Posted on August 9, 2013

Why?

Over the years, basketball and the game itself have become part of your lives.

You have experienced many successes and many failures.

But each of them is temporary.

The next day, a new day begins, and new short-term goals have to be set.

If you want to be successful, it is not enough simply to decide that you will be.

You have to set goals.

And then you have to work for them.

That is how success is achieved.

Some goals are small.

Others are much bigger.

Reaching them makes us happier.

Failures and difficulties, meanwhile, teach us how to get back up after we have been knocked down.

Most of us will need that ability many times in life.

And once you have learned it, overcoming future difficulties becomes much easier.

What Comes Next?

There is rarely something that is simply good or simply bad.

There is a situation.

And almost every situation could be better — or worse.

The real question is:

What comes next?

For you, basketball and sport are tools.

Do not waste them.

Sport can give you an advantage in life, but only if you use the opportunities it provides.

You need goals.

Sometimes those goals will belong to a higher level.

At other times, they may be much more ordinary.

Both matter.

More Than Just Playing

Basketball must eventually mean more than:

“I played a good game today.”

Enjoying the game is the minimum.

Basketball should bring joy.

But competition gradually demands more from you.

Your opponents are also improving.

So you have to move beyond the limits of comfort.

You are preparing to compete.

For you, the time to do that is now.

It is not too late.

But after a few years, those who allow today’s opportunities to disappear may no longer have the same choices.

You Are Already Successful

All of you are already successful.

I mean that seriously.

Where you are today and what you have already achieved represent success.

It is the result of many small successes.

And those achievements were created together with a much larger team.

That team includes:

• your parents,
• your friends,
• your teachers,
• your coaches,
• and everyone else who has contributed positively to your development.

There have also been opponents.

There have been difficulties.

There have been setbacks.

And yet you are still here.

You have reached this point.

And you can still move forward.

You can still decide what the next step will be.

You Are Not Alone

You do not have to take that next step alone.

There is a team around you.

But you also need to know your own individual goals.

Dare to dream.

Without dreams, it is very difficult to achieve anything truly significant.

Some of you may progress further in basketball.

Others may eventually have to accept a different level of achievement.

There is nothing wrong with that.

If, along the way, you continue reaching goals, developing and becoming a successful and happy person, then basketball has given you something valuable.

The important thing is to keep playing through life.

The Individual and the Team

Teams need rules that protect team spirit.

Other rules help shape individual interests so that they can exist within the needs of the group.

Our game has a common purpose:

to compete honestly and to win with integrity.

Individual ambition does not have to disappear.

But it has to find its place within something larger.

The Road Matters

In the end, victory itself is not the most important thing.

What matters is the road that leads to it.

The work.

The goals.

The setbacks.

The people around you.

The lessons you learn.

And the person you become along the way.