How to Be Like Mike

by Pat Williams

  —BERTOLT BRECHT

  business leader

  Here is another word that has infused itself into nearly every facet of the corporate lexicon—leadership. In fact, barely a day passes that my mailbox is not stuffed with an invitation to a seminar or conference on leadership. One of these took me to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the Magic leadership group spent two days going through team-building exercises, including an afternoon in the woods doing team adventure drills. Our final activity of the day: climbing a twenty-five-foot wooden wall.

  The rules were that two people could help from a platform stationed at the top, but no one else. This meant the first and last people had to get up without help.

  There were eighteen of us. It took thirty minutes. When we were finished, we celebrated as if we’d just won an NBA championship.

  Of course, it didn’t hurt having our team vice president, Julius Erving, climb up that wall in two giant strides to complete the drill.

  Leadership is getting players to believe in you.

  —Larry Bird

  In the midst of the 1992–93 season, the Bulls were struggling through a long road trip and trailing Utah by seventeen points in the waning seconds of the third quarter when Jordan hit a half-court shot to cut the lead to fourteen. Suddenly, something triggered. “ Michael became so driven, so focused, so committed to his teammates,” said former Bull Trent Tucker.

  In the fourth quarter, Jordan scored twenty-two points. Chicago won the game.

  One night we were out of sync. Nothing was working for us and I was mad. I said to Isiah Thomas during a time-out, “What’s your greatest asset?” “Leadership,” he replied. “Then lead,” I yelled.

  We won the game.

  —Chuck Daly

  FORMER COACH, DETROIT PISTONS

  So important is this concept that I’ve dedicated the entire next chapter (chapter 9) to it. But the obvious relationship between leadership and teamwork is this: Every team needs its leaders. There are certainly varied types of leaders, some who lead through action and some who lead more vocally.

  Michael Jordan, at times, could be both.

  “MJ had an ability to orchestrate a game,” said NBA assistant coach Jim Eyen. “He was a maestro. He couldn’t do it by himself, so he’d delegate, but he was always in control of the baton. He learned how to make other players feel part of what he was doing.”

  “During the 1991 finals,” said former Bulls’ assistant John Bach, “MJ got up and told the team, ‘Look, we’re going to the top. You’re either with me or you’re not. ’”

  You have achieved excellence as a leader when people will follow you anywhere, if only out of curiosity.

  —General Colin Powell

  The night before training camp was due to begin, Phil Jackson would ask around the room, soliciting from each player his individual goals. Back came the answers: points, rebounds, assists, an All-Star game appearance. Jordan would always go last. He would always say the same thing.

  Visions are never the sole property of one man or one woman. Before a vision can become reality, it must be owned by every single member of the group.

  —Phil Jackson

  “I have no individual goals,” he said. “We play for one reason and that’s to win the title. Practice is more important than the games, and I will practice when I’m hurt, when 95 percent of the players in this league would sit out. I expect all of you to do the same thing. You will follow my lead.”

  And follow they did.

  3. Commitment

  “Individual commitment to a group effort; that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”

  —VINCE LOMBARDI

  Commitment to the Team

  By never demanding a trade, by refusing to bail out on the team that drafted him, Jordan first displayed the depth of his commitment to the Bulls. What he needed were players around him who were willing to make the same sacrifice, to subordinate themselves to a singular vision. That took time. People like this, who are willing to collectively pursue a goal or a vision, who are willing to hold to their promises in the face of adversity, are not easy to find. But they are worth searching for. “No team has ever achieved extraordinary results without a 100 percent commitment to the cause,” said author John Maxwell.

  When you’re interested in something you do it only when it’s convenient. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.

  —Kenneth Blanchard

  AUTHOR

  Businessman Richard Edler found such a person. “ One day in the office of the chairman of the company, I noticed a picture of his college board of directors. In the center was an elderly man badly hunched over. My chairman explained that he was the president. When he was a young man he played the piano professionally with great love, then he suffered an accident that broke his back. The doctors gave him a choice. He could have his back set permanently straight like everybody else, but he would never again play the piano or he could have his back set hunched over, allowing him to play but never stand up again. He chose the piano. I am not sure I would have, but I deeply admire his commitment to something.”

  Commitment to Quality and Excellence— to Winning

  Phil Jackson crafted a system. He knew he had to in order to get the rest of the team to commit, to adhere, to believe. What he adopted, in the 1989–90 season, was assistant Tex Winter’s complex triple-post, or triangle, offense. It was not something that Jordan committed to immediately.

  “There is no ‘I’ in team,” Winter once said.

  “There is in win,” Jordan replied.

  It was a difficult system, and it meant Jordan had to share the ball, to trust his teammates, to allow them their shots. But gradually, the Bulls adhered, and by midseason, they won twenty-four of twenty-seven games and began the process of eclipsing their nemesis, the Detroit Pistons. Jordan and Jackson began to forge a relationship that would become indelible. And Jordan began the process of instilling faith in his teammates.

  “I tried to make him understand that to win a championship, he had to share the ball,” Jackson said. “He had to share the limelight. He had to share some of the glory.”

