Just finished getting beat by Utah. I always read the papers the next day to see if I can pick up anything that they felt they may have done to beat us. Often I come up with one little nugget that may help the next time we play a team or that may help us shore up an area that the opponent thought they could exploit.

In this morning’s article, Deron Williams had an interesting comment when talking about the turnaround the Jazz has made in the second half of the season. He said, “Playing together and not caring who gets the glory” has been the key to their turnaround. This is a very simple statement but often a very difficult assignment to carry out.

Not caring who gets the glory is often the opposite of what human nature tends to guide us to do, i.e., to look out for “me” first. In a team game, looking out for me first is a recipe for failure. All the best teams and the championship teams in the NBA have been able to make the game about “team.” It’s understood among champions that collective talent is more important than individual talent. Blending each others’ strengths is more important than one player going off. In its simplest terms, a team effort (which is defined by everyone executing the role they have been given) will beat an individual effort almost every time. Champions get beyond “me” because they know “me” does nothing to help in the pursuit of the ultimate goal of winning it all!