Ethan Khoza breaks down Giannis Antetokounmpo's MVP speech to extract three rules for mental toughness: act like you've never won, forget past losses, and ignore opponents' reputations while outworking them.
Questions this video answers
July 16, 2019.
July 14th.
Three rules.
Chapters
Everybody claims to want to win, from the scrub you play with at LA Fitness to the top tier of the NBA. If you ask any basketball player what their goal on the court is, they'll tell you it's to win. But this is just a surface level. Not everyone can be a winner. We need people who don't win. We need losers. So if everyone claims that they want to win, what separates the people who say they want to win from those who actually do win? The mindset of players who are winners is drastically different from those who don't win. The players who feel like they've never accomplished enough, yet the ones that are never satisfied, those are the ones who end up with the mindset that drives them to win. Giannis Antetokounmpo was all over social media recently for his comments at his MVP celebration in Milwaukee. Let's break down what he said and why it is the perfect example of a championship mindset. I'm also going to give you three rules that are going to help you develop a winner's mindset.
After this day, July 14th. Please, please, please do me this favor so I can be better. I can be a better player. I can lead this team to a championship. Please don't call me mvp. Listen, listen, listen, listen. Please, after this day, don't call me mvp. Because until. Until I win the game next year.
Rule number one. A winner has never accomplished anything. When they step on the court, a winner doesn't remember any past accomplishments. They don't care if they just had 30 the night before. They don't care if they just got a college offer five minutes before the game. They don't care that they just won the mvp. They only care about the next accomplishment, the next feat. Losers dwell on the past, positive and negative. Losers think and talk about what they did in the past all the time. Losers think that they're on top of the world because they play well or won something. They lose the drive to accomplish more. That's why you see guys in every sport who have had a great stretch of games or maybe even a great season, but ultimately they can't play consistently well and their careers tend to be disappointing. Rule number two, a winner has never lost. Of course, everybody loses. Sometimes even the greatest players ever haven't won every game or award. What I mean by this rule is that a winner forgets any past poor performances. If he just shot over 12 in the last game and his team lost by 30, he's going to come out the next game aggressively and act like he just went 20 for 20 the last game. A missed shot doesn't faze someone who expects to win every time they step on the court. A bad game gets deleted from a winner's memory. Someone talking trash to them or the media scrutinizing them goes in one ear and out the other. The only focus they have when they play is the moment, how can I win on this play? How can I prove myself right now? Rule number three, winners don't care who you are or what you've done. They will beat you and they will outwork you. Rankings, past success, height, athleticism, hype, and how cool someone's mixtape is goes out the window completely. When you actually get on the court. They don't matter at all who's going to make the play this possession, who's going to win their matchup. It doesn't matter who they play against. A winner knows that they can win. A winner refuses to even consider that an opponent is better than them while they're on the court. In fact, a winner is someone who invites the highest level of competition. They want to guard the best player on the other team. They want to go against that five star player at the tournament. They want to dethrone the mvp. Hearing people talk about how good your opponent is and how they've accomplished this and done that and all the other talk that you hear should make you angry. You should feel disrespected. When people gas up your opponent, that should motivate you extra to change that narrative. You should want to lock down that other player now. You should want to give them 30. And regardless of the matchup coming up, the approach a winner has to his practice and his preparation makes sure that nobody can work harder than he does. And at the end of the day, if you lose, you work harder. And if you win, you. You work even harder than that. That's the mentality that a winning player has. Everyone says they want to win, but most people aren't willing to do what it takes to be a winner. A lot of what I just talked about can be found in Tim Grover's book, Relentless. Tim Grover is Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade's trainer. And he dives deep into what mentally made those guys so dominant and how you can apply it to your own life on and off the court. This is an absolute must read if you're a serious player. And personally, it's one of my favorite books of all time, so click the link in my bio to check it out. Seriously guys, this is probably the most important book you'll ever read. It's basketball Player Player. So I highly recommend you guys check it out. Make sure you guys like and subscribe and comment down below what you guys want to see next. And I'll talk to you guys later. Peace.
