If You Want to Change Your World, Change the Way You Look At It: The Example of the NBA's Draymond Green

For anyone out there that struggles to do what they know they should do... but for whatever reason, they never end up doing it (like me)... look no further than Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors as inspiration.

On occasion I like to dip into the sports world for my posts. At the beginning of this basketball odyssey that is the spring of 2019, I wrote about the likely #1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft Zion Williamson. The man is just about one of the hardest working dudes in the sport. But even then, his work ethic pales in comparison to that of Draymond Green.

And yet, just imagine, if the man could just contain himself as much as he contains most other basketball stars on the court, the Warriors might be pursuing an amazing 5th straight championship right now. That's because Dray lost his mind a few times in his epic Finals tangles with LeBron. Yes, LeBron deserves his Cleveland ring for perhaps the most amazing performance of any one player in a single season and postseason ever, but The Block in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals might not have ever happened were it not for Dray losing his cool in Game 5 that year. That being the case, one could easily make the case that Draymond Green's temper cost his team a championship.

But now, just look at how Dray has been performing! He has managed a triple double in fully a third of his team's playoff games. And since the disputed best player in the NBA (that would be KD, now that LeBron is the whiny de facto GM of the Lakers) went down with injury with 2 games left to go in the quarterfinals, he has been absolutely instrumental to his team's success.

And at the beginning of the year, many people were calling him washed up, advocating for a trade so that the Dubs could be assured of keeping their Freak 3 (Steph, Klay, KD) together. But now it's plain to see: The engine that keeps the Warriors purring is Draymond Green.

Image from GQ article "Draymond Green Talks About the Evolution of His Style"

How'd he turn around his season at the perfect time?

Well, according to a recent ESPN article, Green attributes the majority of his recent success to lifestyle changes prompted by his mother and fiancee sometime around his birthday on March 4, just three short months ago.

He just got rid of all the guilty pleasure food - potato chips, alcohol, fast food. That kind of thing. And you know he's rich enough to have a baller chef, so he just listened to those suggestions. And compounded that effect with NBA-level trainers. If you aren't familiar with how well-regarded and rigorously outside-the-box the Dub trainers are, you can read this article. I barely even understand it. But the Warriors' management seems to be applying the same quantitative acumen that helped them outperform in the hedge fund industry to the basketball world. And it's paying off.

The Golden State Warriors have won 3 out of the last 4 NBA championships and are now competing in their fifth final in five years.

So even after he resumed his svelte figure, Dray continued on the training regimen that got him there. There have been amazing benefits beyond his physical body.

Green notes,

"When I went on this diet, it's like a sense of control, and it's confidence because you feel like you're conquering something. You're defeating something every day. Having that control, it carries over to other areas in your life. We all love to eat. We all enjoy the things that we enjoy. If I can conquer that and not do that, why can't I conquer my emotions, too? Well, maybe I can f---ing conquer my emotions! Maybe I can conquer anything else! And so I think honestly that has really helped put me in a different state."

We'll see if it will be enough to defeat Kawhi Leonard and his Canadian dinosaurs. But given that the majority of the Golden State starting five are injured, its Finals MVP 6th man is basically playing on a busted wheel, its backup center is out for the series, it turned out to be paramount that Draymond make these changes for the Warriors to even have a chance at picking up this 3-peat.

We should all take solace in the fact that mindset changes can have such dramatic impacts on our lives. If we want to take advantage of what the best life has to offer, we need to learn to be able to control our emotions and direct our energy towards positive outcomes that benefit ourselves, our family and friends.

As always, PEACE! ✌🏼