How to Be Like Mike by Pat Williams

How to Be Like Mike by Pat Williams

Author:Pat Williams [Williams, Pat]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780757395444
Publisher: HCI
Published: 2001-08-01T07:00:00+00:00


—Charles Barkley

And yet for all of Jordan’s universal impact, what mattered most was in front of him. His deepest influences were not Walter Davis or David Thompson or any of the other basketball stars of North Carolina. His deepest influences were his parents and his college coach, Dean Smith.

“He had taken from Carolina . . . a sense of right and wrong and how you were supposed to behave on a basketball court and away from it, as well,” wrote David Halberstam in his Jordan biography, Playing for Keeps. “He continued to clear many important decisions with his former coach, and certainly Dean Smith remained a living presence with him.”

Jordan’s greatest fear is of undoing his impact, of making a colossal mistake that would call into question all the positive energy he’s generated. He’s stumbled in the past, made small errors in judgment that have drawn sharp criticism, but he’s never failed greatly enough to unravel his own image. And the reason it matters to him to maintain such a carefully drawn public persona centers on the people in his immediate vicinity: his wife, his children, his mother and his late father. In the end, this is the influence that truly matters.

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.

—James Baldwin

AUTHOR

“I know people are concerned about the behavior of some young players, but it starts at home,” Jordan said. “I’ve always said that. I wish some of the other guys in the league could have had fathers at home just to see what it’s like; just to see how much better people they could be. . . . I want to have some influence on all my kids, but it’s hard. My heroes were my parents. I can’t see having anyone else as my heroes. When I talk to my kids sometimes, I can hear my own dad; the lessons he taught me. A smile comes to my face because you know what? I sound like him.”

After the games in Chicago, the media came at Michael in waves. The first wave came, then the second, then the third, then the fourth. At the back of the pack one day was a sixteen-year-old kid from the New Trier High School paper. Michael took as much time with him as he had with the major media. He did that kind of thing all the time. No matter how dumb the question, Michael would answer it like it was a great question.

—Chuck Swirsky

BROADCASTER

Not long ago, I got a note from Steve Schanwald, an executive vice president with the Bulls. He sent me a copy of a letter that I had sent him when I was the Philadelphia 76ers’ general manager back in 1977, a brief word of encouragement to a young guy who was trying to break into the sports business. “I was cleaning out the attic the other day,” he said, “and I came across this letter. I don’t think there’s anything more rewarding in our profession than helping young people climb the ladder of success.



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.