A leader may sometimes climb to unparalleled heights in perhaps a single sport and in just one competitive arena. Doing it in two is extraordinary, and my friend Jerry Colangelo did exactly that by winning the World Series as chairman of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001 and now the Olympics. Virtually single-handedly, he assembled “The Redeem Team” that won the Olympic men’s basketball gold medal in Beijing.
In the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, I saw the U.S. team barely capture the gold, but the handwriting was on the scoreboard. En route to defeating France, we barely eked out a win against Lithuania 85-83, the first time a squad of United States professionals couldn’t score a double-digit win. In 2002, the U.S. ranked a pathetic sixth in the World Championships.
By 2004 in Athens, fellow Americans and I witnessed past U.S. dominance at the Olympics hit a brick wall as we mustered only a bronze. U.S. Basketball was reeling. In 2005, the outfit in charge of U.S. international competition put Jerry at the helm.
Jerry knew why the excellent U.S. coaches and All-Star players were having their heads handed to them. It was the absence of team play. From the moment Jerry took command, you could go to the bank and borrow knowing we would capture the basketball gold at the 2008 Olympics.
Jerry picked Mike Krzyzewski of Duke as coach. What folly, many thought, to tap the college ranks considering the NBA’s wall-to-wall coaching talent. Jerry knew collaboration was key to a U.S. comeback. Coach K’s philosophy: The winning go-to guy is team! Already in 2006, the U.S. had inched back to third place in the Worlds.
Jerry rivals a New York Philharmonic maestro when it comes to picking talent. One at a time, he quietly CAT-scanned the NBA superstars to find those 12 who had skills-plus, including the work ethic, team attitude, and sportsmanship to represent America on and off the court. These are all the traits Jerry admires in his book, “How You Play the Game.”
Jerry screened out the ones who had heart from the ones who didn’t. He demanded each give a three-year commitment from the 2006 Worlds through the 2008 Olympics. When I saw him at the Olympics, Jerry’s confidence knew just one limit. “Harvey, there’s only one force that can defeat us,” he confided, “and that’s ourselves.”
When John Naismith invented the game of basketball in 1891, he designed a team contest. Not a showcase for pampered NBA glory hounds with chapped lips from kissing the mirror too much. International basketball is a totally different sports species from the NBA version.
Talent Plus Sportsmanship
NBA icons have to adjust to excel in it. Ours did:
• Referees made pathetic calls, but each time U.S. players just got on with business. • U.S. players extended helping hands to our opponents who were knocked down on the court.
• At time-outs, U.S. players jumped off the bench as if their pants were on fire to offer words of encouragement to their teammates.
Coach K and his staff steered the ship with a steady emotional keel. During the game and time-outs, you couldn’t tell whether the U.S. was up by 30 or down by 30.
With four minutes to go, no one on this planet could tell you who would win. When the U.S. triumphed 118-107, that win owed as much to the grueling years of preparation as it did to inspiration on the court.
Mackay’s Moral: One person can make all the difference.
Harvey Mackay is president of Mackay Envelope Corp. and a nationally syndicated columnist.
