The Genuine

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I wasn’t too busy to blog during camp this past week. I was too tired, too overwhelmed and too enamored. I’m all about memoirs and logging the adventures of daily occurrence. But sometimes there is a flood of good, so much to process that it can hardly be done justice in the 30 minutes or so it takes to blog. So today, just shy of a flight home to LA, I can reflect a bit about the week.

I was in charge of the 12-18 year old boys at camp. But on my staff was 7-year NBA veteran Mike Wilks and aspiring NBA player and NBDL steady, Jackie Manuel. Wilks had a stellar career at Rice University in Texas. Manuel was a standout at the University of North Carolina and won a national championship his senior year in 2005. Both Wilks and Manuel brought with them a wealth of basketball experience and an astounding heart to serve. They were but two of several outstanding people I worked with this week but I focus on them because they are the ones people assume don’t have time for kids, for a bunch of Maui teens who lack confidence.

There are times in life when you feel like you’re Michael Scott from NBC’s The Office. You seem to be surrounded by a host of qualified people who could just as easily be your boss. Nevertheless, here you are giving them instructions and finding out they are gleaning something from the experience despite a superlative expertise in your field. They possess a learning posture, are jotting down notes as you run daily workouts and asking questions all the while. They’re being proactive during the water breaks, helping kids with basic fundamentals. Most importantly, they’re having fun and genuinely basking in the ambiance of service. Mike and Jackie were genuine inspirations to me this week. Their basketball is their profession and their vocation. They’ve been high and been low. They’ve been champions and had career threatening injuries. They’ve been cut from rosters and are both looking for teams to play for next season in the NBA. But they’re contentedness is unmistakable. They’re competing on every level and I’m thankful my wife and I got to know their families, their struggles and their triumphant spirit.

THE CAMP LIFE

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What’s wrong with this picture? Absolutely nothing! I hardly went to basketball camps as a kid and it seems like I’m at several every summer. But it’s probably a different feel than if I had gone as a 14-year old. Camp has all the things society has on microcosmic levels. There’s people in the real world who think themselves superior and similarly, there are bullies at camp. There’s the opportunity to be a part of a team at your job and obviously camp aims to foster the team mentality.

But this summer, though it’s still considered late spring I think, I’m already in the middle of my first summer camp. It’s called NBC Camps and this one happens to be held on the Island of Maui, Hawaii. So here’s a camp log entry from yesterday that epitomized how camp can accomplish what society leaves to chance.

Our lead coach was in the middle of instructing when he said, in commanding voice, “IF YOU’RE ONE OF THE TOP 10 PLAYERS AT THIS CAMP, RUN OVER AND GET IN THE FIRST LINE.” What do you think happened next, a stampede of teenage boys thriving in delusion? If this was Los Angeles you’d be right. But this is Maui and hope, as I’m told is in short supply. Kids don’t aspire the way they should apparently and if it’s one thing camp can address, it’s the lack of inspiration among young people. I think that’s why I go so much now though I never did when I was the “camp age”. Isolation, unity of purpose, a camp theme, and love from protectors (coaches) who stand against injustice is provide a necessary framework that a kid needs to see that society and potential seldom coincide. If soldiers need basic training, are we to think that we don’t? The camp life makes perfect sense.

BUT I DIGRESS

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Be careful not to change the subject when staying on task is the difference between a win and a loss. Sasha Vujacic changed the subject in the Lakers’ close out win yesterday over the Phoenix Suns when he lost his composure and elbowed Goran Dragic in the mouth. The two have a newfound rivalry despite their mutual heritage of being Slovenian. Their respective teams were playing a game with different motivations based in desperation as one fought to stave off elimination while the other attempted to impose its will en route to a second consecutive championship.

But Vujacic fueled his opponent’s rally and revitalized their dormant fans when he decided to make his personal bout with Dragic public. He changed the subject from the corporate objective to a personal one and it could have cost the Lakers a win. Phoenix rallied thanks to their bench play led by Dragic who scored on three straight trips down the floor while being guarded by a distracted Vujacic. And isn’t that one of the greatest tools of your adversary? Turn your emotions against you and your team. Make the backdrop of personal vendetta the primary focus. Digressions are common in sports are they not? That’s why players get fined and/or suspended. There are precautionary measures in place for when the weak-minded give way to instincts and throw discipline and poise to the wind.

Digressions may be the reason we seldom complete what we’ve started. There’s nothing worse than watching as your team decide that it would rather have a fist fight then play the game. I used to tell the girls I coached, “No point in losing twice…Let’s stick to basketball and see if we can pull this game out.” When you change the subject, you’re admitting defeat. You’re saying that though I can’t beat you at this game, I bet I can beat you at something else. And it’s at that point that we began grasping at straws to save face. I must guarantee a victory to protect my expectation that I am superior. But that’s not a paradigm rooted in sportsmanship nor is it effective toward the team mission. Digression is usually your greatest nemesis.

THE MATRIX FROM LAX

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Do you remember when Morpheus said to Neo,

“The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.

