TV shows - The playbook - A coach’s rules for life

https://curiouslog.com/the-playbook-a-coachs-rules-for-life/

The Playbook – A coach’s rules for life from Netflix

These life lessons, as shared by some of the greatest sports coaches of our times, and are as true in the corporate world as they are on the sports field or our individual lives.

What’s even more interesting, is that each of these life lessons are presented with a story from their lives.

Given the level at which these coaches operate – i.e. when the stakes are really high and you are coaching the best in the world – the lessons have so much more punch and relevance.

Doc Rivers ( Basketball)

NBA coach Doc Rivers shares the unifying philosophy that inspired Boston’s championship team and discusses his response to Donald Sterling’s racism.

1. Pressure is a privilege (what a way to shift our mindset – from stress to gratitude)
2. finish the race (dream big and see it through)
3. you will not be a victim ( Life will throw surprises, step out of the victim mindset)
4. ubuntu – I am because we are (how do we build a team)
5. champions keep moving ahead

Its all about whats good for the team

Every time I walk in the locker room for the first time, I tell my players every year, and I’ve told them for 21 years, I'm Doc Rivers, and I'm human. And I'm gonna make mistakes.

Having said that, every decision I make will be about what’s good for the team. You’re trying to determine what’s gonna happen. You don’t know what’s gonna happen. And that may not be what’s good for you or me. But if it’s good for the team, it’s good.

The morning hike

My mornings are like clockwork. You know, I get up and do my sit-ups, push-ups, the old-school way. From alarm clock to car, I have it right at 30 minutes. I’m a man of routines, as far as preparation. When I was young, every day, that was my routine.

I like getting to the office before people get there. It’s nice being quiet.

Dream big and see it through

I practiced every day, I played every day. By the way, I never called it “practice.” I hate that. When I was a kid, I never called it practice. Like, if someone asks me where you’re going, I always say, “I’m going to play basketball.” I don’t ever get this “I’m going to practice” thing. I guess… I don’t know, it just… Basketball’s a game and I love it. I never viewed upon it as some torturous thing. Someone asks me, “Where you going?” I’m going to play.

It’s funny. Every time I go home, one of the older people will… they talk like I’m not in the room, but they’ll say, “Glenn was different as a kid.” I remember being in school, first grade, you couldn’t wait for the bell to ring, so you can run home and get ready to go to the game.

At these games, all the kids would play under the stands and chase each other and play tag, and all that. Other than me. I sat right next to my mom. You know, I wasn’t fidgety like kids, normal kids at that age. And I would just watch.

Finish the race

That year, the teacher asked each kid to write on the board what they wanted to be in life. And I wrote, “I want to be a pro basketball player.” She immediately grabbed the eraser and erased it from the board, and told me to be realistic. “Lower your goal, put something else up on the board.” And so I walked back up to the board and I wrote, “Okay, I want to be a pro basketball player.” And she erased it again and said, “We’re gonna send you home.” My dad walked me right back to school, and my dad said, “You’re doing horrible in school, you don’t listen, you don’t pay attention, you’re always goofing around. And the teacher’s right. You’re not gonna be that, you’re not gonna be anything.” But right before we walked in the door, he said, “Hey, listen. It… It’s a great goal.” But he said, “Whatever goal you have, and right now it’s too early, but when you do finally settle on one, just finish the race.” And it was the greatest part, ‘cause I walked back into class and the teacher told me to write on the board, and I wrote, “I wanna be a pro basketball player.” All the kids started laughing. The teacher looked at my dad and my dad… and walks out. That was a good day.

Love for the job and life sacrifices

I love my job. This is my 34th year and I’m still saying that? It’s worth it. Absolutely love my job. To be good at my job, you absolutely have to create and make some pretty tough life sacrifices. I’ve had four kids that… five, we adopted one. I miss a lot of their stuff, because I was working. Sometimes I miss their stuff and I was there. I was just at their event, but my head was thinking of 21-down twists and what we should be doing. And it’s hard because I was very close to my parents. First of all, I had two parents, and I lived in a community where all my friends only had one. And I know that there’s no way I’m here without my parents.

Don’t feel bad for yourself. Move on

My mom, tough woman. Like, she was the one, over anything, to teach me to move on. Sprain an ankle. “Eh, you’ll be fine.” You lose a game. “Get up, you’ll be fine.” Like, she did not like you feeling bad for yourself. She just didn’t allow it.

You’re not gonna be someone else’s victim

Her and my dad had this no-victims mentality. Like, you’re not gonna be someone else’s victim. You’re just not.

Donald Sterling, the owner of the team that Rivers was coaching, was caught on tape…making racist remarks about African Americans. The recording:

[Rivers] So I was told that, “Hey, there’s a tape out. Uh, don’t worry about it, it’s no big deal.” So, I thought it was no big deal. The day of the tape release, our PR guy comes to me and says, “Do you want to go look at it?” “No. No, thank you. No big deal.” Finally, he sees it and he says, “You need to go see this.” Unfortunately, when he said that, it was when it was coming out. I ran upstairs. We’re in the middle of the playoffs. And I’m watching, just like you were watching, live, at the same time.

[V. Stiviano] What's the issue?

[Sterling] The issue is, we don't have to broadcast everything.

[V. Stiviano] I'm not broadcasting anything.

[V. Stiviano] What's wrong with minorities? - What's wrong with Black people?

[Sterling] Nothing, nothing. There's nothing wrong with minorities. They're fabulous!

[V. Stiviano] And it bothered you.

[Sterling] I'm just saying, in your lousy fucking Instagrams, you don't have to have yourself walking with Black people.

[V. Stiviano] I saw someone I admire. - I admire Magic Johnson.

[Sterling] Okay, good. And I'm just saying that it's too bad you can't admire him privately. And during your entire fucking life, your whole life... Admire him, bring him here, feed him, fuck him, I don't care! You can do anything. But don’t put him on an Instagram so the world has to see it so they have to call me. And don't bring him in to my games, okay?

The news broke out in the media: We’re following a developing story this hour, that connects American sports, society, and culture. The National Basketball Association is investigating what it calls “disturbing and offensive comments,” apparently made by a team owner. Explosive allegations on the eve of the Warriors’ playoff game, against the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers.

[woman] Let’s boycott and don’t go!

[Rachel Nichols] I think a lot of people around the NBA are horrified, and it does have an impact on the Clippers. Doc Rivers, one of the most respected coaches in the NBA, one of the smartest coaches in the NBA, it puts him in an incredibly awkward position. Who wants to feel like the person that you work for might feel this way about you? It’s awful.

[reporter 6] Coach, as of this morning, how would you judge the psyche of your players after the…

[Rivers] I really have no idea. I mean, honestly, just being honest, I don’t know.

[Rivers] And I was shocked. I was mad, I was upset. You know, the first thing I thought was, “I knew I shouldn’t have come here, I should’ve stayed in Boston.” That crossed my mind, you know? But I was here. You know, from a coaching standpoint, you’re concerned. They, you know, they’ve been pulled in a million directions. We had a practice, and I didn’t know what to wear. I mean, that’s so stupid. I kept putting my Clipper jersey on, my shirt that says, “LA Clippers, Coach.” Uh… and I took it off… ‘Cause I didn’t know, like, what I should do. Like, I didn’t have any education in this situation.

