True story: the team enjoyed an excellent season, ready to launch a deep playoff run. But just before the playoffs, a player "hijacked" another player's boyfriend. The team fractured and suffered an early exit, ending a promising season in disarray.
The sign in the North Carolina Women's Soccer room reads, There Is One Agenda: Excellence. The irony slaps us upside the head. UNITY starts with "un" because unity is uncommon, uncultivated, and unappreciated.
Chuck Daly opined,"players want 48 - 48 minutes, 48 shots, 48 million." Same story, different day.
What agendas arise in sports? Ego, publicity, money, endorsements, and power.
Ego. You have the rare athlete, e.g. Sandy Koufax in baseball, who is almost reclusive. But many athletes want and need the spotlight for both the attention and their brand. At the extremes, consider Johnny Manziel, ego becomes destructive. In other cases, ego drives championship performance, as Bill Russell said, "My ego demands - for myself - the success of my team." Wrestler Dan Gable's ego drove him to excesses of training...and championships. We don't entirely know Kyrie Irving's motivation to get out of
Publicity. Publicity, branding, and merchandising go hand in hand. LeBron James' "The Decision," came early in his career. LeBron didn't regret his move to Miami, but acknowledged that he would probably redo it differently. Players work their craft and craft their images. Despite one year of college at Cal, Jaylen Brown cultivates a cerebral persona and makes no secret of his wishes to become the Celtics' union representative. Muhammad Ali forged an outspoken brand of brashness "I am the greatest" but also was convicted of draft evasion for his conscientious objector beliefs.
Money and endorsements. Exceptional athletes can literally become billionaires by combining performance and pitchman status. Billionaire Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods are synonymous with Nike. Rob Gronkowski boasts of never spending any of his millions in NFL salary as he sponsors everything from video games to coffee and donuts. He has garnered a fortune in appearance money from everything to celebrity cruises to birthday parties.
Power. Power comes in a myriad of forms - role, influence, social responsibility, politics, and relationships. Some consider LeBron the de facto general manager in Cleveland, with major input on hiring (coaching) and personnel. Coaches may tread lightly to avoid disrupting the mercurial relationships with their stars. Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson went into all out war. Michael Jordan was Jiminy Cricket to Dennis Rodman's Pinocchio. In Knight, Coach Bobby Knight shared his disgust for lack of appreciation for raising tens of millions for Indiana University. The recent NCAA basketball recruiting scandal shows the destructive potential of the aphrodisiac of winning and its concomitants.
Power can manifest in team role, minutes, and as Daly remarked, "shots." Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen coexisted through a championship although later the relationship soured. Kevin Durant transitioned to Golden State with a championship or outward rancor about roles.
Athletes become entrepreneurs. Ulysses "Junior" Bridgeman manages a restaurant empire worth hundreds of millions. Magic Johnson is a Los Angeles Dodgers owner and fronts a conglomerate of enterprises. Dave Bing owns The Bing Group. Roger Staubach owns real estate worth over half a billion dollars.
Some athletes champion social responsibility. Jim Brown, Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Ali had vital roles in the Civil Rights movement. J.J. Watt recently helped raise over $30 million for Houston hurricane victims. Pat Tillman joined the Army after 9/11 and died from friendly fire in Afghanistan.
Athletes may enter politics. Rhodes Scholars Bill Bradley and Tom McMillen became a United States senator and congressman, respectively. Jack Kemp and J.C. Watts became Congressmen. Vikings defensive lineman Alan Page became a justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court. Kevin Johnson was mayor of Sacramento. Scott Brown had a hardscrabble life in my home town and became a US Senator and is ambassador to New Zealand.
But sometimes 'control' controls you. After interviewing for the Lakers' coaching job, Jerry Tarkanian returned to Las Vegas to find his agent with a bullet in his head in the trunk of a car. The message was clear - stay at UNLV. Athletes, like many others, go off the rails into crime, too.
Athletes succeed through skill and will. They leverage those into opportunities - good and bad - in society. As coaches, we can help channel those into powerful positive forces.
