Miranda Kerr once said, “My ambition comes from my passion: finding what I love and then expanding on that.” Donavon Bailey gave it to us like this, “Follow your passion, be prepared to work hard and sacrifice, and, above all, don’t let anyone limit your dreams.” Maya Angelou put it where the goats could get it when she spit, “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”
Well playas…Kevin Garnett played the game with passion, humor, and style, but more passion than anything!! When he was drafted in 1995 he suddenly became my favorite player of all-time. Not because of his game or because of the team that he played for. It was simply because of his passion for the game and his passion for his team. For years he was the only player in the league that played with a child’s enthusiasm EVERY night. I don’t care if it’s the first game of the season, a Wednesday night in January, or the freakin’ NBA Finals, he was goin’ to leave it all on the court.
Now I’ve got a new favorite player for the same reasons. Russell Westbrook (Young Russ) has taken over as my favorite player of all time because of the passion that he plays with.
Let’s keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st! There were so many guys in the league for years that dogged it until the playoffs started, like Shaq, Barkley, Malone, and Iverson, just to name a few. How many times do you hear of guys not even playin’ on any given night? Remember when Shaq would wait until the day before the season started to have surgery and miss like the first 30 games? He’d chill all summer then decide that he needed to get cut so he didn’t have to play the entire 82 game schedule. Before I started coverin’ the NBA I got burned so many times tryin’ to see cats play that just decided they’re weren’t playin’ that particular evenin’ and wouldn’t even make the trip. I can remember Iverson gettin’ me on several occasions because my wife was a huge A.I. fan and she never got to see him play because he would decide to chill for whatever reason.
Now duns like LeBron will pull that stunt on a fans from time to time. And yeah I get that he’s tryin’ to save his body to get to the Finals but how bout not playin’ at home instead of on the road. I’m just sayin’.
Young Russ is the closet thing to KG in the history of the league. Now I can hear all of the haters out there hollerin’ “Young Russ hasn’t won a championship though bruh!” What does that have to do with him bein’ a great player and playin’ with unbelievable passion though? Championships are team awards bruh. He’s my favorite player because he plays hard and is serious about it.
He plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played. And it blows my mind when I hear duns sayin’ that he’s stat chasin’ when he averaged a darn triple double last season for the ENTIRE season. Then I hear clowns sayin’ that he’s hoggin’ the ball. How can you average double digit assists hoggin’ the ball? Do you know how many passes you have to throw to average double digit assists?
But outside of the numbers, look at how he plays the game EVERY night. No nights off and he’s movin’ at 100mph for 48 minutes EVERY single night. It doesn’t get any better than that for me.
Very few people get up and go to work with that type of passion. It’s the kind of drive that separates the good from the great. It determines whether a boy was simply in the ride or drove it. Most people don’t understand that DNA will only get you so far.
Let me put it where the goats can it playa. DNA will get you into the party but you still gotta put in work if you’re gonna get anywhere with the “Bad-Bad” standin’ at the bar. Now every cat in the joint is eyein’ her too. Why? Because she’s bad! Now what? It works the same way in life and in the NBA. Cats like Young Russ and KG show boyz how to effectively go to work every day.
Maybe these young boyz can learn a thing or two from Russ. Go to work with passion everyday. Like him or not he brings his lunch to work EVERY night and I’ve got tall respect for him for doin’ that! Stop me when I start lyin’!
Playas Thesaurus:
1) Dun: noun – the person in question, dude, guy, etc. It’s whoever I’m talkin’ about and its non-gender specific.
2) Put it where the goats can get it: verb phrase – to make it as elementary as possible. To put it at ground level so everyone can understand it.
3) Bad-Bad: noun – a fine woman, cosmetic 10, show stoppa, head turner, look at her type, etc.
The G is excluded from the endings of all words because the G is near and dear to my heart because I’m from “The G” which is Gary, Indiana. So I only use the G when I’m talkin’ about “The G!”
The caption under the photo isn’t real but its real talk!