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Friday, January 12, 2024

Basketball - Humble Pie

"Be a learn-it-all not a know-it-all." - Kevin Eastman

Ben Franklin listed Humility among his thirteen virtues. He doubted that he would ever master it. He said something like, "If I ever achieved humility, I would surely be proud of it." 

Most of the luminaries in the basketball sites I frequent say little about their extensive resumes. Herb Welling seems to know every coach in America. Butch Lee doesn't brag about being an Olympian or NCAA Player of the Year. David Thorpe doesn't harp on his NBA contacts as a trainer and author. Howard Moski doesn't talk about the NCAA ACC classic against David Thompson's Wolfpack. Jim Pauley doesn't pound the table about his free throw shooting championships. I can go on and on. To paraphrase Dizzy Dean, "if you've done it, you don't have to boast."

Everybody knows the 'smartest guy in the room." Nobody who demands that he be recognized as the smartest guy has ever been that guy. Princeton Professor Danny Kahneman said one test was someone figuring out how long it took to see that his coauthor Amos Tversky was the smartest guy. 

Dean Smith reminded players, "a lion never roars after the kill." 

"Humility isn't thinking less of yourself - it's thinking less about yourself."

Life dishes out humility to everyone. On Wall Street an expression goes, "getting the Stock Trader's Breakfast, egg on the face."

Be humble in victory and gracious in defeat. 

Lagniappe. Coaches aren't allowed to have low energy days. 

Lagniappe 2. D. White on impacting the game.  

Lagniappe 3. Working out matters. Legs. 

 

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