[reporter 7] The Los Angeles Clippers are in the middle of the playoffs. Sources say the players are furious about this.

I decide to put it on, I’m the head coach. Wear the shirt. And I walk in and all the players have theirs off.

[chuckles] So, okay, I got this one wrong. I knew that immediately.

And I start talking, and the players are all with their arms folded. If you’ve been in a room talking and there are arms folded, the talk’s not going well. Like, you… you gotta know that. And… I always carry a blue pad, with my notes. And I put it down, ‘cause this was gonna be an off-script talk. And I said, “Okay. My name is Glenn Rivers. I’m from Maywood. I’m Black.” And they start laughing. I said, “No, I… I am. I’m… I’m a Black American. And you see me as a coach and something that represents the Clippers, and you don’t see my blackness right now.” And I said, “If anyone in this room think you’re more upset than me, let me tell you about me. And let me tell you the things that have happened in my life.” You know, being called “nigger” in grade school and in high school, and living in a segregated Chicago, watching race riots. When I was married to my ex-wife (a white woman), we had “nigger” written on the car, her tires were slit. Skinheads broke into my house in San Antonio and burned my house down.

And so I told my team that my mom and dad right now would be screaming at me, “We are never going to be victims.” I said that a lot during that whole episode. I said it publicly, and to our team. “We are not going to be a victim, and we are not gonna be a victim. We are not gonna be a victim.” I said that over and over. I told them, whatever they decide, it’s up to them. “We will not play if you don’t wanna play.” And I said, “But I will tell you this. When I was a little kid, and I was in the backyard, and I was shooting hoops by myself, and I was making that fake crowd noise every time I made the game-winning shot…” I said, “Fucking Donald Sterling was not in one of those dreams. He was not. And I’ll be damned if we’re gonna allow that guy to get into my dream and end that.” I said, “So, it’s your choice. But Donald Sterling wins if we don’t play.”

Deal with adversity and keep going

That’s adversity that we didn’t want, but we have it. We have to deal with it. So, I think the biggest statement we can make, as men, not as Black men, as men, is to stick together and show how strong we are as a group. Our message is that we’re gonna let no one or nothing stop us from what we wanna do. We decided to play.

[Rivers] Uh, we’ll deal with it internally, uh… but we’re not gonna share it with anybody else. We gotta decide what we’re going to do as a group. I’m gonna tell you now, I’m speaking on behalf of the team, so the players are not gonna deal with this issue.

[Rivers] And my whole fear was that one of my players would say something, that then they became the story and the spotlight went off of Donald. And I needed that light to stay on him. I needed him out.

[reporter 8] Even President Obama weighing in. When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don't really have to do anything, you just let 'em talk.

[reporter 9] The Clippers’ players have chosen to play, rather than boycotting Game Four against the Warriors. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t make their feelings known. Players symbolically shed their warm-ups in unison as they took the floor, in an act of public solidarity.

[Rivers] We created our own protest. You know, the players came up with the protest of taking their jerseys off, and having them inside out. I didn’t even know that. They came up with that. And, you know, you got race-baiters out there who want crazy stuff to happen. I’m glad the players played. That was an emotional, tough stretch, for me and our team.

[commentator 3] Going to each and every member on the bench, here.

[Rivers] Maybe 45 minutes’ sleep over the last couple of days.

[commentator 4] Doc Rivers has navigated his team through an emotional four days.

[Rivers] You’re put in scenarios. You just do ’em. You deal ’em, and you’re gonna get some wrong. I’ve learned that you’re not gonna get every one right. So what? You gotta keep going.

[Rivers] Don’t get me wrong. You learn. You don’t forget. But you can’t ever be a victim. You know, I think, when people see me now, they always make the assumption with all of us that’s had any success, that it’s all good all the time. And we know that’s not true.

Ubuntu is a way of life

Before the 2008 championship, the Celtics have really struggled. They had one of the worst road records in the NBA.

[Rivers] When I took the job with the Celtics, I knew we were gonna be bad and I knew I was gonna have to sustain some hits. But I thought we could make it work.

[commentator 6] It’s been a bumpy road here in Boston. Just getting absolutely pounded.

[Rivers] People were scrambling to get me fired. Lots of people pushing for me to get fired. And Danny Ainge believed that I was a really good coach. And he never wavered from it.

[commentator 7] Just a heartbreaking loss for this team.

[commentator 8] Well, get used to it.

[Rivers] And then, that year, all of a sudden the stars line up and everything works out great. We pull the trade off, and now we have Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen. But the concern was that all three were leaders, and so I knew that my work would be hard. And I remember sitting in my office, and I told them, “If we’re gonna win, we’re gonna have to sacrifice. You’re gonna have to change. If you want to shoot every time… wrong team. If you wanna do whatever you want to, wrong team.” And that was the challenge. Getting them to buy in to being a team. I was a trustee at Marquette, a board member, for 17 years. And I was sitting at the end of a long board meeting that we had been going over public safety. And at the very end of the meeting, a lady walked up to me and said, “Doc, your team’s gonna be amazing. Have you ever heard of Ubuntu?” And I obviously said, “No. Uh, Ubuntu, what the hell is that?” She wrote the word down. She says, “I’m not gonna share it with you, but I’m telling you, you need to look this up and study it. It’s not a word, Doc.” She kept saying that. “It’s a way of life. It’s a way of living.” And I bet she said that over… “It’s not a word. Look the word up and then become it.”

[Desmond Tutu] We have something in our African community. Something that is very difficult to put into English. It is… It is called Ubuntu. Ubuntu.

[Rivers] And I went back that night, and I looked it up. Six in the morning, I am still on the bed, with papers everywhere. I said, “Wow… it’s perfect.”

[Tutu] Ubuntu is the essence of being human. And it says, a solitary human being is a contradiction in terms. I have to learn from other human beings how to be human. A person is a person through other people. I can’t be all I can be unless you are all you can be. I can never be threatened by you because you’re good, because the better you are, the better I am.

[Rivers] This is what saved Africa. You know, Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela… basically preached this word.

[Mandela] We are all South African. Now, this is the time to heal the old wounds and to build a new South Africa.

[reporter 10] Moving forward as one country, Mandela joined hands with his white vice president, a man who once supported apartheid.

[Rivers] And I broke this word down and all these different parts, and how I could implement it to the team. And I chose… The rookies would be the perfect messenger. I said, “Okay, I’m gonna teach you this word, and I need you guys to sell this to the team.” I kept saying, “This is not a joke. This is for real. This is… You guys are gonna get up in front of the team and this is not playtime.” They did it with passion, they did it with a little bit of humor, they did it with swag. I said, “All right, guys, great job.” Everybody started clapping. And I said, “All right, let’s put our hands in.”

And Kevin Garnett says, “Ubuntu on three.”

• One, two, three…
• [all] Ubuntu!

And… that was it. That was the word. Our team started living Ubuntu.

[commentator 9] Paul Pierce has waited his entire career for a team like this. And he is putting on a show.

[Rivers] If you brought something on the plane, like some food, and you didn’t bring it for all the players… I remember I had a burger that I walked on, and Tony Allen walks… “Oh, man, you’re not being Ubuntu. You know, just for you? What about us?”

