I CAN RELATE…CAN YOU?
I’m a big believer that success leaves clues, and that there are lessons each of us who want to win should be trying to learn from those who've been where we want to go. Over time, you start to recognize patterns in those who've earned the right to be called a champion. You start to see that their success is not an accident, but rather the byproduct of some intentional choices, behaviors, and responses. If we’re paying attention, there’s a lot those people can teach us.
This week I watched the New York Knicks win their first NBA championship in 53 years, and as usual, I was looking for clues. Surely the people who were a part of this historic run provided a lesson worth sharing. Maybe it was gonna be Jalen Brunson, the clutch late-game killer turned Finals MVP. Maybe it’d be OG Anunoby, whose steady demeanor anchored the team. Maybe it’d be Josh Hart, who willingly did the dirty work that didn’t always get the attention it deserved, but that every winning team needs done.
There was something valuable each of those examples had to offer, but I have to admit that there was also something about each of them that I struggled to relate to. Sometimes that’s the challenge that comes with looking at and learning from the uniquely gifted superstars. They have a way of making success look easy - too easy, sometimes, for the rest of us. Was there anyone from this Knicks team whose path felt a little more like one I could follow?
The answer, in fact, was yes. There was a key contributor to this New York championship run that it felt like I could relate to. Turns out, it wasn’t a player at all, but actually first-year Knicks head coach Mike Brown I found myself admiring. He, too, earned the right to be called a champion this week. But there’s something about his journey that felt a little more familiar. I’m wondering if here today there is a lesson his success might encourage you to learn, too.
Let’s start with the fact that like me and I’m guessing like you, too, Mike Brown has had his fair share of successes. As a first-time head coach back in 2009, he was named NBA Coach of the Year when he led the Cleveland Cavaliers to a franchise-record 66. He won the award again in 2023, this time as the leader of the Sacramento Kings. He’s had significant success in each of his six head coaching stops.
But Mike Brown’s journey to 2026 NBA champion hasn’t been some cakewalk to the top. Remember that 2009 Coach of the Year award he won with the Cavaliers? That same franchise fired him only a year later. Before coming to the Knicks, he was also hired and fired by the Los Angeles Lakers, and then - get this - he was re-hired and re-fired by Cleveland only a few years later. Mike Brown’s story is filled with successes and celebrations, sure, but it’s filled with just as many failures and frustrations, too. And at least for me here today - and I’m guessing maybe for you here, too - that’s a story I can relate to.
This week Mike Brown reached the pinnacle of professional basketball by winning his first NBA championship as a head coach. But when we look back at the long and winding road that led him to this point, a few important lessons seem to stand out. Like most of us, his road to success has been filled with all kinds of ups and downs, highs and lows, celebrations and frustrations. That's actually the way it works for most of us - success, not in the absence of failure and adversity, but success as a result of them. Failure and adversity don't define the champion, but rather refine them into the person and the performer winning requires them to be.
If you’re here today wondering what part failure or adversity is supposed to play in your winning pursuit, then I’d encourage you to look at Mike Brown’s journey to success, and the clues it leaves behind. The fact that he finds himself at the top of the NBA mountain is no accident, but rather the byproduct of some intentional choices, behaviors, and responses. If we’re paying attention, there’s a lot his story can teach us.
