Being different: Manu Ginobili at TEDxBuenosAires

[Manu Ginobili] [Being Different] For many years I've been following TED, I like to listen to their talks. And the truth is that I'm a fan. From the moment they told me of the chance to be on the other side of the camera, or the other side of the stage, I loved the idea. The problem was when they told me what they wanted me to talk about. They said: "Being different". Right there I hit the hand brake and started to rethink the idea because, really, I was not sure of being able and capable of talking about that. Also, I was very scared. How could I talk of such a subject, firstly I'd never thought about it, never analyzed it. Never been asked about it. And could I talk about it without sounding conceited or arrogant? But I loved the challenge. The road from thinking about getting to today, being in front of the camera and analyzing what happened to me, how it was, how I felt about, how all these steps in my career happened to arrive where I'm standing now. And, truthfully, I enjoyed it a lot. And I liked it and hope you will understand. That I'm trying to step back from who I am and simply explain it like a spectator that sees each step. Because at 15, nothing, absolutely nothing, would lead you to think that I would make it, at all, in basketball, absolutely. I was no child prodigy, at all. I was no Lebron James, or Messi or Scola o Nocioni in basketball. Already at 15 it was known that they would eventually play on the national team. My case was very different. I was very thin, very small. The only thing that made a difference, that might make a difference, but did not make me different, was a great passion for what I did. I really loved it. Also at 15 my brothers were pros. They lived off basketball. I did not want to be less than them. So from that moment on, I began to dedicate much more time to it. I started going to the gym. Started pushing my mom to get me a dietitian to try to grow and develop better. I star watching videos of basketball. And, as soon as I finish seeing the videos, bam! running down to the court to try to copy them. But I remember that I played games and when I finished I returned home, either happy for having won and played well or sad and depressed for having done badly, but I self-evaluated in the mirror. I stood by the shower and yelled at myself: "You hack!" Or, "What a disaster! That's how you're going to make it to the National League?" Or, "That's how your going to be like your brothers?" And I was tough on myself. But if things went well, I sort of cheered for myself. Encouraged myself. Said to myself: "that's the way to go!" So, well, all those hours I put in, dedicated to, basketball little by little bore some fruits. I felt I was growing a little, more developed. Started jumping a little higher. And at 18 I get the chance to become a professional basketball player. I went to play in La Rioja, with many doubts, obviously, like any 18 year old kid going 1500 km away from home. But with many doubts I make it there. Full of enthusiasm. Very happy to be following in the footsteps of my brothers and living off basketball. But I still did not believe I had it in me. I did not believe I had anything that made me different. I played some games, all-in-all I did well, but nothing made me stand out above any kid of my age playing in the National League. Barely some traces or things that hinted at a transformation that might make me into a very good player in the National League. But not much more than that. The next year I go back to Bahia Blanca. Go back to Estudiantes de Bahia Blanca. And that development slowly continues, but I feel it. Little by little things come more naturally. At times I have great games were you see things that a few months before I did not believe I could do. But there is a key moment that year, it is a chat with a foreigner that played with me, that had played in the NBA. He had played 2 or 3 years in the NBA. He sits me down and tells me; "You have to go to USA. You have to study in an American university. if you go and spend 4 years there, you'll end up in the NBA." I look at him like saying "Impossible! This guy wants to be my friend or something, says it to motivate me or make me feel good". There, in '97, comes a very important step in my career that was playing the first World Championship. And although I did well, we had a great championship, it was a great success, still I did not feel different in that environment. Moreover, I was nowhere near the best player nor a team leader of that national squad. But when I was back, knowing that I had been part of the National Team, knowing that I was among the elite of the kids my age of the whole country, its like, within me, a change began. Mostly of self-esteem, in confidence. So I played what would be my last season in Argentina with a lot more confidence. Holding my head a little higher. Immediately I set myself two clear objectives. One was to play in the adult Word Championship next year, at age 21, in Athens. And the other was to emigrate. Try to measure up against players better than me, to try to raise the bar. Its like I thought that in Argentina I had done what I wanted to do. I accomplish both objective. First I go to the World Championship and then to Italy. In Italy it's all slow progress, step by step. Because I arrive to play in the second division in Italy. I don´t start with what would be, I don't know, Milan in football. The next year we make the cut to rise. So now I'm playing in First Division. I feel that I'm still standing out, that things that are different happen to me, but I still think this is because it was a small team. A team... the typical surprise team where, yes, I stood out because it was a group of players with slightly more limited talents. But the next year along come the, supposedly, best team in Europe and buys me off this team, buys my contract, from this smaller team. And then its like, yes, I'm where I wanted to be. A team with chances of being champions. A team with great players. In which I was going to, at the start, have a minor role. I'm not saying that I would never play, but I wouldn't be a starter nor have the weight in the game that I was having in the second division team. Obviously. But there is where the biggest quality jump of my career happens. We were champions, I remember, of the Italy Cup; that is a minor cup, but local. Afterwards, of the Italian League. And after that, of Europe. At that moment, happens what had happened 3 years before by saying: "that's it, I'm here... this is what I came for. I came to win a championship, to improve, to compete with the best, but those that are now around me are not better than me". I considered myself part of the elite of the European Championship. Then, the next step, natural, and the only one left, was the NBA. And then it happens. The San Antonio Spurs come along - they had picked me a couple of years before - but decide to hire me. And, well, I arrive in a totally different world, that I had seen only on TV until a few years ago, which I really did not expect to reach or be a part of. But, well, it happened to me. There it was, and I was not only going to take it. But I wanted to improve. I wanted to succeed and do it well. For the first time in my career, that year, I was in trouble. I could not get the continuity, regularity of play, that