  The triangle offense became the staple of the Bulls’ championship teams. So did players like Pippen and Grant, like John Paxson and Steve Kerr, like Will Perdue and Bill Wennington.

  I always felt that in order for a team to win you have to make the weakest link strong.

  —Oscar Robertson

  NBA LEGEND

  “In Chicago, we knew what we had to do to win, and that was play together,” said Horace Grant. “On the court, you have to be one unit. When you play with Michael Jordan, you have to put your ego aside. He was the man. With me, that was not difficult at all. I love winning championships.”

  Commitment to Continual Improvement; to Hustling and Finishing

  The Bulls had lost twelve of their last thirteen games in Detroit when they went to play the Pistons in mid-season in 1991. They won that game, 95–93, and it was as if, finally, the albatross of the Pistons had been shed. Later, the Bulls swept the Eastern Conference finals against Detroit in four games, with Jordan’s aggressiveness setting the tone.

  Perhaps the defining moment of that series, a prime example of the Bulls’ heightened hustle, came on a Vinnie Johnson steal in Game Three. Jordan chased him down from behind and Johnson slowed up to let Jordan fly past. But somehow, Jordan adjusted himself, forcing Johnson to throw up a weak shot that Jordan rebounded. The Pistons were never close again. The Bulls were the dominant team in the NBA. They had mastered the triangle; more importantly, they had mastered each other.

  Commitment to Self-Discipline

  “I didn’t want to give up, no matter how sick I was, or how tired I was, or how low on energy I was,” Jordan said. “I felt the obligation to my team, to the city of Chicago, to go out and give that extra effort. . . .”

  A man is only as good as what he loves.

 
—Saul Bellow

  WRITER

  4. Passion

  Vision is the stuff of our dreams. Passion is the energy to make it real. The two go together, like a horse and a rider. In the mind of one is the goal. In the power of the other lies the means to get there.

  —PETER URS BENDER

  author

  We discussed it in chapter 2, but it is worth reiterating here. It was Jordan’s passion that drove the Bulls. He urged his teammates to hone their game, to practice every day without flagging and without succumbing to injury. He was the one setting the example. His feelings had a way of bubbling to the surface in fits of fury and rage and even sadness. And yet they often proved fruitful. They were the manifestation of Jordan’s intense feeling for the game, a heightened sense of purpose that affected the entire franchise.

  When Rodney McCray joined the Bulls, he brought his reputation with him. He was a stats guy, playing for numbers, and Jordan wouldn’t tolerate it. “The first day of camp,” said John Bach, the ex-Bulls assistant, “MJ goes up to him and says, ‘I know all about you. But we’re not like that here. We play hard. We play for the team. And I’m going to take you every day in practice, so you know what I’m talking about. ’”

  The world belongs to the energetic.

  —Ralph Waldo Emerson

  “Michael was a great finisher,” said Kirk Champion, the Birmingham pitching coach when Jordan played minor-league baseball. “He had such passion for driving in runs or stealing a base, something that would help the team succeed. He really took pride in picking up that run from third base. He had a passion to finish and go after people.”

  5. Team Thinking

  The point was for the Celtics to win. Always. Not last week. Not next year. Right now. If I play well, that’s one thing, but to make others play better . . . you understand what I mean? The game was scheduled, we had to play it, so we might as well win.

  —BILL RUSSELL

  ex-Celtics center

  “No team understood better than the Bulls that selflessness is the soul of teamwork,” Phil Jackson said. “They plugged into the power of oneness, instead of the power of one man, and transcended the divisive forces of the ego that have crippled far more gifted teams. Michael was willing to sacrifice some of his own game for the rest of them. That was the most important thing he did.”

  The Requirements of Team Thinking— Be Unselfish

  There is a word for it in Japan, one that circulates among Japanese baseball players. The word is“Wa.”

  In America, there is no single word for it. It is a concept: Subordinating your needs for the good of the team.

  “The team itself,” Phil Jackson said, “must be the leader of the team.”

  Find a Role and Fill It

  Steve Kerr. John Paxson. Bill Cartwright. Bill Wennington. Luc Longley. Scott Williams. . . .

  We could go on here. The point is, the Bulls had dozens of role players who helped them win six championships. Each had their moment. “My goal,” Jackson said, “was to give everyone on the team a vital role and inspire them to be acutely aware of what was happening—even when the spotlight was on somebody else. Coaching is winning players over and convincing them they have to play together.”

  There’s nothing worse than an all-star band with no teamwork.

  —Les Brown

  BANDLEADER

  “We knew we had responsibilities,” Jordan said, “and we knew our capabilities.”

  Be a Team of Cheerleaders

  “Accept a loss as a learning experience,” Jordan said, “and never point fingers at your teammates.”

  Have Fun

  I learned this from my mentor in sports management, Bill Veeck. No one had more fun than Veeck. Wackiness was a prerequisite for a job in Veeck’s front office. Now Veeck’s son, Mike, is running a minor-league baseball club, and on his door is a sign:

  It says:“FUN IS GOOD.”

