As of this recording, the Milwaukee bucks are now the 2021 NBA champions. Great game, great series. I was pulling for the Phoenix Suns because I really wanted to see Chris Paul get a ring. It's without a doubt that he is a Hall of Fame, NBA player, definitely going down as one of the top 10 greatest point guards of all time- could be top five, depending upon who you ask. His career has been illustrious, but an NBA championship has evaded him.
And it's very clear that he is well within the second half of his career. He was 36 as of this year, and this was his first NBA finals. Hopefully it's not his only NBA finals, but obviously he does not have many more years in which to get one.
But what I found interesting and why I wanted to share this with y'all, is his post game interview. So they've just lost. They're in the press room and the reporters are talking to them. And I did not watch the game in real time. I woke up the next morning and discovered who won. I wake up the next morning. I'm reading the details about the game and about the score. Giannis went off, he put up 50 points.
It was a fantastic performance by him. He definitely stepped up in incredible ways to help his team get over the hump and get a victory and ultimately a championship. And when you read his post-interview comments, he talked about his decision to stay, not joining another team, working with what they had, the disappoint of the past two, seasons being so close and this being the culmination of a dream come true.
And I think he's only 26. So well, within the first half of his career. He's been in the league since at least I think it was a 2013. I think he got drafted and he talked about this being a dream come true, how he came from Greece and he thanked his mom. And the realization of a dream in the first half (of life) was interesting.
If you contrast that with Chris Paul's comments and I'm going to read them out to you, what he said, I think was kind of interesting. He said, "It will take a while to process this or whatnot, but it's the same mentality. Get back to work. I ain't retiring if that's what you're asking. That's out. So back to work."
And that was in response to a question from one of the reporters. And I think he heard something or felt something from that comment. It's the back half of that really intrigued me. He said, listen, I ain't retiring. If that's what you're asking, that's out. So back to work and that resonates with me.
Hopefully it resonates with you because certainly if you're in the second half of life, as I expect you are, if you're listening to this you're somewhere around the 50 year age mark(maybe even later) you're certainly on the back half of your life, without question probably, and there may be some temptation to shut it down.
There may be some temptation to cruise and maybe some temptation to not get back to work, to not continue to pursue that goal or that dream that you have. If you were to take anything from Chris Paul's comments about I ain't retiring. If that's what you're asking that's out. So back to work. I would ask all of you, me included to adopt that attitude and dismiss with the idea of retiring, dismiss with the idea of not choosing to pursue that goal and say, "No, it's time to get back to work."
Now, what does this work look like? That that's certainly going to be different. And as Chris said early in that comment about it's going to take a while to process. And certainly processing is recommended. It's highly advisable to do so. Think about what went wrong.
Where could things have been better? What opportunities were left on the table?
And a lot of times when you're at this stage of life, as you are, there's an opportunity to look back and process what happened, what opportunities were left, what regrets that might exist.
But none of that is to suggest that it's time to shut it down. Instead, the admonition, the recommendation, the exhortation, I leave with you is "No that's out, retiring is out and get back to work."
So that's what I'm going to leave with you is get back to work. Process what you have to, look back at what happened, what didn't happen? What should have happened? What could have happened? How could it have been better and ultimately get back to work and decide what that work needs to look like. There is something that's left on done. Chris Paul understands and recognizes that, "Hey, there's some work that's left undone."
They had a chance. They were up two games to none. And then Milwaukee rattle off four in a row. And so as they look at those game and they reflect, they'll find some places where they had opportunities, where they turned over the ball, where they missed a rebound, where there was a hustle play, where they didn't get the ball, where there was a defensive shift that should have been made. A number of different things.
And even in his last game, they were in it. They've only down four with maybe a minute or two to go. So in these games, they weren't really out of it. They were certainly in it, but there were a few plays here or there that probably made the difference. And Chris is certainly going to look at himself and decide where he could have probably been better.
And that's certainly something we all should do is look at ourselves and decide, where could I have been better? Where can I perform better than I have made a different decision, conjured up a different choice. And that's part of the work. So when he says get back to work, it's not simply about looking forward.
Certainly you have to do some things differently in the future, but what did you do in the past? What didn't work and catalog and categorize those things and make decisions on how to do things differently in the future. So the message here is retiring is out. Shutting down is out, going on. Cruise control is out. That's out. Get back to work.
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