What Basketball Can Teach Us About Responsibility

What Basketball Can Teach Us About Responsibility

by Jim Rohn | Mar 13, 2020 | Personal Development

During the years when professional basketball was just beginning to become popular, Bill Russell, who played center for the Boston Celtics, was one of the greatest players in the professional leagues. He was especially known for his rebounding and defensive skills, but like a lot of very tall centers, Russell was never much of a free-throw shooter.

In fact, his free-throw percentage was quite a bit below average. But this low percentage didn’t really give a clear picture of Russell’s ability as an athlete, and in one game he gave a very convincing performance.

It was the final game of a championship series between the Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. With about 12 seconds left to play, the Lakers were behind by one point and the Celtics had the ball. It was obvious that the Lakers would have to foul one of the Boston players in order to get the ball back, and they chose to foul Bill Russell.

This was a perfectly logical choice because statistically, Russell was the worst free-throw shooter on the court. If he missed the shot, the Lakers would probably get the ball back, and they’d still have enough time to try to win the game. But if Russell made his first free throw, the Lakers’ chances would be seriously diminished—and if he made both shots, the game would essentially be over.

Bill Russell had a very peculiar style of shooting free throws. Today, no self-respecting basketball player anywhere in America would attempt to shoot this way. Aside from the question of whether it was an effective way to shoot a basket, it just looked too ridiculous.

Whenever he had to shoot a free throw, the 6-foot-11-inch Russell would start off holding the ball in both hands, about waist high. Then he’d squat down, and as he straightened up, he’d let go of the ball. It looked like he was trying to throw a bucket of dirt over a wall.

But regardless of how he looked, as soon as Russell was fouled, he knew the Celtics were going to win the game. He was absolutely certain of it, because in a situation like that, statistics and percentages meant nothing. There was a much more important factor at work, something that no one has yet found a way to express in numbers and decimal points

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