The Duke Blue Devils made an impressive run to be this year's NCAA National Champions in men's basketball. They only have eight guys (scholarship players) and four of those are freshmen. Add to this that during the course of this season a notable player in Rasheed Sulaimon was dismissed from the team. Not only was he a scholarship player, having been sought out to play for the Blue Devils, but he was also the first ever to be dismissed from a Coach Krzyzewski team.
The anguish Coach K must have felt to dismiss a player. The potential impact on team chemistry a move like that could have. The field-day the media may enjoy as they pounce upon a team and program everyone "loves to hate" (thank you Christian Laettner).
And yet, they won the national championship.
I'm not a Duke fan or in this moment becoming a Duke bandwagon fan. What I am intrigued by is a principle or lesson to apply.
While we can never say whether the dismissal of Rasheed Sulaimon from the Duke team propelled them to greatness (read Luke Decock's article here), there's good reason to suggest that the difficult and hard decision to cut a player from the team benefited them in the long run.
What cuts need to be made from you life? Is there a bad habit to be removed, a destructive thought-life that needs to be disciplined, or a negative-influencing relationship that should be ended?
If you are leading a team, whether athletics or business, is there a team member who refuses to get on board? Does one person spoil the morale of the whole team? Have you tried to encourage and work with them to no avail? Could it be that a difficult and hard cut needs to happen for the overall health and work of the team?
As important as putting the right things in place in our lives is to achieving success, so too is learning to cut the wrong things. Learn to cut.
The anguish Coach K must have felt to dismiss a player. The potential impact on team chemistry a move like that could have. The field-day the media may enjoy as they pounce upon a team and program everyone "loves to hate" (thank you Christian Laettner).
And yet, they won the national championship.
I'm not a Duke fan or in this moment becoming a Duke bandwagon fan. What I am intrigued by is a principle or lesson to apply.
While we can never say whether the dismissal of Rasheed Sulaimon from the Duke team propelled them to greatness (read Luke Decock's article here), there's good reason to suggest that the difficult and hard decision to cut a player from the team benefited them in the long run.
What cuts need to be made from you life? Is there a bad habit to be removed, a destructive thought-life that needs to be disciplined, or a negative-influencing relationship that should be ended?
If you are leading a team, whether athletics or business, is there a team member who refuses to get on board? Does one person spoil the morale of the whole team? Have you tried to encourage and work with them to no avail? Could it be that a difficult and hard cut needs to happen for the overall health and work of the team?
As important as putting the right things in place in our lives is to achieving success, so too is learning to cut the wrong things. Learn to cut.
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