Know your craft - player development / X & O's
Be able to establish relationships
Have a great work ethic
6.22.2012
LEBRON - CHAMPION
Fate did LeBron James the most magnificent favor, forcing failure upon him a season ago, leaving him humiliated, hurting and hurtling into despair. That championship would've been met with shrugs and so-whats, a resentment rising out of the way these Miami Heat were assembled, the clustering of stars on a smoke-filled stage promising an unprecedented dominance. Too fast. Too easy. Failure was the greatest thing to happen to his career because it changed the prism with which the world viewed James, and most of all, the way LeBron James viewed himself.
"The best thing that happened to me was us losing in the Finals [in 2011], and me playing the way I played," James said late Thursday night inside the AmericanAirlines Arena, sitting between the two most remarkable bookends of his basketball life: The Larry O'Brien NBA championship trophy and the Russell MVP award.
"It was the best thing to ever happen to me in my career because basically I got back to the basics," he said. "It humbled me. I knew I was going to have to change as a basketball player, and I was going to have to change as a person to get what I wanted."
Failure didn't humanize James; his response to it humanized him.
James provided a virtuoso Game 5 performance of 26 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds. In turn, his psyche changed, his game grew, his ability to cope with the pressures and expectations were fully realized.
LeBron James has won his championship at 27 years old on Thursday night, just as Michael Jordan had won his first championship at 27. James didn't have three years at North Carolina under Dean Smith, nor did he have a childhood as traditional – perhaps even functional – as Jordan's. When James had a chance to frame his championship chase into the context of those before him, including M.J., James resisted.
"It was a journey for myself," he said. "I don't want to compare it to any other player. Everything that went with me being a high school prodigy when I was 16 and on the cover of Sports Illustrated to being drafted and having to be the face of a franchise; everything that came with it. I had to deal with it, and I had to learn through it.
"No one had [gone] through that journey, so I had to learn on my own. Everything that came with it, I had to basically figure it out on my own."
And then, James would say: "I'm a champion, and I did it the right way. I didn't shortcut anything."
The dam bursts now, the walls come crashing down and James is the water tumbling down a mountainside, gathering speed and power, leaving everyone to wonder: What in the world can stop it now? Winning changes everything, and champions can behave unchecked in ways that those without titles never are allowed. That's this sporting culture, and that's the double standard that forever will exist.
Talent had taken him so far, so fast, but the rapidness with which it all came cost James for so much of his life. His flaws met the digital age, and the ensuing explosion caused a supernova. All around him, there were people profiting over his inability to manage himself, his emotions, his talents, and they stunted his growth.
"It took me to go all the way to the top and then hit rock bottom to realize what I needed to do as a professional athlete and a person," James said.
"I just kind of made my own path."
"The best thing that happened to me was us losing in the Finals [in 2011], and me playing the way I played," James said late Thursday night inside the AmericanAirlines Arena, sitting between the two most remarkable bookends of his basketball life: The Larry O'Brien NBA championship trophy and the Russell MVP award.
"It was the best thing to ever happen to me in my career because basically I got back to the basics," he said. "It humbled me. I knew I was going to have to change as a basketball player, and I was going to have to change as a person to get what I wanted."
Failure didn't humanize James; his response to it humanized him.
James provided a virtuoso Game 5 performance of 26 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds. In turn, his psyche changed, his game grew, his ability to cope with the pressures and expectations were fully realized.
LeBron James has won his championship at 27 years old on Thursday night, just as Michael Jordan had won his first championship at 27. James didn't have three years at North Carolina under Dean Smith, nor did he have a childhood as traditional – perhaps even functional – as Jordan's. When James had a chance to frame his championship chase into the context of those before him, including M.J., James resisted.
"It was a journey for myself," he said. "I don't want to compare it to any other player. Everything that went with me being a high school prodigy when I was 16 and on the cover of Sports Illustrated to being drafted and having to be the face of a franchise; everything that came with it. I had to deal with it, and I had to learn through it.
"No one had [gone] through that journey, so I had to learn on my own. Everything that came with it, I had to basically figure it out on my own."
And then, James would say: "I'm a champion, and I did it the right way. I didn't shortcut anything."
The dam bursts now, the walls come crashing down and James is the water tumbling down a mountainside, gathering speed and power, leaving everyone to wonder: What in the world can stop it now? Winning changes everything, and champions can behave unchecked in ways that those without titles never are allowed. That's this sporting culture, and that's the double standard that forever will exist.
Talent had taken him so far, so fast, but the rapidness with which it all came cost James for so much of his life. His flaws met the digital age, and the ensuing explosion caused a supernova. All around him, there were people profiting over his inability to manage himself, his emotions, his talents, and they stunted his growth.
"It took me to go all the way to the top and then hit rock bottom to realize what I needed to do as a professional athlete and a person," James said.
"I just kind of made my own path."
6.08.2012
VCU - HEAD COACHING NON-NEGOTIABLES
TIRELESS RECRUITER
INTEGRITY
PASSIONATE
PROVEN WINNER
TEACHER
LEADER
WORK ETHIC
COMMUNICATOR
ORGANIZED
INNOVATOR ON THE COURT
TIRELESS RECRUITER
INTEGRITY
PASSIONATE
PROVEN WINNER
TEACHER
LEADER
WORK ETHIC
COMMUNICATOR
ORGANIZED
INNOVATOR ON THE COURT
TIRELESS RECRUITER
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