Losing Yourself in the Game

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

Kevin Durant is an American basketball player who was recently traded to the Phoenix Suns. Because he was injured when traded, he played his first game with his new team and in a new system two weeks after the trade.

During an interview that could have been one of a thousand interviews you may have seen before that say next to nothing and are designed not to offend anyone, Durant said it will take him a few games to get comfortable again before he starts to “lose myself in the game again.”

Wow!

“Lose myself in the game.”

Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau in a post-game press conference, spoke about one of his players.

“The game tells you what to do,” he said, “and he reads the game very well.”

This isn’t about “doing your job,” but about being able to step back, see what’s going on around you, and make the right decisions in service to the bigger purpose — winning.

Too few people I speak with don’t listen to what their work is telling them, let alone lose themselves in their work. They work with an industrial mindset and execute as cogs in the machinery.

Yes, basketball players need to be in the right places on the floor at the right time to create the spacing that…