Are You Ready for Your Championship Rings?

...That day finally arrived for Jackson in 1987?thanks to Bulls GM Jerry Krause who first scouted him as a player at North Dakota and later saw him coach in Albany. “What I saw in Phil was an innate brightness,” Krause said at the time of his Bulls hiring.

In 1987, Jackson was hired as an assistant coach by the Chicago Bulls under Doug Collins. He was promoted to head coach in 1989. It was around this time that he met Tex Winter and became a devotee of Winter's triangle offense.

Jordan joined the Bulls in?1984 as the third overall draft pick, and quickly emerged as a league star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring while gaining a reputation as one of the game's best defensive players.

Scottie Pippen made his NBA debut on November 7, 1987, when the Chicago Bulls opened against the?Philadelphia 76ers. He finished with 10 points, 2 steals, 4 assists, and 1 rebound in 23 minutes of play, and the Bulls won 104–94. With teammate?Michael Jordan as a motivational and instructional mentor, Pippen refined his skills and slowly developed many new ones over his career. Jordan and Pippen frequently played one-on-one outside of team practices, simply to hone each other's skills on offense and defense.?

Let me digress for a moment and tell you a story... I was once told by teacher's (and a note was sent home to my mother for emphasis), that I wrote too much to answer simple questions. The note said, and I quote, "Shaan is a gifted student, but he thinks too much. He looks at simple questions for more information than is asked for and when he writes answers he gives so much more than is asked for."

I look at things for the hidden science and the hidden angles. I believe that there is always more than meets the eye to that which is passed off as being "simple ... or not too complex." My mind is like a microscope (magnifying the smallest nuance) and a telescope (peering far into the unapparent distance) at the same time, applying vision to mission.

When I look at my clients, be they organizations or individuals, teams or leaders, I look through two distinctly different lenses. I look for what is apparent (the story) and what is not so apparent (the condition). Then I look into the future of both, IF distinctive opportunities, pivots, changes, nuances, mindsets, and habits are applied. Let me explain further...

Michael Jordan is undeniably one of the the best, if not THE BEST (at least by Lebron James standards) player that ever touched a basketball. However, he did not win a championship for a total of 7 YEARS before a specific intersection occurred. He AND Pippen played together for a total of 4 YEARS before a specific intersection occurred.

I look for patterns and repeating conditions and situations for what Poker players refer to as "The Tell." The "Tell" is a repeating nuance, like a cheek twitch, that takes place before a repeat occurrence, like a Bluff. This is certainly no Bluff though, read on...

Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan, both PHENOMENAL players by anyone's standards, however they did not win a championship together until the missing element was provided them. In this case, and in most critical cases of long term unrivaled and MASSIVE success, that pivotal, career and life changing missing element was The COACH.

When Phil Jackson became the head coach in 1989, Michael Jordan wasn't so fond of him, just as most superstar players are not fond of critical thinking Coaches, because Coaches challenge status quo and they see deeper than that which is superficially or topically apparent. It was topically apparent that Michael Jordan was a dominating super force of nature, so it was only natural for the tendency to be to 'give Jordan the ball' and let Air Jordan go to the hole. However, Phil Jackson saw a deeper play that took the ball out of Jordan's hands.

Insight: As a star player; coach, speaker, consultant, leader, your tendency is to grab the ball and go to the hole. It works, you're scoring, you're doing what comes naturally. However, to summarize Marshall Goldsmith's work in What Got You Here Won't Get You There, many professionals get stuck at a certain level of success.

In order for the Chicago Bulls to and Michael Jordan to go from good to great, there had to be a stretching, humbling and changing strategy of discipline and art applied to the obvious science, and that was The Triangle Offense.

Head coach?Phil Jackson, with help from assistant coach? Tex Winter, won 11?NBA Finals?with the triangle offense. Jackson coached the Bulls from 1989–1998. He next served as the head coach of the Lakers twice, first from 1999–2004, and then from 2005–2011. The?Chicago Bulls under Jackson won six championships in the 1990s playing in the triangle. His first three title-winning teams in Chicago featured superstars?Michael Jordan and?Scottie Pippen.

Jackson's later three titles with the Bulls came with Jordan, Pippen, and fellow superstar Dennis Rodman. Jackson's?Los Angeles Lakers won five championships employing the triangle. His first three Lakers championship squads fielded superstars?Shaquille O'Neil and?Kobe Bryant while his last two title teams saw him pair Bryant with fellow All-Star?Pau Gasol.

So while everyone credits Michael Jordan, then Michael Jordan and Socttie Pippen, and then Michael Jorden, Pippen and Rodman, and then Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal with domination and history making in the basketball industry, which actually did happen, I see it as more of a default created by another much more subtle occurrence. Phil Jackson was the Coach that brought the best potentiality for phenomenal development from these individual players, and through the triangle offense he brought the best potentiality for phenomenal development from these teams!

Now we cannot take anything from the individual players, I, along with the rest of the world marveled at the great feats accomplished by these men and the respective teams. But if YOU want to achieve similar results in your business, in your career, in your teams and in your coaching, speaking, consulting, authorship or any number of influential post pandemic opportunities that lie at the intersection of personal and professional development, the internet, and the current post Covid climate I would say to peer deeper into the obvious, and peel back the more superficial layers, and you may see the opportunity to apply your own Triangle Offense in your life and business.

The first opportunity to do that rests in the same decision that Chicago Bulls GM Jerry Krause made in 1989 and the Lakers did in 2000: They HIRED THE RIGHT COACH! The Bulls won 6 Rings and made Legacy Legends out of Micael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, and then did the EXACT same thing in LA with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. To the extent that when he first arrived in LA with his coveted Triangle Offense the Lakers won championships a consecutive 3 years in a row.

Now, some may say that it was the players' time and that they were great in their own right, etc., etc., but I would have a proverbial note sent home by my teacher again, because I see a much deeper, hidden, intricate pattern and occurrence there underlying the success and it is Phil Jackson, The Coach.

The obvious question now becomes Do You Have a Coach? And if the answer is no, you may want to look deeper into the Championship Manufacturing Cycle, as there are certain elements that are present in every intersection. No man or woman is an island, no matter how talented or energetic and gifted they may be. When you match raw talent, coachability and hunger with superior experience, critical thinking, and strategy "Get Ready World" because transformation and history making is at hand.

Just make sure you get ready for some humility, stretching and challenging moments, because you or your star player may find the ball leaving their hands... but that's ok if it's replaced with Legacy. Isn't it?

Let's GROW!

If you need more help, want more clarity, or are interested in turning your business, leadership, or organization into an optimized, highly functional, sophisticated, operation that is coordinated, seamlessly flowing, and pouring lives into everyone involved contact us at?https://shaanrais.com/?we'd love to help through keynotes to invigorate, inspire and motivate your staff, workshops to educate, empower and equip your leaders and management staff or consulting to work with you as the leader to build the business you could only dream of.