Vince Lombardi once said, “The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.” Colin Powell gave it to us like this, “If a leader doesn’t convey passion and intensity then there will be no passion and intensity within the organization and they’ll start to fall down and get depressed.” Then Jack Welch shut the buildin’ down when he spit, “An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.”
Well playas…so many people watch professional sports, the NBA in particular, and never begin to understand how important the front office is to winnin’ championships. I’m constantly blown away by how many people give a superstar player the credit for the TEAM winnin’ a championship. Not realizin’ that as a player he really doesn’t control the outcome of that dream. Players don’t win titles, organizations do!
Let’s keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st! I don’t care how good a player is if he isn’t put in the right situation to win by the front office he could realistically spend his ENTIRE career in the twilight zone. As good as Jordan was, he spent his first 7 years in the league breakin’ boyz off with 60 point scorin’ nights at times; wooin’ crowds with unbelievable dunks and crazy baseline moves never to make it to the Finals. Jordan was literally fightin’ his teammates at practice bruh! The Bulls were goin’ nowhere fast.
It wasn’t until the organization recognized that he needed help and that Doug Collins couldn’t coach him. He needed players around him that would compliment both his playin’ style and especially his ego. So they drafted Scottie Pippen in 1987 and then two years later hired Phil Jackson. Every player that they would eventually add was told what their roles had to be in order to play with Mike and they were fine with it. It wasn’t until then that they peeled off 3 straight! They later added Rodman for the second leg of the tour and won 3 more. It wasn’t all MJ that made the Bulls click it was the front office that put the puzzle together that made them champions.
Don’t think for one minute that Jordan would have won 6 titles playin’ in a joint like Atlanta because not everyone understood how to handle his ego. However, Chicago did at that time. There is a reason why, at one point, more than 50% of all the NBA titles have been won by either LA (16) or Boston (17). They were organizationally better than the rest of the league more often than not. Do you really think Kobe would have 5 rings if he’d been playin’ somewhere like Denver? Not a chance playboy, because Denver is and always will be, Denver! Just like places like Charlotte, Milwaukee, Toronto, Indiana and oh yes New York! I said it, NEW YORK!
Do you really think Patrick Ewing wasn’t good enough to win a title? He was one of the all time greats and played for a front office that couldn’t seem to unlock the safe. He wasted all of that talent and his career in the “world’s greatest city” that hasn’t won a title since 1973.
It was the organization that recognized that Kobe and Shaq could no longer co-exist and decided to ship the “Big Fella” to Miami and not Kobe. They understood that their future was in the younger of the two even though they had already won 3 titles together. They knew that to force it would be tragic so they rebuilt the car around the new engine and won two more.
Players just play the game that they’ve been blessed to play with no more or less intensity. It’s the front office that has to buy the groceries to make it a 5 star restaurant bruh. Nobody can win a championship without smart people evaluatin’ talent and personalities to put them together in the right situation.
Don’t fool yourself into thinkin’ that Kevin Garnett all of a sudden started playin’ with that unbridled passion when he got to Boston! He’d been playin’ with that same intensity since his days at Farragut Career Academy in Chicago. I know because I watched him play. He finally got with an organization that understood how to put the pieces together to win a title. If he’d stayed in Minnesota he would have wasted away with the same passion that he eventually won a championship with.
Charles Barkley, and Karl Malone, two of the best to ever play the game, don’t have rings because they spent nearly their entire careers playin’ for mediocre organizations in Philly and Utah. Their talents allowed them to win games and make it to the playoffs but without a smart enough front office puttin’ the right pieces together at the right time they kept fallin’ short. Like I said before, Jordan didn’t keep boyz from winnin’ titles because Barkley played 16 years and Malone played for 19. So there was room to get at least one but not with those franchises. While you’re at it, throw in Reggie Miller too. He was one of the best EVER but happened to play in Indiana.
So to blame boyz for not winnin’ a title when some cats clearly play for organizations that aren’t built to win championshis is crazy! That’s why players don’t win titles, organizations do bruh!
So how do you explain LeBron goin’ to four straight Finals and winnin’ a title in Cleveland when it’s clearly a dumpster fire? He’s the exception to the rule playa. He’s an extraterrestrial bein’ bruh. He’s done what no other player in the history of the league has ever done. He’s won a title with the front office bein’ a complete train wreck. Cleveland’s done nothin’ to become a better organization but sign LeBron. 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) Ole boy: noun – the person that I’m currently talkin’ about.
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 is real talk today!