NBA Finals Game 3 Review: Did Trump Jinx The Knicks and Lessons of Focus and Resilience

<p> Hey there, it's Michael. Welcome to Whole Again, the show that's here in support of the person you're becoming and your quest to live a meaningful life. And today, with a tip of the cap to Kurtis Blow, we're playing basketball. So we're talking basketball. Yep, that's right. I know you're thinking, "Isn't this a show about mindfulness and resilience?"</p>
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<p>And it is, so stay with me Now, if you haven't been following, no worries. There's a lot going on in the world, and I'm with you, the NBA Finals may not be your focus, but here's a little update. The Spurs were, I guess, considered the favorites over the Knicks. The Knicks are over-performing in the playoffs.</p>
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<p>Really great team. But the city has come alive. There really hasn't been anything in New York that has rallied the city in a connection way like these NBA Finals since, like really, 9/11. So there's a lot of blue and orange, and you might know orange is my color, so this gives me license to wear a ton of orange.</p>
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<p>Even Timothée Chalamet had an orange jumpsuit on last night. I was joking with my daughters. I said, "That's a great Father's Day gift." I don't think they're gonna purchase it. It probably costs, like, $5,000, so I'm not gonna be wearing that. But all the buildings are lit up in blue and orange. Spike Lee is super happy.</p>
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<p>The city is alive. It's awesome. Again, sports can have a great way of bringing people together, people from a lot of different perspectives. They're all rooting for their team, so it's really cool. And the Knicks started out in the series really hot. They went down to San Antonio, again, sort of considered the favorites.</p>
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<p>They have this amazing player, Wemby, from France, who is 7'4", although I think he's grown since the playoffs have started. He might be 7'5" or 7'6". He's amazing. But the Knickerbockers went down to Alamo country and stole the first two games. It was incredible. The city again is alive. I saw a clip of one guy who was really funny.</p>
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<p>He said, "My mayor is Muslim, my bagels are Jewish, my Dior is Christian, and the Knicks win in four," which was super funny and super clever, two thumbs up. But I would have to say some of the Knicks fans were getting a little too cocky. They were talking about sweeping the Spurs. They were all about it. And I have to say to the Knicks fans, the ones that got cocky, shame on you, because the Knicks haven't won anything in 53 years.</p>
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<p>Before you get cocky, win something, win it again, and then win it again. Until then, a little humble pie, please. Know that it's a seven-game series for a reason. Let's see what happens. Now, before I get to the big things that tie back into whole again, I already mentioned one. Community, I sort of snuck that in without actually referencing it.</p>
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<p>The community of Knicks fans, the community of New York City, have come together in our Kintsugi fashion. Community is the C in my grace model that I teach corporate leaders all about. So community, I would say as a cyclist, who's in your peloton matters, right? The fans were crazy. The ticket prices, which I'll get to, were insane And that's something I need to get off my chest.</p>
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<p>But first, there's something else I need to rant about before we get into the real meat and potatoes of game three. One, let's talk about President Trump, but not for a while because I don't really like talking about him. I've never been a fan of his. I've always seen him as a draft-dodging bully who cares more about lining his own pockets with wealth than he does America and middle America.</p>
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<p>He just wants to hang out with rich people. He doesn't get the affordability issue. Again, a guy who decorates his apartment, a former, I'll stress this, a former New Yorker who decorates everything in all gold like he's Marie Antoinette, he doesn't get what everyday Americans are actually going through.</p>
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<p>And the reality is he doesn't care. I've done a few episodes and a few blog posts about this. I hope you can find them. I probably won't link them, although I might. Who knows? I'll decide that later. But he went to game three because he was invited by Dolan, the president and owner of the Knicks, and it becomes a nightmare.</p>
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<p>He jinxed the Knicks, at least some will say. He didn't show up for any other playoff wins. Causation or correlation? You be the judge. But here's a new rule The president from any party can't go to the Super Bowl, the NBA playoffs, the Stanley Cup, or the World Series. Simply stay in the White House and watch it on your big screen TV.</p>
