The majority of the people we train will not make the NBA, the NFL, win a gold medal, or score 2,000 points, heck most won’t even play a college sport and half of the younger kids we train may not even start on their high school team. To be honest I never made it to the NBA or won a gold medal. Does that mean I should have never played or worked hard?!?! Of course not!!!
The beauty of sports is that it teaches you so many things beyond how to put the ball through the net or put some curve on your pitch. It teaches you hard work, how to pick yourself up, how to persevere, and how to be humble. Sports teach you that there is always someone better than you (Unless your MJ) and there is always someone worse than you, in all aspects of life (Which is why you should only ever truly compete against yourself). If you play sports right, it will take away self-pity and replace it with confidence and mental strength.
Sports gave me lots of bumps and bruises and a couple broken limbs, it made me cry and sweat and bleed. Sports never gave me an NBA Championship trophy, or an Olympic Gold Medal. Sports disappointed me several times by cutting me from teams, never letting me play for SYRACUSE, and it crushed a lot of other dreams of mine. But, and this is a big BUT, sports gave me more than I could have ever asked for. The sport of Basketball alone gave me a top of the line college education, a great job working behind the scenes at the NBA, the ability and know how to run my own business, and it even gave me my wife to be!! However, those are just the tangibles, what about the intangibles?!
The intangibles of perseverance, determination, work ethic, confidence and even the priceless knowledge of how to stay healthy are all gifts that Athletics have blessed me with. So even though I may never drop 40 points on the Lakers while playing for the Knicks in game 7 of the NBA championship, I have to express my severe and sincere gratitude to Sports (Specifically Basketball)!!!
So for all you out there that may never make it to the big leagues, don’t you dare quit on your sport or your passion. You never know what you will have to be grateful for because of sports!!
Recent Comments