[Mike Breen] You can just tell early, this team really seems to like each other.

[Jeff Van Gundy] They realize that you can’t do it alone. You’ve gotta have a group around you that can play.

[Rivers] I mean, they lived that word. They talked that word, they lived that word. It was perfect, it was unbelievable.

[reporter] Tonight, you were superb defensively. What did you like on that end of the floor?

[Kevin Garnett] Not me, we. I was where I was supposed to be because somebody else was where they were supposed to be. And if we’re gonna win, that’s how we’re gonna win.

[Rivers] Early in the year, at, like, six in the morning… I got a call that my father had passed away. And so, we had a team meeting at ten. And I got up in front of the team and I said, “Hey, guys, um, I gotta go. I’m not gonna be there for the game tonight, and I’m not gonna… Uh, I’ll try to make it back for the New Jersey game, uh, but my father passed. And I told them a long story about my dad, you know, and what he meant to me, and… He really had, like, this simple approach to life. Work hard, stay out of trouble, don’t quit. Bad things are going to happen in your life. And none of us want that to happen, but they do. And I flew out to go home.

[reporter 11] Coach Doc Rivers not with the team today. His father passed away this morning, in his hometown, Chicago.

[Rivers] I remember watching the game at my mom’s house, with my brother and all my family members. And at halftime, I got a call from Kevin Garnett. And he said, “When you’re sad, I’m sad.” I get emotional talking about it now.

[commentator 10] Their last time-out, 7.1 seconds.

[Rivers] Late in that game, Thib draws up a good play.

[commentator 11] Pierce gets it in. Ray Allen for the game! - Knocks it down!

[Rivers] Ray Allen makes a shot in the corner, and we won at the buzzer. And they’re celebrating in the middle of the court like they had won the World Championship. And it was all for me. And all about Ubuntu, and that’s all… Every interview, that’s all they said. And for me being at home, that meant so much to me. I don’t know, that day, you kind of knew that… that word was actually real. It wasn’t just a word, it was a way of life. And that’s when you knew you had more than a team. That group was destined to win the title. You… you felt that.

Pressure is a privilege

I don’t think you should run from a legacy, or run from pressure, or run from expectations. I think you should run towards it.

[commentator 12] And the buzzer goes off, it’s all over! The Boston Celtics are once again the World Champions.

[Rivers] You don’t get into a lot of pressure situations in your lifetime.

[commentator 12] Eight straight World Championships.

[Rivers] If you can put yourself into a pressure situation, - you’ve worked for it, you’ve earned it. Embrace it.

[commentator 13] The Boston Celtics - are the NBA World Champions.

[commentator 13] The Celtics have won their 13th NBA…

[commentator 14] With their 14th flag…

[commentator 13] Fifteen World…

-Their sixteenth NBA Champion…

Another banner will be hung from the rafters at Boston Garden.

2008, we get all those guys and… That was a pressure situation.

Whenever you walk in the… You saw these 16 banners.

There’s no division banners, there’s no conference banners. There’s only championship banners. And they were, like, staring at you every day, like you’re not worthy. That’s how I felt. Like, every day you walk in that arena, “We haven’t done that.” You’re letting them clear, and you’re dribbling as hard as you can to this elbow… I remember thinking one night, “What can I do to get our guys to focus on those banners?” That they have not accomplished anything.

At JFK and at Martin Luther King’s burial site, they have the flame that never goes out. And so, I knew I couldn’t have a flame, so I came up with the light. I said, “Listen, I wanna put a light in the facility that can never go out.” It’ll be a spotlight on the wall at the Celtic facility. There was all this… And there was this one bare spot… that looked like, if we did win, that’s where the banner would go. So, I put a spotlight on that spot, where the 17th banner would go. We’re having a practice and I asked our guys at the end of the practice, had they noticed anything? And the only guy that noticed, surprisingly, was Tony Allen. He said, “Yeah, Coach, I don’t know what the hell’s going on, but there’s a spotlight that’s shining up there.” I said, “Yeah. Yeah, and it will never go off. And that’s the only focus we’ll have, and that’s the only thing we’ll play for.”

I had no problem with embracing that, and I wanted my players to embrace that as well. I think, pressure’s a privilege.

You know, why are we playing? Why are we doing what we’re doing if we’re not trying to be successful? They saw that every day, every practice, that light was shining on that wall. I wanted our guys to understand, like, “We’re the Boston Celtics, and all we do is win.” I think you can play your whole life and never have a pressure situation. Who wants that?

And you should feel privileged that you’ve worked hard enough to put yourself in that situation.

• [Rivers] You should embrace it, you should enjoy it, and you should understand it’s hard, and all that. That’s a privilege.

Muhammad Ali was my idol growing up. Look at me now. Don't tell me that ain't a perfect specimen of a man.

[Rivers] I’ve watched every fight. People think if you’re the champion, that you don’t get hit. And it’s the exact opposite. Champions get hit over, and over, and over. You know, it’s just that the champion is the one that decides to keep moving forward. It’s how many punches can you take and keep moving forward until you can win.

This is why coaches are crazy. Because they have to be. To… to be a good coach, you have to get your players to believe you believe you’re gonna win the next game. Come on, guys! Keep fighting.

When I was a kid, my goal early on was just to beat my brother. He was big, strong, he was a heck of a basketball player, and we played a ton of one-on-ones, and it used to be, like, 32 to zero, 32 to four, 32 to eight. We’re right there, but we gotta make plays. I figured, if I’m gonna beat him, I needed to get up, keep fighting, and keep moving forward.

I kept saying, “Six less. It’s 24, let’s get to 18.”

To me, that’s what you learn, in life, and in everything, is to keep moving forward. You get hit, you can even get knocked down. Get up, and keep moving forward.

I need you to come up. Six less, let’s get to 12. We gotta pick up our defense a little bit. Once we got to 12, I said, “Let’s get to eight.” Once we got to eight, “Let’s get to four.”

When we cut it to two, Jack Nicholson said from the sideline, he yells out to me, “We are dead men walking.” It was my favorite comment of that whole series. He knew it before everyone else. He, like, yelled out, “Hey, Doc, we are dead men walking.” And I was… In my mind, I was thinking, “You sure are.”

[commentator 21] Well, the Celtics with one of the greatest comebacks in NBA playoff history.

And I remember, after the game, it taught me a lesson.

Whenever you try to win a title, you have to put your heart on the line. That’s the whole thing.

They were ready to win, you could see that, that group.

[commentator 19] The Celtics are dominating the Lakers, in every way there is to dominate.

[Rivers] They were playing for each other. It was beautiful to watch. The sacrifice to win a title.

Don’t coach them for who they are. Coach them for who they should be someday.

[Rivers] I always looked at coaching as a competitive side. That all of this is me winning a title and me winning and the team winning. And then you realize, it’s really so much more than that. You get pleasure in watching young men grow up. You watch them mature, you watch them improve as players and as people. And you feel like you’re part of that. Some of the advice I got was completely wrong when I first started. “Don’t get too close to them.” Who… Whoever… That’s awful advice. Yeah, get close to them. And the reason they said that is ‘cause you’re gonna get your heart broken. They will let you down. Some do. So what? Your job is to coach ’em. Your job is to make them better players, better people, better teammates. How to be tough, how to be compassionate, how to be a good winner, how to be a good loser, if there’s such a thing. I haven’t learned that yet. It teaches you life. You know, and I tell them, “I’m not gonna coach you to who you are…” That’s how we fight back in a game. “…I’m gonna coach you to who you should be someday.”