I thought I could have. I was carrying many physical problems. I had got hurt in the World Championship, in 2002. And each time I got some playing time, I got hurt. And, also, I simply had a very limited role. I got my orders, I had to stand in that corner and wait for the play, do this, do that, but I did not feel I was giving the game all I had within me. So these were 3, 4, 5 pretty complicated months, during which I never lost confidence in myself, I knew that with time it would come, but I was getting a little impatient. The truth is that, yes, by nature, I'm impatient. But well, towards the end of the season things start changing slowly. I notice in my teammates and in the coaching staff a growing trust. At times they started giving me 25 or 30 minutes on court. Closing games. They set some play for me, so that I could call it. And that started to make me feel good. But, I tell you the truth, at this level I start again to feel what I had felt before, saying: "I don't know, I'm missing things, I don't know if I have what it take to become a great player in the NBA or to stand out, rise above the average". Something that did start to happen during the next two years. But above all for one single fact. A key landmark in my career, in Argentine basketball and in the history of Argentine sport, that were the Olympic Games of 2004. What I felt, and what my team felt in that moment, is unique. Cannot be repeated to any athlete that has not been in that situation. I get goosebumps right now just remembering. And all we went through generated a superlative confidence. That is, after winning that Olympic Championship, after celebrating with my teammates, its like I returned to the NBA with a totally different mentality. Knowing that I had nothing to prove. I was Olympic Champion with my Argentine team. We had eliminated the USA and there was nothing I had to prove each day. It was not like the year before. So, with that calm and having got rid of all that pressure I start to play more relaxed. I start to feel the recognition not only of my teammates and coaching staff but also of the rivals. And that changed much within me. It change much because when you play already knowing, and with that respect you do it in a more relaxed and confident manner. So, from there many things started to fall in place. Once again we won an NBA Championship. I was named All-Star, that is the elite; the 24, theoretically, best players in the NBA. So that, if it was unthinkable to play in the NBA, imagine being part of that group. So I started to notice that too many things had happened. This could not be chance. And that there was something. So I started thinking, or really, I think here now too: What was happening? What was there? Why me? Why me? Had I worked much harder that the rest? I'd think not. Because, yes, I had worked hard, but not more than the others. Talent, is the word I came to. The word they kept telling me. A lot of talent. But, What is talent? Or, How many talents are there? So I got to think and yes, the talent I had at 20 was very dificult .. very difficult! .. very different from what I later added to my game. I, with the rough talent I had at 20 was possibly the same one I have now... would not get me anywhere. One had to keep adding things. So I came to the conclusion that, after all my experiences with teams, that there are many talents. A very important one is to set oneself objectives. Set an objective and not be distracted. Not wander around but go for it, identify it, and do everything within your reach to achieve it. Another important talent is to understand what is happening around you. What does your team need? What is your coach's idea? What is missing? What can you add so that your team can give that jump in quality? Well, identifying all that and being able to supply it. Another important thing is to know, at certain times, to give up the personal spotlight so your team wins. So, I can be, me or anyone, 30 points for the team and enjoy it because, its true, its fun. Entertaining. But when you give the next step maybe you have to score 10 and be a decoy and pass to you teammate so that you teammate is happy too. Another important talent is what I just said is enjoying playing with your teammates. No always thinking about yourself. But be happy when I pass and my teammate scores. When I see that a rookie that plays with me is growing, and is developing into a better player. Because beyond feeling good and altruism, it helps the team. The better my teammates are the better my team will be and the more chances I'll have to win. And last, but not least, is to understand your limitations. There are times when you just can't. You can´t do it all. Even if you think you can, sometimes you can´t. There is a team that is better. A strategy that is more important than you shining. And I have been lucky, possibly, in all my teams of playing with some of the best players with uncommon talents, not those that are seen in the spotlight, but that were the first to volunteer to defend the best rival. That were the first to fight it out inside when the match got rough. And that the thought never crossed their mind that they would be the subject of the post-game interview. That the fans chanted their name. That was not the objective. The objective was to make the small contribution for their team to win. And then enjoy it together. I think that those 5 that I mentioned are what brings it all together to make a winning team and a complete player. They are very important things to make a difference with the one next to you. Some players have one and its enough. Others have three. Others have all five and are the ones that make a difference. But are not stuck on the feeling, on the idea, that talent is only making the pretty play. Because it isn't All this I just explained is what helped me stand out in the world of basketball. Something I've dedicated, basically, my whole life to. But, regrettably, has an expiry date. An expiry date that is not 65 or 70 like a lawyer, an accountant or any worker. My maximum expiry date is 40. Where are normal person that studied basically is just getting started. How do you face that when I know a new life starts, a different life outside sport, where I've never been? A life without the adrenaline secretions or the type of emotions I've lived before. But that's normal. They won't be there How can I repeat the feelings I had when the final whistle blew in Athens and I hugged, almost crying, my friends and teammates of the National Team enjoying a gold medal? Impossible. How can you repeat the tingling in the stomach, the pressure I felt, before the game number 7 against Detroit in the 2005 Finals knowing there were 20.000 people watching in the stadium, plus more than 100 million watching at home on TV. and I knew with certainty there was no tomorrow, that I could not fail? The winner would party. The loser went home down-headed. How can you repeat that? You can't. How can you do that at 40 when you made it simply, to the mid point of your journey? How will the second half of my life be, when I know that absolutely nothing I do from now on will be even remotely similar to what I've done before? To what I did before: at 30, at 28, at 32. How can I stand out, be noticed in whatever I do from now on? And what makes me think about it most is: Do I really want to? Thanks.