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My Journey to the NBA Playoffs

By reading the title of my blog you may think that, I am either an NBA player, or I went to watch those games live. I wish.

It seems though that I have been doing both. I won’t tell you my age, but I started watching NBA games in 1986 (I know, some of you were not born yet lol). We used to go to my friend Alex’s place to watch games on VHS tapes (I hope you know what those are), and we knew all the good players (Jordan, Magic, Bird, Ewing…).

I became fascinated by the game (almost addicted); to the point that now my schedule goes around those games, especially during the Playoffs.

For me, sport in general, and Basketball in particular, is a school of life. Think about Michael Jordan for a second. He is making over forty five million dollars a year and he has been retired for year. I believe he put the NBA on the world map. Now every kid wants to be like Mike (I wished they wanted to be like the Journeyman, why not?)

Do you know that it took eight years for MJ to win his first championship? Eight long years!!! He was the best player, the best scorer, the best defender, the best competitor (that’s my opinion of course), but still, no championship ring on his finger.

Then, a series of things started to happen. Scottie Pippen came over, then Horace Grant and the other guys. Finally, the Zen Master Phil Jackson took over as the Bulls head coach (some of you are now saying “who the heck are these people”? Don’t worry, they are all friends of mine, I will introduce them to you).

Phil Jackson introduced Tex Winter’s triangle offense, and then convinced Jordan to share the ball with the other guys, waiting for the fourth quarter to take over the game. Guess what! It worked. In 1991, the Bulls won the first championship, and went on to win five more over the years.

Why did I say all of this? Just to convince you to give up hockey and watch Basketball instead. Just kidding.

What I am trying to say is that when we are pursuing our dreams, they may not come as soon as we want them to (8 years for Jordan). Maybe it’s all about timing, or there are things we need to learn first before we achieve our goals. It could be having good mentors (Phil Jackson), it could be having a team around us (Pippen, Grant…), it could be letting go of our old way of doing things (sharing the ball with others), or anything.

However, when we wait long enough, when we keep working at it and never give up, the victory will be sweeter than we thought in the first place. In case of Jordan, he did not win one, two or three championships. He won six of them and in the process became a world Icon. Now he owns his own team. How sweet is that!!!! (I believe he stole that idea from me lol). I heard someone say “your biggest struggle will be your biggest victory”. So don’t give up my friend. Victory is on its way.

Moral of the story? Do you want to live a victorious life? Just give up any other sport you are watching or playing, and focus only on Basketball.

Always a pleasure

Patrick

The Journeyman
patrick@goalachieverscanada.com

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