All posts in Basketball

Edna Campbell

By | 03/2011 | Basketball, BUSINESS, HEALTH / WELLNESS, Inspiration, Inspiring Lives, Motivation, MOTIVATION / INSPIRATION, Overcomers / Adversity, Personal Development, SPORTS | Comments Off
Edna Campbell

Edna Campbell, the 5′ 8″ guard and star player for the WNBA’s Sacramento Monarchs, is best known for continuing her basketball career despite suffering breast cancer. The 10th overall draft pick, selected by the Phoenix Mercury during the 1999 Draft, she was left unprotected in the expansion draft the following year, and was chosen by the Seattle Storm. She became the new franchise’s go-to option, but when the team finished with a 6-26 record, she was traded to the Sacramento Monarchs. Read more…

Rick Pitino

By | 01/2011 | Basketball, BUSINESS, Change, Coaches, Leadership, Motivation, SPORTS, Success, Teamwork | Comments Off
Rick Pitino

Rick Pitino has the winning touch as exemplified by his becoming the first NCAA coach to lead three different teams to the NCAA Final Four. Leading through his own example of hard work and solid execution, he transformed each of his college teams, leading Kentucky’s men’s basketball team to the Final Four three times in five years. Pitino is ranked on two of coaching’s most elite lists: both the winningest active college basketball coaches and winningist all-time college basketball coaches lists. With a talent for rebuilding and re-energizing stumbling organizations, his techniques are a proven commodity, in sports and in the business world. With his captivating personality, Pitino offers practical steps to help teams maintain focus and act with group integrity through decisiveness, flexibility and consistency. Pitino is the author of Success Is A Choice, Lead to Succeed and Rebound Rules. With the mind of a brilliant coach and the charisma of a leading man, Rick Pitino is an inspiring leader who instills his teams with the drive and the skills to succeed on the court and off. Read more…

Pat Riley

By | 01/2011 | Basketball, BUSINESS, Change, Coaches, HUMAN RESOURCES, Leadership, Management, MISCELLANEOUS, Motivation, Peak Performance, SPORTS, Teambuilding | Comments Off
Pat Riley

Current president and former head coach of the Miami Heat, Pat Riley is the consummate competitor who knows the exhilaration that comes with winning. He guided the Heat to the playoffs in each of his first three seasons with them and led the team to win the 2006 NBA Championship, the franchise’s first title.

Riley shares his strategies for winning and outdistancing the competition on the court and off. He understands the psychology of teamwork and personal excellence and is a master at creating organizations whose achievements are greater than the sum of their parts. He shows how to recognize the cycles of team change and make the most of every opportunity.

Author of Showtime and The Winner Within, the Sporting News recently named Riley one of the 50 greatest coaches of all time. One of the most successful coaches in NBA history, Pat Riley understands the keys to gaining a competitive advantage and winning.

Riley’s philosophy is based upon winning, leadership, mastery, change, and personal growth as well as understanding and controlling the shifting dynamics of a team-any team, whether it is a small company, a giant corporation, a city, or a group of athletes. Read more…

Pat Williams

By | 01/2011 | Athletes, Authors, Basketball, BUSINESS, HUMAN RESOURCES, Inspiration, Juvenile Issues, Leadership, Management, MISCELLANEOUS, Motivation, Peak Performance, SALES / MARKETING, Spirituality, SPORTS, Success, Teambuilding, Teamwork | Comments Off
Pat Williams

Pat Williams understands organization. With over three decades of experience, he’s seen 23 of his teams go to the playoffs and five to the NBA Finals. He has earned a reputation as a consummate promoter and astute talent scout, and served as general manager of the Atlanta Hawks, the Chicago Bulls, Philadelphia 76ers and the Orlando Magic—and he and his wife Ruth have 19 children (14 adopted from other countries). From this wealth of experience Pat Williams speaks to his audiences about the keys to leadership, the principles needed for realizing full potential, strategies for team building as well as strategies for managing such busy professional and personal lives. His talk on mentoring skills is appropriate for business audiences as well as those involved in addressing the needs of young people. He is author of over 50 books, including Paradox of Power. As an NBA executive who has built and led professional teams for over 35 years, Pat Williams is an expert in recognizing, fostering and getting the most out of talent. Read more…

Pat Croce

By | 01/2011 | Basketball, BUSINESS, Communication, Corporate Culture, Customer Service, Entrepreneurs, Innovation, Leadership, Management, Negotiation, Organizational Skills, Personal Development, SPORTS, Strategy, Success, Teambuilding, Teamwork, Workforce Issues | Comments Off
Pat Croce

Pat Croce graced the cover of Success magazine as the first person to ascend from the training room to the boardroom of a professional sports team. His remarkable success as a physical therapist and pioneer in the sports medicine field to the colorful leader responsible for the resurrection of the Philadelphia 76ers as an NBA championship contender has been defined as one of the most amazing stories in sports history. Through his business savvy, dynamic personality, and emphasis on customer service, Pat Croce created Sports Physical Therapists, a sports medicine empire of 40 centers in 11 states, into a top-ten finalist for the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Following the sale of his company, Croce focused his entrepreneurial spirit and indestructible positive attitude on the purchase of the NBA’s last place team, the Philadelphia 76ers in 1996. During his 5-year tenure as President, the team rose from worse to first in the NBA standings and broke franchise records in attendance, revenue, merchandise, and consecutive wins on the way to the NBA Championships against the Los Angeles Lakers in 2001. Croce next tackled television as a lively commentator on the NBA on NBC, a Tae Kwon Do commentator for the Summer Olympic Games 2004 in Greece (Croce is a 4th degree Black Belt), and during that same year hosted a nationally syndicated daily TV show Pat Croce: Moving In for Sony Pictures Television. His most recent role was as a panel judge on ABC’s American Inventor, and he continues to fill requests as a nationally-renowned motivational speaker. Read more…

Digger Phelps

By | 01/2011 | Basketball, Broadcasters, BUSINESS, CELEBRITIES, Celebrities / Media Personalities, Coaches, Inspiration, Motivation, MOTIVATION / INSPIRATION, SPORTS | Comments Off
Digger Phelps

Former coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball team from 1970-1980, and again in the 1990s, Richard “Digger” Phelps is an analyst on ESPN’s College Game Night, known for matching his neckties with a like colored highlighter. In his role as ESPN basketball commentator Phelps is regarded as one of the most charismatic and opinionated analysts in the profession. Exhibiting the same colorful personality during his 20 years as the head coach at Notre Dame, Phelps compiled a 393-197 record and became the winningest coach in Fighting Irish history. Since his retirement from coaching, Digger Phelps has worked in President George H.W. Bush’s White House administration, provided commentary on college basketball for CBS and ESPN, and has become a successful motivational and business speaker. He is also author of Basketball For Dummies. Read more…