Book Review on The Winner Within

0Buck 102br
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00Composition 202br
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00Playing As a Team02br
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00 00Growing up playing sports whether it is for a city team, a travel team, or even in the National Basketball Association (NBA), the most important thing your coach pushes and pushes is teamwork.00 00Expressing teamwork at a young age is best for children, so children will learn how to play as a team in the future.00 00Learning teamwork in sports will also help people in the real world.00 00Susan M. Heathfield a writer who has written about teamwork says, “00We have miles to go before valuing teams and teamwork, will be the norm.” 00 00People have so much to do before they can all try to work as a team.00 Throughout the book 01i00The Winner Within02i00 (A Berkley Book, 1994, 271 pgs.), Pat Riley expresses how hard it is to have a team come together and plays like a team in the NBA and in our everyday lives.00 00 02br
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00 00In the book 01i00The Winner Within02i00 Riley talks about how hard it is to coach a team to the NBA finals.00 00Riley is known as one of the best coaches to ever coach the game.00 00He coached the Las Angeles Lakers to the NBA Championship multiple times. He gives viewers the inside tour of what it is like to be around these stars all the time and talks about coaching some of the greatest players ever to play the game.00 00He also tells viewers what he had to go through to teach these players to play as a team and not individuals.00 00He had players who always wanted the ball and wanted all of the attention and Riley shows how he was able to turn everything around and have them work together and win games.02br
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00 00Riley’s main focus is getting the team to come together.00 00Riley starts off with the innocent climb.00 00In 1982 season Riley took over the head coaching job for the Los Angeles Lakers a team who had always finished in the middle of the pack.00 00That would soon change.00 00They can’t have a team which players have rivalries against each other.00 00He had drafted a young kid named Earvin “Magic” Johnson to start the innocent climb.00 00Magic was coming onto a team that already had a pretty big star named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.00 00Magic came on as point guard and showed how he played can make a difference on the court, but off the court players were getting sick of his ball hogging and everyone loving Magic and not the Lakers.00 00Riley knew he had a great team, but there was still a lot of work to do.02br
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00 00Having a player with so much greed that the fans and media won’t stop talking about him, brings a whole team down.00 00Riley writes, “So intense was Earvin’s stardom that his absence seemed more newsworthy than their wins.”00 00Basketball is a team game and if only one player is getting recognition the rest of the team will have their heads down and not play like a team. The team was upset that everyone was looking past them and just at Magic.00 00Magic was so loved by the fans and media that even when he was hurt all that was talked about is when he is coming back.00 00The Lakers were winning without him, but the media still looked past that and talked about when he would return.00 02br
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00 00Riley knew he had to do something about his team.00 00Riley talks about The Core Covenant.00 00Riley writes “A Covenant is an agreement that binds people together.”00 00He needs to bring his team together.00 00He has to start with Earvin and Kareem the team leaders.00 00He has to have them be a positive example for the rest of the team.00 00It doesn’t matter if you’re on the basketball court or even in an office building it is up to you and 02br
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00your teammates or co-workers to make a good covenant.00 00It’s up to the players as individual to make it work.00 00You have to be able to give it a chance or else you will not get anywhere.00 02br
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00 00Riley talks about how his team was hit with a thunderbolt and that they could do nothing about it.00 00Riley says, “A Thunderbolt is something beyond your control, a phenomenon that one day strikes you, your team, your business, your city, even your nation.” 00 00In basketball players get old, they get traded, or they are hit with a season or even a career ending injury.00 00It is hard to avoid a thunderbolt.00 00The best thing people can do after a thunderbolt is come back from the disaster and become better as a team.00 00It focus’s on people as an individual and as a team.02br
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00 00There can be a positive thunderbolt called the breakthrough.00 00Riley writes, “A breakthrough is a positive thunderbolt.00 00It enables the team and The Winner Within to grasp and to realize their mission by defining and fulfilling the most important performance goals in life.”00 00There has to be some kind of message to ignite the energy for a team to break through.00 00Fear is the main thing that will stop a breakthrough.00 00In the 1994 NBA finals the Chicago Bulls were down by 2 points with 14.1 seconds to go.00 00The bulls passed the ball around while the clock started to tick and they moved the ball around so much that each of the five players on the court touched it and John Paxson received it last in the corner for an open 3-pointer to win the game.00 00Paxson was later quoted saying “That was what basketball -- what teamwork and success -- are all about” (Araton 1).00 00People have to have the courage to breakthrough.00 00A team must work together so they can breakthrough as a team.00 02br
