I’m not a lakers fan.  Never have been – never will be.  Also – not a Kobe Bryant fan.  But he is kind of growing on me and I can’t really explain that.  So why is a non-Lakers fan blogging about the Lakers?  Because it not about the Lakers – its about winning.

Actually more than winning.  It’s about winning when we don’t have our A-Game.  And Kobe Bryant didn’t have his A-Game last night and he still found a way to win.  It’s about finding other ways to win – anyway we have to – no matter how hard.  Because the closer we get to what we want – the harder it is going to get.  That is just life.

Kobe showed up for game 7 and he wanted it badly – probably too badly.

And what happened in that defining moment – he couldn’t find his A-Game.  I think because he wanted it so much.  That is kind of how things work.  But here’s the rub and what makes Kobe Bryant great (yep – great).  When he didn’t have his A-Game, he did other things he could do – things that didn’t require his A-Game.  He rebounded. He Hustled.  He just worked harder than everybody else.  See – rebounding doesn’t take talent – it takes will and commitment.  He had that.  He got others to step up, led them and then trusted them.  He did that and didn’t fall into that easy place of “why can’t I do this – why can’t I hit a shot – why can’t I get a call – a break”.  He didn’t do or say any of those things.  He found another way.  He did the small things that he knew could could do and trusted the rest.

For non-Lakers fans or even non-Basketball fans – there is something in that game for all of us that want to be great and want to win.

We may not always have our A-Game – nobody does.  You may think others do but they don’t.  Everybody has to rebound sometime and we need to know that.  Rebounding isn’t complicated – but that doesn’t mean its not hard.  It’s really hard.  Find out where our rebounding is.  Focus on the effort and commitment to the thing that is right in front of us.  Our shot will come back later.  It always does.

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