MICHAEL JORDAN
FANTASY CAMP
in Las Vegas,
August 15-18, 2009
Information
Read the great story of the GOLDEN EAGLE.
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YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE
A teacher in New York decided to honor each of her seniors in
high school by telling them the difference they each made.She called each student to the front of the class, one at a
time.First she told each of them how they had made a difference to
her and the class. Then she presented each of them with a blue
ribbon imprinted with gold letters, which read,"Who I Am Makes a Difference."
Afterwards the teacher decided to do a class project to see what
kind of impact recognition would have on a community. She gave
each of the students three more ribbons and instructed them to
go out and spread this acknowledgment ceremony.Then they were to follow up on the results, see who honored whom
and report back to the class in about a week.One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a
nearby company and honored him for helping him with his career
planning. He gave him a blue ribbon and put it on his shirt.Then he gave him two extra ribbons and said, "We're doing a
class project on recognition, and we'd like you to go out, find
somebody to honor, give them a blue ribbon, then give them the
extra blue ribbon so they can acknowledge a third person to keep
this acknowledgment ceremony going. Then please report back to
me and tell me what happened."Later that day the junior executive went in to see his boss
who had been noted, by the way, as being kind of a grouchy
fellow.He sat his boss down, and he told him that he deeply admired him
for being a creative genius. The boss seemed very surprised.
The junior executive asked him if he would accept the gift of
the blue ribbon and would he give him permission to put it on
him. His surprised boss said, "Well, sure."The junior executive took the blue ribbon and placed it right on
his boss's jacket above his heart. As he gave him the last
extra ribbon, he said, "Would you do me a favor? Would you take
this extra ribbon and pass it on by honoring somebody else.
The young boy who first gave me the ribbons is doing a project
in school, and we want to keep this recognition ceremony going
and find out how it affects people."That night the boss came home to his 14-year-old son and
sat him down. He said, "The most incredible thing happened to
me today. I was in my office and one of the junior executives
came in and told me he admired me and gave me a blue ribbon for
being a creative genius.Imagine. He thinks I'm a creative genius.
Then he put this blue ribbon that says "Who I Am Makes a
Difference" on my jacket above my heart. He gave me an extra
ribbon and asked me to find somebody else to honor. As I was
driving home tonight, I started thinking about whom I would
honor with this ribbon and I thought about you.I want to honor you. My days are really hectic, and when I come
home I don't pay a lot of attention to you. Sometimes I scream
at you for not getting good enough grades in school and for your
bedroom being a mess, but somehow tonight, I just wanted to sit
here and well, just let you know that you do make a difference
to me.Besides your mother, you are the most important person in my
life. You're a great kid and I love you!"The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he couldn't stop
crying.
His whole body shook.
He looked up at his father and said through
his tears, "Dad, earlier tonight I sat in my room and wrote a
letter to you and Mom explaining why I had killed myself and
asking you to forgive me.I was going to commit suicide tonight after you were asleep.
I just didn't think that you cared at all. The letter is
upstairs.I don't think I need it after all."
His father walked upstairs and found a heartfelt letter full of
anguish and pain. The envelope was addressed, "Mom and Dad."
The boss went back to work a changed man.He was no longer a grouch but made sure to let all his employees
know that they made a difference.The junior executive helped several other young people with
career planning and never forgot to let them know that they made
a difference in his life... one being the boss's son.And the young boy and his classmates learned a valuable lesson.
Who you are DOES make a difference!
A GREAT STORY ON ATTITUDE
.
The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully
dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with her hair fashionably coifed
and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to
a nursing home today. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away,
making the move necessary.
.
After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home,
she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready.
.
As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual
description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been
hung on her window. "I love it," she stated with the enthusiasm of an
eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
.
"Mrs. Jones, you haven't seen the room .... just wait." "That doesn't
have anything to do with it," she replied.
"Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my
room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged ... it's how
I arrange my mind..
.
