Welcome back to Thank God It’s Monday!
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​tl;dr Knicks won in five. Jalen Brunson is the king of NY (and our hearts), and Victor Wembanyama is the new number one opp. This championship revived the heart of NY, and was a reminder for all of us of how to play the game, beyond basketball, of life.
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If you missed it (I don’t know how you could’ve), the Knicks played a historic five-game series against the San Antonio Spurs, breaking records, and coming away with the championship trophy. And while I’ve never watched a game of basketball and enjoyed it in my life before two weeks ago, it was an emotional rollercoaster to be on.
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Each game was hard-fought, with the Knicks trailing in every game of the finals before they came back and won. In one game, they trailed by 29 points; no team had ever before come back from such a deficit to win, but the Knicks did it.
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They won 13 consecutive playoff games with a final record of 16-3. They shattered the previous point differential by 23%. And in case you didn't hear, this was their first championship title in 53 years.
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But this is not a sports editorial.
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Whether you ever watch another game of basketball in your life, we can all appreciate the impact this playoff run had on an entire city.
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I know last week I spoke about how we are all capable of great things if only we put half the amount of heart into our own endeavors as we do sports teams, on which we have absolutely no tangible impact.
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But it’s a great source of fuel to use the fire set by a victory like this one on our own paths. Use the wave of motivation to ride into this week with the spirit that kept you going through the playoffs, now to move your own life forward.
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It was also an incredible juxtaposition to see the interviews of Jalen Brunson and Victor Wembanyama going into game five.
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Jalen Brunson was asked what it felt like to be one win away from an NBA championship. He replied that his mindset going into the game was to play as if they were tied zero-zero. No glamour. No self-righteousness. Just grit and willingness to do what it took to win.
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On the contrary, Victor Wembanyama (aka Wemby) from the Spurs was asked if they would be able to come back from a 3-1 deficit. He replied, "Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, everybody thinks, everybody knows we're going to do it.” All glamour. All self-righteous. Conviction without commitment.
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And it’s good to be confident, I imagine most high-performing athletes (or people in general) don’t get to where they are without a dash of it. However, to be confident in an outcome rather than being beholden to one's work ethic is where the problem lies (in Wemby’s case here).
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So how can we take what the Knicks have done on a world-class stage and apply it to our day-to-day lives?
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First is to have any level of success, we have to be willing to put in the work. Jalen Brunson and the Knicks fought for years to get to that championship. And we get concerned when we don’t have overnight success? We have to be willing to put in the work over a long period of time if we want comparable success (maybe not an NBA trophy, but whatever we find value in).
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Second is to play the game of life with good sportsmanship. Brunson and Wemby are both known to all of NYC and most of the country now as king and enemy of NY, respectively. Brunson played hard, supported his team, and stayed humble. Wemby played dirty and then left the arena a sore loser, not high-fiving anyone before heading back into the tunnels after the loss. What everyone’s opinions of them are doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. But how their families see them, and how they carry themselves, will stay with them long after the cheers from NY quiet down.
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Never would I have thought I’d have enjoyed basketball as much as I have the last couple of weeks. But we all love cheering on the hard work of others and seeing them find success. Especially when they align with some part of us (it’ll always be NY or nowhere). But now I’m ready to take that excitement and motivation and create success in my own life. What will you do with this?
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If you found some value in this, please share it with a friend you think would enjoy it! And let me know if you’d like to be added to get TGIM.
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This week, my podcast recommendation is from The Knowledge Project, “Mental Models that Change How You Think.”
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With that, do you have any mid-year resolutions you are committing to? They are much more actionable than New Year’s resolutions when emotions aren’t running high, and we have the energy of summer here to support them.
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Until next time,
Shannon