Why I love this game . . .

Time for a repost of an old fav with some updated comments and thoughts since it is Valentine's day.

All of us come from different backgrounds. Our love of the game is different in each of us. In our game we talk a lot about relationships: being a good teammate, quality passes to improve relationship, and do you care enough? I'm a big reader of sports science, coaching, brain research but thankfully everything I read re-enforces what I believe. They use different language (10000 hours, sacrifice,tolerating failure, deliberate practice, etc.) but in a nutshell it all means: Do You Care Enough? I feel that everything in your life that you want, is good and is worthwhile can be yours if you care enough. Now caring can mean enough to work, enough to sacrifice, enough to humble yourself, but it is still all caring. I don't believe in overachieving (my wife and kids being the notable exception that proves the rule); you get exactly what you deserve through being the best you can.


So for caring and love and just because its Valentine's Day: Why I love this game!

For me basketball is not a series of events or actions. It is the sum total of moments that go beyond good or bad, right or wrong, it stems all the way down into purity of thought, emotion and action. For me all the hard work is worth it if it leads to those moments. Let me share a couple of those moments, with you, that make basketball important to me:

1) Have you ever stood in a school gym in the dark.

In those moments, a peace is created by the absence of life and activity. As you breath, your own soft echoes reverberating you will inhale and absorb the sensation of those places. The potential energy is electric. The smells, dents, banners, worn flooring, nicks and markings are not just wear and tear; these are a legacy of years, of lives lived, blood, sweat, tears, passion expressed and of success and failure.

Sports are a topic of nostalgia. Whether good or bad everyone seems to have had an experience that translates into a story. These are stories of heroes, embarrassments, fond memories and painful ones. An all-American backing out of the spotlight so their team-mate can get a win. Thousands of fans screaming and crying, faces coloured as much by their passion as by school colours. The roar of improbably victory and joy earned through hours of prior effort. The meeting of adversity and the growth of a team to overcome it. Young men and women enjoying the only success they might find in life, and a lifetime of memories built out of a uniform and a moment.

There are stories of heartache and of suffering. A young man sitting on the floor with tears streaming down his face, a childhood dream lost to him forever. Young women collapsing from illness, or exhaustion related to too hard, too much, or not enough. It could be the story of the girl that didn't want to do pushups in gym class , or of a teenage sensation turning professional and falling victim to adolescent maturity in a adult world.

For every story of joy there is one of suffering. Good or bad, anguish or elation, sports hold a tradition of passion and emotion. Fire and fury, found at a time in young people's lives when emotional attachment is at a premium, sports are a major source of concern. When people of all ages are brought together by sport changes in noise, energy, meaning, potential learning, and danger found with randomness ensues.

Sports builds moments. It can make heroes or victims. Spots helps to shape and create identity by making success and failure more concrete. In doing so it makes winners, losers, and all the variants in between. It forces the guilt, ego, frustration and triumph of life to be brought out in rivers of cascading moments.

All of this from an empty gymnasium. That which came before, allows voice to that which comes after. Those four walls and that floor have held a plethora of dreams, hopes, wins, losses, successes and failures. Hundreds of thousands of tears, hurt feelings, hugs, handshakes, drops of sweat and blood have mixed with years of effort and a million personal victories and epiphanies to make it that way. These places are a tribute to the power of sport, the potential of individuals and the test of the human condition. When you stand and breathe your breathing legacy.

2) Next time your in a huddle look up.

Look into someone's eyes and see if you can see beyond. See if you can see past the moment, past the frustration, past the emotion. Look and find that feeling that you would do anything, go anywhere and that nothing else in the world matters, because all you can see is who you each really are inside. Feeling your body aching, but putting it aside instantly to push forward. The sudden certainty that you are part of something bigger then yourself. A sense of team and fraternity that makes you want to push yourself beyond pain, beyond illness, beyond healthy sacrifice without care because of what you can prove to yourself and those around you.

Look and see the unbridled passion of youth doing something it loves. Witness desire to a point of utter frustration melt behind passion, belief in ones invincibility, and refusal to ever stand down. Feel the wholesomeness of soundless feeling, lungs burning, adrenaline flowing, muscles aching but all leading to clarity of thought and certainty of purpose.

Search for that gleam in the eye of those performing or desperate to perform the impossible. Every ounce of their being will vibrate with the need and want, but they will know that they can never be in over their head, frightened of possible consequences or trying and failing. They will know this because in that same moment they will be looking for that same thing in you and finding that same certainty, that same life, that same belief shining through in your eyes.


I hope there are moments that bring you passion and joy. In the journey of basketball and life you need only hold the same thought in mind: "There is no such thing as can I, can't I, will or won't it happen. There is only - Do I care enough?"

Simple Truth

Looking to get back to basics and what is important in the game. I really need our kids to buy into loving the game and embracing training. Youth is only an asset if you see it as realized potential hours of deliberate practice.

So here are some simple truths I shared with my Canada Games Team a few years ago that anyone can learn from:

The truth is it doesn’t matter if you win or if you lose. You can be an undefeated champion and if it turns you into an egotistical bitch it was a waste. You could lose every game, but if it teaches you the humility and need for work ethic to overcome every life obstacle you face then it was all worth it. How you respond to the results will be more important then the result it self.

The truth is found in the moment. These moments, once lived, will be the same in your memory forever. That truth will be the one you need to live with.

The truth is that you will be alone with your thoughts and know whether or not your effort was heroic. Did you overcome your fear or did it overcome you? Did you play with heart or with excuses? Did you try for a dream or did you play for yourself? Did you shoot for the stars or aim lower to know you would reach? Only you will know these answers.

The truth is, in moments later in life when you look back and wonder; you will never worry that you should have been less physical, dove on fewer loose balls, encouraged your teammates less often or taken less shots. You’ll never wish you had gone home less tired. You won’t be sad that you were too passionate for too long and trusted too much.

The truth is that as people you are and will continue to be amazing. The truth of these next moments is yours.

That truth will be yours in your private moments, and only you will know.

What will your truth be?