I already decided to love it ... "It's a decision I make every morning
when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting
the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or
get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. Each day is a gift,
and as long as my eyes open I'll focus on the new day and all the happy
memories I've stored away . just for this time in my life.
.
Old age is like a bank account ... you withdraw from what you've put in
.. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the
bank account of memories
.
Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still
depositing.
________________________________________
JUST MEFrom the time I was little I knew I was great
`cause the people would tell me -"you`ll make it - just wait."
But they never did tell me how great I would be
if I ever played someone who was greater than me.When I`m in my backyard -I`m king with the ball.
To swish all those baskets is no sweat at all.
But all of a sudden there`s a man in my face
who doesn`t seem to realize - I`m king of this place.So the pressure gets to me - I rush with the ball.
My passes to teammates could fly through the wall.
My jumpers not falling - my dibbles not sure.
My hand is not steady - my eye is not pure.The fault is my teammates - they don`t understand.
The fault is my coach`s - what a terrible plan.
The fault is the call by that blind referee
but the fault is not mine - I`m the greatest you see.Then finally it hits me when I started to see
that the face in the mirror looks exactly like me.
It wasn`t my teammates who were dropping the ball
and it wasn`t my coach shooting bricks at the wall.That face in the mirror that was always so great
had some room for improvement - instead of just hate.
So I stopped blaming others and I started to grow.
My play got much better and it started to show.And all of my teammates didn`t seem quite so bad.
I learned to depend on the good friends I had.
Now I like myself better since I started to see -
I was lousy being great - I`m much better being me.Tom Krause - Copyright 2000
From, TOUCHING HEARTS-TEACHING GREATNESS, Stories From A Coach That
Touch
Your Heart & Inspire Your Soul
Andrews McMeel Publishing
REPUTATION IS ABOUT WHO YOU ARE WHEN PEOPLE ARE WATCHING. CHARACTER IS ABOUT WHO YOU ARE WHEN THERE'S NOBODY IN THE ROOM BUT YOU. THE FORMER CAN INDUCE OTHERS TO THINK WELL OF YOU. BUT ONLY THE LATTER ALLOWS YOU TO THINK WELL OF YOURSELF.
"I CAN ACCEPT FAILURE, BUT I CAN'T ACCEPT NOT TRYING."....
.......Michael Jordan
"MOST LOOK UP AND ADMIRE THE STARS....A CHAMPION CLIMBS A MOUNTAIN AND GRABS ONE""WHEN NOTHING SEEMS TO HELP, I GO AND LOOK AT A STONECUTTER HAMMERING AWAY AT HIS ROCK PERHAPS A HUNDRED TIMES WITHOUT AS MUCH AS A CRACK SHOWING IN IT.
YET, AT THE HUNDRED AND FIRST BLOW IT WILL SPLIT IN TWO, AND I KNOW IT WAS NOT THAT BLOW THAT DID IT--BUT ALL THAT HAD GONE BEFORE."
Jacob Riis
Keep shooting the basketball! It will require many more practice shots than a hundred, but sooner or later, you may
have your "hundred and first" shot, and it may be the shot that wins the game!THE MAN WHO WINS MAY HAVE BEEN COUNTED OUT SEVERAL TIMES, BUT HE DIDN'T HEAR THE REFEREE.
Dick Barnett was a player who emphatically demonstrated the virtues of discipline. He played basketball every day of his last three years of high school: 1,095 straight days. Sometimes he played from nine in the morning until midnight. He played basketball while his friends went to the senior prom. BUT HE GOT TO DANCE IN THE NBA! (Excerpted from VALUES OF THE GAME by Bill Bradley.
YOU CAN HAVE EVERYTHING IN LIFE YOU WANT, IF YOU WILL JUST HELP ENOUGH OTHER PEOPLE GET WHAT THEY WANT.
ASK YOURSELF A QUESTION: IS MY ATTITUDE WORTH CATCHING?
IF YOU LEARN FROM A DEFEAT, YOU HAVEN'T REALLY LOST.
HAPPINESS IS NOT SOMETHING YOU FIND, BUT RATHER SOMETHING YOU CREATE.