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<p>Let the people have their moment. Don't come. Because the people have to pay for all the security. It becomes a circus, and then it becomes a central point in the conversation around the game. Let the game be about the players and the fans and the community. So new rule, no big leaders at big games.</p>
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<p>Whether you're a president who seems to like the color orange and a whole bunch of makeup, or some progressive leader that you love. Doesn't matter. No more presidents at no more games. Stay at home. Now let's talk about those ticket prices. The president was asked on Air Force One what he thought about the prices at the Garden.</p>
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<p>The median ticket price to get into MSG was eight thousand dollars to see the game. He was asked about that again on Air Force One. He said, "Well, you know what? Um, in so many words or less, that's how the cookie crumbles. You can stay at home and sort of watch it for free on TV." Newsflash, cable is not sort of free.</p>
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<p>You have to pay for cable to watch the game. You can listen to it on your transistor radio, which I did growing up. It's an option, but watching it at home is not free. It's either free or it's not free. It's not sort of free. So he doesn't get it, and he doesn't get that we're in a K-shaped economy. The people at the top, the people in the stadium, the people on the first row, celebrity row, if you will, they're doing quite well.</p>
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<p>The rest of us, eh, we're trying to figure out how to make ends meet. And I get it. I studied economics in college, the Laffer curve, supply and demand by Adam Smith, all of it. I get it The arena only has so many seats, so when the demand goes up, it's game three, people, the price goes up. But come on. New rule here.</p>
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<p>If you're gonna resell your tickets, let's put a cap on that resale. Maybe it's twice what you paid for the tickets. I happen to be a season ticket holder for the Toronto Blue Jays, and I have a general rule for myself. It doesn't make me a better person. It's just a general rule for myself that I will resell tickets I can't use for the price I paid for the tickets.</p>
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<p>I'm not trying to make money selling my old tickets. Allow the pricing to exist so everyday people can get to the game. No offense to the big celebrities. Rumor has it two tickets, front row, could cost $130,000. Like, give me a break. But they seem to have the money, and I imagine their parents are really proud that their kids are so successful.</p>
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<p>Of course, they could have taken all that money and bought tickets for underprivileged children of New York to see the game. That could be an option, but who am I to judge? They made it to the game. I really would like to see us figure out a way for everyday people to get to some of these events without going broke.</p>
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<p>Heck, once you get into the stadium or arena, buying a Coke costs you, like, 15 bucks. Come on. It doesn't have to be that way. All right. Rants are over. Now let's pull from the game some really valuable lessons that we can apply to our own lives, whether you're an NBA basketball player or not. First, I wanna take you to the end of the game.</p>
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<p>The Knicks were keeping it close, but time was running out, and one of the players from the Spurs, Stephon Castle, love his last name, have fun storming the castle, gets fouled and he has to shoot two free throws. If he makes them It basically ices the game, and the Spurs will win. Imagine the pressure he's under.</p>
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<p>He's got 20,000-plus people in MSG all trying to manifest that he'll throw up a brick and will give the Knicks one last shot for a last-second heroic three-pointer, and they win the game, and they can go up three-zero. When I saw this scene as I was watching the game on TV, I thought about tennis players that want it ever so quiet or golfers who wish the same.</p>
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<p>Here in basketball and other sports, you have to pay attention when the pressure is on, and it's noisy, and everyone's trying to alter your attention. And he makes both shots, basically sealing up the victory for the Spurs. But his success in that moment happened upstream, and it was all based on his mindset training, and that ties into a lot of what I teach through pause, breathe, reflect.</p>
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<p>He's been quoted as saying he likes to do things that helps him slow the game down. In essence, slow is fast. We're all rushing around way too quickly, so when we need to perform, when it matters most, we need ways to slow the game down so we can focus, so we can pay attention even when the pressure is on.</p>
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<p>And a practice like pause, breathe, reflect or mindfulness helps us learn how to do that. It helps us focus when so much is going on all around us. He's also a big believer in taking a nap prior to the game, so he knows rest is vital. That's one way to slow the game down, and it also helps him work on any pre-game jitters or anxiety.</p>
