Eleven Rings
NOTE: Tola’s note is a journal about some activities I engaged in during the week(Month). Let's dive in!
BOOK-Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson.
What will I call this book? A mesh of autobiography, leadership, and spirituality. I am not a fan of basketball but since I have been on the quest of autobiographies of great people, I came across this. The road leading to my choice in this book wasn’t very straight forward. I first read Kobe Bryant’s book: The mamba mentality and Driven From Within by Micheal Jordan. Both books and players had one thing in common-Phil Jackson.
Kobe Bryant had four Championships during his lifetime, and Micheal Jordan had six championships during his time in the game, and both players never won any championship before Phil Jackson came into the picture and with him, they won all the championships they acquired in their careers. Phil Jackon is the only coach to have won a three peat, three times. Three peat in basketball is when a team wins a championship three times in a row. He won a three-peat with the Chicago Bulls in 1991, 1992, 1993. When Micheal Jordan came back from his retirement in 1995, he won a second three peat in 1996, 1997, and 1998. He left Chicago Bulls in 1998, semi-retired then joined the lakers in 1999 to win three peats in-2000, 2001, and 2002. In my opinion, this is equivalent to a coach winning a football champions league three times in a row, and doing it three times. No one has broken his record till date, and this got me interested. What made Phil Jack different?
The simple answer is his uncanny ability to make individuals work together as a team. He observed that most teams he joined were star-studded but the inability to make a team out of the talent cost them trophies. A star studded team meant a lot of egos to please. Phil found a way to make all these players work together by introducing a spiritual aspect to his coaching style. He introduced his players to collective mediation, where players would sit together in silence. His goal was to make his players “ be present” on and off the court. When people are present, their energies align and they are not overthinking every variable. The right thing to do just falls in step when circumstances change. This is just one of the aspects of spirituality he introduced to the game. He also gave out books to players every season based on what he thought they needed (he recommended “Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe” to one of his players and you should see how I smiled. Naija to the world).
I have been trying to look into the Zen books he recommended, for example, Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. I haven’t been able to continue because it’s fiction and I have not yet regained my patience for fiction, instead I chose another autobiography- Spare by Prince Harry. But I will be making more efforts towards understanding Zen and its mother religion, in the coming months because the value proposition seems great for someone like me who overthinks a lot.
Just to be clear, the spiritual side of the game isn’t the only thing that gave the teams he coached an edge. They put in an incredible amount of work to hone their skills on and off the basketball court. In his words, if you don’t hustle, you’ll get benched. Spiritually only brought all the pieces together.
Thoughts.
I have observed, with great amusement, that many women jut out their behinds to the camera whenever they want to take pictures. Ofcourse, I don’t have a problem with this. It's interesting to watch women showcase their “talents” how they want. What I find amusing is how they react depending on who’s commenting on their pictures. If it's a man they consider lower status, they call it objectification of their bodies. If it’s someone they like, they see it as compliments. I wonder how people can have so much power to choose how they interpret a message based on who’s speaking. It’s a lot of power.
I started going to the gym- Make Savage of the body and civilise the mind-Israel Adesanya.
One of my goals for 2023 was to have a good physique. I figured this year’s going to be the last I will be fully indoors, and a good body wouldn’t be that bad when I started meeting with people again. I hope it’s worth it because omo, the body pain I endured on the first day wasn’t from here. It’s even worse because I had to endure the pains without outwardly showing it. My friend seems to derive some joy when he sees me in pain(not in a bad way). Now imagine the scenario where your body is on fire and your legs are giving way beneath you but you still need to do simple things like sitting on the toilet seat, sleeping in and rising from your bed Torture. I appeared like someone that had just been delivered of a baby and the body’s still sensitive.
I wasn't prepared to go the second day but I noticed my mind was calm and my demeanour was composed that evening when I sat down to work. My appetite also improved. Previously, you could give me a spoon of rice and I wouldn’t finish it. This is a lot of change for a 45 mins/ per day work. I liked that feeling and I believe this is the feeling people who go to the gym crave. When you lift weights or do squats, there’s nothing on your mind except lifting your weight and doing your squats. Again for someone that overthinks, this is precious. A moment of distraction could cause an accident, and I was distracted.
When I was done with the day’s exercise, I was trying to return the barbell to its place when I heard the other guys I was in the gym with, talking with a woman and commenting about her shirt. I looked and unknown to me, the endcap at the other end of the barbell had slipped, and the weights had begun to fall off. When I realised what was happening, the weights had completely fallen off and the weight on my side lowered to the ground, raising the shaft of the free end to smack my lip. Blood spilled from the lip but I was more concerned about my teeth. I thought the shaft had knocked out one of my teeth but na God save me. When I tried to go and clean up the blood, I saw what the guys were commenting on and all I can say is fear women.
This lady came to a gym filled with scantily clad young men with muscles rippling and bodies dripping with sweat, braless with a see-through top that accentuated her natural milk containers. Since I was done for the day, I had to leave but that moment of distraction cost me.
Bants.
My friend is a Chelsea fan and if you have been following the premier league this season, they haven’t been performing well and that’s a perfect recipe for banter. This week, one of our conversations went this way.
“Dray, I can’t find Chelsea on the table.” I said after searching for the premier league table on Google and I had to click on show more standings to see Chelsea's position.
“Why?” He asked suspiciously as he saw me trying to hide my laugh.
“They fell off.”
In another conversation, I asked him if Nepa brought power. This was how it went. After asking the question.
He yawned and replied with"As a responsible man, I don't know because I'm just getting up from the bed."
“Using the word “responsible” while just getting up by 10AM is contradicting.”
"That was the goal"
"As a Chelsea fan, I don't expect you to have a goal."