How do you get some of the world’s wealthiest athletes to perform—in peak form—during their summer vacation?
This is USA Basketball’s eternal quandary. It is a challenge that
only got tougher last month, when Paul George gruesomely broke his right
leg during a Team USA scrimmage.
But over in Spain, where the U.S. will play for the FIBA World Cup
title on Sunday, Mike Krzyzewski believes he has the answer. It is a bit
sentimental, but to this point, you can’t argue with the results. He
calls it “feel-it” moments: team visits to cemeteries, trips to military
bases, anything to drive home the significance of representing one’s
country.
“When it’s time to change the culture of a team, your players have to
hear it, see it and understand what you’re trying to do,” said
Krzyzewski, the coach of the U.S. national team since 2005. “But to
really make change stick”—and when he describes this, he drags out the
word really—“they have to feel it.
“To do that,” he said, “you have to create moments.”
Those moments have led to a run of success—the U.S. has won the last
two Olympics and the most recent World Cup—and have changed the way
players feel about wearing the red, white and blue, Houston Rockets
guard James Harden said.
“Coach has focused on reminding us what it means to wear USA on the
front of the jersey, and not just in a way that sounds like a cliché,”
Harden said during a USA Basketball workout this summer. “People ask why
we give up time to be part of this team, to risk maybe getting hurt.
This is why we play, the kind of passion we need to have not just for
basketball but for others.”
Ten years ago, USA Basketball was at an all-time low. At the 2004
Athens Olympics, the U.S. lost three games—it had lost only twice in
Olympic history previously—and won bronze. Two years before that, in the
2002 World Championships, the U.S. finished sixth, its worst finish
ever in international competition.
Worse, Team USA “had made people not like us,” USA Basketball
executive director Jim Tooley said. “In 2002 and 2004 we just threw guys
together, gave them 13 days to practice, explained a couple of rule
changes for international basketball and expected it was their turn to
win a gold. We didn’t show respect for other teams and what they were
doing.”
Beyond hiring Krzyzewski as coach in the wake of the Athens debacle,
USA Basketball also made a point of getting its players to buy into the
meaning of international competition.
“We knew we had ask our players for a new level of commitment than
was expected previously and we had to get them to realize we weren’t
going to win international competitions doing things as we had,” said
Jerry Colangelo, director of USA Basketball. “We needed them to see
themselves not as basketball players but as representatives of our
country, doing our service, our piece. We had to get them to feel
patriotism and selfless service.”
Who better to teach those traits to some of the wealthiest athletes
in the world than members of the military, Colangelo said. So the “feel
it” moments began.
As part of a collaboration between USA Basketball and branches of the
military, Krzyzewski’s team stopped in Korea on its way to Japan for
the 2006 World Championships. The team went to two military bases and
held open practices, coming into the gym wearing fatigues instead of
warm-ups. They met injured soldiers who shared a consistent theme: We
have no regrets because we did what we did for our country.
The relationship between team and military grew through a continuing
program since dubbed Hoops for Troops. Then, on the way to the 2012
Olympics in London, the team went to Arlington National Cemetery.
“When I think about feel-it moments, I go right to that moment in
2012,” Tooley said. “After our guys laid a wreath at the Tomb of the
Unknown Soldier, we went to Section 60, where the latest casualties are
buried. The guys kept looking down and the birth dates were for soldiers
younger than them.”
“That day,” Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant said this summer, “is one I’ll never forget.”
And yet, Durant wound up withdrawing from the team before the World
Cup, citing fatigue—a move that highlights the difficulty of player
recruitment for the U.S.
Durant’s decision came just days after George broke his tibia and
fibula at the base of the basket stanchion during an intrasquad
scrimmage in Las Vegas. Previously, other stars including Blake Griffin
of the Los Angeles Clippers and Kevin Love, now of the Cleveland
Cavaliers, also had pulled out. In 2012, Ray Allen said players ought to
be paid to play in the Olympics.
“In the weeks before the 2004 Olympics, we had three players withdraw
and had to make last-second substitutions, which was a problem for the
team,” Colangelo said. “We’re in a better place now because we have
players in a pool of talent as part of a program—a program that they get
much more than a medal from—rather than as just part of a team, which
is what they had before.”
The team the U.S. is left with includes several international
rookies, including the Denver Nuggets’ Kenneth Faried and the Sacramento
Kings’ DeMarcus Cousins. But as it plays for the World Cup
championship, the team will do so with an enhanced sense of pride,
Colangelo said.
“I think we’ve helped our players become better people, better
players and take this culture back to the teams they play for in the
NBA,” the longtime NBA owner and executive said. “You leave these
‘moments’ feeling a lot different about life, about priorities and
you’re just better for having felt that way.”
Do you have a “feel-it” moment that reminds you of what’s important
in your life? Leave me a comment and let’s discuss your story.
If you liked this post and want to inspire someone else with a
“feel-it” moment, please consider sharing with friends and colleagues
by using the share buttons below.
