Recently, Lebron has teamed up with J.J. Redick for a new podcast called the Mind The Game Podcast. It’s getting rave reviews because it takes conversations and experiences from behind the scenes of the elite, basketball world and delivers them for assessment and evaluation by the general public. Some of the positive reviews come from the basketball community who are happy to finally hear players, with firsthand knowledge and experience, talk about the ins and outs, the minutiae of high-level basketball. It contrasts the pundits, who for decades have commented on the game and its players, while having no experience to show for themselves. Their criticisms and praise have been taken by the general public as gospel for what is and isn’t true of these elite athletes, coaches and teams. But without experience or input from those with lived experience, their words should have always been taken for exactly what they are meant to be – entertainment to keep the masses engaged; fodder for discussion; a superficial understanding to bridge the gap between the typical viewer or listener, and the actual experience of those playing, coaching or developing these elite teams. Listening or watching Lebron and Redick dialogue will never fully give someone a true understanding of the experience. It’s the difference between taking a photo of a gorgeous sunset overlooking a beach, versus walking the paths that surround it, captivated by the beauty of every moment of the experience. Simply, you can never truly capture it for all that it was. That established, much can be gained for those tuning in, so long as they not only hear what is being said, but understand what the contextual meaning of the words, and figures of speech mean within the communication of basketball’s elite community.
Many within the basketball community have been tuning into Lebron and Redick’s new venture to assess it’s worth, value and how it aligns with our own experiences. Not to diminish what it offers the masses, but for much of it, it sounds familiar. Despite its depth to the uninitiated, in what I have observed, nothing extraordinary pops out as revolutionary. But as I have scrolled through some of the clips, Lebron spoke to an experience I, and many others identify with – the idea that you can’t have it all, at once. That some things have to happen in sequence before they’re given their due. And while this sounds kosher to most peoples lived experience, the example Lebron gives, taken at face value, is too simple of an understanding. Specifically, Lebron gives voice to the sacrifices elite players make in their relationships in order to realize their potential.
In the podcast, Lebron says, “You have to sacrifice loved ones for a long period of time if you want to be great…You have to sacrifice loved ones to be great because they don’t understand… I’m getting up every single day at 5 or 6am, and when I get home after everyone leaves the gym, I’m going to take a nap, so now you’re sacrificing your loved ones because you’re not spending time with them, and when I wake up, I’m probably going to train again, and then I’m going to have dinner and then I’m going to bed. And I’m going to do that every single day. For a long period of time. That’s sacrifice and discipline.”
As Lebron spoke of those sacrifices, it resonated with an understanding I and many others had while growing up and developing our games. As a young player, disillusioned to think in absolute terms, and under the belief of limited resources (specifically time), I use to tell those I dated that if we were dating, they had to know that my basketball dreams, and the time and focus those required, always came first. That said, no relationship I was in, ever ended because of my passion for the game. Lebron has been with his partner since he was sixteen years old. They’ve now been married for over ten years. They have three children. Nothing has come to sacrifice. That’s because what he doesn’t mention is that on top of his passion, he still makes time for his partner and children. He goes to his kids’ games. He supports his partner’s endeavours. And if he’s anything like Kobe was, he not only makes time for them, he integrates them into his daily schedule. Knowing the immense value that they can gain from, not only time with each other, but witnessing firsthand the effort and passion to realize greatness, will broaden the scope of possibilities for their own lives. He’s showing them that they don’t have to adhere to a limited mindset – they can have it all. And he’s not showing them that they can have it if they sacrifice one thing for the other, but rather if they integrate their lives completely.
I was extremely fortunate enough to have parents that offered me the same broad, unlimited, possibilities for life. My parents worked near non-stop to offer our family a life. My father worked around the clock for decades. My mother had at least two (often more) jobs for as long as I can remember. Still, my mother, as an office administrator in my high school, found a way to open the school gym in the mornings so that I could work on my game before starting her own job. Then, after work, and before one of her other jobs, she was always be the loudest voice in that same gym at my games. Similarly, when I first started developing my game, my father shot with me to challenge me until he couldn’t challenge me any longer. That was when, in university, he would pick me up before 6am to go to the Mayflower (a fitting pub named after an a propos ship that carried pilgrims from the old world to the new) for breakfast together before dropping me off at the gym so I could work on my game. Despite the passion and time that I put into the game, some of my fondest memories, and the things that had the greatest impact on me as a person, that taught me most, were not what happened on the court. They were the moments when everything I loved came together. It was those moments that I remember and cherish most. It was those moments that allowed my mind to sail away from the comfortable shores of familiarity to the broad and unlimited possibilities of unexplored lands. It was those lessons and experiences, that I hope, as a coach, I’m able to impart on the players I have humbly been fortunate enough to lead.