Patrick Morrison on how greatness is a mindset

DURING the coronavirus pandemic, Monday nights meant one thing – ‘The Last Dance.’

Like the vast majority of people I know, especially sports enthusiasts, I was hooked by this incredible docu-series that focused on the American basketball team, the Chicago Bulls. As a young teenager growing up and playing for the St Pat’s Armagh school basketball team, the Bulls were my team.

We would regularly get access to the gym, pull the gymnastics trampoline out and dunk away until our hearts were content.

The series focuses on the Bulls 1998 season and with camera crews given unprecedented access to the team for that year, a magnificent spectacle was sure to be created. The film heavily features Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest ever basketball player to have played the game, and shows us great insight into how the man known as ‘Air Jordan’ obtained his greatness.

In 1997, the Bulls reached their fifth NBA finals in seven years after posting a 69(W) – 13(L) regular season. In the finals their opponents were the Utah Jazz who were making their first ever appearance.

Going into Game Five (best of seven series), the Bulls and Jazz were tied in the series at two apiece. The night before the game Jordan got hungry and ordered a pizza to his hotel room eating the whole thing by himself. At 2.30am Jordan woke and began throwing-up, shaking and generally feeling malaise. He had food poisoning.

He summoned the team doctor and other trainers to his room to try and alleviate his symptoms as he had a massive game that later that day. Also present was his mother who had advised him “Do not play!” but Michael being Michael told his mother “I have to play. I’m gunna play.” The next day as the team arrived in the locker room coach Phil Jackson ask if MJ was able to go and he told him “I’m going to play!”

During the warm-up and the game itself, Jordan was visibly exhausted and his sickness was definitely affecting his game. In the second quarter of the game the Bulls called a Time Out. Michael’s body language showed just how exhausted he was. Once the time out was called his posture immediately shrunk, he trudged to the bench and was slumped in the chair with a towel draped over his head.

As soon as that Time Out had ended, Jordan entered the court and began to play like the champion he was. He was still clearly exhausted and was being affected by his ailments, but he decided he was not going to let this define his destiny. For the rest of the game he carried the Bulls with 38 points in 44 minutes (out of 48). The Bulls won the game and went on to win the championship 4-2 in Chicago.

Teammate Scottie Pippen states: “Even though he was sick, he still showed us he was the greatest player.” During that 20-second timeout Michael Jordan decided that he was not going to allow adversity to stand in his way. He decided he was going to prove his greatness by performing through his sickness. His sickness was not going to kill his ambitions.

For me this epitomises the statement that ‘Greatness is a Mindset.’ It is not something that is bestowed upon you, it is not a skill that can be learned and it cannot be obtained by simply being successful.

Greatness begins within the psychology of the goalkeeper. If you want to be great then you must be willing to do whatever it will take to be great. This will include sacrifices and playing through adversity in its many forms. ‘Dealing with adversity is part of the learning process for anyone who is truly committed to their goals.’

As well as this, the goalkeeper will need to have a strong mindset in regard to working hard at their game and not just rely on their natural or learned talents to carry them through.

Achieving greatness requires the discipline to practice and train for countless long arduous hours to ensure they achieve the consistency levels required for greatness. ‘Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn’t work hard.’

Whenever things do go wrong or slumps in performance do occur it is important to have developed the mental fortitude to carry on, never give up and believe that you can turn your slump around. ‘Perseverance is why the snail reached the arc.’

Jordan stated in an interview that “I never chased greatness. My only focus was on becoming the best player that I could be. Greatness just found me along the way.”

By his own admission Jordan was only ever focused on bettering himself as a basketball player and greatness followed. Simply put, his greatness was his mindset!