Know Your Role

What's good ballers?! This just in: it's still a great time to be a basketball lover. As the NBA playoffs and 2014-2015 season begin to draw to a close, the more and more motivated I have become to improve and hone in on one of my true passions. It's been amazing to simply watch and take notes on the true professionals who have fought their way to their respective Conference Finals, and it has provided me with an edge when I go to play in my own time. Any advantage that you can create or find is an advantage that you can use to be better than your opponent. To be completely honest, however, I haven't had a lot of time to play the sport I love lately, but I am eagerly waiting to the days of summer. I am fully and impatiently planning to play A LOT of basketball this summer, and to enjoy the beautiful weather that is sure to come.

Similar to my last post, these past few weeks brought a new epiphany and self-discovered insight. In one the 2 on 2 pickup games I participated in earlier this week, I was playing pretty poorly. Following my mindset and previous inhibitions, I tried to shoot and drive my way out of the slump, but my efforts only resulted in more turnovers and less quality possessions for my teammate and I. Even though my only fall was not being consistent with my shot, my team was now suffering because I was trying to take it upon myself to get us out of trouble. It was in this moment that I learned something important and new: in order to improve the performance of your team you must be honest with yourself and recognize when your shot isn't going in. Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is to look to give others scoring opportunities, and be patient and careful when you seek your own shot. Immediately, my teammate rose to the occasion, and with my own selfish attempts aside I was able to focus on creating the best scoring opportunities possible. The result was immediately better possessions, and an increased number of high-percentage shots. This is important to realize as I feel that a lot of us can get caught up in what we can do to improve the team, and sometimes it is to simply look for others.

For my daily reading for the past two weeks I decided to focus on a previous MVP-winner and multiple NBA Scoring Champion that I realized I didn't actually know that much about. While for much of these season he was plagued with injuries and setbacks (unfortunately so), Kevin Durant is one of the most exciting young players in the entire NBA. As with any great player, I was very curious and interested in learning more about how others perceive his work ethic and mental toughness - I was thoroughly impressed. Kevin Durant is widely known by his peers and mentors as someone of character and high standard, whose constantly stays positive and continually, constantly, always wants to get better. He is also said to be one of the most humble superstars there have been, and thankfully accepts coaching and direction. Most significantly to me, especially this week, is that KD is always working to get the teammates around him better, even though he may be miles more talented than some of the people he plays with. I love hearing stories about how superstars have earned their ranking, and how hungry someone is to be better despite them already playing at the highest level - it really makes you want to be like them.

Click here for the article discussed above!


Ballin' up this week and many more,

Brad