When I was playing college basketball (at Reed College lol), my coach used to love telling one Michael Jordan1 story to us because he thought we could learn something from it. No, it wasn’t how about he could dunk from the free throw line, or when he scored 63 points against Boston in ‘86, or how he hit six threes in an NBA Finals game once. It was a story we could relate to. It happened while Michael Jordan was playing for the Washington Wizards. In it, MJ took a contested shot from the elbow that was an airball. Was he fouled? Was it just a bad shot? That didn’t matter because his old team the Bulls were already heading back the other way to score. So what did Jordan do? Did he hang his head? Did he complain to the ref? No, he turned around and ran back to make a two-handed block against the backboard. Now, our coach wasn’t suggesting that was something we could do. Rather, it was his hustle that was important. Michael Jordan didn’t give up on the play. He kept going and did something great on the next play. There’s an obvious lesson there for anyone, whether you’re a Girl Scout selling cookies outside a grocery store, a barber giving haircuts, or a blog writer sending out a post with a glaring typo in the title.
If Michael Jordan isn’t your preferred elite athlete, here’s a Kobe anecdote. On March 31st, 2012, Kobe Bryant hit a game-winning three to push the Los Angeles Lakers past the New Orleans Hornets. That Kobe hit a big shot in a regular season game wasn’t all that notable. Kobe Bryant earned his “Black Mamba” nickname for such dazzling antics and theatrics throughout his career. What was remarkable in this instance was that before he took this shot, he was 2-20 on the night. In other words, he was having a horrible game. The kind of night you quickly try to forget when the buzzer sounds. But there was still time on the clock when he was 2-20. His memory had to be extra short to take the last shot of the game. In true Kobe fashion, he drained it. His final line was 3-21 that night. Still a poor performance overall but he came up big when he needed to most. Same general idea though: don’t let your mistakes define you.
You're still my Top Bottom :)