Shane Battier has won everywhere.
Over his 13-year career in the NBA, he not only achieved back-to-back championships, he was also a six-time divisional winner of the NBA Sportsmanship Award and was named an NBA Teammate of the Year. Previously, he played four years at Duke, winning the 2001 National Championship and taking home more than one Player of the Year awards.
But if you ask him, he’ll tell you that everything he knows about winning, working hard and being a good teammate, he learned in kindergarten.
Battier grew up in Birmingham, Mich. The son of a black father and a white mother, he was “mixed, tall and poor.” His one wish was to fit in, and he found that he did—at recess.
Battier joined teams on the kickball court, the sandlot and, of course, the basketball court. And he learned that when he helped his friends win, they wanted him on their team. He kept that lesson with him as he continued on to become an NBA champion.
Battier’s extraordinary career has been filled with many ups and downs, and at my annual Thermostat Cultures Live event, he shared several of those and the important takeaways he drew from each. Here are highlights.
On his mindset of consistency…
I’m from the Midwest. My dad ran a small trucking company for 40 years. It wasn’t necessarily a job he loved, but he did it so he could provide for his family. I grew up with that same blue-collar, assembly-line mentality that signifies what the Midwest is all about. My basketball career, my school career, my family career, my social career, my philanthropy career is no different. You show up, you work your tail off, you have a beer at the end of the day, you kiss your babies goodnight, and you do it all again tomorrow. I don’t know if I’d be here today if I wasn’t from the Midwest and had that mentality. It’s a consistency. It’s about the standards, not of what other people expect from me but for what I set for myself. No one knows me like me. My dad told me, “When you look in that mirror, only you know if you’re giving everything you can in that single day.” That was the best lesson my dad ever taught me.
On Duke basketball and setting standards…
Everyone asks me, “What’s Coach K like?” He’s a master motivator and one of the toughest people I know. He never said our goal was to win the championship. It was implied that was the goal. The goal was to play Duke basketball. And if we play to our standards, wins follow. It’s about your standards and the process and the journey, not the end result. There were times when we lost a tough game, and we were expecting fire and brimstone. And he said, “Guys, I love you. We played Duke basketball. Next play.” There were other games where we’d beat a team by 20. And Coach K would come in and say, “This was not Duke basketball. We should’ve won the game by a lot more.” We had to do more drills the next day because we didn’t play to Duke basketball standards. It became habitual. It’s not about the scoreboard—it’s about how are we playing, communicating, supporting each other, executing.
On the most important lesson Coach K taught him…
The lesson he taught us every day was the power of the next play. He always said that most people waste so much time and energy lamenting their mistakes. So many people waste their energy saying, “Oh, I missed that shot. I’m no good.” Instead of getting back on defense and getting the ball back. A lot of people have the other problem. When they hit that awesome shot, they say, “Oh I’m pretty.” And they point to the cameras and the cheerleaders and their mom instead of getting back on defense and trying to do it again. Because the most important play at any given time is the play that is right in front of your face. And the people who have what he called the fastest “next play speed,” the people who could go on to the next play—whether the previous result was good, poor, indifferent—and attack that next opportunity with a discipline, energy, enthusiasm, focus and passion, those are people who are successful in basketball and life.
On playing with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, AKA The Big Three…
There was a lot of fanfare when the Big Three got together. They were talking about multiple championships, and when that didn’t happen, they took a lot of heat for the lack of rings. So I was lucky because I knew if I went there and we won, I’d get a lot of credit for that. But in fact, I went to a team where the hunger was just unbelievably palpable from the first day. It was the first time in my career where every single person, from LeBron James on down to Eddy Curry, sacrificed money, opportunity, years, shots, playing time to be on the Miami Heat. That’s a unique team atmosphere not every manager is lucky to face. When everyone is sacrificing something, you’re all rolling in the same direction. And that was our theme from day one: sacrifice. If this doesn’t go right, it’s on all of us—not just one person. It’s funny how it works out, because we had a really good year, but we were down to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. We were down 3-2, playing game six in Boston. Everybody knew what was at stake. If we lose this game in Boston, The Big Three’s a failure, and we all have new homes next year. But we win the game and go on to win the NBA Finals. And everyone says, “I knew they could do it.” People forget about it after you have success. To have success, you’re going to find at some point, there’s going to be a line where it could go south really quickly. But if you push through it, you’re hailed as something special and new. And the fact is: no, you’re just performing to your standards.
On retirement—and finding a new scoreboard…
I was a retiree at 35 years old. And while that sounds awesome, for me, it was really a new day and sort of a rude awakening. For the past 25 years of my life, I knew what time the bus left, how to dress and how to act. I had a scoreboard every night. Did I win? Did I lose? Did I overachieve? Did I underachieve? I knew exactly where I stood at all times. And if I didn’t know, the media and the fans were there to tell me as well. There was a comforting monotony about that. When I left, I had saved my money and I was as prepared as anybody to transition. I took a job at ESPN, and I quickly learned that I was not cut out for TV. So I left ESPN and was around probably too much. I was just looking for an outlet. I had lost my tribe, my colleagues. I felt alone, and it started to affect all of my relationships. I was a jerk to my wife, my kids, my dog. I was just surly. It was that search for meaning. My wife lovingly said, “OK Shane, I’m going to give you three options here. You can call the Marriot, you can call your attorney, or you can call this psychologist and life coach I found for you.” I’m not a very smart man, but I chose option three. I started a journey of self-realization. I found that as is the case with most athletes, we’re self-made people. As the stakes got higher, I started to build walls around myself. I didn’t allow anybody in to help me when I needed it the most. And that was a story that as I talked to people who retired, they felt that isolation. What I realized is that I gain amazing strength from collaboration and people. Even though my career was based upon the work and the shots and the weight room, really my success stemmed from making my team better and the energy that I got from being part of a successful team. So even though I’m the VP of Analytics [for the Miami Heat] now, I still look at myself as that person using data in other ways to make people better, not just as a basketball player but as a person. It’s given me an amazing purpose and focus going forward.
On the one thing he does daily…
I was one of those guys that said, “Meditation? No way.” But now I call it my hour of power. I wake up every day, and I meditate for 20 minutes, I work out for 20 minutes, then I reflect and write in a journal or read for 20 minutes. That gives me a spiritual breakfast to start my day right. I feel full and I can help my kids get off to school. I go to work, and I’m full, and I’m able to give of myself and be a servant. It starts with the mantra I write: I’m an empathetic person and I make people better. It’s something I repeat every day. It’s amazing to remind yourself of something every single day. Don’t assume that you even know why you’re here. To write it and to read it every single day—guess what? You become that person.
On what he loves about Thermostat Cultures…
It’s about intentional connection. Everyone wants to be part of something. Even if most people can’t verbalize the need to be a part of something larger than themselves, when they see it and feel it, people are elevated. So it takes people to articulate that. We can give you what you crave—that intentional, social connection, but here’s the game plan. The more we can learn and collaborate amongst industries and ethnicities and people, we’re making people better. It’s about making people better.
Want more Shane? You can listen to my interview with him in this episode of The Thermostat. Thanks for listening, subscribing and sharing.
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