Oooooooh, did you get those chills right there? I was with my wife yesterday waiting for a plane to depart to Maui for a basketball camp when I scoured the terminal for a place to charge my phone. What I saw was what Morpheus referenced, people sprawled on floors, bathroom counters, tiled floors and the like. They were desperately trying to stay plugged in to ensure connectedness and accessibility. They were in no way ready to be unplugged for to be unplugged would mean no Tweeting, status silence and generally becoming a communicative castaway. This is our world and we’re not only in it as a Matrix, we have embraced this lifestyle of wireless living wholesale. It’s as if we have actually begun believing that we are what we display to 800 friends we’ll never talk to directly. We’re nothing if not virtually engaged. At least that’s what we’ve come to think and I saw it live and in living color at the airport.

I don’t know why we’re so desperate to not miss anything going on somewhere else. I hated my bedtime as a kid because of the fear many adults have now. I just knew people were partying as soon as I tucked it in. And sometimes I wonder if that’s why we camp out near outlets and constantly check the number of bars on the battery icon. What if I’m powered down for 4-6 hours. Whatever would I do? But the majority of mobile users were born before the regular use of wireless devices. I know I was and lived a great part of my life without the immediate conveniences we now enjoy thanks to BlackBerry, IPhones and Droids. But convenience has probably hindered us is all I’m saying. There’s people next to you. What’s the harm in a real conversation? The very thing we fight to preserve could be what’s depriving us of chemistry needed to work effectively with others.

When I’m Done

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There’s only one individual, if you will, who knows when you’re done. The truly great competitors know this truth if nothing else. This is why injury is but an obstacle to the Kobe Bryants and Steve Nashes. “When I’m Done” is not a dependent clause to the truly elite. It’s not a construction built in the minds of people who surmount setbacks and defy the imagination. To the point, people like the ones I mentioned say, “I’m not done but I’ll let you know when I am.” Then they never do.

When I played, I learned to trust coach with my threshold for pain and conditioning. “He knows when I’m about to die and he’ll stop just short of it…I hope,” said the 17-year old college freshman. Everybody is injured, uncomfortable, coming off losing seasons at some time or another. And maybe the saddest of these stories is not tragic outcomes or careers cut short  but rather the mentalities that gave rise to such outcomes. Look around you and watch fathers quitting. Watch poverty stricken people decide they’d rather stay poor than fight. Watch the rich assume they have to play the game of participating in upper echelon life devoid of altruism. People are deciding to be DONE. But it’s not ours to choose.

“When I’m done…” is as seemingly arbitrary as a game of musical chairs. You don’t get to choose when to be done for to do so is to forfeit a win. And raise your hand if you’re into doing that? Didn’t think so. When I’m done, people will reflect or they won’t. They’ll praise you or deride you but no matter what happens after you’re done with whatever you’re doing, now’s the time to decide how you’ll DO, not WHEN YOU’LL STOP. What you’re doing isn’t worth your time if it isn’t waging war. Parenting, coaching, teaching students, creating a service in the community are on the list of war agents to combat the ill fated paths of least resistance (i.e. pleasure seeking, quitting a pursuit of professional sports prematurely, giving up on passing the Bar, etc…). Forget about when I’m done and decide today that you won’t be until HE pries your hands from the great thing you’ve been put here to do.

BREAKING GOOD HABITS

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I’m finding that it’s just as easy to break good habits as it is difficult to break bad ones. You can string together 2 consecutive weeks of after school/work activities that make you feel productive and that you’re on your way to becoming a person of routine. Ah but then the arrogance, complacency and/or momentary concession rears it’s head and you’re done.

Being a blogger is fun because it’s cathartic and it’s even more fun when people read and comment but I’ve regressed in writing daily and my good habit is in jeopardy. That’s what made me think about this whole bit in the first place. I’m not sure habits are as automatic as we’d like to think. I’ve been told that once something becomes a lifestyle it’s easy to maintain but I’ve played basketball my whole life and have struggled lately to find time to play. Granted I’m on the court almost daily training kids and young hoopers but a couple of hours coaching kids is a far cry from a lifestyle of activity.

Habits, the good ones, are maintained by inspiration and more-so by resolve. You have to be intentional about the good habits, be convinced that what they yield is valuable and remind yourself of that value as often as the temptation to abandon the habit threatens. So as I’m writing this one, my memory is jogged of how writing with no intent other than to share and reflect adds a robust freedom of expression to my otherwise mundane but necessary tedium. It’s fun to write, ‘hoop’ and workout once I settle in to doing it. Let that be a lesson to you and me.

A Lesson in Naivete

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It’s fresh to see how young people try to conquer gargantuan tasks with elementary resources. It’s hard to explain or reflect on the manner in which kids smile in the face of peril. We do well to adopt their practices but what is the barrier? The efforts of kids are often scoffed at for being a water pistol-to-blazing building type of futility. But, so very often, the small things they do lead to inspiration that refuels grown-ups and reminds them that this world is one that they have the power to affect and change. And it’s as if kids know this and proceed with a nothing to lose. Where can I get me some of that attitude?