How do you know that their heart is still in it? Are they too comfortable? Are they uncomfortable? Is there any discomfort that is causing that friction that leads to growth — because friction makes fire, you need that.
First things first: Sorry for the delay! I moved this week and it has thrown everything out of whack, including where I’m writing this preamble, in my new “office” surrounded by stacks of boxes I just packed and have to unpack and two confused dogs, watching me warily from the parquet floor. Anyway, when Martin Rickman says off the top, “We’re all waiting for something”, I hope it does not include anybody waiting on this episode, but that it drops into your inbox and instead gently interrupts whatever it was you were doing, in the middle of you doing it.
That’s an apt preface for this episode, too, because Martin and I drop right into things. This is par for the course when he and I catch up, whether that’s been on work calls that meander into life, long text flurries, or walking laps of the Strip during down hours at Summer League, we start from an already loose concentric point and lope out from there, somehow already in the middle.
We talked about patience. What the last two years in the NBA world have made worse for being able to take breaks, and being antsy about getting back to the regular rhythm of things this summer. That wandered into creativity, the ways that we work, think, and for us, write. That moved into movement — superstar movement and a waning sense of permanence in the league, team-building, habits and successes of NBA teams as non-linear — and that hopped over to an appreciation of regular things, like trust in relationships, change and sustainability. Also, appreciation of the everyman characters of the NBA who happen to wear the same number as this episode: Khris Middleton, Larry Nance Jr., Rudy Gay, Wayne Ellington.
I love talking to Martin because while I’m never sure where we’ll end up, I know I’m going to come away from the conversation with a different perspective and in turn it’s going to give me a new approach to whatever it is I’ve got in front of me at that moment. Hopefully this does that for you too.
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