I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

LB: I can hit 95 of 100 when I get going.

DP: From where?

LB: Anywhere.

As I watched the documentary, I relived my childhood memories of heading to Chrystler Arena to see the Fab Five play and the style of basketball that was played during that time.

In 1989 I lived in Casey, IL and became a huge fan of the Fighting Illini. They had team led by Nick Anderson, Kendall Gill and Kenny Battle (my favorite). That was the first year I became a college basketball fan.

In 1990, it was UNLV with Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon. The Runnin’ Rebels were the team of the year and captivated my mind.

Then in 1992 when we moved back to Ohio I found my new team. The Fab Five were all I could think about. I listened to hip-hop, wore my shorts baggy and did my best to pattern my game after them.

This morning with the documentary still fresh in my head I pulled up this old article I’ve had bookmarked, UM Frosh Changed Game, America. It’s a great read and it mentions two of the three teams I referenced.

But it’s only memories.

I don’t watch (much) college basketball anymore. The game has changed. It’s a new era and style. One I don’t like. I miss the ’89 Illinois, ’90 UNLV and ’92-93 UM teams.

Jordan was excellent “picking his spots” later in his career to conserve energy.

Over the years, he had come a long way from the young man who, surrounded by lesser teammates, had gone all out for an entire game, trying to do everything by himself. The mature Michael Jordan liked to conserve energy, let opponents use theirs up, and then when the moment was right take over the game.

Jordan also had a knack for understanding the little rhythyms and intricate changes of the game.

One of Jordan’s particular strengths, Armstrong believed, was that he had the most acute sense of the tempo and mood of every game of any player he had ever seen. A lot of players and coaches can look at film afterward and point their finger at the exact moment when a game slipped away, but Jordan could tell instantly, even as it was happening.

And, Jordan’s ability to focus and concentrate in the critical moments were aided by Phil Jackson’s “Zen Buddhism”.

The crowd, Jordan remembered, got very quiet. That was, he said later, the moment for him. The moment, he explained, was what all Phil Jackson’s Zen Buddhism stuff, as he called it, was about: how to focus and concentrate and be ready for that critical point in a game, so that when it arrived you knew exactly what you wanted to do and how to do it, as if you had already lived through it. When it happened, you were supposed to be in control, use the moment, and not panic and let the moment use you.

David Thorpe has been making similar points for years. He talks all the time about “the royal jelly.” Literally, that’s what worker bees feed a chosen baby bee to make her the queen. But it’s also, says Thorpe, what coaches and others can feed players to help them achieve their potential. A lot of it has to do with building confidence. Throughout his career, Thorpe has been accused of hyping up his players up and giving them big heads, to which he replies, jokingly, “guilty!” Thorpe is convinced that “the royal jelly” can and has fundamentally changed the careers of countless players. The gold standard of helping a player evolve, he says, starts with playing time.

“Playing time is the first part,” says Thorpe. “A coach’s support is another thing — it helps you grow as a player if you know you’re not going to get yanked the first time you miss a shot. That gives you the confidence to be creative and expand your game. And then the final aspect of the ideal set-up is coaching you up on the new things you’re adding to your game. A great recent example of this was Trevor Ariza with the Lakers last season. In the spring, everyone was wondering why they’d let him shoot all those 3s. It wasn’t productive. But they needed him to be able to do that, they let him do that, they didn’t yank him for doing that, and they coached him how to do that better. And in the playoffs he was amazing at that and helped them win a championship.”On a lot of teams, Ariza would have been condemned to the low-earning life of a non-shooter, but the coaching situation, and minutes, turned him into a sniper.

History also says that LeBron, from his years studying uber-successful mentors Warren Buffett and Jay-Z, is big on the word “partnership.” Sources with a pipeline to his inner circle say that James has been schooled to approach his long-awaited foray into free agency as a search for a business partner who can help cement the legacy of the LeBron brand as opposed to a strict hunt for the on-the-court sidekicks who can help him win the multiple championships he needs to get anywhere near Global Icon status.

I still think he should sign for the league minimum salary and win the next 7 championships, but that will (most likely) not happen. That, to me, is the quickest way to cement a legacy. It’s my guess that he ends up in Chicago or Dallas (long shot).