In the summer of 2012, I was in my hotel room at the Hampton Inn after running a basketball camp in a small town called Onalaska, WI. And I received a phone call from an unknown number. This was before Robocalls, so I actually picked up the phone!
On the other line, It was Luc Mbah A Moute, who was playing for the Milwaukee Bucks at that time. He had gotten my number because an assistant coach from the Bucks was a mentor of mine and referred our skill development training business to him. Luc went on to tell me that he was going to have a couple of teenagers from Africa living with him this summer, his brother Roger and another kid. He was wondering if I would be willing to work these kids out while they were in town. I specifically remember him saying to me, “they’re not very skilled, but I think they could be pretty good players.”
So a couple of weeks later I pulled up to Luc’s apartment in the Brewer’s Hill neighborhood of Milwaukee, which overlooks downtown. I was there to pick up the kids Luc had staying with him to take them to our gym to get a workout in. I text Roger to let him know I was there and a couple of minutes later these two tall, gangly kids from Cameroon came out of Luc’s townhome. They barely fit into my little 4 door Acura TL. One of them, who was approaching 7 feet tall squeezed into the front seat. I hardly knew anything at all about these kids except that they loved basketball and wanted to work on their game.
We got to the gym, got our shoes laced up, and got warmed up for the session. Shortly after we started I knew something was different about this 7 footer. He asked questions about the littlest details. He was incredibly present. He was focused on the footwork on a move, the form on a shot, or the details of a ball-handling drill.
I knew almost immediately that this kid was going to be special. But just to confirm, I called over, Jerry Smith, a Milwaukee native playing in Europe, who was getting warmed up on the other side of the gym for the next workout. I could see Jerry out of the corner of my eye just observing this kid, wondering “who is that? That kid is not from Milwaukee”. He had played against several NBA players in his time at Louisville, was a D-League All-Star, and had also played a 10-day contract in the NBA. He had a ton of experience playing against really high-level players.
I said to him, “Jerry, what do you think? Is this kid for real?”
He smirked, laughed a little bit, “Yeah…that kids going to be a lottery pick for sure”
On days when I couldn’t pick him up and take him to the gym he’d get a bus pass and ride an hour each way in a city he didn’t know — let alone a country he didn’t know he didn’t know — just to get to the workouts. The improvements that this kid made, in the 2 months that I spent with him, were incredible. He loved the work and he loved details. He kept coming back, working on his game and focusing on one mindset we were really trying to instill in our players at that time.
The power of the process.
He was completely bought in.
As each workout ended it was difficult to get him off the floor. When I told him the next group had to start their workout, he’d look at me palming the ball in one hand and the other hand holding up his larger-than-life index finger saying, “Coach, one more.”
This tall gangly kid from Cameroon was Joel Embiid. He went on to play at the University of Kansas, was the 3rd pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, and has been a five-time NBA All-Star.
The challenge we face — whether it’s the basketball arena or the business space — is that We live in an outcome-based world where we glorify the results, but cast a shadow on the journey. We cast a shadow on the empty gym, dark arenas, dripping in sweat when no one is watching. Whatever that arena might be for you. and glorify the championships. But the process, the work, is the only thing we can control, that might influence the outcomes. Because when we focus on the process we build discipline, consistency and momentum. And, these three things create a compounding effect on the external results.
LET’S GET TO THE NEXT LEVEL. TOGETHER.
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