men would have dared not turn around and repair that burned bridge, Lebron James felt a sense of community obligation, of commitment so that he may forgive and be forgiven. And so he reached out to those who lit the flames. He did it for Ohio’s future generations, returning to where his chances of individual immediate success such as rings and MVP trophies are unlikely. The best basketball player in the world could have done whatever he wanted to ensure his individual legacy in basketball. Instead James shunned his ego, choosing to use his talents as he knows them to make a difference to others–isn’t that what we should strive to do in our own lives?

This time around, the main purpose is to serve, to give back what has been given. Sure he’s going to make more money, and he still cares about winning (how will he influence if he doesn’t?) and chasing Michael Jordan’s greatness. But I believe the hard work will be motivated by something more transcendent. Something that will carry him through the waking up at 5am, pushing his own physical limits, losing, questioning media pressure–because the purpose is beyond self-absorbed motives. It involves sacrifice for a greater good. It’s a daunting but noble challenge. One that I can’t wait to see unfold.

Pressure, Present Moment, Performance

“So history is made to be broken, and why not me be a part of it? That would be great. That would be a great storyline, right? But we’ll see what happens. I’ve got to live in the moment, though, before we even get to that point.” “But understanding what means a lot to me. Understanding what’s important and understanding what’s not important allows me to kind of just live in the moment and not focus on what’s happened in the past. I can’t control the past. I can’t redo it. I can live in the present, try to affect the future and live with the results while I’m in it.” –Lebron James

There are a couple of things that come to mind from what Lebron James talks about: the idea of “perspective” in the grand scheme of things and “being in the present”. I can see how his statements may infuriate a passionate Heat fan who may view what he said as a casualness, a lack of a “do or die” attitude that must be had to come back from the brink of a 3-1 disadvantage in the Finals. But really, would I want a player I’m rooting for to be tense? Or would I want him to be relaxed when it comes to performance? Yes, too little pressure leads to a lackadaisical effort, but too much pressure leads to overwhelm–a breakdown in performance. Anxiety and adrenaline rises which steal away precious mental and physical resources and endurance necessary for precise athletic execution. A balanced perspective doesn’t take away the sense of urgency but rather allows one to not be consumed by it.

When it comes to peak athletic performance, “being in the present” is a foundational skill, and yes, it is a skill, upon which performance thrives. When nothing else matters but the moment, one is said to be in “the zone”. However, just like many things, “being in the zone” comes and goes as your mind comes up with various ways to get you out of the zone: regrets, insecurities, preoccupation with the future/past, and ironically the conscious attempt to stay in the zone. Even something like “no team has come back from a 3-1 deficit” can weigh heavy on a Heat player–to elicit a sense of futility in the athlete: “Why should I even try? No one has ever done this because it can’t be done.” etc. Thus, you are defeated in your mind before you even start playing. And what the mind believes, the body follows.

Being in the present is where the vitality of living resides…whether in sport or in your own daily life. Time is not a “thing”. At the level of experience, there are no words to conceptualize time–what you have only is the present. There is nothing that can be done about what has happened and the future is not yet here. You only have the present. There are certainly many distractions around us which I’m sure you’re well aware of that can take us away from the vitality of present moment. There’s nothing inherently wrong with these distractions. But in the pressure cooker that is the NBA Finals, I know I would want my athlete, my team to have their “head in the game”. Because I’m rooting for the Miami Heat, I’m glad Lebron James understands this.