Play for the Front of the Jersey

There’s a saying about doing your job and letting go of the results. It’s grounded in deep truth. I was always more interested in the doing, in the craft of playing, than I ever was in rings on my fingers. At the height of my game, what I found was the joy of my life.

We won all those championships in part because we knew how to let other teams’ stars do their thing and at the same time take that style of play and convert it to our advantage. My battles with Wilt; our series against the great Bob Pettit; the games we played against “The Big O,” Oscar Robertson, one of the greatest players ever; and, of course, o

It can feel a bit paradoxical to muster up the confidence that we are the best but still compete as if we were outsiders and underdogs. But that’s what it takes.

view the world through the “me” prism or the “team” prism.