Do not use your energy to worry. Use your energy to believe, to create, to learn, to think and to grow.
If we want to solve a problem that we have never solved before, we must leave the door to the unknown ajar.
—Professor Richard Feynman
I am relentless because I have seen what happens to men who stop believing there is more for them. the fire that once drove them becomes a memory they occasionally bring up over dinner. men my age already talking about their best days in the past tense. I cannot accept that for myself. I refuse to spend the rest of my life looking backward at the person I used to be. I will not. I will not.
Kevin Garnett explains the life skill that helped him become an NBA leader: knowing when to speak, when to be silent, and who to listen to
“So, yeah, it was. That’s what I can’t explain about Chicago, that some of the atmospheres you play in actually make you tougher. Or give you a certain pedigree that you are able to, I learned how to finesse and I learned how to get us outta situations by being in this situation.”
“I say that all the time, like we have a lot of disputes and arguments about, ‘Oh, well, California or LA got this.’ And I’ll be like, okay, they get the name and they players and doing it and I’m cool. I say, ‘That’s cool.’ I say, ‘But I’ma stay right here with my Chicago crew cause when the shit hit the fan gimme TA.’ You know what I’m saying?”
“Give me D Rose. Will Bynum. Give me, you know what I’m saying? Give me Bynum. Give me Antoine. Give me, I’m tellin’ you everybody that I’ma name. Every single person been in some of the most craziest situations that you could ever think of and they did rose out of it.”
“And I know it cause I was with ’em, I done seen, heard about it or experience the same shit. And I’ma go with that. Because I know when the goddamn — the shit always going hit the fan. Always. At some point. I don’t care what’s going on. And I’ma go with them resilient motherfuckers that I know that is going, whether we gotta fight, whether we gotta do this or do that, like you said, figure your way. Man look, we gon’ get there.”
“I call it finessin’. Like, that helped. That right there helped me be an NBA leader. When I got to the league, man, I was able to give my opinion and then be silent. I knew when to talk, when not to. I kept shit over here. I was always listening and asking the OG questions. So, it was a easier adjustment cause I’ve been hooping with grown folks, and been around them for so long that I know how to adjust with them.”
“They really took care of us. The athletes like, ‘Hey, hold up, man. Leave shorty alone.’ ‘Man, get the fuck out. Hey shorty, get your ass around here. What you been doing in this area right now?’ You know what I’m saying? So, like that was what we grew up in. Ever since Ben Wilson, man, and that situation went down with him, I think the street guys start cuffing guys and start like giving them direction.”
“Because a lot of the kids too, didn’t have a lot of script. And believe it or not, a lot of these kids didn’t have parents. A lot of these kids didn’t have no mom. They grandma raising them. They out here and you know, they out here on the court letting it out. You know what I’m saying? But yeah man, I thank God for the go, man. The go got me ready for the league, and it got me ready for life, so.”
Winning can hide the habits that will eventually beat you.
Celebrate the result.
Then tell the truth about the performance.
Don’t let the result excuse the performance.
The most dangerous mistakes are the ones you survive.
Before you can lead somebody else, you have to lead yourself.
You earn the right to lead others by first leading yourself. Then your example gives your voice credibility.
Nadie, pero nadie que haya jugado al tenis, ha combinado tanta elegancia, clase y estética con una técnica tan depurada y absoluta como Federer.
Ni siquiera Stefan Edberg que, de por sí, ya era una auténtica clase en cada golpe que ejecutaba.
Kobe Bryant once said:
“Everyone wants to be a beast. Everyone wants to be the best. But very few people are willing to do what it actually takes. Because what it takes is boring. It is waking up at 4:00 AM. It is shooting the same shot a thousand times. It is watching the film when you are tired. People fall in love with the result, but they hate the process. You have to fall in love with the boredom. You have to fall in love with the repetition.
If you can find joy in the mundane work that no one else sees, the lights will eventually shine on you.”
Your standard shouldn't know whether it's practice, preseason or a championship.
If the circumstances determine your effort, you don't have a standard.
Steve Kerr says Roger Federer taught his Warriors team the secret to sustained success wasn’t outworking everyone, it was building a life around your craft you never want to escape from
“I’ll tell you a great story about Roger Federer. We were playing in China with the Warriors in 2017. Roger was in Shanghai for the Masters tournament, so we invited him to come speak to the team.”
“Draymond Green asked him, ‘How do you sustain success? How have you managed to win majors 20 years after you first won one?’ Everyone was expecting him to say, ‘I work harder than everybody,’ the will, all the clichés.”
“Roger Federer says, ‘I get up every morning and I make breakfast for my kids. Then I take them to school and drop them off. Then I go practice tennis for about two hours, and I’ve figured out a really good routine where I don’t destroy my body, but I can get all the work in I need.”
“‘Then I go have lunch with my wife. In the evening, we cook dinner together. The kids are all home from school. We ask them about school. There’s so much joy in the house. We put them to bed, and then I put my head on the pillow and go, “Man, that was just a great day.” And I’ve been doing that for 20 years.’”
“And it was like, yes. That’s it. That’s the formula. That’s what leads to sustained success. He loves tennis. He loves his family. He loves life. It’s not outworking everybody and banging your head against the wall, ‘I’m going to be better than everybody.’ It’s allowing your natural talent to shine through with a work ethic, with a great family life, with perspective, with peace, with mindfulness.”
“It’s perspective. It’s joy. It’s passion. It’s mindfulness. It’s an awareness that we are truly lucky. To get the most out of ourselves, it’s our daily rituals and experiences and love and joy.”
For me, this is Messi’s most underrated goal:
Receives the ball in midfield, progressive run, pre-assists his own goal, shot from outside the box, defenders crash into each other, it hits the post and goes in. He literally created the goal out of nothing