what's your definition of greatness I think the definition of greatness is to
inspire the people next to you my parents were great you know growing up
they instilled in me the importance of imagination of curiosity understanding
that okay if you want to accomplish something I'm not just gonna sit here
and say yes you can do whatever you want yes you can but you have to also put in
the work to get there you
you grow up as a kid thinking that all things are possible if you put in the
work to do it you grow up having that fundamental belief my father was really
influential at a really critical time where I had a summer where I play
basketball when I was like 10 or 11 years old and how come playing and I
don't score one point the entire summer I scored not a free-throw not a nothing
not a lucky shot not a breakaway layup 2-0 points and I remember crying about
it and being upset about it my father's gave me a hug and said listen whether
you score zero score 60 I'm gonna love you no matter what that is the most
important thing that you can say to a child that gives me all the confidence
in the world to fail but the hell with that I'm scoring 60 from there I just
went to work I just stayed with it I kept practicing kept practicing
confronts I think that's when the idea of
understanding a long-term view became important because I wasn't going to
catch these kids in a week I wasn't gonna catch them a year right so that's
what I sat down and said okay this is gonna take some father started creating
a menu of things when I came back the next summer I was a little bit better
open shots not miss open shots we ever shoot it with speed because those kids
are so much more athletic it's a simple thing of math you want to be a great
player if you play every single day to three hours every single day we're a
course of a year how much better are you getting you're obsessively training two
three hours every single day over a year over two years we make quantum leaps
help every single day do the work they're looking at me as if okay it's
kids solve right he's from the suburbs of Philadelphia they felt like they
could try to be physical or try to intimidate me and do also their stuff
which they could now I'm saying okay well you're trying to attack me how am I
going to attack you one things I would do is everybody would be at the
cafeteria work you know eating and doing so stuff I just go back to the job
yeah I may be from the suburbs but you're not going to outwork me
all right look at thing things that they're smallest there's a lot of times
the game starts moving really fast but if you train yourself to watch hours and
hours of film the games not moving that fast means it's just it's an
obsessiveness that comes along with it you want things to be as perfect as they
can be understanding that nothing is ever perfect but the challenge is try to
get a mess perfect as they can be so how can we teach our children what it
means to work hard well you do it through training right so when I get up
in the morning my daughter goes with me for him my 15 year old goes with me it
becomes a daddy-daughter thing through that process she understands the value
of hard work so it's through those behaviors is where I find the motivation
to know what is losing feel like to you I was excited because it means you have
different ways to get better there are certain things that you can figure out
that you can take advantage of or I certain weaknesses that were exposed
there are answers there if you just look at them it's a constant process it's
exciting when you when it's exciting when you lose because the process should
be exactly the same the hardest thing is to face that stuff I think it's the fear
of starting anew you play for 20 years I play for 20
years you reach a certain level like okay wait a minute I have to start again
at the base of a mountain and try to climb the top of this mountain first of
all what mountain am i climbing I don't even know like what the hell am I gonna
be doing the thing that helped me actually was hurting my Achilles because
that forced me to sit there and say okay the day could be today that your career
is over
first question I asked which is the wrong question is what's the biggest
industry I could get into I said okay stop thinking of it that way you're
thinking of it the wrong way why did you start playing basketball because I loved
it what do you love to do of all lovin tell stories all right
let's do that I think stories is what moves the world
nothing in this world moves without story so I think that is the root of
everything and if we're going to try to make the world a better place
stories a right place
from one of my English teachers a little Marian named mr. Fisk and a great quote
that said rest at the end
that's something I always loop by I'm not gonna rest I'm gonna keep on pushing
now a lot of answers and I don't have even questions that I don't know I'm
just gonna keep going I'm just gonna keep going and I'll
figure these things out as we go all right you just continue to build that
way so I try to live by that all the time