On Mind the Game, Lebron James talked with NBA Hall of Famer Steve Nash about his basketball swag. Steve said, “I mean, let’s be real. I wanted to be Black. All the best players in the world are Black.” He wanted to do the cutover like Timmy Hardaway. Detroit Pistons Guard Isiah Thomas was his hero. He wanted to be Isiah. Steve just wanted to be great.
Steve Nash revolutionized the modern NBA game that’s predicated on spacing, creating angles, and shooting. The famous Nash Dibble is named after him. In his NBA career, Steve created his game, because wasn’t the tallest (6’ 3”), not the strongest, not the fastest, not the most athletic. Still, Steve Nash impacted the modern NBA game.
Although I’m not in Steve Nash’s stratosphere of greatness, I’m like him. In Aikido, I’m small (5’ 3”), not the strongest, and not the fastest. I leverage spacing, angles, timing, and my mind with attackers, who are bigger, stronger, and faster than me. I’m Godan (5th degree black belt), because of that. And because I learned from great Sensei’s.
Lebron called Steve’s game, the Deception Game. In Aikido, I create my own Deception Game. Ishibashi Sensei taught me to show the attacker my hand in one position when they attack. Just before they grab me, I change the position of my hand. I change the image I give the attacker. They have to change their attack. They have to defend.
I show the attacker one thing, then I show them something else. If I defend, I can be defeated. I make the attacker defend. If I want to, I can strike the attacker from my position. I choose to let the attacker pass or end the attack. The attacker chooses to take the fall or get hit in the face. We both choose.
I wanted to be tall and handsome. I just wanted to be great. Not being tall and handsome made no difference for Godan. That makes a difference on the journey to fall madly and deeply in love with a woman, who will love me back. At least that has been my experience.
Steve smiled and said, “I wanted to be Black.” I smiled and said, “I wanted to be tall and handsome.” We knew we would never be. We just wanted to be great. We worked on ourselves, not on others to be the greatest we could be. That’s all we could do. That’s all anyone can do.
Steve’s great love is basketball. Steve knows that he’ll never be as great as Lebron James, one of the two Greatest NBA Players of All-Time. Michael Jordan is the acknowledged GOAT (Greatest of All-Time). Steve was as great as he could be. He’s in the NBA Hall of Fame. That’s good enough. And then some.
My great love is Aikido. I wanted to be the late Mizukami Sensei. I want to be Ishibashi Sensei. They’re my heroes, my Sensei’s. Although I’ll never be as great as them, they inspire me to work at being the greatest I can be. I work on myself, not on others. Just train.
I wanted to be Michael Phillips, film critic for the Chicago Tribune. Michael is my hero. He’s also my friend. Although I’ll never be as great as Michael, he inspires me to work on my craft, to continue to write. His flowers are meaningful, because Michael is meaningful to me.
I just wanted to be great. I think we all do. Although not all of us can be the GOAT, be like Michael Jordan. There’s only one by definition. We can be the greatest that we can be. That’s good enough.
So, will I find the great love of my life on the journey to fall madly and deeply in love with a woman? Who knows. I work on being the greatest man I can be. That’s not the GOAT. Still, that’s good enough for me. Maybe lightning could strike?
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Keith Allison from Baltimore, USA on Wikimedia Under CC License
