Greetings! I am very excited about the opportunity to share some of my thoughts on the various things that surround and are a vital part of the game of basketball. My desire is to share with those who see this site some of the information that I have learned over the course of my career as both a player and coach.
There is so much to talk about as it pertains to basketball. The game truly is a microcosm of life. It is a “team game” with many individual components. Life is a team game, where we must learn to communicate effectively, work together efficiently with others in order to make this life count. But like in basketball, where individual skills can help a player have an edge over an opponent, life requires the development of personal skills that enable us to be the best person we can. Some say God does not care about basketball. I won’t speak for God, but I know that many of life’s lessons and principles that help mold us into who we are can be learned through the game of basketball and that, I would suspect, God cares about.
Maybe my favorite coach of all time is John Wooden. With his passing recently, many people, especially coaches and players of basketball, have spent time to think about the way he coached and led young men. He seemed to do it despite not getting paid nearly what he deserved (or at least it seems that way to me.) He did it with more than winning the game on his mind. He made the game more about the mind and heart than about physical skills and attributes. Even though he won 10 NCAA championships in 12 years, the way he coached makes it seem like anyone could do it yet not everyone will. His philosophies on life – from the Pyramid of Success to his numerous maxims – cross reference life and basketball so easily you would think that one was dependent of the other. But that is the beauty of the game of basketball, because to some their life is in basketball because basketball is in their life.
I have been blessed to see how the game of basketball can bring people together when seemingly little else would. We have been fortunate to have numerous student-athletes from around the globe come to our school to pursue an opportunity to earn a scholarship to play basketball in college. Since basketball is in their lives, they were given the opportunity to change the course of their lives. But I, along with all of the wonderful people that impact these young people’s lives, remind them that if basketball is their life they will ultimately fail. Basketball is simply a part of a person’s life that can be used to ultimately lead them to the destiny God has scripted for them.
Winning championships at UCLA was not John Wooden’s destiny, of that I am pretty certain. If it were, why did he continue to live after retiring following the last one in 1975? His life the last 35 years would then seem to be wasted because their was no NCAA championship involved. But I believe that winning those championships was only a part of his destiny which ultimately was comprised of each person he has impacted through the game of basketball. It is because of his ability to learn the lessons of basketball through life that he was able to teach the lessons of life through basketball – not only to his players, but to coaches, opponents, and people around the world and across generations.
What is your destiny? What is mine? I am not sure right now. But I do believe that God has blessed me with the opportunity to be faithful in the lives of the student-athletes that I am around, helping them not only fulfill their dreams in basketball but also teach them about life along the way.
Thanks for reading and I hope you come back to read more in the future.