Jill Ellis ( US women’s soccer team)

Soccer coach Jill Ellis touches on two World Cup titles, talks about supporting her players and tells an important story about being true to herself.

1. mountaintops are small and air is thin (not just about how you become the best, but stay the best)
2. hold fast , stay true. (Taken from Navy. Hold fast – hang on during rocky times. But believe in yourself)
3. risk is opportunity
4. be true to yourself
5. if you want to be heard, make a statement (references the equal pay protest)

I don’t know how people feel, but I think when you’re a coach, it is always easy to be the underdog. You know, it’s always easier to be the team that’s hunting, rather than the hunted.

[haunting piano music playing]

[man] Remarkable what this team has been able to do over the past few decades, actually. There have been eight Women’s World Cup tournaments, and the US has won half.

[Jill] It takes special coaches to always thrive in the role of being the person who’s being chased.

[commentator 1] For the 6th straight year, the US women’s national team is ranked number one.

You’re high in the rankings and everyone’s gunning for you. You’re not sneaking up, there’s a target on your back.

[commentator 2] Under Jill’s leadership, UCLA has become one of the winningest college programs in history.

It’s how you measure success.

For some, they would just kill to get to one final four. You know, I’d been to eight.

[announcer] Goal for UCLA!

But yet, that internal piece was like, it’s not enough.

[commentator 3] This was the big test for the USA, and they’ve come through it. It’s got to be better, better.

The women of the US soccer team are world champions again.

[Jill] When you are on the top, the challenge is to make sure you are competing and evolving against the best version of yourself.

[news anchor] The women’s national soccer team cements itself as one of the best soccer teams of all time.

Whether you’re number one in the country or the world, you have that attitude and mindset you got something to prove.

• [commentator 3] Carli Lloyd!

• Put your seat belt on, enjoy the ride.

[intense instrumental music playing]

[commentator 4] A new era for the US women’s soccer team.

Former assistant, Jill Ellis, has just been promoted to head coach. Ellis takes over a team brimming with talent, that sits at the top of the world rankings and won a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics. So, the big question on everyone’s mind is, will this coaching change disrupt a team poised to continue winning at the World Cup this summer?

When I took the team over in 2014, it’d been 16 years since we’d won a World Cup. But we were ranked number one in the world and we’d just recently won an Olympic gold medal.

[commentator 5] Japan versus United States. US will try to become a 3-time winner. Lloyd, with Morgan streaking, she’s chipping the goalkeeper! Hat trick for Lloyd!

[loud cheering]

The drought is over, the US wins the 2015 Women’s World Cup!

[Jill] So, nobody was surprised when we won in 2015.

Jill believes in every single one of us. We had a game plan. We started off a little bit slow but we finished stronger, that’s the important thing.

And after my first year at the job, we were, you know, world champions.

USA! USA! USA!

[Jill]And feeling good about ourselves.

I know you know this.

This is a remarkable group of women, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.

But when you are on the top, really the competition becomes yourself.

Every day, so far, it feels great to wake up as a world champion. That feeling won’t get old.

[cheers]

[Jill] That’s when you see failure in sport.

And, I think if you want to sustain excellence, it’s not about being the best, it’s how do you stay the best. I think it’s critical. You have to push the envelope, evolve, get better.

A year after World Cup, we had to get ready to play in the Olympics in 2016, in Brazil. And I remember the first meeting I had with the team in 2016.

All right, welcome. Great to see everybody. Excited that you’re here.

I’m very visual. I put up an image of a mountain peak.

I said, “Congratulations, we are on top of the mountain, you’re world champions. It’s fantastic. But, mountain tops are small and the air is thin for a reason. You’re not supposed to dwell on top of the mountain. It’s rented space. You get up there, enjoy the view briefly, and must climb again.”

But what I’ll also tell you, it’s not gonna be this. Many have been on this journey, it’s sometimes this.

It was an important message, because no team had won a World Cup and then followed it up by winning the Olympic Games. I was trying to re-center them, refocus them, you know, find our humility and really now go and march towards, um, the gold medal in Rio.

[commentator 6] Welcome to the 2016 Summer Olympics, where the US women’s national team will try to build on recent success as World Cup champions by capping the summer off with a gold, here in Rio. But to do that, they’ll have to get past this scrappy Swedish side here in the quarterfinals today.

Before that quarterfinal with Sweden, I remember thinking to myself, we can’t just show up. You know, we have to make sure we’re staying locked on and focused.

[whistle blows]

[Jill] We were a very athletic team, but we struggled.

[commentator 6] Haven’t cleared it. It comes towards Morgan with left foot… It’s blocked. Desperate defending by the Swedes. It is a siege at the moment of that Swedish goal.

Now, did we have opportunities to win? We did.

[commentator 6] Mallory Pugh, also Carli Lloyd, on the left foot! Oh, it’s deflected!

[Jill] Not our best football, and, at the end of the day, we went to penalty kicks.

[commentator] It comes down to this.

Dahlkvist… wins it for Sweden!

[loud cheers]

And the United States go out in the quarterfinals.

[crowd cheering]

[Jill] We finished the lowest we’ve ever finished in a major event. It’s hard to know what to say, ‘cause you can’t comfort them, because nothing’s gonna make it better at that moment. It was a massive wake-up call for me, and the team.

Something I firmly believe is share your success, own your failure.

I shouldered the responsibility. You have to, as a coach. And there’s no bigger in-your-face lesson than losing.

[Julie] This US team should beat that Sweden team, and that’s what’s gonna be so frustrating for US players, because that loss just burns and burns for years.

[Jill] It very clearly showed that success is never resting on your laurels. And someone’s always gunning for your spot.

The bar at the national team, it’s so high. The expectations, demand.

Second place, not good enough. Not even making the medal round is kind of unforgivable.

So, I think I came out of there incredibly disappointed. Frustrated. So, I knew I had to do something very quickly.

[Jill] The way Sweden had defeated us was almost going to be a blueprint for other teams. They were smart, they eliminated our space.

[commentator 7] Rapinoe making the run to penalty area, she may get there! Her run initially was blocked off by Lisa Dahlkvist.

Compacted their team, they sat lower on the field. Essentially making the space harder to find. Harder to penetrate. Harder to take advantage of.

So, I think what the game showed me was, we need to have more players that could operate in between lines.

[Jill] That’s a certain profile of a player. So what I decided was, we have to have a hard reboot. And, at that point, I said to the players, “We are going to do something new, something different.” So, this failure is now an opportunity for us to explore and bring new players in, find more players, and add to the depth. I said, “It’s going to be uncomfortable, hard, it’s going to be stressful, but we need to get better. And I need you to understand and buy in to this process.”

We’ve been talking a lot about the new faces to this lineup.

[commentator 8] The US has brought in a younger squad in this tournament.

[Jill] I was cutting people.

Numerous changes for the USA.