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<p>So this moment that the Spurs fans are now celebrating happened moments earlier, and that's the big takeaway The thing about life is that we never know when our big moments will appear. So we're called upon to have a practice that we can lean on to help us slow the game down and show up like we wish to.</p>
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<p>And that's why I think it's essential for all of us to have some type of mindset training to help us prepare for the big moments in life. And I get pumped up when I see someone meet that moment in the way that they wish to. That's why I get so excited about teaching pause, breathe, reflect to others, to help them one day show up for one of their big moments.</p>
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<p>And the second thing we can pull from the game, and we'll wrap it up with this, because we gotta get ready now for game four, which will also be at MSG. Game three for the Spurs was a resilient performance. And resilience isn't something that just magically appears. There's actually a framework you can follow to help you become more resilient.</p>
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<p>All of us will experience setbacks, as Chumbawamba sang, "We get knocked down, but then we get back up again." And here are three things to consider to help you get back up and be resilient, to keep pedaling, as I would say. We start with a reframe, which is the R in my GRACE model. So instead of thinking, "Why is this happening to me?"</p>
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<p>We reframe it. All of our setbacks are basically data, data that we can use to get wiser about how we move forward, and we move forward by controlling what we can control. This sort of ties back into the Serenity Prayer, knowing the difference. That's the first step. The second step is to accept, which is the A or one of the As in my GRACE model.</p>
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<p>Acceptance doesn't mean we have to like the situation or the scenario. The Spurs didn't like they were down oh-two. Acceptance is, "Hey, we're down oh-two. What's in our control?" And then we focus in on preserving our energy to make sure we have the energy to perform as they did in game three. We also know that we get energy from community, as I mentioned up front.</p>
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<p>We get energy from our other team members or who is in your peloton. Resilience is not a solo sport, nor is life. So make sure you're with the people who bring out the best in you The last step, micro actions. The Spurs didn't win game three all at once. They started strong. The Knicks came back multiple times, actually went into the lead.</p>
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<p>But they played, for the most part, the play that was in front of them. Micro steps, a bit of presence, a bit of mindfulness and awareness. But we take micro action consistently, in this case, through the game, or as I would say, through life. Consistent action day in and day out, that's how we win. That's how we win the game.</p>
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<p>We don't win it all at once. Success, creating a meaningful life, stepping into the person you're becoming, that's all done by taking micro action consistently over time. And together, these three steps can help you become more resilient. So there you have it, a couple tips that we can pull from game three that can help enhance your life.</p>
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<p>And you thought we were only gonna talk about basketball today.</p>
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<p>Well, as always, thanks for listening. Thank you for being part of our community. I hope you're checking out our new series, A Perfectly Imperfect Union. I'm talking to everyday people about their reflections as America turns 250, and we have another episode tomorrow. And I hope you'll check out Game Four.</p>
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<p>I was a childhood Spurs fan because I loved George Gervin, The Iceman, and the Spurs. I had one of their jerseys when I was a kid, but since I live in the metro New York area and I love the color orange, I am rooting for the Knicks. I'm also rooting for a long seven-game series. So let's see what Game Four has in store for us.</p>
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<p>And until then, let's remember to celebrate our scars as golden symbols of our strength and resilience, and don't forget to have fun storming the castle.</p>
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<p>And if you wish to learn more about creating beautiful ripples and how to prevent a bad moment from turning into a bad day, please visit my website, michaelobrienshift.com, and sign up for my newsletter called The Ripple Effect. And join us each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday here at Whole Again, and discover how you can heal, grow, and become more resilient, and celebrate our scars as golden symbols of strength and resilience.</p>
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<p>Until then, remember, you can always come back to your breath. You've got this, and we've got you</p>