Hey guys,

I’ve got a very important message for you today and a timely one at that.

Ok here we go…

When I was in high school and college, I only concerned myself with one question. It wasn’t stats, it wasn’t headlines, it wasn’t how high I could jump or how fast I could move.

The only question that mattered to me was… am I maximizing my potential as a player? Bottom line, if I answered yes to that question, all the other questions would already be answered. As a 5’10 white guy, my potential was already limited by nature. So for me, I had to truly ask myself that question every single day.

It’s what fueled every one of my workouts. It’s what allowed me to get extra jumpshots up all alone in an empty gym night after night. It’s what motivated me to do dribbling and ballhandling drills in the basement of my parents house day after day after day. It was the voice inside me that told me to go out in the driveway in the rain and work out harder.

Unfortunately, the basketball landscape is littered with players who never fulfilled their potential, for one reason or another. From the high school level all the way up to the Hall of Fame, you see players that just make you ask… “what happened”. Sometimes people don’t reach their full potential due to circumstances that they can’t control. But most of the time, it’s self inflicted. Lack of motivation, laziness, no direction.

Hall of Fame even? Yep. How about Shaq. In my opinion, the one uber superstar that could’ve been better. Bird? Maxed out. Magic? Maxed out. Russell? Maxed out. Duncan? Maxed out. Kobe? MJ? West? The Big O? Maxed, maxed, maxed, maxed.

But Shaq? I don’t believe so. Despite 4 rings and an MVP award and tons of stats next to his name, I think he could have and should have been better. Now understand, I think Shaq was the most physically dominating player at ANY position the game has ever seen! If you go back and watch highlights or games in his prime, he just manhandles men that are 7 ft tall and makes them look like they’re 6 footers, it’s crazy!

BUT…

He almost always came into training camp out of shape. He never developed a jumpshot. He never improved his offensive game. And he never came anywhere near the defensive player he should have been. Oh, and I think he free throws needed some working on :-).

As great as Shaq was, he didn’t maximize his potential. He maximized his SIZE, but not his POTENTIAL. It’s not the same thing.

The bottom line is, do you want to look back and say that you could have done more? That you could have been better? If you are in the NJ area, you haven’t had much to do over the last 10 days or so. Did you improve your game at all? Did you get a ball in your hand? Did you access the BT Basketball videos for ballhandling drills that you don’t even need a basket for? Did you take this little precious time left before the season starts and do anything productive? Or did you just play video games the whole time and complain that there were no lights…

I am proud to say that in this not-so-ideal-basketball-body that God game me, I squeezed out every inch of hoops potential. Truthfully, I should have played a different sport that fit my body type better. But my heart was with hoops and I had no choice but to take every bit of what I was and maximize what I was given. I feel like I did just that.

I hope that you can say you are working towards that. And I hope to help you get there.

bt