One, Two, Three ~ TEAM

I've purposely not posted much (or any, actually) about the NBA Finals. I'm not a huge NBA fan, but because I love sports, I do keep up with the games a little bit. Since the Hawks (OK, remember, I AM a Georgian!) have been eliminated, and since I do love baseball more than I like basketball, following these playoffs at a safe distance is about all I can muster.

Last off-season, the Miami Heat made the huge splash with the mega-signing of Chris Bosh and LeBron James to play alongside Dwayne Wade. Mr. James made a huge deal out of this because his former (hometown) team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, just were not going to be good enough to win a Championship. He felt like these three men teaming together would be unbeatable. "I'm going to take my talents to South Beach" and play for the Heat.

They started out rocky before going on an incredible run that seemed like it was inevitably going to result in a championship. Then the team began to struggle again. News began to circulate that Mr. James could not finish a game as strongly as he had started. There was even some embarrassing news from the coach involving players crying in the locker room after a loss.

The Heat won their division, and began a run in the playoffs that seemed unbeatable. They seemed to be peaking at just the right time. At the same time, the Mavericks of Dallas were creating some news of their own in the Western Conference playoffs. As the series' progressed, these two teams met in the Finals.

While the coaching staff obviously did their job on the bench and in preparing their team, there was one player on the Mavericks that stood (quite literally) head and shoulders above everyone else. Dirk Nowitski was the catalyst on this Maverick team that would not give up. Nowitski took the team on his shoulders and led the team throughout the playoffs. Other team members contributed and did their part. The team fed off the leadership of Nowitski on the floor.

I'm not a basketball expert. I fully understand that ESPN will not come calling on me to be the next analyst, but I know enough to get by. And besides all that, this is my blog, and I'm going to offer my opinion here, most likely to the chagrin of most sports writers. Would you like to know the reason the Mavericks won the NBA Finals? TEAMWORK. Yes, there was a coaching staff who called plays and trained their players in a philosophy they wanted to carry out on the court. Yes, there is an owner who pays too much money to these guys to play the game. But they had 12 players on their roster who were able to execute the gameplan and not allow pride to get in the way of the job at hand. They were confident, obviously; but their confidence was channeled through their team instead of individuals.

If we are going to be successful in anything, we must recognize our role in the greater scheme of things. Whether at work, in our families, on our rec-league softball team ~ know your role and do everything within your power to be the very best you can be at executing that role.

Here we go, on three ~~ One, Two, Three ~~ TEAM!!