For All The Marbles (My Game 7 Pre-Game Speech)

"We started from the bottom now my whole teams here!"

Cut that Drake down and gather around! Gentleman, this is the day that you've dreamed of your entire lives. You can't slow it down because God is consistent! He will only give us the same twenty four hours today that he gave to us on yesterday. So we must cherish this moment and take full advantage of the opportunity while it's in front of us.

You've dreamed of playing for an NBA title since the day you picked up a basketball. Now you've been chosen out of the millions of cats that started on this journey with you in Biddy Basketball. There have been others that have  possessed far more talent, athletic ability, style and charisma. Well maybe not! After all, you are the best players on the planet and you're here for a reason! You shouldn't be surprised by that because boyz have been telling you how great you were since the 6th grade.

You have been predestined to run out of this locker room to show that world that you are the best team in the NBA. Now that you're here, what are you going to do with the opportunity? It's not just enough to show up, bring your camera or recorder and soak it all in. You're not here to make memories tonight. You're here to build your legacy one block, steal, assist and bucket at a time! So it's business as usual fella's! What are you prepared to do with this opportunity?

I've always told you that championships are not won of game day; that this is the culmination of events. This championship was won during the off season when the other teams were having a good time and you guys were putting in work. When you were 12 years old and everyone practiced for two hours and went home and you decided to stay and shoot 100 more times everyday. When you made the commitment to work on your inadequacies when most boyz didn't even know what that meant. It was won when everyone was asleep and you got up at 5am to run 5 extra miles daily just to make the high school team.

The trophy was being engraved when you decided that you weren't going to let others tell you what you couldn't accomplish. Your ring was sized the day you cut off friends that weren't going in the same direction that you were going way back in middle school. The banner was immortalized in the rafters the day that you bought into our mission. When you decided that individual success wasn't good enough for you. That being a part of a team was more important. Every diamond in the setting of that ring represents the sweat that you've put in everyday of your life just to get to this moment.

The elite few that can unlock the combination will become Champions! Bo Schembechler always said, “Those that stay will become Champions!” Vince Lombardi expressed it this way, “We will relentlessly pursue perfection. However, it’s impossible to be perfect but in the process we will find excellence!” Aristotle said it better than any of them when he recited, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act but a habit.”

So as a result fella's, this Game 7 is just a matter of formality. It's just another part of what we have to do to unlock the door to becoming champions.

Who's got the intestinal fortitude to play 48 minutes like it's your last to decide this thing? In so many cases they say, "We don't have to be the best team, we just have to be the best team for 48 minutes." Well, that's not true because the best team always win the NBA championship. There are no flukes at this level, only champions!  

 

 Nothing has changed for tonight's game. The court is the same 50' in width and 88' in length that it was in Game 6. The goal is still 10' off of the ground. The refs are still the same guys from footlocker and you're still the greatest players on earth. If you can remember that when you run out of that tunnel, you'll return as winners and will have the honor of being called a Champion forever!

However, if you allow the moment to get too big, you'll fail miserably and no one is going to care that you're depressed as a result of it. If you allow the fans to dictate your emotions you'll be humbled like never before. Your legacy is at stake. How do you want to be remembered? Now turn the music back on and let's ride! "We started from the bottom now my whole teams here! Started from the bottom now we here!"

Holla At Ya Boy!
Coach Graves
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The quote under the caption isn't real but its REAL talk!