Something that has become clear to us over the years in the work that we do, is that athletes - by their own admission - often appreciate the life they HAD after they retire, more than the life they HAVE while they are still playing.
Often times athletes find the public demands and responsibilities that go hand-in-hand with being a high profile performer are, at best, frustrating. Demands from ownership/management, coaches, fans and media seem to become at times expectations that simply cannot be met to everyone’s satisfaction.
Sometimes an athlete simply does not understand or fully appreciate what those demands and expectations really are - and how best to deal with them.
Fair or not, this often leads to broken relationships with fans, media and coaches.
Sometimes only after they are out of the limelight, do these athletes fully appreciate the ‘celebrity’ that they had achieved; that they were ‘someone’, that people seemed to ‘care’ who they were and what they did.
In short, they not only miss the camaraderie of their teammates, the competition…they miss the attention, the limelight.
Not everyone, certainly. But many athletes are known to reflect - years after their retirement – on how much they miss just about everything about the game. They even miss some of the things they complained about when they were still playing.
Ironically, it is some of the same athletes who were uncooperative with fans and media, who hope to land plum media assignments when their careers are over, as a way of soothing the transition away from the game, and so as not to lose all of the many ‘perks’ associated with being a high-profile athlete.
Given their previous attitudes, that is not always easy to accomplish.
It is also true, unfortunately, that some athletes only realize after the fact—too late, often-- that the media, for example, does not have to be the enemy.
One of the finest basketball players of all time is former Milwaukee Buck and LA Laker legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who entered the NBA more than 30 years ago as Lew Alcindor, out of UCLA.
While a brilliant performer on the court, the now Hall-of-Famer—despite often presenting as a thoughtful, articulate and sensitive individual—did not seem to carry that brilliance off the court. His relationship with those around him, including the fans and the media, it was often reported, was strained, at best.
Interestingly, Jabbar has struggled to find what many would see as his rightful and logical place in the game. He has long desired to be a Head Coach. He was for a short while an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Clippers during a troubled time in their history a few years back, but has apparently never been offered a top job either in the NBA, or at the NCAA level.
He now enjoys a position as a Head Coach with a minor-league club in the United States.
In reflecting upon his life and career during a recent conversation with ESPN.COM, Abdul-Jabbar spoke of what the game means to him now. His comments are quite revealing:
“It’s kind of an opportunity for me to give something back to the game, and to get something from the game, through teaching it, that I had no idea of. Being an administrator, dealing with the fans and the players and the owners and the press differently than I did in the past. You know, I was great on the court, but I wasn’t too good in those other areas.”
When asked if this was something he was conscious of trying to change or turn around, he replied, “No, it’s just…I can be better at it. I understand now what it means and how to do it. Reporters used to ask me the same inane questions year-in and year-out, city-to-city, and it would drive me crazy. But I understand now that there are people who are just coming into the game, and they have no idea, and that question—whatever it is—at this point, is very new to them. While it’s decades old for me, it’s new to them, and I have to understand that that’s something I can give them”.
Most of us, as we age, acquire through life experience a kind of wisdom, along with a respect for the job that others do—or have to do. This wisdom sometimes allows us to understand things we did not try to understand before.
Much like not appreciating something—our health, a friend—before it is gone, we sometimes wait until late in the game to put ourselves in other people’s shoes.
For many current athletes, Abdul-Jabbar’s comments are worthy of reflection. It appears as though one of the greatest talents of his generation recognizes now, in retrospect, that his “off-field” demeanor did not match up well with his on-court performance. He struggled “beyond the game”.
And as importantly, he seems to be acknowledging that maybe it would have been better had he looked at things a little differently earlier on.
