Rachel Link

To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift...

[Rachel Link @STLGAL9]

@AshAshPB MLP’s product in my opinion has the opportunity to be superior- nothing like a DreamBreaker 🔥 teams have to invest their own money to host an event and some teams have bigger investments and organizations than others. Hopefully it will grow into that.

[Catherine Parenteau @CP_Pickleball]

What a weekend in Dallas 🤩 So proud of this team!!
Couldn’t be happier to be a part of the LA Mad Drops — the chemistry, energy, support, and fight this team brings every single match is something special. So excited for what’s ahead this season. This is only the beginning 💚💙

[Major League Pickleball @MajorLeaguePB]

Your #MLPDallas 1st Place Finishers: The @lamaddrops. ☝️A true statement start to the 2026 season.

[Jaynit @jaynitx]

Every night as a kid, Kobe Bryant fell asleep visualizing basketball.

He’d see himself scoring 10 straight. Then 20. Then 30.

“But in the dream, why would you ever interrupt that?”

“So you keep dreaming.”

“Before I go to sleep, I’m at 120 points.”

In 2006, he scored 81.

Kobe spent an hour at USC explaining what Mamba Mentality really means:

He was born to play.

"I started playing at like 2 years old."

"My father wasn't one of these fathers that was like: you're going to play basketball. It was just I was around the game a lot and I gravitated to the ball."

"I was completely geeking out about the smell of the ball. The way it sounds when it hits concrete versus how it hits a parquet floor."

"The sound of the nets. The different material of the nets."

"There's certain basketball hoops where the rim sits slightly above the backboard. I was geeking out if I got into a gym where they were completely parallel."

"Little shit like that would freak me out."

"To answer your question, I was born to do this thing, man. And I did it non-stop all day long from the age of 2 to when I retired."

He explains how to know if you've found your thing.

"That's the trick, isn't it? Finding what you love to do."

"We talk about hard work all the time. And it's like, if you got to get up every single morning and remind yourself how hard you need to work, you probably need to choose a different profession."

"That shouldn't be there."

"I wake up in the morning excited to get to it. If I'm not training, I'm missing it. If I'm not watching a game of basketball, I miss it."

"There's no place I'd rather be."

"If you have that feeling, then you're truly doing what God has put you on this earth to do."

He explains the 81-point game.

"When you grow up downloading that into your brain over and over and over..."

"That summer, I made 1000 shots a day. 1000. On top of weight training and conditioning."

"And they weren't just shots. They were shots that you saw in that game."

"Coming out of the corner. Going to the pinch post. Footwork in the post. Coming off the screen."

"It was very specific."

"So when you download that into your system and you go out on the court, you're just executing things that you've done thousands of times before."

"And you have that dream."

"Then that becomes possible."

He explains why he doesn't reinvent.

"Everything's been not choreographed, but it's been practiced so many times that it's second nature."

"Why reinvent it?"

"I don't understand that. You go out and play the game and you're just trying to create something new. No."

"This is what I do. This is what I do extremely well."

"You're going to have to stop me from doing that. And if you do stop me from doing that, I have a counter to that."

"Done."

He explains the pain.

"To be honest, I wasn't even thinking about the game."

"My knee was hurting so much. I didn't know then, but I had a flap of cartilage stuck in my joint line."

"My mind was really trying to go to a place where I don't feel that pain."

"The game started. And because of that, I was just in a different space."

"I wasn't worried about what was to come. I wasn't worried about what just happened. I was just here."

"When you're just there in the moment, your focus is heightened because nothing else matters."

Pete Carroll asked the hard question.

"What was it like for you to play with people that weren't as gritty as you were?"

Kobe's response.

"I'd kill them. I'd bury them."

"The kind of culture that the Laker organization stood for, winning championships, is not tolerated."

"You're going to show up to play. And you're going to lollygag through this scrimmage, through this drill? I'm going to beat you."

"I'm going to let you know I beat you."

"I'm going to want you to reconsider your professional life choice."

"People will say: okay, that doesn't make a great teammate."

"Well, I'm not here to be a great teammate. I'm here to help you win championships."

"So it's different."

He explains practice.

"As a leader of a team, it's your responsibility to elevate the rest of the guys."

"What people tend to get stuck on is saying: the way to make players better is to pass them the ball when they're open."

"That's a very trivial way to look at things."

"You have to get them emotionally to want to be better. You have to get them to an emotional space where they wake up every morning driven to be the best version of themselves."

"How do you do that?"

"In practice for me, it was a chance to drive them, to challenge them."

"You have to know your teammates. Because then you know what nerve to touch."

"Some guys, it's like: okay, come on, we can do this. That'll get them going."

"Other guys, no. You got to figure out what button to push."

He gives an example.

"Pau was always Spain."

"If I tell him how they lost in the gold medal to us and how they're going to lose again, how I'm going to beat your ass in practice just like I beat you in the gold medal game."

"Oh. He would hate that. He would hate that."

"But that's what practice was. You have to drive them."

"If practice is more intense and harder than a game seven will be, then a game seven will be easy."

"But if it's not, then that's when teams start folding and capitulating."

He explains standards.

"If I got to fight to get you in the gym, that's a problem. That's a problem."

"You want players that are gym rats. Players that want to be in the gym, that want to work."

"Then from there, you build on top of that."

"But if you're lazy, man, I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to deal with you. You make me feel dumber."

