October 28, 2019 - Not Much Left Of Him...

I love teaching the fundamentals of basketball; especially emphasizing the importance of being a complete and balanced player. I’ll explain what I mean by starting with one of my favorite stories to tell (when I am working with older players that can understand it…)


It is the story of a man that was in a terrible car accident. He lost his left arm and left leg…

he’s all right now…

but there’s not much left of him!


Moral of the story, one doesn’t want to be just an “all-right” player with “not much left” in one’s game. It is really easy to guard an “all-right” player!


In my camps / practices we spend a lot of time working on the weak hand of players; it’s not necessarily an easy thing to do but it creates much more complete and balanced players. One way to improve is obviously hard work… yet sometimes it is adversity that brings about growth or change… and adversity can be brought about in a couple of ways.


One is adversity one deserves… such as a player that doesn’t work hard might find himself on the bench; lack of playing time is a great motivator…


And then there is adversity that just happens. When I was 11-yrs-old was when I really started being able to use my left hand better. I already had a basketball coach that made us do lay-ups correctly from either side which helped, but the biggest help was when I pulled tendons in my right elbow during baseball season. I was a pitcher and that meant I was not going to be on the mound the rest of the summer… but I wasn’t through playing; I switched and finished out the summer playing left-handed! Through my injury I became a more complete player…


I’ve seen this happen many times, where players come back stronger from adversity…


Biblically we have a promise from God to take adversity we face and turn it for our good… I do not believe God is responsible for the bad stuff that happens to you and me; but I fully believe He is aware and capable of using it!!!


Romans 8:28 is an oft-quoted verse reminding us of this truth. It promises that “all things work together for good to those who love God…” The chapter goes on and reminds us that we are absolutely secure in God’s love!


I know this is a subject that is talked about a lot but let’s be honest, how is it changing how we live / think? This promise alone should transform how we face each day. If we truly believe this promise, we will view every hardship as a way we are becoming more complete and balanced.


This came to mind yesterday when listening to my friend and pastor Quinton Williams sharing the vision of a new facility our church in Alabama is building… one that is breaking the norms and being structured to be a game changer in the community every day of the week (not a Sunday-only structure.) This is coming about following a bad fire at the facility earlier in the year. It is very exciting, and I loved what Q said… It was something along the lines of “If we had known what was going to be happening now we would have been dancing around that fire!”


Bottom line: We need to trust the outcome in spite of the circumstances!