Lowering contracts, leaving people off of rosters.

[commentator 9] The other night, the US made three changes. They’ve made five here.

And I felt we needed to play the hardest schedule we’ve ever played.

And we were losing.

[commentator 10] And right now, the US is just making poor mental decisions.

It was a very challenging period. It was tough.

[commentator 10] This isn’t how they hoped they’d be at 70 minutes in.

[loud cheers]

Great to see a lot of young faces on the field, and with that said, we don’t like excuses.

And when you lose, that opens the door for criticism.

[commentator 11] As a fan, I’m happy to see Jill Ellis committed to this experimental phase, but as a former player, it’s frustrating.

[reporter 2] You look back on what you need to do, what comes to mind, first off?

First off, I… I just think about chemistry on the field. I think about the fact that we’ve had so many different, um, starting elevens in the last year or two, and, um, I think the team needs to start gelling a little bit better.

Certainly the hardest moment was when my two captains met with me, um, and said, you know, some of the players have some concerns.

[reporter 3] And speculation on Jill Ellis’s job security grows, as poor performances continue and frustration mounts on and off the field.

That’s hard, you know? It’s hard for any coach to think that players are at that point where they want a change.

A ton of people were like, “Are you afraid of losing your job?”

I said, “I’m not coaching to keep my job. I’m coaching what I believe.”

Years ago, a Navy SEAL shared something that has stayed with me, and I appreciate him giving me this gift. What he said was that the Navy SEALs… when they go into tough situations, their mantra is, “Hold fast, stay true.” And it came from years ago, when a storm was raging and the waves were lashing. The sailors had to actually hold on to something that was connected and tied down to the deck. And then, the person at the wheel had to stay true to the direction, even though they couldn’t see stars because of the storm. And so, the concept, “Hold fast, stay true,” was their mantra.

You can’t get into coaching if you’re pandering to the critics, or even to your players. You’ve got to have this sense of self that this is what you believe.

[commentator 12] Here we are, championship of the 2018 Tournament of Nations. This US team has shown growth in recent matches. Let’s see if they can pull out a victory against a strong Brazilian team.

It was a maelstrom, the storm that was raging. I had to block everything, block out the noise, and keep the belief and the faith in myself. I remember, when we played against Brazil…

[commentator 12] US has to win this game by two or more goals to win this tournament.

[Jill] …and I remember, Brazil scored first.

[commentator 12] Brazil is on the board! Did it go off Davidson?

[commentator 13] She scores an own goal.

We sort of went on this march, and we started to see it kind of come into focus…

[commentator 12] Horan… went short. Lavelle! Goal! One-one!

[Jill] …and pay us back.

[commentator 12] Heath, gets end line, slots it across… Ertz, goal at the back post!

[commentator 13] Jill Ellis talked about the importance of the US using that advanced half space coming into tonight’s match against Brazil. Finding joy in it!

[commentator 12] Rapinoe curls one in! Tapped home! Alex Morgan! Four-one, US!

I thought it was a good reflection of the blueprint of how we wanted to look.

[commentator 12] Game over. The US wins the game and the tournament.

[commentator 13] They continue to get better. They managed this game incredibly well.

Everybody left the field going, “Okay, it’s really starting to click.”

[announcer] Your 2018 Tournament of Nations Champions, the United States of America!

[people yelling]

Thank you.

[people whooping]

• [woman] Congratulations!
• [man] Jill, thank you.
• Feel all right?
• Yeah.

[Jill] After the quarterfinal loss against Sweden, I made incredibly hard decisions.

You are gonna have a lot of time on the ball, so make sure…

I could’ve lost my job, but, you know, I think in life there’s gonna be storms. At times there’s gonna be, a lot of distraction and disturbance.

You ready, Shorty? You’re gonna be awesome.

And you have to hold fast, stay true to what you believe.

[Margaret] My goodness, do you remember this?

• I do.
• I wish the date was on it, no date on it.

[Jill] Based on my handwriting, I’d say it was last year!

[laughs] That’s very true!

• My handwriting sucks.
• Very true.

This is what you done when you were little.

[Jill] It was happy Father’s Day.

All the things you scarred me with, Dad.

[Margaret laughs]

[Jill] My mother was born in Scotland, my father in England.

“Standing on the back stretch of the 800.”

• Oh, we’re talking Portsmouth.
• When I was an 800-meter runner.

And back in the day, England would play Scotland in this classic, you know, massive gladiator match in soccer, football as we called it. I remember, as a kid, my brother would always cheer for England, so he’d have the England scarf, the England badge, and I would sit there as a kid and they’d plaster Scotland on me, Scotland stuff! Just so we’d be balanced in my family, you know. It was, um… So Mom wasn’t kind of isolated three to one.

[whistle blows]

[commentator 14] McQueen went in and the referee has given a penalty, has he?

I just loved it. I love football.

Remember when I told you I was going to play football?

You were like, “What?”

Remember my first high school game? You were hurling abuse at the referee!

[laughing] Oh, yeah, that was fun days.

I grew up in the south of England, you know, following my dad around football pitches, but girls didn’t play back then. It wasn’t, um… It wasn’t a sport that women were playing in England.

I remember my dad coming home one day and saying he was offered a job in the US.

Over there, even young girls played soccer.

And my mom and dad were like, “Listen, you can stay and do your education, or you can come with us.” I’m like, “Hell, I’m going.”

[laughs] “Fuck it, I want to get to America!”

So, the red team is gonna be Malcolm, Bob Eagles…

[Jill] When we moved to the US, my dad worked as a coach, and he would train guys to break into the pros.

[John] …Walter…

[Jill] And I love sport. In college, I played soccer, but I never saw sport as a career. In fact, when my classmates would say, “What does your dad do?” And they are, like, attorneys and bankers and, you know, doctors, et cetera. I almost spoke out the side of my mouth, “He’s a coach.” Because I didn’t even kind of see it as a “true” profession.

I came out of college not knowing what I was gonna do. So, I got a job as a technical writer for a company. Did that for about two years and I was… I was feeling pretty good about myself. I had a little Acura and was making a little money. You know, salary was, like, 40K, something like that. I was doing all right. I was lead writer so… I was kind of rolling in it. But then, one of my former coaches from college, she’d gotten a job at the University of Maryland. She called and said, “I’ve got this job, it’s a second assistant coaching position, $6,000 a year. What do you think?” I was kind of like, “Oh…” At the time, it was not a viable career path. You saw very few… Especially in soccer, there was hardly, if any, female coaches. And then my mom, she kind of felt I was sort of throwing my education away, and a little bit crazy. And it was a hard decision to make.

[Jill] I loved the atmosphere around the game of soccer. I love being part of a team, and I needed to make a decision.

[John] Hold it there. Now, look, there it is, you see? A little more patience, okay? All right, let’s play. Let’s go.

I’ve never felt something was a be-all and end-all situation because that’s how I view risk. I see risk, actually, as opportunity. I don’t kind of define it as something that’s scary. My dad, he has said to me, he’s like, “If you’ve got some ability and a good person, you’ll always land on your feet.” It’s not about how much you have in the bank, it’s about, do you enjoy it? I mean, I loved it. I love everything about coaching, so I followed passion over paycheck ‘cause… it was one of those moments. At the end of the day, it was the best decision in my life.