  Here’s a little formula that works everytime: Choose to have fun. Fun creates enjoyment. Enjoyment invites participation. Participation focuses attention. Attention expands awareness. Awareness promotes insight. Insight generates knowledge. Knowledge facilitates action. Action yields results. And it all started by choosing to have fun.

  Follow the Leader

  “MJ had a selfishness within the selflessness,” said NBA Hall of Famer Julius Erving. “It’s a fine line you have as a star—how many shots a game are too many? You need to score big to win, but how do your teammates react? It’s a very delicate balancing act. Phil Jackson understood that with Michael and helped him balance being a dominant force and including the other guys.”

  “Michael had unique communication skills,” said former NBA player Charles Smith. “He could communicate with his teammates and earn their respect. He could communicate with coaches and earn their respect. And he could communicate with owners and earn their respect. By doing this, Michael created a sense of community.”

  Be Flexible

  “There’s a misconception about teamwork,” said Hall of Fame football coach Tom Landry. “Teamwork is the ability to have different thoughts about things; it’s the ability to argue and stand up and say loud and strong what you feel, but in the end, it’s also the ability to adjust to what is best for the team.”

  “The way to tap into energy,” Phil Jackson said, “is not by being autocratic, but by working with the players and giving them increasing responsibility to shape their roles.”

  Think In Sync

  This was a memo handed to the Magic players before the 2000–01 season:

  Teammates Are Forever

  The ones you practice with, spend time with, all but live with. The ones who become such a big part of your life, regardless of how the team does. Like men who have been to war together, teammates share things that no one else can really understand or fully appreciate. As if they have been members of some exclusive club, complete with its own codes and secrets.

  Be Consistent

  “Once I asked Michael what he was thinking about when he took the final shot in Game Six in 1998,” said Jordan’s business partner and Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis. “Michael said, ‘I wasn’t thinking about anything because I’d taken that shot a million times in practice. If I hadn’t taken that shot a million times, I would have had something to think about. ’”

  In the May 28, 2001 ESPN magazine, Jordan made this revealing statement:

  “The ability to perform in the clutch comes from having the confidence to know that you can. Where does that confidence come from? From having done it in the past. Of course, you have to do it that first time, but after that, you’ve got a model you can always relate back to. It gives you comfort doing something you’ve done before.

  For decades, great athletic teams have harbored one simple secret that only a few select business teams have discovered. It is this: To play and win together, you must practice together.

  —Lewis Edwards

  BUSINESSMAN

  What it gets down to is confidence and pride.

  Confidence is based in having done it before. There were days when I didn’t want to work out, practice, whatever, but I did because I don’t want that next guy catching me. That’s why, if the game is tied in the last two minutes or down the stretch, I feel I have an advantage over everyone.”

  Wayne Gretzky said, “No matter who you are, no matter how good an athlete you are, we’re creatures of habit. The better your habits are, the better they’ll be in pressure situations.”

  6. Empowering Individuals

  “The magic of MJ was that he got everyone on the team to think that the Bulls won because of them—that they were the missing link.”

  —BILL WALTON

  Hall of Fame player and broadcaster

  What changed when Jordan incorporated his game into a team concept is that he began to look around more often. He stopped cutting down his teammates in the newspaper, and he started to rely on them, to build trust and respect (something we will al
so explore in chapter 10). When he was double- and triple-teamed, he found his open teammates. He passed them the ball and put the pressure on them to make their shots. If they did, he found them again. He encouraged them. When the Bulls came out sluggish in one of the NBA Finals games against Utah, Steve Kerr missed his first shot. The next time down, Kerr passed up an open look. Jordan yelled at him, “Take the shot.”

  Kerr made his next one.

  It is worth noting that Kerr was one of Jordan’s most intense “motivational” projects. In fact, Jordan was so tough on Kerr that he once picked a fight with him during practice. But when it mattered, they trusted each other.

  “MJ would include his teammates in the game early,” Walton said, “then bail them out in the fourth quarter when it was winning time.”

  Craig Hodges, Michael’s former teammate, has a vivid memory of that happening:“In the 1989 play-offs with Cleveland, I’ll never forget the famous ‘Ehlo Game. ’The Cavs scored in the closing seconds, and the defensive mistake was mine. I felt I’d cost us the game and at the timeout MJ could feel my pain. He said to me, ‘Don’t even worry about it, Hodge. I’ve got you covered. ’ Then he hits the miracle shot to win it for us. I was off the hook. What a teammate.”

  In a couple of those championship seasons, it wasn’t even Jordan who hit the winning shot; instead it was Jordan who drew the defense and passed off to either John Paxson or Steve Kerr for the final blow. For both men, solid but unspectacular guards, it was the moment that defined their careers. And it was a result of the confidence that Jordan instilled in them—something that Kerr had a little fun with during a victory parade speech after his shot won the title in 1997.

  Here, Kerr told the crowd, was what “really happened” during that final time-out before his game-winning shot:

  “Phil Jackson told Michael to take the last shot. Michael said he didn’t really ‘feel comfortable in these situations’ and that maybe the Bulls should go ‘in a different direction. ’ So, I thought to myself, I guess I have to bail Michael out again. But why not? I’ve been bailing him out all season.”