A Few Thoughts (and links) about Peyton Manning
By · CommentsI haven’t seen the entire press conference (it can be viewed here or you can see the highlights and summer here), but man, I walked away from the extended highlights a bigger Peyton Manning fan.
A few things stood out to me in particular:
1) Peyton’s emotion flowed in large part from the fact that he genuinely served the Indianapolis community with his gifts. And that is exactly how it is supposed to be.
Sadly, this is the exception rather than the rule, but the beauty of it was that Peyton Manning understood instinctively that his gifts and opportunities didn’t belong only to himself, but to the community he served with those gifts. This is naturally how it is supposed to be for us all. No matter our line of work, we are supposed to enjoy our work more by understanding how it serves others. Peyton’s line to the fans, “I have truly enjoyed being your quarterback” strikes a sweet note in us all. He played for them, he served them by seeking greatness, and they knew it, felt it, and no doubt were thankful for it. If only we had more professional athletes who really understood this and embraced it for all its worth. It is the way things ought to be.
2) Sometimes good business may not be good business in the end. And Peyton Manning, to his credit, didn’t even mention that possibility.
Only time will tell, but I would certainly have liked to have seen Peyton Manning end his career as a Colt. And I can’t help but wonder if the Colts will regret the numbers determine their decision. They might be right in the end, but I tend to think that the community connection is often worth much more than professional franchise’s realize. No doubt the people of Indianapolis love the Colts, but how many of them love the Colts because of Peyton Manning? We shall see.
There is more that I could say, but those are two things that stood out to me while watching.
A few other stories worth reading: Rick Reilly writes his column as a thank you to Peyton over at ESPN. Well done.
And Gene Wojciechowski writes about whether or not the Colts will regret this decision. I tend to agree with him (as you can tell from my second point). It’s worth checking out. Maybe more evidence that business and sports aren’t the best mix this side of the New Earth.
Quote on Imitation
By · CommentsIn his book, The Breaks of the Game, David Halberstam spends some time profiling former Portland Trailblazers’ player, Lionel Hollins (now the coach of the Memphis Grizzlies). He writes,
Lionel Hollins had been in high school when Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe comprised the New York backcourt and the Knicks were the most exciting team in basketball. Television had loved the Knicks then, a great team in a major media market, three blacks, two whites in the starting lineup, and it had beamed their images into the tiny home in Las Vegas where Lionel lived. He soon came to idolize both guards. Walt Frazier’s poster – huge and in color, showing the great New York backcourt man, eyes sly as could be, almost hooded as if to conceal their devious intent, the steal –had adorned Lionel’s room. Hour after hour, Lionel had practiced on the court, not what some local coach told him to, but in the new modern manner, what he had seen, not Monroe’s spinning whirling dervish moves (for they were not natural to him) but the graceful moves and steals of Walt Frazier.
I think that serves as a great example of what I focused upon in one of my posts last week regarding the power of imitation in coaching/teaching. And there is no way he is the only one who can serve as such an example. Lionel Hollins owned his development as a player by in large part just practicing what he saw his favorite player do. It worked well for him not simply because he was talented, but because in doing so, he was tapping into the natural learning process. Imitating the moves of your heroes and practicing those moves time and time again is, in my opinion, not only a simple way to get better, but maybe the most effective of all.
USC’s Matt Barkley
By · CommentsI haven’t been a big USC fan, but Gene Wojciechowski’s article on Matt Barkley at least leads me to want to cheer for him. He’s definitely a great quarterback, but seems like a solid kid as well.
Magic and Bird
By · CommentsRick Reilly sat down with them and offers his highlights of the conversation over at ESPN.
Jackie MacMullan’s book, When the Game was Ours, is a great book focused on the two of them. She focuses not simply on their rivalry and what they did for both college and professional basketball, but most importantly, on the development of their mutual respect and genuine friendship. And the beauty of it is that their friendship obviously flowed from their competitive relationship. Because they were the primary means of pushing each other to greater heights of athletic achievement and joy, they grew in their respect for and appreciation of one another. And as time wore on (as they competed more and more) they became good friends.
As far as I am concerned, they are one of the best examples of what competition should be all about. A healthy desire to be the best cannot help but lead to a healthy appreciation for (and oftentimes, friendship with) those who challenge you the most.
A Good Quote on Competition
By · CommentsI am on the road this week and enjoying a classic basketball book entitled The Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam. It really is one of the all-time greatest books on basketball, in particular, professional basketball. He focuses the book around the Portland Blazers’ teams of the late 1970s, but really uses those teams to describe the entire professional basketball world in general. It really is a great read.
Anyhow, at various points in the book he focuses on Bill Walton, who, in the few professional years he was healthy, was probably the best all-around center in the league. Regarding Walton’s love for good competition, he writes,
He loved competing. The more intense the competition the better. Graduating from UCLA, he turned down an offer from the ABA worth perhaps twice as much as he received from Portland, because he thought the quality of its play inadequate. In his early years at Portland, unhappy with the city, the rain, his teammates, the league, perhaps even himself, he seriously considered for a time leaving the professional game, starting his own team and playing in a high-level semipro circuit. But that meant that he would not play against the best, and that was unthinkable. He loved, unlike most professional basketball players, playing on the road, because he was able to focus his entire day on basketball, with fewer distractions. In addition he like the theater of the road game, the enemy arena, the way the opposing crowd focused all of its emotions and hostility on him –their antagonism made his adrenaline flow. His favorite games were the close games with great rivals on the road, the noise of the opposing crowd rising in crescendo as the game progressed and then (in his own words) the silence at the very end. The silence was his own personal reward. He hated playing against second-rate teams and inferior centers and it was hard to motivate him on these occasions; his performances were almost uniformly subpar.
That is so well said and, more importantly, a wonderful example of why in sports, love for your neighbor demands that you give him your best effort within the rules. If we are viewing competition in the right way, we will welcome the opportunity to play against the best, or at least someone better than us. For if we want to really grow and improve and develop the gifts the Lord has given us, we need someone to help us along the way. The good competitor does just that.