Every ounce of that risk was worth it.

I always wanted to be a mom. I can’t say I always wanted a baby, but I knew I wanted to be a mom. And having Lily gave me perspective on what was important.

[reporter 4] The UCLA Bruins hired Jillian Ellis to take over their women’s soccer program. Ellis comes from University of Illinois, where she led the program to a 12-8 record and a first-ever Big Ten tournament berth.

[Jill] When I first took over UCLA, in the ’90s, I wanted to establish the program to be a top contender.

To exceed at a high level, it’s based on communication. It’s very much about building harmony within the group and feeling like one entity. You have to trust each other. But when you are not true to yourself, naturally there is going to be boundaries.

Hey. If you win possession, or you knock it out, whatever, you’re out, next person in. Simple.

Then, just everything in here, just make sure we’re light on our feet. Good.

When I was in coaching, obviously, I learned more about myself, knew I was gay. But always was very sensitive to the fact that I never allowed my players to know anything about me on a personal level. It was something that I was struggling with.

And when you go into the world of athletics as a female, it was not something that was accepted.

I didn’t know anybody that had, you know, dealt with this and had openly come out and been very successful.

[Jill] I remember watching Billie Jean King’s story unfold, and how cruel the world was if you were a gay female. It couldn’t be a part of sport.

[reporter 5] UCLA making its first College Cup appearance. Coach, a way to solve UNC pressure, get more possession in the second half?

[Jill] And then, at UCLA, um, I almost had two roles. I was a head coach, would stand in front of my team.

But then, I live still, essentially, in the shadows. It’s a different time, back then. Opening myself up like that could impact my career.

‘Cause if you’re in coaching, the lifeblood to what you do is recruiting. Especially in college. You get to know their parents in recruiting. You track their academics, you’re there for them. If you come out as gay, openly, then certainly your opponents would use this information, um, and hinder your recruiting, essentially.

When I was at UCLA… my partner and I adopted a little girl. When I held her, I thought about being closeted, and I didn’t want this kid to live in the shadows. I wanted her to grow into, you know, a strong independent woman, and not have to deny who her parents were. It became clear that this is just not gonna work. I want this kid to have everything, and I needed to make a decision. So, I decided I have to be brave. To be a leader, you have to be brave. Make hard decisions. I made the decision and I said, “I’m gonna tell my team today.” It was after training. I got the players, I said, “Come, I wanna share something with you.” And I just… I just said to them, I was like, “I, um, adopted a little girl. And, um, my partner and I are going to live as a family, and I wanted to share this with you guys, so, um, so you knew that and heard it from me.”

You kind of go… [gulps] “How is this gonna come across?”

And the players were phenomenal.

So joyous and so happy.

Their reaction gave me such confidence that I literally went and I was like, “Now I’m gonna go tell my boss.” [laughing] I suddenly got fired up. So, um, I literally then went from the field up to administrative offices, knocked on my athletic director’s door.

And he was great, he was fantastic.

You go through everything, from, “I’m going to lose my job,” to, “We’re not gonna be…” It was just so much.

But she was worth every… Every ounce of that risk was worth it. It was liberating.

It just took this amazing amount of pressure off of my shoulders. To now be this person who can stand front and center. I was there for 12-plus years.

And been fortunate to have the honor and the privilege to coach this women’s national team program.

And I couldn’t have done that if I didn’t decide to be true to myself. It was strengthening to me, to know that you can have a career, that you can be a strong female leader.

And you can also be gay.

When I came out…

I’ve been blessed with a lot of big moments in my life, in terms of emotion, but that was probably the greatest one.

Shared on the field with my players.

[soothing electronic music playing]

[commentator 15] The US women’s team is back together, and things start to heat up, with the men’s World Cup starting this week.

Women’s World Cup qualifying is just four months away.

[Jill] I think what I tried to do going into 2019 was, we can win this. We are, for sure, growing as a sport in this country, and we were… But I felt this could be a massive boost. We felt the team was in a really good place mentally, physically, and just, you know, ready to go.

And off the field, the players on the team started to speak publicly about finding balance in what the men’s national team got and what the women’s national team got. To have the same level of accommodation, same level of transportation. But also when it came to salaries.

The US women’s soccer team is taking charge in a major fight off the field, suing for fair pay, this just three months before they will defend their title at the Women’s World Cup tournament.

It’s not this sort of charity investment that we’re asking for.

Like, women have so much potential, and if you look at women’s football globally, there’s, like, a massive opportunity.

[Jill] It was an interesting situation to be in because it was my players here and my bosses here, and I sat there. It’s a challenging position to sit in the middle of that.

We might not see equal pay among athletes within our generation, but the hope is that future generations will.

[Jill] But if ever something was going to derail performance, then I think that’s a coach’s role, to potentially address that, change that.

But if it’s actually galvanizing your team, in some sense…

USA!

[clapping, cheering]

…I’m wholeheartedly behind that.

[crowd chanting] Equal pay, USA! Equal pay… We hope they get equal pay.

…equal pay, absolument.

I said to the players when the World Cup started, “The best way to build a platform to advocate for something is to win.”

[commentator 16] Teams making their way out onto the field as the US finally get set to open up play, here at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

First game was against Thailand.

[commentator 17] Here we go!

[Jill] We wanted to maximize points, the goal when you play that first game. So, we went into that game. You know, we came out just flying.

[commentator 17] O’Hara… chipping it. Back post header, goal! Rapinoe on the far side. Lavelle goes for goal and gets it!

• Scored some early goals.
• [commentator 17] Four-nothing!

Six-nothing!

Nine-nothing, US!

[crowd cheering]

Alex Morgan…

Ten-nothing, US.

Lloyd may get one here.

Carli Lloyd’s got it!

Thirteen-nothing, US!

It ended up, you know, 13-0.

Well, that right there, in and of itself, sort of, I guess, kicked off a lot of things in the media.

Controversy over how the women of Team USA celebrated over that record-breaking win over Thailand. Critics say the team showed poor sportsmanship by continuing to score, then celebrate, some calling Team USA’s behavior embarrassing, overboard, and disrespectful. That target they had on their back as defending champions, that just got a whole lot bigger. They have now painted themselves as villains and as bullies.

I disagreed with the criticism levied against my team. You know, equal pay started to come up into the narrative.

Yesterday was about the women’s team trying to prove their worth.

They weren’t playing to win a game, they were playing to win a lawsuit.

I’ll be honest. I sit here and I go, “If this is 10-0 in a men’s World Cup, are we getting the same questions? To be quite honest. This is a world championship, so every team that’s here has been fantastic to get to this point. And I think that to be respectful to opponents is to play hard against opponents. And so as a coach, I don’t find it my job to harness my players, and rein them in, because this is what they’ve dreamt about. This is it for them. This is a world championship.

[woman] Yay! USA!

[Jill] Even people outside of the sports world can connect, because it’s not about soccer players getting underpaid. It’s about every female in probably every profession is making 80 cents on the dollar. That’s global. What everybody realized is, if we go through this tournament and can achieve what we think we’re capable of, one, we’ll have a bigger platform, and maybe prove people wrong in the context of it. From there, the team was on a mission.

