alamo50
03-06-2005, 07:37 AM
By Emmett Shaw
for HOOPSWORLD.com
Mar 4, 2005, 05:55
There's a lot of work to be done by the San Antonio Spurs, not just to possibly win the NBA Championship, but to play to their potential. "Everyone should engage in some form of attitude adjustment regularly," wrote Patricia Gruber and Shirley Eagan a few years back for a West Virginia University presentation to the faculty there. Like all winners, the Spurs are indeed looking at themselves critically, a good thing unless the self-examination isn't constructive enough.
Coach Popovich cited his disappointment after his charges' latest win, a 6-point pull-away from Toronto's Raptors. The Spurs' game simply isn't ticking like a fine Swiss timepiece as it did in most of December. That's when they found some stimulation from the exciting success of Phoenix and Seattle. Back then, the players decided to religiously get back on defense and guard the perimeter while their big men thwarted numerous enemy drives and post-ups in the paint. As happens in sports, SA's offense fed off its super defense, to devastating effect.
So by the New Year, there were the Spurs winning their average game by the stunningly whopping margin of nearly 12 points. And they were pulling away from all NBA comers in TENDEX differential, perhaps my favorite stat for guaging how good a team is. As their interest has waned, probably from feeling less threatened by the competition, their performance has fallen off -- though they are still winning at the same rate (about 77% of the time).
Don't misread the above. The criticism here isn't that the Spurs are no longer blowing up and blowing out on every single night. But the guys are harboring at least a trace of negativity that their effectiveness has faded some. It's obvious for a few weeks that the team isn't habitually bringing a Championship sense of mission to each game. The attitude isn't positive enough. Gruber and Eagan's presentation, titled The Winning Attitude, called for mission clarification as a regular success strategy in attitude adjustment.
Winning an NBA Championship isn't entirely within a team's control. What the Spurs can completely control is the team's attitude every day. Elwood Chapman's point in the book Attitude: Your Most Prized Possession, is that having the winning attitude is your truly clarified mission. You then hope the details, for a hoopster details such as winning ballgames, go your way. If a secondary mission -- such as winning -- clouds the primary mission -- having a great attitude -- focus weakens and the winning attitude slips away.
Here is the winning attitude: "Plan as though you will live forever. Live as though you will die tomorrow." With the Spurs, trapped mentally by their own proficiency, there is too much living for June and the NBA Finals and not enough diving on the court as if they will die tomorrow. How proficient are they? Even though San Antonio has been off it's game for a while, it is still second only to Detroit in TENDEX differential over its last 10 games.
Another potential attitude pitfall the experts, such as Wolf J Rinke, describe is assuming. Assuming that things will go as they have been going. Taking success for granted, generalizing that the future will always repeat the specific winning past. Then when inevitably it doesn't, focusing on shortcomings to the point of distraction. But in the winning attitude, undistracted you think and talk of winning habitually, every day. Winning not for winning's sake, but because the winning attitude is what is in your heart.
For so long the Spurs have been pushed by slightly superior threats such as the Shaq-Kobe-Jackson combo in LA, that they have lost the mountain to climb. Or they think that they have. The level of urgency is missing. Their mission needs clarifying. Their new mountain is themselves and their yet unscaled potential. They sense this, and wear it like a greater burden than overcoming the Lakers dynasty was.
Do the Spurs even realize what they did? They outlasted the dynasty that Laker Nation was favorably comparing to Showtime, that talking heads were saying would have beaten Michael's Bulls! Do the Spurs realize what they are?
They now are their mountain. A peak, in fact, harder to climb than any opponent. That's what self-control is, a hard thing. Harder than Ben Wallace and Shaq combined. Does Detroit think of the Spurs as the new mountain? Of course not. The Piston's have their own winning attitude to hone, and they look like the best team going right now.
