Page 196 - How to Create a Winning Organization

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MAKE GREATNESS

ATTAINABLE BY ALL

“Each member of your team has a potential for personal greatness;
the leader’s job is to help them achieve it.”

ichael Jordan is regarded as the greatest player in the his-
Mtory of the NBA by pundits and experts alike, those who make
a living speculating on who’s number one? The best? The greatest?
While I was teaching basketball at UCLA, several of our play-
ers, including Bill Walton, Lewis Alcindor, Jr. (Kareem Abdul-
Jabbar), Keith Erickson, Sidney Wicks, Walt Hazard, Keith
(Jamaal) Wilkes, Gail Goodrich, and David Meyers, also received
a great many accolades: MVP trophies, selection to All-Conference
teams, media honors, and All-American awards.
Thus, I am often asked, “Who is the greatest player you ever
coached?” Although I have heard this question hundreds of times,
I’ve never answered—picked a greatest player—because I do not
like this whole business of who’s number one?
Speculation of this kind may be harmless amusement for out-
siders, but identifying an individual under my leadership as being
better than the others—the “greatest”—runs contrary to my
bedrock belief about success. I believe that personal greatness is
measured against one’s own potential, not against that of someone
else on the team or elsewhere.

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