Tuesday, May 12, 2009

"THE DISPOSABLE SUPERSTAR"

The amazing journey of Chauncey Billups is told in a well-written, greatly detailed article by Tom Friend of ESPN's Outside The Lines. Here is just a short snippet:


Mitchell tells Chauncey that in order to lead he must learn to follow. He tells him he must be coachable, that he can't be a know-it-all. He tells him there can be no partying the night before games, and no fast food in his diet. He tells him that, if nothing else, he must remember this one basketball maxim: If you take care of the person to your right and the person to your left, the person who benefits most is the one in the middle.

Chauncey clamors for more, so Mitchell begins inviting him to join his early morning breakfasts and workouts with KG. Chauncey always arrives first, which surprises Sam, who doesn't know about Ray and the 3:30 a.m. wake-up calls. "You had heard all this stuff," Mitchell says. "You had heard he was a selfish guy, not a good teammate, that all he wanted to do was shoot the ball. But now he's asking me a thousand questions. I was like, 'This is not the guy I heard about.'


Read the entire article (it is worth it) at: