LeBron and Dwight: Closer Than You May Think

The world of social media has changed sports forever.  Athletes have more leverage than ever before, dangling all of their demands in front of their owner while fans have a front row seat for everything.  Unlike any other time in history, Twitter and other social media sites have changed the way athletes bargain for what they feel they deserve.  After the Lakers were eliminated from the playoffs, rumors began circling through NBA circles that Dwight Howard could be the next big name moving to Los Angeles.  Howard decided to take it into his own hands tweeting, “Y does it seem like the writers of Orlando sentinel are tryna push me out of Orlando with dumb articles. It's annoying. Can I enjoy my summer and get ready for next season in Orlando. Pls. Same thing u guys did to Shaq.”  

            The fact that Dwight Howard is tweeting something like that shows that his mind is already at the point where he is looking for negativity instead of concentrating on what he needs to do to further his career.  In addition, making a reference to the fact that he sees himself getting pushed out of Orlando shows that he has already bought into the thought that he will not be playing for the Magic much longer.  Even if it is part of his unconscious process, Howard has already made the decision to leave.  And here’s the thing with Howard: He’s now in the process of trying to make his situation appear to be different that the debacle that surrounded LeBron taking his talents to South Beach.

            If Howard has not yet made up his mind, his so-called frustration would not be broadcast to the world.  He would have gone about his off-season training and dismissed all of the criticisms, both within his own mind and publicly.  Even after The Decision that turned off so many fans, LeBron seemed to play the entire 2011 playoffs with an attitude that made it seem like he wasn’t ready to lead with the killer instinct required to be one of the game’s all-time best.  After a subpar performance throughout the Finals James stated:

"All the people that were rooting on me to fail, at the end of the day they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today. They have the same personal problems they had today. I'm going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that. So they can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy about not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal. But they got to get back to the real world at some point."

            Perhaps LeBron simply does not have the killer instinct that propelled elite players throughout their careers.  There never would have been a peep from Jordan or Bird regarding their detractors.  Instead, they would have gone to the gym and made sure every person that said something negative about them saw them dominate on the court.  With James and Howard, there seems to be an unconscious aspect of their mental makeup that suggests that they are more comfortable pointing to circumstances beyond their control instead of taking the risk that it takes to be comfortable with the possible failure that comes with being great.  After all, being the alpha dog on a team comes with considerable risk and it seems as if both Howard and James aren’t quite willing to take that risk.    

            So what does this mean for Orlando and Howard as his career goes forward?  Sadly for Magic fans, it most likely means that Howard will either be traded after a so-so first half of the season or his Orlando career will end like LeBron’s fateful end in Boston when many criticized him for giving up on the Cavaliers franchise.  Howard is already resigned to the fact that he will not be in Orlando long-term.  Even if his play doesn’t suggest a drop-off, there will be a difference in mentality and intensity that will likely only be changed when he puts on a different uniform.  

