For Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, being compassionate (to their teammates) was measured in teaspoons.
How did Jordan and Bryant go from individual scorers to NBA champions? The answer lies, partially, in a man named George Mumford (@gtmumford), a key figure in two of the NBA’s greatest dynasty’s, the Bulls of the ’90’s and the Lakers of the 2000’s.
In this conversation, author and journalist Roland Lazenby (@lazenby) and I discuss how Mumford’s mindfulness training served as a catalyst for peak performance.
Shaquille O’Neal (@SHAQ) said, “He’s our secret weapon.” Scottie Pippen (@ScottiePippen) said, “We’ve been ‘Mumified.’” Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) said he “saved” the Bulls’ season.
This conversation offers insight into what being “Mumified” means.
Roland Lazenby is a dean of NBA reporting. His book Michael Jordan: The Life served as one of the key texts for The Last Dance (@LastDanceBulls).
In this episode Roland and I discuss the following:
-George Mumford’s work with Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant.
-How Mumford helped Jordan and Bryant be more compassionate to their teammates.
-Phil Jackson on Michael Jordan: It’s those days between games that he’s really hard to live with.
-Phil Jackson versus Jerry Krause: He and Krause were in a war.
-Phil Jackson versus Jerry West: West said, “Fuck Phil Jackson!”
-“There was a deep undercurrent of hatred of the Triangle.”
-Mike D’Antoni: They don’t teach the post anymore.
-Jordan: Man, I wish I’d met you a long time ago.
-The research and scholarship Roland has done on Black Americans in the South as a key component of his books about Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson.
-The state of the publishing industry.
-The story of Magic Johnson as a story of Black Power.
-Where would Kobe have gone to school?
-Tex Winter: The great difference between Michael and Kobe? UNC.
You can buy Roland’s books at all the usual places. In particular, I recommend Michael Jordan: The Life, which the New York Times called, “thoughtful, (and) extraordinarily well-researched.”
If you are interested in the intersection of mindfulness and basketball, my book, Zen and the Art of Coaching Basketball: Memoir of a Namibian Odyssey, drops November 1st, as both print and e-book, exclusively on Amazon.
The “big idea” is the way we think about coaching sports is all wrong, coaching doesn’t have to be rooted in anger and intimidation and fear, and tools like meditation can super-charge learning and performance.
Here’s a photo of me coaching the team by not coaching the team.
Here are two “blurbs”:
You can read the first chapter of Zen and the Art of Coaching Basketball here.
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47. Mindfulness as an NBA Superpower