Letters to a Young Athlete

I started it. I'm not really a book finisher, but I started it and I wanted to start the interview with the chapter on the gift of hunger.

Go check out Chris Bosch's new book. It's called Letters to a Young Athlete

you're writing a book yeah about writing a book it's a working title but essentially it's it's kind of like one of the the working title is letters to a young athlete

To go from, hey man, we can't wait for you to play to being radioactive, it was quite an experience.

I thought the hardest thing I had ever done was win an NBA championship. It turns out that winning a championship was much, much easier than coming to terms with the fact that I'd never play basketball again.

It was like a part of me died. It was like a piece of my life was cut from me, stolen, taken before it's time.

It didn't end the way it's supposed to end. He said, it never does.

And then you get into the real world and you're psychologically tormented and people are telling you, ah, you good.

Chris and I talked books. Chris and I actually did a book together, which I always recommend to people called Letters to a Young Athlete

And the last person I wanted to talk to is the one and only Chris Bosch, who I was lucky enough to work on a book with a couple of years ago called letters to a young athlete.

you can check out his book letters to a young athlete, which is all about the importance of putting everything into what we do, even when it's tough.

stacks of another awesome book that I was looking up to work on letters to a young athlete by Chris Bosch who's like coach sends all the recruits, coach will send the recruits in here or players who are having trouble and he'll specifically say you know give him this book from Ryan or this book from Chris

I did this book with with Chris Bosch I did a I wrote I helped him write a book called Letters to a Young Athlete

I did a book a couple years ago with Chris Bosch called letters to a young athlete I feel like there's not enough good books out there for like young people who have potential and have ambition where someone kind of lays it out they're like this is how I did it this is when I learned words at all right like because you're this one doesn't end with like you crushing it right it ends you coming out of that first restaurant not not succeeding the way you wanted but also not giving up

To me the definition of stoicism is that you don't control what happens, you control how you respond.

failure is not trying. Not even trying, just saying whatever excuse you give yourself not to try.

I hate the term losing builds character but it kind of does you just don't want to make it a habit?

You know were you able to come out of that a little bit closer? After the loss yeah for sure.

You quote Kipling in the book to treat winning and losing as the same impostor.

and I said could you please find a way to have me to let me have Chuck Losterman on who's just one of my favorite thinkers and writers about music, about history, about pop culture, about sports.

To me the definition of stoicism is that you don't control what happens, you control how you respond.

Quitting is not an option.

failure is not trying.

Everything you go after, you're going to take some lumps, you're going to take some punches, you're going to get knocked down.

I hate the term losing. It's just not going to make it a habit.

at some point in your childhood, you and your friends went outside to play together for the last time and nobody knew it.

my last game in the NBA was against the Spurs on a Wednesday night in February. We didn't win. We didn't play particularly well. It was a pretty ordinary day and an ordinary season in the history of the league.

I think the book that came out of it, Letters to a Young Athlete, it's a fantastic book, honored to have been a part of it. I think it's got the legs to go the distance. I think it's relevant if you're a coach, if you're a parent, if you're a young athlete, if anyone is trying to be great at what you do, I think there's a lot you can learn from it.

Just like I learned a bunch from reading Letters to a Young Jazz Musician by Winston Marsalis or Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke, even though I'm not a poet or a jazz musician.

I think he really delivered the goods and I was lucky enough to just arrange it and put it all together.

You can check out his book Letters to a Young Athlete of course at Barnes & Noble.

It's a funny thing with competition. It's something else about knowing that sometimes your best just isn't good enough and taking that challenge and accepting that if you come up short of your goal. Win or lose, there's always something to learn.

I was very excited and honored to get to work on with him.

It's been weird how my books, which are ostensibly totally unrelated to sports in any way, have managed to make their way through all these locker rooms. Because coaches are looking for things that will improve their athletes personally, professionally, mentally, spiritually. And I said, why isn't there a book of letters to a young athlete?

I said, what are all the things that you wish that you knew when you were coming up in the league and how can people benefit from your experiences?

It comes out this week. It's incredible. I was so impressed with Chris every step of the way he inspired me.

Here's the new book, Letters to a Young Athlete. You gotta read it.