Day 1202 Michael Jordan, Donald Trump, and the Path to Greatness
Monday May 4, 2020
181 Days until the election on November 3rd
261 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
I have an ability. It’s not one I ever thought of as being anything special. That is until someone said they wanted me to help them if they ever had to move. They didn’t want me for my muscle or my stamina or anything like that. They wanted me for my ability to pack a truck. I never realized it was anything special until that person mentioned, indirectly, that they hoped I’d be available if they ever had to move.
I can look at a space and know if something is going to fit. I’m not always right, but I’ve watched other people struggle with this kind of situation. I can also look at how much is left in a pot and pick out the right sized container to put the leftovers in. I can go to the bulk food aisle, fill up a bag with whatever is on the list to get and buy just enough to fill up the container back home to the rim. I don’t always get it right, but in each of those situations I’ve watched others who seem to have no idea. Like I said, I never thought it was a special ability.
This brings me to Michael Jordan and me. No, I’ve never met him. But I’ve picked up little stories about him. It’s one of my abilities – the ability to pick up and amalgamate stuff, to find connections in disparate things.
ESPN is showing “The Last Dance.” The story of Michael Joran and The Chicago Bulls run at a 6th NBA World Championship.
Michael Jordan wasn’t always Michael Jordan. He used to be “Mike.” One of 15 kids from a town in North Carolina where racism was a thing, like it was all over the south when he was growing up. It still is, but hopefully not as bad as when he was growing up. His grandmother had a hoop in her backyard. It was dirt and no net. Mike and his brother played out there a lot. His brother was better than him. If his brother lost to Mike he beat him up. Yeah, Mike’s brother would beat him up. His father would tell Mike that he didn’t know what he was doing around tools and tell him so and tell him to go back in the house.
For whatever reason this motivated Michael to do better. To develop an “I’ll show you attitude.”
It’s funny (funny, odd) how we develop our talents. Some are conscious, some are not. I’m not sure how much of what someone displays is “God given talent,” or ability, and how much is something that started being developed at an early age unconsciously. Malcolm Gladwell has asked the question, “Why are all NHL hockey players born in January?” Okay, maybe I got the question not quite right. Gladwell makes the point that an unusually high percentage of professional hockey players are born in the early part of the year. Why? Because the cutoff for playing in the junior leagues is December 31st. A person born on January 1st will be a year older than a person born on December 31st of the previous year when they go to sign up for hockey. That twelve months makes all the difference in how much playing time and coaching they get. They’re just a little bit better at first, but over the years, due to the extra attention they get better – a lot better than the kids born in December of the previous year. It’s shown by the fact that most professional hockey players are born in the first few months of any year. (Therefore, it makes sense for parents to not push kids to higher levels of sport but to try and hold them back.)
Gladwell has also said that to be good at something takes 10,000 hours of practice. Jimi Hendrix wasn’t born a guitar god overnight. He carried a guitar everywhere he went. He played it; he slept with it.
In the Michael Jordan story there’s a tidbit from Roy Williams. Michael told Roy he wanted to be the best. Roy said okay. Then Michael said something else, and Roy stopped him and said, “Wait a minute, you said you wanted to be the best?” Implying that whatever it was Michael had said would not make him the best. It would make him good, like 10,000 hours makes you good enough to qualify, but to be the best? That takes something more.
One of the tidbits I know about Michael Jordan is that at North Carolina they worked on him to be a great defensive player. When he left he was great at both ends of the court. It’s because his defensive talents were developed at North Carolina.
Of all the things I know about Michael Jordan the one that is most memorable comes from the Richmond Science Museum. They have a display in the basement where you can test your abilities. One of their displays is to test your vertical leap. You can do this at home.
Find a spot that’s two stories tall. Stand next to the wall and stretch your arm out reaching as far as you can up the wall. At that point tape a yard stick running up the wall from the end of your fingertips. Now, standing in the spot below the yardstick jump up and see how high you can touch on the yard stick.
How did you do? Seven inches? Ten? Maybe fifteen. Seventeen? That’s known as your vertical leap. Vertical jump they call it.
The note one the sign at the Science Museum said that Jordan had a 48 inch vertical leap. In other words, you’d need to tape a foot long ruler on top of that yard stick to see where Michael can jump to. (I just checked Google and they said 46” at NC.)
Michal Jordan is 6’ 7” tall. That’s a beginning height in the NBA. That’s what you need to be to qualify. But that leap? He had to work at that. He had to develop that.
Donald Trump also developed abilities. He learned the art of the con. He had to develop that skill, and it is a skill, an ability. It has worked well for him. He went from apathetic student to failing real estate developer to prime time TV personality to president of the Untied States. How did he do that?
By conning and bullying people. By developing a skill to deceive and to lie. He’s done it for so long, that it seems normal and okay. He’s very good at it and it has served him well. Until now.
Can he pull one more rabbit out of the bag?
Could the Bulls win a sixth championship?
Yeah. But as The Last Dance shows – You Gotta Step Up. And it didn’t happen over night. Michael Jordan had ingrained in himself, from an early age, a determination to get better and not to lose.
Donald? Well, he had things ingrained in him too. They worked for him, until he got to the presidency. Kind of like Herbert Hoover. Could Trump pull it out? Legitimately? (Yes, and yes.)
What could Trump do to win? (Besides cheat with the help of the Russians, the right wing, and the his slimy Republicans pseudo buddies.) I’ll tell you.
It was made clear to me on a weekend interview with the former head of The World Bank. This man pointed out two very significant set of facts. One was that when it came to investment in public health it was almost nothing.
He backed this up by mentioning the fact that although we’ve spent trillions on the economy we’ve spent next to nothing on public health. It works out to $11,000 per person on the economy and $125 on public health – something like that. He said we needed to spend a massive amount on public health. He sited the recent call for folks to help with contact tracing in Massachusetts and something like 100,000 people applied for less that 10,000 slots. Yes, people wanted a job, he said, but he thought it was more than that. People wanted to defeat this virus. They wanted to take action, not sit hiding in their living rooms.
And therein lies Trump’s path to victory in the fall. If he were to call for a national mobilization to defeat this virus and if he were to actually back it up with action and resources he could win. Will He?
No.
181 Days until the election on November 3rd
261 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
PS Sloppy Joe’s
Another very thoughtful piece Rick. Best regards to you and Shelby.