We had to play the toughest path, probably any team in the World Cup has ever had to face, in terms of ranked teams and opponents and playing the home team in a knockout round.

[commentator 18] …free kick from Rapinoe.

It’s in! USA lead! Ertz dummied it.

[crowd cheering]

The French were left completely befuddled.

Morgan across the goal, come all the way through. Rapinoe for two!

This was the big test for the USA, and they’ve come through it.

For our team to march through those, with just this steadfast belief on what the ultimate goal is, nothing was going to derail us.

[commentator 19] England versus USA, for a place in the final.

They don’t come much bigger than this.

[commentator 20] …dangerous cross in. Free header!

The opening goal of the World Cup semifinal! …cross from Horan. Lovely run, beautiful goal!

The USA lead again. Alex Morgan!

[whistle blows]

[cheering]

England are out. Beaten by the reigning holders, who are into their third World Cup Final in a row.

As the team went through and you hear, you know, the fans in the crowd chanting, “Equal pay.”

[crowd chanting] Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay!

[Jill] We didn’t want to live in the spotlight, but the exposure was getting bigger.

[commentator 21] …keeps going. Scores!

Surely the World Cup is heading back to the United States of America.

[commentator 22] They called this “Tour de Four,” their fourth World Cup.

They are, by some stretch, the most prolific and successful football team in the world.

[cheering] And it certainly created a global platform for the players to express themselves.

[crowd chanting] Equal pay! Equal pay!

[Jill] My players, they’re more than athletes. They’re a voice for women in the world.

Our team just became kind of this touchstone of, stand up and articulate what you want and why you want it.

I think it was empowering for a lot of females, not just in sport.

[Muhammad Ali] If I thought going to war would help my people receive their freedom, justice, and equality, you wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d go tomorrow.

[Jill] I always say sport is the vehicle for change.

[Colin Kaepernick] This country stands for freedom, liberty, justice for all. It’s not happening for all now. Time to look in the mirror, ask ourselves, what are we doing to create change?

[chanting] Equal pay!

As a coach, you can’t mute someone’s voice because they wear a sports uniform.

[playful piano music playing]

When I was stepping down, 2019, even though I never broke through and won an Olympic gold medal, I felt the moment was right. I’ve had best seat in the house for this team. It’s been a privilege and a pleasure. So, share the view that I’ve had with all those people out there that deserve to see the best of you.

When I was a young coach, I only set trophies, that was the thing that mattered to me.

Here we go, here we go. Yeah!

But my dad would say, “Jill, you’re destined for something bigger.”

• [Jill]By myself?
• [woman] Yeah.

[announcer] Jill Ellis’ 132nd and final game for the United States of America.

[crowd cheering]

I think, as much as coaching is about pursuing success and victory and wins, et cetera, what I’m truly gonna remember are those moments that made me feel alive.

[commentator 23] The final game of her victory tour…

[Jill] I was able to showcase how far the women’s game has come. I think that’s important.

[commentator 23] Carli Lloyd!

If there’s one message I want to pass on to my daughter, it’s “own it.” Own who you are, be proud of who you are. Stand up for what you believe.

[commentator 23] And that concludes Jill Ellis’s marvelous, amazing career.

Back-to-back World Cup-winning coach.

When I became open in who I was, I found my purpose.

I’m going to miss the shit out of all of you. You are unbelievable people. I will always be a fan of you as a person and as a player. So, all the best. Good job.

• Thank you, Jilly!
• [all cheering]

[Jill] Soccer is not a sport, it’s a gift. And this sport gifted me my family. and for that, I’ll be forever grateful.

Jose Mourinho (football)

A deep passion for competition propels soccer manager José Mourinho, who details his battles with the media and methods for motivating winning teams.

1. understand your audience
2. if you are prepared for the worst, you are prepared
3. the underdog attack
4. some rules are meant to be broken
5. the train doesn’t stop twice
6. don’t coach the player, coach the team. They already know how to play. Teach them how to play in that team.

[interviewer] If you closed your eyes and think, what are your earliest childhood memories? [Mourinho] Don’t want to speak. [interviewer] No? [interviewer] Were there any sort of early experiences that helped shape your philosophy? [blows raspberry] Don’t want to go there. [interviewer] Okay. I’m trying to get at, where did you learn things that became valuable to you later in life? [Mourinho] Me. [interviewer] What was it about you? [Mourinho] I don’t have to speak about other people when I was the fundamental thing on it. So, why should I speak about other people? [interviewer] Okay. Why not? [Mourinho] I don’t know. Please don’t call me arrogant, because what I’m saying is true. I’m European champion. So, I’m not one of… of the bottle. I’m a… I think I’m a special one.

[commentator 1] The one and only José Mourinho. A man whose name has become synonymous with winning. You don’t win big things with nice guys. [commentator 2] José has won 20 titles in ten years, across four countries. If football was Hollywood, then José Mourinho would be George Clooney. [Mourinho] Please write what I say, not what you want me to say.

If you’re not a journalist or a referee, José can be a nice guy.

[José] You are asking about the game. Do you think the game was like you are saying? [reporter] No, I didn’t say what I think. I’m asking you what you think. I’m sorry… [José] I don’t like to go to the press. I don’t like press conferences. It’s part of my job. [José] Click Google instead of making stupid questions. You say the same thing twice in ten minutes. You think I’m deaf? [José] I’m going to meet you every time after the game? [reporter 2] Is that okay? [José] Fuck’s sake!

Maybe it’s better to be politically correct. Maybe it’s better to tell what people… expect you to tell.

Why are you so pessimistic in life? It’s more difficult to succeed. Maybe it’s better to be, like we say in Portugal, like these guys that… they dive into the pool, they leave the pool, and they are still dry. Never wet. But that’s not me at all. Even before I dive, I’m wet already.

[Mourinho] Nobody asked me my team. Do you want to know my team tomorrow? So why don’t you ask me? [reporter] What’s your team tomorrow? [Mourinho] Too late. I’m sorry.

I have always felt that football is a religion. It’s not a sport. There is no place in the world where… people is not in love with football. Since I was a kid, I dreamed about football. And I fell asleep thinking about football. I’m from Setúbal, Portugal, a small, beautiful city on the sea. My father was a football player when I was born. And then, later became a football coach. I wanted to be a football player. I tried, but… I was not good enough. I was not good enough. I didn’t have the talent. But I felt since very, very early that I had… a special talent to be a football… a football coach.

[woman in Portuguese] Beautiful day in sunny Porto.

From the football pitch, FC Porto manager Octavio Machado has been sacked after just 36 matches. Machado will be replaced by former Porto assistant coach, José Mourinho.

[in English] I arrived in Porto in a difficult moment for the club.

[woman in Portuguese] Porto is eliminated from Taça de Portugal 2-1, Porto’s worst result in 20 years.

[José] The feeling was, the team could only get worse. At that moment, the fans was… [clicks tongue] going away.

[woman in Portuguese] No passion! There’s no passion from these guys at all!

[José] We need to bring them back and make it something that people identify with. You are born loving a club, you are going to die loving the same club. You don’t change your club. Sometimes you are not in love with your team. The north of Portugal, where Porto is, is an area of hardworking people. It’s an area where people feel a big connection with the club, if the club represents the values… of that people.

