A Lesson From the NBA

i was listening to one of the local sports talking heads today and heard something amazingly profound.

the dude was talking to rick carlisle, the head coach of the the mavs, and after they had talked about dirk and lebron and the near-meltdown in portland and the spanking of the lakers and coughgate and jet and jkidd and tyson and juan and cuban…he got around to this question:

“so rick, do you think this championship finally validates you as a coach? do you feel like the NBA community…the media…all of your contemporaries…will now recognize you as one of the sport’s elite coaches?”

coach carlisle spoke with a genuine grace and humility seldom heard in this day of sport celebrity. he said, “honestly, i can’t ever let myself go down that road. I just don’t ever think that way at all. I simply see myself as a servant of all these guys. my job is to do whatever I can to help them achieve their dreams…to put them in the best place to fulfill everything they have worked so hard to accomplish. so don’t ever a make this about me. it’s totally about the players. i’m really just here to serve those guys.”

the simplicity of his words and the sincerity of his expression was incredibly genuine. he was truly believable. and he spoke truth for anyone who aspires to lead others…no matter how large or how minuscule the effort is. godly leadership is always from the bottom up. true greatness is found in servanthood. real leaders don’t make their way to the center of the stage…they work hard to put others there.

and find great satisfaction in their lack of notoriety.

may we all aspire to be those kinds of leaders.

#leadership #NBA #pastor #servanthood