WHETHER YOU THINK YOU CAN OR THINK YOU CAN'T--YOU ARE RIGHT.
WINNING IS NOT EVERYTHING, BUT THE EFFORT TO WIN IS.
THE BIGGEST FAILURE OF ALL IS THE PERSON WHO NEVER TRIES!
GOLDEN RULES FOR LIVING
1. If you open it, close it.
2. If you turn it on, turn it off.
3. If you unlock it, lock it.
4. If you break it, admit it.
5. If you can’t fix it, call in someone who can.
6. If you borrow it, return it.
7. If you value it, take care of it.
8. If you make a mess, clean it up.
9. If you move it, put it back.
10. If it belongs to someone else, get permission to use it.
11. If you don’t know how to operate it, leave it alone.
12. If it’s none of your business, don’t ask questions.
**************
I had rather do and not promise, than promise and not do.
No mud can soil us but the mud we throw.
Men who will do things without being told draw the most wages.
You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.
Strange how much you've got to know before you know how little you know.
Who passed the ball when you scored?
The best players help others to be best players.
A winner makes commitments; A loser makes promises.
Profanity is a crutch for conversational cripples.
The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.
A second rate man can never make a first rate player.
Doing a thing nearly right and doing it exactly right is usually the difference between success and failure.
Don't tell me how good you are, let me find it out.
An admission of eror is a sign of strength rather than a confession of weakness.
Ideas are funny little things. They won't work unless you do.
Ideas are funny little things. They
won't work unless you do.
The best way to succeed in life is to act on the
advice you give to others.
Desire is the ingredient that changes the hot water
of mediocrity to the steam of outstanding success.
You will make a lousy anybody else, but you are the best "you" in existence.
......Elmer Letterman
"Accept the challenges, so that you may
feel the exhilaration of victory."
......General George Patton
"It is a funny thing about life;
if you refuse to accept anything but the best,
you very often get it."
......Somerset Maugham
“WINNING is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time
thing.
You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a
While, you do them right all the time!
WINNING is a habit.
Unfortunately, so is losing.”
….Vince Lombardi
Motivation
"Yesterday is a cancelled check;
tomorrow is a promissory note;
today is the only clash you have--
so spend it wisely"
....Kay Lyons
THE GOLDEN EAGLE
A
man found an eagle's egg and put it in the nest of a backyard hen.
The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks
and grew up with them.
All his life the eagle did what the backyard chickens did, thinking he
was a backyard chicken. He scratched the
earth for worms and insects. He
clucked and cackled. And he would thrash
his wings and fly a few feet into
the air.
Years passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent
bird far above him in the cloudless sky.
It glided in graceful majesty among the
powerful wind currents, with scarcely a
beat of its strong golden wings.
The old eagle looked up in awe. "Who's that?" he asked.
"That's the eagle, the king of the birds," said his neighbor. "He belongs
to the sky. We belong to the earth--we 're
chickens."
So the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that's what he thought he was!
ALL ATHLETES, YOUNG OR OLD, SHOULD REMEMBER….
There are little eyes upon you
And they’re watching night and day
There are little ears that quickly
Take in every word you say;
There are little hands all eager
To do anything you do;
There’s a little boy who’s dreaming
Of the day he’ll be like you.
You’re the little fellow’s idol;
You’re the wisest of the wise,
In his little mind about you,
No suspicions ever rise;
He believes in you devoutly,
Holds that all you say and do,
He will say and do, in your way
When he’s a grown-up like you.
There’s a wide-eyed little fellow,
Who believes you’re always right,
And his ears are always open,
As he watches day and night;
You are setting an example
Every day in all you do,
For the little boy who’s waiting
To grow up to be like you.
....Anonymous
Note to Readers: If you have an interesting motivational story, please send it to BASKETBALLS BEST for possible publication on this website. Mail to: Basketball's Best, 849 N. Garfield Ave., Deland, FL 32724. Or e-mail it to: basketballsbest2003@yahoo.com
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