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00 00There may be one person who is holding the team back from potential greatness.00 00Riley writes, “Complacency is a success disease.”00 00It happens when you are feeling good about who you are and what you have done for yourself and your team.00 00Having one player on the team who doesn’t have complacency is a big problem.00 00You have to get rid of the problem before the problem gets to big and affects the team and you. 00 00There is 02br
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00always ways to improve individually and as a team.00 00Players on Riley’s team after they had won their 201sup^{00nd02sup}00 championship in a row thought there was no way to top there performance.00 00You can’t always be thinking about the past.00 00If you do, events taking place now will end up beating you up.02br
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00 00Every player on a team has its own role.00 00It could be to score, rebound, assist, or play hard defense.00 00Vince Lombardi once said “The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual” (Khurana).00 00 00Having players compare themselves to each other on their own team can only do bad things.00 00Riley talks about mastery.00 00Mastery is when you always want to do better.00 00It is emotional and mental to a player or even the coach.00 00The coach can spark mastery by striving to his players always work your hardest and get better each day.00 00It makes you reach for higher standards as a team and as an individual.00 00In order to master something you have to have teamwork.02br
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00 00Having mastered the game as a team and winning a championship there is one thing left to do.00 00Riley refers to it as “Upping the Ante.”00 00Show everyone that you are still the championship team and leave footprints for others.00 00Make them challenge you and your team.00 00Show the others that your team is a dynasty.00 00Play as a team and repeat yourselves as champions.02br
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00 00Every team comes to a point where the core is going to crack.00 00Playing together for years and then it cracks and you have to start the renewal stage over again.00 00It will cause you a lot of pain and effort.00 00One man may let it hurt him, but the other will build off of it.00 00Through 01i00The Winner Within,02i00 Riley includes quotes from others along in the sidelines.00 00Riley shows a quote from Winston Churchill which writes “Success is never final.”00 00You may have reached the top, but you will not always be on top. You take what you have left and use it.00 02br
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00 00There always comes a stage where you have to move on.00 00You have to have a new core covenant.00 00Riley writes, “The changes in your life aren’t always the ones you hoped for.00 00But they can usually help you grow.” 00 00Riley moved on from the Las Angeles Lakers and started to coach for him dream job the New York Knicks.00 00Like he did in L.A. Riley went to his star player Patrick Ewing and started to build a new core around him.00 00He started the process all over again and had his players find leadership and come together as a team.00 02br
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00 00Riley’s final stage of teamwork is one from the heart.00 00There are always smaller encounters within the larger whole.00 00You have to win the regular season games to make it to the championship game.00 00Riley refers to people as true warriors.00 00A warrior is someone who knows how to get the job done.00 00A show time warrior needs to have HEART, COURAGE, and WILL.00 00Riley’s warrior was his player Magic Johnson.00 00He was the first player ever in the NBA to give money back to his team so they would be able to sign a new role player to help win a championship.00 00Riley says, “You have everything it takes to lift your team and yourself to great, long-lasting achievements, to fulfillment of potential.”00 00Go for what you want and don’t stop till you have made it to where you belong.02br
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00 00Paul A. Paterson a book reviewer who reviewed Riley’s book 01i00The Winner Within02i00 and has a few things to say about it.00 00 writes “In basketball, teamwork is the key to success.00 00According to Pat Riley, it’s the key to life as well.”00 00 is saying that we use teamwork in our everyday life.00 00People may not realize it, but it is always going on.00 00He talks about how riley has coached the Lakers to a couple of 02br
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00championships.00 00 says, “He explains how a good leader knows how to change roles as the needs of the group change -- sometimes pushing, sometimes pulling.”00 00Leaders need to know when to get angry with his team in order for them to understand what he is saying.00 00Even if they don’t like it the leader is just trying to help the team out.00 00 writes, “The lessons taught are suitable for business environments, family relationships and any atmosphere where cooperation is required for success.”00 00He is saying how we use the teamwork skills that we have been taught in the everyday world.00 00It could be at home, in the office, or on the basketball court.00 00Teamwork is used everywhere we go.02br
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00 00Pat Riley the author of 01i00The Winner Within02i00 is a New York Times bestseller.00 00He is a coach in the NBA as well as the president of the Miami Heat.00 00Riley is married and has two children.00 00He has been coaching for about 23 years.00 00He has served as head coach for 3 NBA teams.00 00Riley has won a total of 7 championship rings.00 02br
00 00People may not realize it but teamwork is something we use in our everyday lives.00 00people are taught about teamwork from a young age.00 00People have realized that teamwork is used school, at work, and in sports.00 00If people have never learned anything about teamwork you should read 01i00The Winner Within.02i00 00It teaches people everything they need to know and how to use it.00 00Teamwork is a key to success.00 01i02i02br
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