The Spurs need to clarify their mission if they expect to get where they want to be. If they don't, they won't relocate their dominance. Forget the Pistons, the Heat. Teams like Denver or Houston will give them all they can handle when the playoffs begin. And coaches like Karl and Van Gundy know a thing or two about the 8th-seeded upset.
for HOOPSWORLD.com
Mar 4, 2005, 05:55
There's a lot of work to be done by the San Antonio Spurs, not just to possibly win the NBA Championship, but to play to their potential. "Everyone should engage in some form of attitude adjustment regularly," wrote Patricia Gruber and Shirley Eagan a few years back for a West Virginia University presentation to the faculty there. Like all winners, the Spurs are indeed looking at themselves critically, a good thing unless the self-examination isn't constructive enough.
Coach Popovich cited his disappointment after his charges' latest win, a 6-point pull-away from Toronto's Raptors. The Spurs' game simply isn't ticking like a fine Swiss timepiece as it did in most of December. That's when they found some stimulation from the exciting success of Phoenix and Seattle. Back then, the players decided to religiously get back on defense and guard the perimeter while their big men thwarted numerous enemy drives and post-ups in the paint. As happens in sports, SA's offense fed off its super defense, to devastating effect.
So by the New Year, there were the Spurs winning their average game by the stunningly whopping margin of nearly 12 points. And they were pulling away from all NBA comers in TENDEX differential, perhaps my favorite stat for guaging how good a team is. As their interest has waned, probably from feeling less threatened by the competition, their performance has fallen off -- though they are still winning at the same rate (about 77% of the time).
Don't misread the above. The criticism here isn't that the Spurs are no longer blowing up and blowing out on every single night. But the guys are harboring at least a trace of negativity that their effectiveness has faded some. It's obvious for a few weeks that the team isn't habitually bringing a Championship sense of mission to each game. The attitude isn't positive enough. Gruber and Eagan's presentation, titled The Winning Attitude, called for mission clarification as a regular success strategy in attitude adjustment.
Winning an NBA Championship isn't entirely within a team's control. What the Spurs can completely control is the team's attitude every day. Elwood Chapman's point in the book Attitude: Your Most Prized Possession, is that having the winning attitude is your truly clarified mission. You then hope the details, for a hoopster details such as winning ballgames, go your way. If a secondary mission -- such as winning -- clouds the primary mission -- having a great attitude -- focus weakens and the winning attitude slips away.
Here is the winning attitude: "Plan as though you will live forever. Live as though you will die tomorrow." With the Spurs, trapped mentally by their own proficiency, there is too much living for June and the NBA Finals and not enough diving on the court as if they will die tomorrow. How proficient are they? Even though San Antonio has been off it's game for a while, it is still second only to Detroit in TENDEX differential over its last 10 games.
Another potential attitude pitfall the experts, such as Wolf J Rinke, describe is assuming. Assuming that things will go as they have been going. Taking success for granted, generalizing that the future will always repeat the specific winning past. Then when inevitably it doesn't, focusing on shortcomings to the point of distraction. But in the winning attitude, undistracted you think and talk of winning habitually, every day. Winning not for winning's sake, but because the winning attitude is what is in your heart.
For so long the Spurs have been pushed by slightly superior threats such as the Shaq-Kobe-Jackson combo in LA, that they have lost the mountain to climb. Or they think that they have. The level of urgency is missing. Their mission needs clarifying. Their new mountain is themselves and their yet unscaled potential. They sense this, and wear it like a greater burden than overcoming the Lakers dynasty was.
Do the Spurs even realize what they did? They outlasted the dynasty that Laker Nation was favorably comparing to Showtime, that talking heads were saying would have beaten Michael's Bulls! Do the Spurs realize what they are?
They now are their mountain. A peak, in fact, harder to climb than any opponent. That's what self-control is, a hard thing. Harder than Ben Wallace and Shaq combined. Does Detroit think of the Spurs as the new mountain? Of course not. The Piston's have their own winning attitude to hone, and they look like the best team going right now.
The Spurs need to clarify their mission if they expect to get where they want to be. If they don't, they won't relocate their dominance. Forget the Pistons, the Heat. Teams like Denver or Houston will give them all they can handle when the playoffs begin. And coaches like Karl and Van Gundy know a thing or two about the 8th-seeded upset.