Clyde Drexler talks about practice.

An Artcile from today's "USA Today."

Clyde Drexler doesn’t argue what is the greatest sports team in history.

Why should he?

He played on it.

In 1992, Drexler and his Olympic basketball teammates would be known as the “Dream Team.”

The gold medal and total dominance was assured by a lineup that also included Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Chris Mullin and Christian Laettner. (Photo by John Smierciak, AP)

“Untouched and unscathed,” said Drexler about the team that was inducted into the U.S. Olympics Hall of Fame presented by Allstate on Wednesday. “The only real problem we had was practice. We felt if we survived practice the game would be a cake walk. We just came out and did our job.”

The team was coached by Chuck Daly who won two NBA titles with Detroit.

“He was the perfect personality to coach that team,” Drexler said. “We used to call him the Godfather. Nothing you did bothered Chuck Daly. He just wanted you to show up for practice and give it everything you had.”

The team finished 8-0 and averaged 117 points a game and only Croatia came within 30 points of them.
“I’m probably more impressed now,” Drexler said. “As you have a chance to see how kind history has been to the Dream Team. It was special because of the level of performance and us becoming the standard bearer for all future Olympic teams

"Failing to prepare is preparing for failure."

If you can out-prepare them, you can outperform them.
-Ron Shapiro (consultant and special advisor to team owners, coaches, CEOs, and GMs.)

Too many people don't put enough emphasis on preparation. Everyone wants to just go out and play with out putting near enough time into learning in practice. Since I have been in college I have often heard, "For every hour that you are in class you need to study two hours." Now lets be honest, not too many people in college actually abide by this rule, but who knows how much better they would be in the classroom if they did. Jim Wilson, former head coach of the Buffalo college football program from 1932–1951, said "I constantly stress process over outcome. In other words, don't worry about the exam. Just do your homework." Very good quote if you ask me. If a student does his homework (and really does it and doesn't just fly through it to get it done) then he won't have to worry about the exam at all. He will have practiced all the skills learned in class to the point that he has them down pat. The exam will simply let him show what he has learned. That's the way we should treat sports. If we show up and learn in practice (and don't just go through the motions) then the game will simply be the time to show what we have learned. There have been many times that the team with the most amount of talent didn't win the game, the team that was better prepared for battle did.

Failing to prepare is preparing for failure. -John Wooden

A Sense of Urgency

There comes a time in sports and in life when we must have a sense of urgency. Hopefully this comes sooner than later. In baseball, you can't wait till the last inning or two to realize that you have to start scoring runs. You have to score early and often. You must have that sense of urgency all game long. You have to play the game as if the other team is coming after you every inning (because most of the time they are). It is the same in life. You can't wait till your final years to realize that you need to start doing things right. You must start this early in life and do it often. You must play the game of life as if death is coming after you everyday (because believe it or not it is). If we can learn to have that sense of urgency I think their is no doubt that we will be more successful and prepared for what our opponent will throw at us on and off the field.