Did you see it? Tell me you didn’t turn the game off. Don’t tell me you are one of the fair weather fans who gave up on my Miami Heat like too many of the so-called fans who left American Airlines Arena last Wednesday morning before the game ended.
In case you missed it, my Miami Heat made an improbable comeback by rallying from a five-point deficit with less than 30 seconds to play in regulation to send the game into overtime and eventually win the game. The overtime win not only provided my Heat with 48 more minutes of basketball and a chance to repeat as NBA champion but the win keeps my only begotten son from having to contact you to see if you have seen or heard from me.
Because as I mentioned in the previous post, if the Heat lost, I would be out of here, MIA (Missing In Action and not MIA as in the Miami airport). There would be no need to call the police, send out an APB or put a current and projected picture of what I will look like ten years from now on a milk carton. If the outcome had been different, if the Heat had not enjoyed some luck late Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning, I would have been somewhere on a deserted island crawled up in the fetal position crying like a big old baby.
Thank You…Thank You Very Much
Thanks to those of you who commissioned your favorite sports superstition for my Heat’s benefit and the good fortune bestowed from the Basketball gods, I won’t be forced to become another of those “absentee” fathers, deadbeat dads like Orlando Shaw unless the unspeakable happens tonight. For the benefit of my son, please, pretty please keep those sports superstitions going for one more day.
For the record, I freely admit that as the Heat’s critics and critics of LeBron James continue to point out my Heat were just plain lucky. Two missed free throws by the Spurs. Two three-point shots by my Heat. The second of the three-point shots made by Ray Allen A.K.A. Jesus Shuttlesworth being more incredible than the first.
(As a side note what else would you expect from Jesus in the first place other than an incredible shot with time expiring? Who else would you expect to raise my Miami Heat from the dead as if the Heat were Lazarus himself? Who else could keep a fan like me from drowning himself from the watery tears of agony and instantaneously turning misfortune into ecstasy divinely celebrated with a glass of wine? Only Jesus could do that because He Got Game.)
Luck Where Preparation and Opportunity Meet
So yes, my Miami Heat were lucky but what is luck anyway? The Roman philosopher, Seneca once said “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” If Seneca was right, my Miami Heat were without question lucky but they were also prepared. When the opportunity to survive what would have been a devastating loss appeared, my Miami Heat were able to take advantage of that opportunity because of their preparation.
Preparation
In Seneca’s quote, luck only occurs for those who are prepared. The Miami Heat were prepared when their opportunity presented itself. King James and Jesus made their three-point shots. Those shots were made not because LeBron and Ray just threw them towards the basket and the hand of God came down from Heaven and directed them into the basket. Those shots were made because both LeBron and Ray understood that in order to be the beneficiary of luck you must first be prepared.
Most people know that LeBron James is considered the best basketball player in the world, a physical specimen the likes that the world has rarely if ever seen. Standing at six-foot eight inches, weighing 250 plus pounds, LeBron runs and jumps with the speed, agility and quickness of a man a foot shorter and a hundred pounds lighter. LeBron’s physical gifts often overshadow his hard work and mental commitment to be successful. While LeBron is physically different from most human beings, LeBron continues to prepare himself for moments like Tuesday night.
Then there is the man who hit the more miraculous of the two-three point shots on Tuesday night. Ray Allen, a man, who while taller than most of us is not the physical specimen of LeBron James. However, what Ray does to prepare himself to be the beneficiary of luck like what he experienced on Tuesday night is no less exemplary than LeBron’s preparation.
In fact, Ray Allen’s pre-game and practice shooting preparation is legendary. Befitting the nickname of Jesus, Ray – as should be expected – arrives to the arena earlier than any other player before a game. He usually takes the first bus to the arena three hours or more before game time. He goes through a pre-game shooting routine where he shoots three-hundred shots. He shoots from all the spots on the floor where he expects to shoot during the game. In case the number of shots that he takes before each game did not resonate with you the first time, I will say it again he shoots 300 shots in less than 30 minutes before the rest of his team and the opposing team arrive to the arena for pregame activities.
He has done this same routine for his entire career. For 15 years, for at least 100 games a year, Ray Allen has been meticulously preparing himself for an opportunity like the one that occurred on Tuesday night. For the non-math majors reading this that is 450,000 pre-game shots taken during the course of his illustrious Hall-Of-Fame career.
Opportunity
So on Tuesday night when Chris Bosh came up with rebound off a LeBron James missed three-pointer and found Ray Allen in the corner and Ray hit the game-tying three to force overtime, the Miami Heat were lucky because Ray Allen was prepared for that opportunity. Four-hundred and fifty thousand pre-game shots later, Ray Allen was presented with the opportunity to take what might be the biggest shot in his career. Ray Allen drained the three and my Miami Heat went on to win the game.
Are You Ready For Luck?
What does this have to do with you, me and our children? Simple! Will you be prepared for your big opportunity when it is presented? Will your children be prepared for their big opportunity when it arrives?
Or will you and/or your children be just another in the long list of people who waste our immense ability, habitually procrastinate, run out of time and subsequently blame the lack of luck for our mediocre, unfulfilled and undesired lot in life?
Are you raising children who believe some people are just lucky while others like them are simply meant to be ordinary, unlucky and average? Or are you raising children who understand that luck is a process – a grueling, laborious process that requires you to prepare meticulously and incessantly.
Do you or your children understand that the process of Luck requires not only that you get ready but that you stay ready? Luck is a lot like death, we don’t know the day nor the hour that our opportunity will appear. Like death, our opportunity is going to come and it may only happen once.
Lose Yourself
In the case of my Miami Heat, the opportunity appeared just before midnight. Fortunately, Ray Allen was prepared. Although before Tuesday night his preparation might have seemed an arduous waste of time. However, after the shot went through the basket with the ease of one who had repeated the same shooting motion and routine for 15 years, through 750 hours of pre-game shooting, over 450,000 pre-game shots – Jesus Shuttlesworth, the Miami Heat and I had our prayers answered. Ray Allen had one chance to make the three pointer from the corner and he luckily made it.
So before, during and after tonight’s game, no matter what happens to my Miami Heat, I hope I have given you something to ponder especially if the unthinkable happens. In the event that I do end up being M.I.A. give some thought to a few of the lyrics from Eminem’s 2002 hit “Lose Yourself” while I am gone:
Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted. One moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?
Yo…
So here I go it’s my shot.
Feet fail me not, this may be the only opportunity that I got
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo…
You can do anything you set your mind to, man
Are you following your passion? Are you doing what you love? Are you willing to put everything you have into your dreams so that you will achieve them?