Perserverance

Great quote from Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan when asked about the 9-point, 8-rebound, 6-steal game senior Joe Krabbenhoft had in the Badgers’ win over Ohio State last weekend (UW’s fourth straight win after losing six consecutive games last month).

According to this article, “what this line doesn’t show is the work he puts in behind the scenes. Ryan points to the effort Krabbenhoft puts in during practice and how that attitude translates to the game. Ryan believes that it is Krabbenhoft’s desire that allows him to excel game in and game out.”

“There’s still something in life for the people who want things, and will persevere, and aren’t easily deterred. There is that element of perseverance that separates a lot of people.”

No Secret

SLAM magazine’s Matt Caputo has a good Q&A with Mark Price, a four-time NBA All-Star who won the 3-Point Shooting Contest twice, in which he asks Price about how he developed as a shooter.

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The secret is you have to have good technique and you’ve got to spend the time and put hours and hours in. There is no quick-fix. You hear the term, “pure-shooter,” but what people would call a pure shooter is a guy that’s probably spent a lot of time in the gym working on it.

I spent a lot of time in the gym. I was fortunate because my dad [the late Denny Price] was a coach, and I typically had a place to work out. My dad taught me what he thought was the right way to shoot the ball, and he told me it was up to me as far as how hard I was going to work. I spent a lot of hours just trying to perfect my shot, because I wasn’t real big—I was probably only 5-11, 155 pounds when I showed up at Georgia Tech. I had to work hard on my skills.

Need To Change

At the All-Star beak, the Blazers are 12 games over .500 with a 20-5 home record.

As this article describes, Portland GM Kevin Pritchard began setting the groundwork at the 2006 NBA draft when he “took out a red pen and wrote: ‘We’re Back!!!’ on a board in a hotel room.”

Pritchard’s background has prepared him well for his current role in Portland. He played four seasons at Kansas for Larry Brown and Roy Williams before playing four seasons in the NBA.

He coached at the college level and in the minor leagues, then scouted for the Spurs under GM R.C. Buford. He’s also worked in player personnel and, in 2005, coached the Blazers on an interim basis. In 2007, he took over as POR’s GM.

“I first wanted to change the culture, have both talent and good guys,” Pritchard said. “It’s all about team, putting individual awards and statistics last and put the team first. I can only control what I can control,” Pritchard said. “There are a lot of opinions out there. We focus on us. We try to do the best we can do, learn from everything that happens and move forward. We have a very good coach and guys that play the right way. You have to get lucky and gel together. We need our young guys to grow. And they are growing.”

DO IT!

…do a lot of it.

In his book On Writing, Stephen King says, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of; no shortcut.”

Doing anything well or becoming extraordinary at anything requires a lot of doing. Thinking, planning, preparing and contemplating are important but no substitute for action–lots of action.

Want to be a great speaker? Speak a lot.

Want to be a great leader? Lead a lot.

Seek out opportunities to practice your craft, and put in more time and effort than others are willing to do.

Extraordinary results require extraordinary doing.