Looked in the archives today and was studying the run of the 2006 Miami Heat team that won the World Championship. The year started off very rocky for the Heat with a 10-10 start and their coach Stan Van Gundy (currently head coach for the Orlando Magic) stepped down for personal reasons.
At this point this team loaded with veterans, many of whom had never won a championship (Gary Payton, Alonzo Mourning, Antoine Walker, James Posey, Jason Williams) could have gone either way. Then Heat president Pat Riley, who assembled the team, decided he was going to step into the head coaching position.
Riley is one of the best coaches of all time, winning 5 NBA Championships in his career (4 with 'Showtime' and the Lakers in the 80's). Throughout the season he came up with the motto "15 Strong", which means that it takes all 15 players on the roster coming together as one in order to win the championship. Here is a little about this from after the Heat won the championship:
Champagne was flying from all directions as I walked into the craziest post-championship locker room celebration I've ever witnessed, and there in the center of the room was Miami Heat coach Pat Riley's motivational secret laid bare.
The contents of Riley's mystery bowl -- a structure that sat covered up on the floor of the Heat locker room throughout the playoffs adorned with "Do Not Touch" signs -- had been revealed, and all across the floor were scattered thousands upon thousands of small pieces of paper, each about the size of a baseball card, bearing the words "15 Strong" on one side.
On the other side of each card was a different message, depending on the player who put it there. Some of the cards had family pictures, others had drawings of the Larry O'Brien trophy, still others had pictures of players' families or of championship rings.
"The bowl was 120,000 of these, that's all," Riley said. "We took on a slogan, a motto or whatever you wish, but it was really about 15 guys being strong. There was a lot of conjecture throughout the course of the year about our team, its character, about certain players and how it wouldn't work, the chemistry. People don't know. People don't know how much these guys really wanted it."
They were also blessed to have a supporting cast that bought into the theory that they would have to play second fiddle, a dynamic that wouldn't have been possible if they hadn't bought into Riley's yearlong project of dumping all those "15 Strong" cards into that big mystery bowl.
"Every game we came closer and closer and put more and more stuff in," Gary Payton said. "We brought a wheelbarrow in to put stuff in because he gave us a story about trusting people and pushing a wheelbarrow across a tightrope. He's a great motivator. He did what he was supposed to do. He got us to play the way we were supposed to play, and we stuck together."
Riley is known as a motivational genius. When Payton talks about the 'wheelbarrow story' this is what he means:
The wheelbarrow tale that Riley told the team was believed to be this: In 1859 the Great Blondin, the man who invented the high-wire act, announced to the world that he intended to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope. As the story goes, 5,000 people gathered to watch. Halfway across, Blondin suddenly stopped, steadied himself, backflipped into the air, landed squarely on the rope, and then continued safely to the other side. Just as he was about to begin yet another crossing, this time pushing a wheelbarrow, he turned to the crowd and shouted, "Who believes that I can cross pushing this wheelbarrow?" Every hand in the crowd went up. Blondin pointed at one man. "Do you believe that I can do it?" he asked. "Yes, I believe you can," said the man.
"Are you certain?" Blondin asked.
"Yes," said the man. "Absolutely certain?" "Yes, absolutely certain." "Thank you," said Blondin. "Then, sir, get into the wheelbarrow."
Another great Riley talk:
Riley once put a large bucket of ice water in front of him and told his team: "If you want to win a championship, you have to want it…"
Stopping in mid-sentence, Riley plunged his head into the water and kept it there for several seconds, which turned into a minute, which turned into even more than a minute. His players sat dumbfounded, watching, until Riley finally pulled his head out of the water and finished his sentence:
"…like it's your last breath."
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I think if you'll appreciate the commitment it takes to win a championship by looking at these articles and videos. The videos are a looking at the entire season for the Heat. It is amazing how this veteran team bought into the "15 strong" mantra and it paid off.
*It is worth watching all of these! You really get the full effect of the ups and downs that a champion goes through every single day.
The Run: Part I
The Run: Part II
The Run: Part III
The Run: Part IV
Good article on winning it all and the sacrifice that veterans make in winning the championship.
