timaios
05-26-2008, 10:51 AM
http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-32-229/Grounded-Planes--Analogies--and-Toughness.html
Grounded Planes, Analogies, and Toughness
May 25, 2008 11:53 PM
You can make a strong case that Champion Air has played a role in deciding who will be the NBA Champion.
The Spurs spent Tuesday morning -- after a huge game Monday night -- trying to sleep on their Champion plane that was grounded by mechanical issues.
If you were writing a movie script, and wanted to dream up some kind of super-obvious scenario that would make it look like a team was negatively affected by fatigue, you might sketch out something like Wednesday's Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals: San Antonio drastically outplayed the Lakers for much of the night, and had a big lead. But in the late stages of the game, they lost their edge, missed shots they usually make -- while looking exhausted -- and lost to a fresher team by a shot or two at the buzzer.
(There is a problem with this theory: Kobe Bryant was doing one of his weird mind-game things in that game, and only really came to play in the second half. Perhaps that 20-point lead was always fool's gold? Argue amongst yourselves.)
However, now that Game 3 is in the books, and we can see that the Spurs really can beat the Lakers, it makes you think -- woooow, what would this be like with the Spurs up 2-1, with two more home games coming up before the series is over?
San Antonio would be favored in that scenario, for sure.
But as it is, they lost Game 1 to Phil Jackson, a coach whose teams have won 40 straight series after winning Game 1 of a seven-game series. The Spurs are down 2-1, with plenty left to prove.
I have spent much of my life making real things that happen in the NBA into analogies that might somehow apply to life off the court.
You have no idea how many times I have explained things to friends and family by using analogies based on Terry Porter, LeBron James, Rasheed Wallace or some such person who really does not belong in a conversation about, say, where we should spend Christmas.
Or, the other day, a friend found himself at loggerheads with a new boss. I told him to consider the case of Larry Brown and Allen Iverson: It was never easy, but through painful and dogged work, they managed to learn to work together, and damn near won a title.
I'm used to taking the reality of the NBA and making it some kind of gauzy archetype. The trials of the game as placeholders for the trials of my life.
But this thing? A broken plane, and a pain-in-the-ass delay when you really really need to get to that other city, and your comfortable bed? Staggering through important parts of work knowing you're way short of sleep?
That's no analogy. That's real. That's the kind of thing that really does happen to you and me. That's not the magical fairy land of the NBA. That's life as we know it.
Those are the exact kinds of bad hands that we have all been dealt at one time or another.
And that's why this very thing might be one of the most impressive stories of them all.
Gregg Popovich reportedly personally told his team that they would be sleeping on the plane. And he told them it was just one more challenge the team would face. No big deal.
And, even though it really may have cost them a huge game, and it really could, in the long run, conceivably even cost them a championship, no Spur has used it as an excuse.
It was just one more challenge. Soldier on. Get over it. Win again another day.
That's Gregg Popovich walking the walk of a thousand books about leadership, inspiration, the tough getting going and all that. That's not an analogy to learn from. That's real life to learn from, and that's something I'll remember -- and bring up at inappropriate times -- long past these playoffs.
Grounded Planes, Analogies, and Toughness
May 25, 2008 11:53 PM
You can make a strong case that Champion Air has played a role in deciding who will be the NBA Champion.
The Spurs spent Tuesday morning -- after a huge game Monday night -- trying to sleep on their Champion plane that was grounded by mechanical issues.
If you were writing a movie script, and wanted to dream up some kind of super-obvious scenario that would make it look like a team was negatively affected by fatigue, you might sketch out something like Wednesday's Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals: San Antonio drastically outplayed the Lakers for much of the night, and had a big lead. But in the late stages of the game, they lost their edge, missed shots they usually make -- while looking exhausted -- and lost to a fresher team by a shot or two at the buzzer.
(There is a problem with this theory: Kobe Bryant was doing one of his weird mind-game things in that game, and only really came to play in the second half. Perhaps that 20-point lead was always fool's gold? Argue amongst yourselves.)
However, now that Game 3 is in the books, and we can see that the Spurs really can beat the Lakers, it makes you think -- woooow, what would this be like with the Spurs up 2-1, with two more home games coming up before the series is over?
San Antonio would be favored in that scenario, for sure.
But as it is, they lost Game 1 to Phil Jackson, a coach whose teams have won 40 straight series after winning Game 1 of a seven-game series. The Spurs are down 2-1, with plenty left to prove.
I have spent much of my life making real things that happen in the NBA into analogies that might somehow apply to life off the court.
You have no idea how many times I have explained things to friends and family by using analogies based on Terry Porter, LeBron James, Rasheed Wallace or some such person who really does not belong in a conversation about, say, where we should spend Christmas.
Or, the other day, a friend found himself at loggerheads with a new boss. I told him to consider the case of Larry Brown and Allen Iverson: It was never easy, but through painful and dogged work, they managed to learn to work together, and damn near won a title.
I'm used to taking the reality of the NBA and making it some kind of gauzy archetype. The trials of the game as placeholders for the trials of my life.
But this thing? A broken plane, and a pain-in-the-ass delay when you really really need to get to that other city, and your comfortable bed? Staggering through important parts of work knowing you're way short of sleep?
That's no analogy. That's real. That's the kind of thing that really does happen to you and me. That's not the magical fairy land of the NBA. That's life as we know it.
Those are the exact kinds of bad hands that we have all been dealt at one time or another.
And that's why this very thing might be one of the most impressive stories of them all.
Gregg Popovich reportedly personally told his team that they would be sleeping on the plane. And he told them it was just one more challenge the team would face. No big deal.
And, even though it really may have cost them a huge game, and it really could, in the long run, conceivably even cost them a championship, no Spur has used it as an excuse.
It was just one more challenge. Soldier on. Get over it. Win again another day.
That's Gregg Popovich walking the walk of a thousand books about leadership, inspiration, the tough getting going and all that. That's not an analogy to learn from. That's real life to learn from, and that's something I'll remember -- and bring up at inappropriate times -- long past these playoffs.