This content is locked. Please login or become a member.
Beat the Competition: Be A Team Player, with Shane Battier, ESPN commentator and former NBA player
Get recognized
Basketball’s kind of a strange sport. There’s a constant tension between what’s good for the team and what’s good for the individual. Baseball’s different. If I hit a homerun that’s good for me because people who hit the most homeruns usually get paid the most money. Or if I strike out a batter, the player that strikes out the most batters usually gets paid the most money. And also, you’re helping your team win games. Well in basketball if I wanted to maximize my potential as a player and my financial earning capabilities, I would shoot the ball every single time I touched the ball because the highest paid players are the ones who score the most.
My career was not based on scoring. My career was based on the fact that every team that I played on always did better when I was on the floor versus when I was off the floor, despite my average stats. No one would look at my statistics and say, “Wow, Battier. This guy, we have to have him.” I was given the moniker, the no stat all-star. And it’s something that I learned as a young boy growing up in Detroit, Michigan. I was the tallest kid in my grade always. I was the only minority in a very suburban whitebread part of town, only minority. So I always stuck out. I was always different. And in first grade, all you want to do is fit in with everybody else. Well, there’s one place I always fit in and that was on the kickball field, basketball court, the baseball field. And I realized that when I won and I helped my team win, guess what? People liked me and I was able to fit into social groups. And so that became my MO my entire career.
What am I going to do to impact the team to make them better? Because I know in the end if my team has success, I’m going to have success too. When you’re part of a championship team no one asks you, “How many points did you score in game seven of the finals?” They ask you, “Hey, let me see your championship ring. Were you part of that team?” And so for me, it’s a way of life. It’s a mindset. Do what it takes for the health and vitality of the team. And if you have a pure heart, a truly pure heart and you have a spirit of sacrifice and ownership and you have a growth mindset and you have professionalism and you have a hunger game mentality and you’re pure about it, you’ll be recognized. You will be recognized no matter what your stats are.
Create value
The lessons of understanding and applying and sacrifice to whatever membership you’re part of whether that’s family, whether that’s business, whether that’s a religious group, whether it’s whatever. Whatever group you’re part of – if you can have a pure spirit and be able to sacrifice glory, the opportunity, your time, your energy for the sake of the group, you’ll always be valuable. You’ll always be valuable. But only if you have a pure heart. And people know, people know if you’re pure of heart or if you have other intentions. Sometimes those align but most times not. And the funny thing about sacrifice is it’s easy. Sacrifice is easy until you’re the one asked to be – to do the sacrifice. It’s easy until you’re the one being asked to give up something. And then you’re tested. But if you’re pure of heart, pure of mind you will be rewarded with the success of your membership of your group.