The Art of Winning – Or Why I Miss MJ

Everybody likes to win.  Whether it be a board game, pick up game or professional game the bottom line is that everybody would prefer to win than lose.

The fundamental nature of man is that in any given competition they will compete to win whatever the contest is.  So let’s apply this to the NBA.  When you are in the NBA you play a game every other night against another team with the goal to score more points than them.  So, when playing this game each player on each team wants to win each game and eventually win the NBA Championship because that is the ultimate peak of winning.  And I think that each player truly wants to win because winning is the goal of the game they play.

But, I think, that there are some players that have a different type of motive for winning.  People call this “drive”, or just a “will to win”, but I think it comes down to ego.  Take Michael Jordan.  Do I think that Michael Jordan wanted to win because that was the goal of basketball?  Yes.  But I also think he wanted to win because he felt that he was the best basketball player on the planet and that if anybody beat him then they could claim that they were better than him. 

So, I don’t think Michael Jordan necessarily set out to win the NBA Championship, I think that was just the end result if you kept winning basketball games.  To show the difference I have developed the ultimate test of players who truly take winning to another level – The Next Day Pick Up Game.  I think if they played another pick up basketball game the day after Jordan just won the NBA Championship, and the game meant absolutely nothing, but you stuck MJ in the game – even though he had just reached basketball’s highest summit – I think he would try as hard as he could to win that pick up game that meant nothing just because he wouldn’t want the other team to be able to say that they beat Michael Jordan. 

Think about that.  Think about how many other players fall into that category.  Would Dwayne Wade try to destroy opponents after just winning an NBA title?  I think he would try, but with nothing at stake he would not really try to destroy his opponents.  I think that goes for almost everybody currently in the NBA.  This is what sets the Michael Jordan’s apart from everybody else at a similar talent level.  MJ felt that he was so good at basketball that the mere thought of somebody being able to say that they beat him made him cringe.  He refused to let it happen. 

Now, am I the Michael Jordan of marketing?  No, but this type of ego comes across in every job.  When most of my colleagues put together marketing campaigns they want them to be successful because that is the goal of their job, to put together succesful marketing campaigns and because if their campaigns aren’t succesful their job will be in danger.  I, with my incredible ego, think that I am so much smarter than everybody that there is no way I could engineer a marketing campaign and have it fail.  Having it be succesful is just the proof how smart I am, not my goal.  What drives me to put together fantastic marketing campaigns is proving to everybody that I am, in fact, the smartest person in my office, a successful campaign is just the end result of it.

The same how the NBA Championship is just the end result of MJ proving that he is the best basketball player in the world.  So, while other players in the NBA play to win, it is the rare MJ-type player that play to prove that they are the best in the world and can’t stand to stomach the fact that somebody could beat them and hold that over him.  Losing didn’t bother him because the goal of basketball is to win, it drove him crazy because it meant that somebody could say to him that they beat him and were better than him at basketball.

Now, do I think any players in the NBA currently fall into that role?  Not right now.  I think Kobe Bryant is more of a machine that has been programmed to win and wants to win because that is what he has been trained to win, not because of an ego – but I’m not sure.  When I give him the playing a meaningless pick-up game after just winning an NBA title test, I see him trying to dominate still, so maybe.  I’m just not convinced yet.  I also do not think LeBron is at this point, yet.  I think it is possible to grow into it though and it is possible that in about 2 years he will fully realize how much better he is than anybody else in the league and find that indominable will to win.  He doesn’t have it inheritently though.  Besides Kobe, I think the closest are Manu and Chauncey.  I could see them both playing a game in the middle of nowhere for nothing after winning the title and playing to completely kill the other team and dominate the game. 

I also think that this is why team’s are struggling to win on the road.  No player has that inherit ego where losing even a single game is a slight against them, it means that at some point they were not the best player in the world.  The only goal of these players are to win the NBA Championship, even if that means losing every game on the road to get there.  And I miss that MJ mentallity of not wanting to lose a single game, on the road or at home.

As good as the regular season was this year, these playoffs are getting ridiculous with every team just blowing the other out at home for the past 2 weeks.  I miss MJ – watching him was like watching a movie unfold in front of you.  There was drama, teams battling it out for 4 quarters, but in the end you knew what was going to happen.  You knew that Harrison Ford was going to come out on top in Indiana Jones, you knew Bruce Willis would ultimately be the last one standing in Die Hard, just like you knew that Jordan would be the one who came out with the higher score in the playoffs.  I miss having that reliable person coming through time and time again.

Any thoughts?  Think there are some other players out there that fall into the MJ type mold?  Or do you think I’ve completely missed the boat on this one?