"You're going to lower my level. I don't think so."

"You can go over there. There's plenty of teams where you'll fit right in."

He explains loyalty.

The Lakers offered to trade him to a contending team. His response.

"We've known each other for a very long time. I'm questioning myself because I'm wondering what about me makes you think I would jump ship."

"We don't do that."

"As a leader, you got to be able to take the good with the bad."

"You can't just because the ship's sinking all of a sudden jump off and swim to another. You don't do that."

"If you can win championships in front of everybody, then you could miss the playoffs in front of everybody."

"You got to be able to take both sides of it."

"If you're doing something that's easy, you might want to reconsider what you're doing."

He explains what he wishes he knew earlier.

"Understanding empathy and compassion."

"As a young kid when I came in the league, it was like: I'm driving this way and either you're going to be on the train or be on the track."

"There was no such thing as understanding that people have lives outside of the game. Which apparently I did not."

"If I understood that at an early age, then it helps me as a leader to communicate better."

"Getting to know people on a personal level. What are their fears. What are their insecurities. What are their dreams and ambitions."

"When you come to understand that about a person, then you can help them reach the best version of themselves."

"I wish I'd known that earlier."

He explains how he teaches his daughter.

"My daughter said: Dad, can you teach me how to play basketball? I want to be better than you."

"All right, cool. Let's start with 15 minutes a day."

"For 15 minutes a day, we just stood right in front of the hoop and just shot. Right under the hoop. We didn't move around. We didn't do any dribbling."

"Just 15 minutes a day just shoot here."

"You do that for a month and a half. Then next month, you step back. Then next month, you step back again. Then you start working on dribbling."

"Through actionable things is how we teach our children."

"If it becomes a part of their process in sports, it'll become a part of their process in life as well."

He explains dreams.

"I just dream. I have dreams."

"Dreams should be pure."

"A lot of times when we're born into this world, we actually wind up going backwards."

"The more we mature, the more responsible our dreams become. The more governors we put on ourselves and our ability to dream and to reimagine."

"It's always a fight for us to make sure that our dreams always stay pure."

"It's not a matter of pushing beyond your limitations or expectations."

"It's really a matter of protecting your dreams. Protecting your imagination."

"That's really the key."

"When you do that, then the world just seems limitless."

[Rachel Link @STLGAL9]

@boymom2beckham Gorgeous mama 💖💖 congrats!!

[Titans Radio @TitansRadio]

For Mac 💙

[FOST @GeorgeFoster72]

Rest Easy, Dave “Coach Mac” McGinnis. You were solid and kept us laughing, man 🕊️. If you knew Coach Mac, you knew he was gonna move like he ran the place. And that didn’t change the night of this pic way over in London lol.

[That Hayley Chick @haybay42]

I’m in tears reading all these tributes to Coach Mac. What a beautiful testimony to the man he was. What an inspiration to us all to live a life and love people in a way that would leave that kind of impact. The kind of man who made people feel seen and loved. I pray to leave even a fraction of that kind legacy. 🙏🏻

[Jim Omohundro @jimohms]

Love you, Coach Mac. You sure could light up a room.

"This game is about passion. This game is about heart. This game is about putting everything you have into it." - Dave McGinnis (Sept. 16, 2002)

[Dan Pompei @danpompei]

Dave McGinnis left behind a phone with 3,800 contacts, and most who had shared their phone numbers with him undoubtedly felt they lost a dear friend. My farewell to the gentleman coach, unlocked for all. https://t.co/NAh4ewBbZm

[CJ Eke @Cjizzleman2]

Dave McGinnis had a unique ability to make everybody feel like they were the most important person in the world. Everybody was worth investing in.

The world lost a great man and I KNOW he’s up in heaven coaching those angels to KEEP THEIR POWDER DRY!

RIP Coach Mac

[Tennessee Titans @Titans]

We extend our deepest condolences to the family of Dave “Coach Mac” McGinnis, who passed away Monday afternoon in Nashville with family at his side.

[Dan Pompei @danpompei]

"Football's a better world because of him." My farewell to Coach Mac. Free to read. https://t.co/NAh4ewBbZm

[John McClain @McClain_on_NFL]

I knew Dave McGinnis for decades, and he was one of the finest people I’ve ever met. What devastating news that he died today at 74. First as a Titans assistant coach, then as a sports talk show host and game analyst on their flagship, Dave was incredibly popular with everyone in Nashville. Condolences to his family, friends and fans. What terrible news!

[Rachel Link @STLGAL9]

@jwyattsports @Titans Coach Mac was truly a gem of a human and my life was better because he was in it. Truly a joy to know and the world is a little darker today without his light. He will be missed 💖💖

[Jim Wyatt @jwyattsports]

Longtime NFL coach, @Titans color analyst Dave McGinnis passes away at age 74.

“I don’t know that I’ve met anybody who was created for football, and a football life, more than Coach Mac.”

STORY https://t.co/x28VR6x58v

[Timeless Sports @timelesssports_]

On this date in 1975, one of the hardest golf photos ever.

Chi Chi Rodriguez and his caddie, Carl Howard, at the 1975 Masters 🔥

[Jennifer Matthews @JennMatthews57]

When a girl says, "5 mins", think about it like there are five minutes left in the 4th quarter and both teams have all their timeouts.

[Fastbreak Hoops @FastbreakHoops5]

Kobe Bryant’s advice on fear and nerves 🗣️