All too often sports are overlooked, and passed off as
mindless games. Contrary to what is widely believed, sports require countless
hours of preparation and mental focus. Throughout history, the most successful
coaches have taken a philosophical approach to the game and they instilled
these principals into their players and in turn the players relayed that
approach in the way they performed in action. Two of the most renowned coaches
known for their philosophy-based approaches to sports are Phil Jackson from his
time with the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers, and Tony Dungy from his
time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Indianapolis Colts. In this first
installment, I am going to focus in on Phil Jackson, and then key in on Tony
Dungy in the second installment.
After his very last championship, Phil Jackson authored a
book by the name of 11 Rings in which
he details the philosophies he employed when dealing with megastars of the game
such as Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O’Neal, just to name a few.
The philosophies he preached to his players are what lead him to being one of
the most successful basketball coaches of all time with eleven championships to
his name. Now, it’s easy to say that anyone could have won those rings with the
talent he had around him, but what goes unnoticed is the grooming and patience
it takes to push the enormous egos, that come with the enormous talent, to the
side to be beneficial when it comes to reaching team oriented goal, winning games,
which is the bottom line.
Jackson often talked about how he was a huge fan of the
Eastern philosophy of Zen Buddhism, which earned him the nickname the “Zen
Master”. Zen Buddhism focuses on opposing the “ego” and being “unselfish”. Phil
felt like these principals were more important than actually winning games.
This was especially necessary when dealing with the Michael Jordan’s and the
Kobe Bryant’s of the world who can, at times, be a handful to deal with in a
team setting given their all-time great talent. In his book, he stated, “As
coach, I know that being fixated on winning (or more likely, not losing) is
counterproductive, especially when it causes you to lose control of your
emotions. What's more, obsessing about winning is a loser's game: The most we
can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go
of the outcome." Phil felt that if you could treat the best player on the
team the same way you treat the struggling player at the end of the bench, it
would spread a feeling of togetherness throughout the team. Each player has a
value that is unique and different from the next. That was Phil Jackson’s big secret
to winning. To get the best player to need the other four players on the court
just as much as they need him, and the results speak for themselves. To the
tune of eleven championships.
"The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome." - This attitude comes more naturally to athletes than to fans, doesn't it? But it's so much more profound and life-affirming than Vince Lombardi's "winning isn't everything, it's the ONLY thing."
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