He Redefined Excellence - Remembering Larry Bird

As I write, the NBA season is still on hold while owners and players are talking to work out a collective bargaining agreement. The owners want more of the money. The players want more of the money.

Meanwhile, I sometimes allow myself to remember some of the great players who made the game so great. And it wasn't because of the money, because that kind of money wasn't part of the game back then.

1985 photo - Steve Lipofsky

I came across this brief video clip about Larry Bird. It reminded me that there is NO ONE, not Lebron James, not Dwayne Wade, not Derrick Rose, not Kobe Bryant, not Dirk Nowitski - NO ONE who can do the kinds of things Larry Bird used to do on the basketball court.

He made it look easy. But of course that's because he practiced so much. Whether there was a game or not, he was in the gym shooting baskets all day. He even had a basketball court in his house for this purpose. He put in his 10,000 hours, probably two or three times over. He was the Shakespeare of basketball. The Beethoven of basketball. The Leonardo Da Vinci of basketball.

And now there are players who get 20 times the salary that he got who aren't one-twentieth as talented. I miss him.

Check it out...



Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2011. Building Personal Strength . (Used by permission of Wikimedia Creative Commons License)