Chris Paul is one of the brightest stars in the National Basketball Association, a must-see player with the New Orleans Hornets whose deft ball skills and eye-popping speed have attracted admirers all over the world.
Tony La Russa is considered among the best in his business. Yet nearly half the time he led his organizations into competition, they were defeated - 2,728 wins, 2,365 losses.
Those who have the ability as African men to bring a change in a community that so desperately needs it are concentrating only on their own careers, some charities, and how much money they can make.
Marino was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005, and his name always comes up when the conversation centers on the greatest quarterbacks of all time. But his greatness comes with an asterisk: He never won the Big Game.
I listened to my kids talk about me as a parent, and I learned about things they wished I'd done and said. And I wished that I had done more of those things.
Dungy, head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, has long believed that he, his staff and players should be as devoted to family time as they are to playing time, as focused on giving to charities as they are to taking the ball away from opponents.
That's one of the great oddities of baseball: Success is relative. A hitter who fails 70 percent of the time at the plate is a potential member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and many World Championship teams lose more than 70 games during their title-winning seasons.
Most coaches would consider leading a team to an Olympic gold medal a capper for a pretty good year. The same goes for winning an NCAA national championship. Or a FIBA world championship. Mike Krzyzewski, head coach of the Duke Blue Devils and Team USA, led teams to each of these honors... within about 24 months.
Martin Luther King was a misguided leader. He worked to be recognized as the leader of black America, when what black America needs isn't a leader - it is education. Giving speeches and marching - that's not the concept that brings about real freedom, equality and justice.
Magic Johnson was in the seventh year of his Hall of Fame career when thoughts of his basketball afterlife led him to the office of uber-executive Michael Ovitz, co-founder of Creative Artists Agency, Hollywood's most powerful agency.
In sports and in business, the greatest leaders are those who make the best decisions in the most crucial of situations. They are the ones who focus their energy on turning tough decisions into winning decisions.