Why Doc Rivers Outcoached Phil Jackson

After the Celtics wrapped up their 17th title last week, many people were left wondering what happened to the Lakers. Specifically, how did Phil Jackson get outcoached so badly by Doc Rivers? After nine titles with the Bulls and the Lakers, most basketball experts believed Phil Jackson would walk all over Doc Rivers, leaving little chance for the Celtics to overcome the coaching difference. During all six games, Rivers significantly outcoached Jackson for 48 minutes, from motivating his players to exploiting favorable matchups. Has Phil Jackson’s time passed as a great coach and motivator or was something more at work during the NBA Finals?
Despite their obvious struggles throughout the series, Phil Jackson continued to ride Vladimir Radmanovic and Sasha Vujacic despite terrible shooting and nonexistent defense throughout the series. When Ray Allen continued to make corner threes with no sign of Vujacic within ten feet, the viewer began to wonder why Phil Jackson sat there as if he had a dinner date that was more important than the matchups on the floor. Meanwhile, Doc Rivers continued to exploit favorable matchups throughout every game, which inevitably won the title for Boston. Not only that, Rivers kept Boston playing at a level much higher than the Lakers, keeping them motivated throughout the entire series. However, most NBA experts would agree that Phil Jackson is a better coach then Doc Rivers, making it seem as though Phil Jackson simply folded under the pressure of the most watched NBA Finals since Jordan broke Utah’s heart.
When faced with pressure situations, the human body focuses most of its energies on specific things, which can be both a blessing and a curse. Pressure can make people hyperfocused on one event but the stress makes them lose consciousness with other aspects of their life. This is why people in high stress jobs often lose touch with their significant other; the pressure of one aspect of their life drains all of their motivation for other aspects. With the pressure and speed of sports, it is very easy to succumb to the pressure and not make the correct decisions. Although the basketball world could see Phil Jackson making poor decisions, it is much more difficult for the person involved when so much pressure is going on around them.
As pressure continues to grow within a person’s mind, their cognitive abilities often tend to shut down through a process known as cognitive overload. When conflicting stimuli are presented within the mind, the brain subconsciously must choose which stimuli to focus on. With so many different stimuli being presented in something as large as the NBA Finals, from the media commitments to the travel situations to the enormous pressure of each game, coaches must create a balance between everything to be at the top of their game. Even the best coaches in the world tend to make mistakes under enormous pressure. Bill Belichick admitted to several mistakes during the Super Bowl that may have cost his hugely-favored Patriots to lose to the Giants.
Although Phil Jackson could arguably be the best coach in NBA history, he didn’t balance his emotions and was outcoached in every game. Although it could have been his own cockiness and stubbornness that lead to being outcoached, it is likely that Jackson succumbed to the pressure of facing a team that wanted it more than his team. It is well-known that Phil Jackson is set in his ways but that doesn’t mean that he is unaffected by pressure that everyone feels. In this year’s NBA Finals, Doc Rivers looked much more like the coach who had won nine titles, not Phil Jackson.

The Psychology Behind Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant

With the NBA Finals under way, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett have illustrated throughout the NBA playoffs why they are so great. Both players are the undeniable leaders of the two best teams in the NBA this year. However, there is one very noticeable difference between the two players. Although both contain the fire within to will their team to victory, Garnett is much more boisterous on the court. Although you often see Bryant getting after his teammates and referees, he is not afraid to joke with opponents on the court. Garnett on the other hand continues to grimace throughout the entire game, as if the outcome of the game depends on how much his yells and punches himself in the face.

Why are these two players so different in their mannerisms? It simply comes down to the way they handle the pressure of the situation in their own way. When people get nervous, they tend to have quirks that help them through their nervousness. Before a big presentation, people often tend to yawn way more often than they normally would. Despite having three cups of coffee and a Red Bull, the pressure of the situation forces the brain to require more oxygen than normal; this creates a need to yawn. This is the neural response to pressure and stress that many people feel.

With that in mind, every person deals with stress in their own way. For Garnett, his way of dealing with the stress of an NBA game is to let out all of his emotions through talking trash to opponents and yelling towards the crowd. There are three ways a person can react to stress. The first of which actually helps the person deal with the demands they are facing. This phenomenon is known as eustress where people learn to adapt to the pressure of the situation and use different means such as adrenaline to help them cope with the situation. The other two ways people deal with stress is to either escape the situation or to deal with the situation in an adverse manner.

To get to a state of eustress, Garnett uses outward emotion to fend off the fear that he deals with during the course of the game. This helps him deal with pressure in a distinct way. First, when a person feels a perceived stressor in their environment, hormones are released from the pituitary gland and into the bloodstream to counteract the stressor. This is usually felt through adrenaline and must be released in order for a person’s mental state to get back to normal. This is why Garnett lets his emotions go during the course of the game. It is his body’s neural response to the pressure of the situation.
If that is the case, then why does Kobe Bryant appear so cool during the course of a game? Although he lets his emotions out, it isn’t nearly as outward as that of Garnett. It is simply another way of dealing with the pressure. Instead of releasing his stress hormones through adrenaline like that of Garnett, Bryant uses his mind to deal with the stressors that are in the environment. The innate health model of stress shows that people attempt to get into a state of mind that releases the hormones caused by stress through the means of a quiet mind. Instead of releasing everything outwardly, Bryant channels his fears through a thought process that determines his response to pressure.
Despite the differences, both players have had great success with each type of reaction to their stressful environment. As a person deals with acute stress more throughout their life, they learn techniques that allow them to adapt to the situation. By finding the key to relaxing your stress agent, people can become more productive and healthier. The key is to not be afraid to try new strategies when you feel a stressful agent presenting itself. This could lead to the breakthrough of overcoming pressure for you like the NBA greats mentioned above.