TeamWork

I know that I haven't written to you guys in a while and I know that most of you a heartbroken that its been a while since you've heard from me. With the season coming to an end and a lot of other things going on in my life it's been really hectic. Nothing really came to me either during these past couple of weeks that I felt was worthy of talking about. So I began to ask around to some of my family members and friends on what they felt like I should talk about. My mom like all mom's usually do gave me a great topic about the importance of teamwork in a basketball perspective, as well as in my family life and my faith. Everyone knows the definition of team work, but I don't think we really understand how much more we can accomplish by allowing others to help us out. In my profession, team work is everything. There's the old saying of the best "team" will win the game. They never say that the best "player" will win the game and that's usually for a reason. One person can't beat a team no matter how hard they try it just can't be done. For example one of the greatest players in basketball is Kobe Bryant. He had 81 points in a basketball game against the Toronto Raptors a few years ago and they happened to win the game as well. Sure Kobe had a remarkable game scoring wise and some people tend to say that he won that game singlehandedly. But a lot of people haven't taken a look at the box score of that game and seen that Smush Parker had 13 points, Chris Mihm had 12 points, and Lamar Odom had 8 points. The Lakers won that game by 18 points so without those 33 points by those 3 guys, Kobe would have just had an amazing game, but the better "team" would have won. I think Phil Jackson might have said it best, "The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each individual member is the team". Basketball  is definitely a love of mine and I'm blessed everyday to be able to go to work and get paid to play a "game". But team work is almost more important in my family life between my wife and I than almost anything else. I have to rely on her as much as she has to rely on me and we have to be there for each other to make our marriage better and better. Team work is a lot of sacrifice for the good of the "team". There's a lot that we must work on to keep our marriage and our communication going. There's plenty of times when I'm tired after a basketball game or from practice, and my wife wants to talk about "feelings". Now I know that a lot of guys hate to sit and talk about their feelings trust me I've been there. But that's the sacrifice that I am willing to make to show my wife that I love her and that I care about how she's feeling regardless of how tired I am. It's that sacrifice I believe that makes our "team" the best. Team Work in my faith is another area of my life that is extremely important. You may think, " How can you have team work in your faith". Team work to me in my faith is knowing that I am on the winning team. Knowing that I am on the best team. The team that never loses and the team that everyone should be playing for, and thats God's team. Without my faith and trust in God, nothing I have done this far would be possible. If he had not gave his life for me, then I would still be leading a lonely life and I would be playing for the losing team. That team work and bond that I have with my God is the most important thing to me. The amount of confidence that God puts in me and the will that he puts in me strives me to be great not only for myself, but for the team of Believers/ people out there who are looking to someone to help them find their way. I feel that everyone should find that sense of balance in every area of their life on how to help others, but also allow those same people to help you as well. We must always be willing to give as much as and even more than we are willing to take, and by doing this we allow ourselves to grow in our family life, our profession, and our faith.