Failing Forward by John C. Maxwell

Author:John C. Maxwell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2012-05-10T04:00:00+00:00

START PUTTING THE TEAM FIRST

If you follow sports these days, you've heard a lot of talk about the selfishness of professional athletes. The recent criticism has been especially harsh toward pro basketball players because the feeling is that too many players possess a me-first mentality. Critics often point to the difference in performance between the men's and the women's basketball teams in the 1996 Olympics. The amount of talent on the men's team far outweighed that of their opponents, yet the players sometimes found it difficult to play together as a team. Meanwhile, the women virtually defined teamwork with their performance.

When competition is fierce, selfishness makes it almost impossible for a team to win. It ultimately produces failure. If talent alone won championships, then the Los Angeles Lakers of the late 1990s would have earned one.

Fortunately all of the stories out of the NBA aren't about selfishness and failure. The 1999 NBA champions—the San Antonio Spurs—won their victory because the man who had been their best player for a decade knew the importance of getting over himself.

Standing at seven feet one inch, David Robinson is the center for the Spurs. In his ten years in the NBA, Robinson has earned just about every type of award there is for a professional basketball player: Rookie of the Year (1990), Rebounding Champion (1991), Defensive Player of the Year (1992), #1 Shot Blocker (1992), #1 Scorer (1994), and Most Valuable Player (1995). He has also been named to the NBA All-Star team eight times. His consistently excellent play has put him in the upper echelon statistically in several all-time NBA categories, including points scored per game. He has been named one of the fifty greatest players in NBA history.

Despite all of Robinson's personal achievements, he had never won an NBA championship—until the 1999 season. How did he do it? By giving up the ball offensively and allowing another player, Tim Duncan, to be the hero.

During the 1999 play-offs, teammate Avery Johnson commented, "What we have in David Robinson is the ultimate team player, the ultimate winner. He threw his ego out and became a totally different player for the good of the team. He could still average 25 points. But would we be where we are? No."

In 1999, Robinson put up the lowest averages of his career. His viewpoint was this: "I looked at our team and realized we needed me to be more defensive and rebounding-minded. To be a complete team, both of us didn't need to score. Some nights I might, but it's Tim's team. And I'm fine with that."

The result of Robinson's unselfish ability to put the team ahead of himself was success for everyone on the team. If you want to win and overcome failure, you've got to get over yourself.

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