[all chanting] Porto!

[José] People there, they demand that spirit, they demand that sacrifice. Like, in Portugal, we used to say, “You sweat the shirt.” The game finishes and your shirt is… [imitates wringing] …full of sweat. You give everything. The first thing that the club had to recover was these principles that make people become again in love with your team.

[commentator 3] New coach, José Mourinho, is taking an unorthodox approach to player recruitment. One of the criteria was the psychological profile of, uh, of the player.

[commentator 3] Instead of spending money on superstars, Mourinho has been scouring lower-ranking leagues for diamonds in the rough. We wanted homegrown players, players with a deep feeling for the club. People that they could say, “This is one of us.” And players with that sense of competitiveness, aggression, sacrifice.

We had to make a special recruitment from smaller clubs, and that was very important. That heart, nucleus of the team, was people from them. And we got players without titles, without international experience. We were not a team of movie stars. The team was not selfish. And I had, for example, one situation where two possible captains for the team, they want to give the captaincy to each other. These were two homegrown players, two local boys. Vítor Baía and Jorge Costa. And both, “I think you should be the captain.” “I think you should be the captain.” “I don’t want to be the captain because you are a better captain than me.” “No, I think you are better than me.” When I heard that, I was feeling, “I don’t need to be worried.” That connection is here. They were ready to do anything. So, the boys… [pounds fist] …they went to the limits.

[in Portuguese] We are the best. We will be champions.

[woman] It’s been a year since Mourinho took over as Porto’s head coach, and the team looks completely different.

[José in English] Step by step, everything was an evolution.

In Porto, the fans, they like to see them working hard. And they thought we were a team with that deep competition, that wild desire of winning.

[woman] Derlei’s goal has brought this crowd to life!

[José in English] And then I felt that people were in love with the team again. Porto!

[woman] Benni McCarthy with an unbelievable shot!

[José in English] Our home became a fortress.

[woman in Portuguese] The home field domination continues!

[in English] In two years, playing in Portuguese league, Portuguese Cup, UEFA Cup and Champions League, we didn’t lose one single match at home. I think the reason why was exactly because of the profile of the team.

[José] To bring that club in that country to a different level was a special moment.

[In Portuguese] Confetti flew, colored the stadium, as FC Porto and their fans celebrated winning the Portuguese League Cup. But Mourinho and his team have a giant mountain to climb as they set their sights on the upcoming Champions League draw.

[women] Olé, olé, olé!

[José in English] In 2003, Porto made it to Champions League. We were one of the best teams in Portugal. But we were not one of the best teams in Europe. And when you are not the best team, and you don’t have the best players, your best strategy can be the ambition… to win.

[commentator 4] Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon for the 2003-2004 draw ceremony…

[José] We were all watching the draw for the Champions League. The draw was live on TV, and the team were together watching the draw. Manchester United was the best team.

[commentator 5] Manchester United are in sight of the European Cup final again!

[José] And I thought, if we get Manchester United in the draw, my players, they are going to be disappointed.

[official] And out of this four, we have… Because Porto was one of the easiest teams.

[laughing]

We played Porto before, about seven or eight years ago. We have happy memories of that because we won.

So, I’m going to try to create an atmosphere where… everybody wants Manchester United. I was telling non-stop that I want Manchester United. “I want Manchester United. I hope Manchester United is the one that we are going to get.” …Real Sociedad. If they come, good. I create already a state of mind where we want them. If they don’t get, better, because we will get an easier opponent!

FC Porto against… Manchester United.

So, when Manchester United comes in the draw, the players’ room, everybody jumps. “Wow! Manchester United, here we go.”

[commentator 6] Welcome to the knockout round of the 2003-2004 UEFA Champions League.

Two matches - one home, one away. The team with the most goals scored for the two matches moves on.

And because I made that decision, we were tremendous. The team was aggressive, the team… The team really wanted to beat the opponent.

[commentator 7] Benni McCarthy puts it in the back of the net! They’ve done it! Miracles do happen! David beats Goliath! Porto over Man U!

But now, we need to go there and we need to beat Manchester United… at home.

[commentator 6] Porto has a one-goal lead into the deciding match of the knockout round. They need just a tie to pull off what would surely be one of the most stunning upsets in Champions League history.

[José] We go to Manchester with this quiet psychological thing of, never a Portuguese team won a knockout tie in English soil. Of course, Manchester United, super confident.

After 25 minutes of the game…

• [commentator 7] Towards the box… Goal!
• [José]…they score.

So, a tough time. I thought a lot about… do I risk too early? No. I’m going only to risk when I feel it’s the right moment. We score a goal, we are in. You need to find the right moment to be aggressive.

[crowd roaring]

Sometimes, you feel the big stadium is changing. You feel the noise… is different. If they need to score, the stadium would be… [cheering loudly] …incredible noise, to push them. when that result is good for them.

But they are a little bit scared… [inhales sharply] Mmm. And Manchester United was in that period of the silence. And that silence tells me that… they are more defensive than offensive.

They are controlling timings. This is the moment where the ball boys, they go home. And if the ball goes away, nobody can collect the ball. It’s where the most experienced players, they get the foul and they take their time.

[commentator] Man U is playing keep-away, seeing if they can run out the clock on Porto’s chance to even the score.

[José] I realize that they are scared of mistakes, so when this moment started was when we start risking and pushing them.

[commentator 6] Oh-ho! An aggressive play by Carvalho. Porto is refusing to go quietly into the night.

[José] And face that fear… with incredible courage and with incredible aggression. So, we start going. Attacking, attacking, attacking.

• [whistle blows]
• [José] Minute 90…

direct free kick.

• [commentator 8] Too close for comfort.
• [José] I knew that it was our chance.

[commentator 8] Inside the final minute, it may all come down to this free kick.

[José] You have to believe that you can beat the best team in Europe. We need to face this moment of fear with lots of courage. You can run away, you can hide yourself, or you can attack the guys.

[commentator 8] McCarthy. Howard gets his hands on it, but it’s been turned in by Costinha!

[crowd cheering]

An astounding goal has given Porto the aggregate lead again!

[José] We scored the winning goal, and that was incredible.

[commentator 8] Porto pulls off a dramatic comeback at the last minute.

[triumphant music playing]

[José] We were not the best team, but we found a strategy… and that opened the door for Porto to go and win the Champions League. After that night, I had two of the big English clubs contacted me. The majority of the players, it was the same. It was a new life for all of us.

[man] Would you love football as much as you do if there was no winning? [José] No. [man] Why? [José] I hate friendly matches. I hate it. I… I just hate it. Football is… to compete.

[shutters clicking]

[man 2] I’m delighted this morning to welcome José Mourinho as the new manager and coach of Chelsea.

[commentator 9] With a smile, a man from Porto took over the hottest seat in world football, telling us he was made for the job.

So, I arrive here with my ego… big.

[laughter]

[reporter 4] Has it gone down, your ego?

No, it’s even higher!

[laughter]

It’s what happens out here that’ll decide whether he becomes a Chelsea legend, or follows the “Tinkerman” to the Stamford Bridge exit.

Apologies, there’s gonna be no players or any member of the management team from Chelsea talking after this game, as we will be submitting an official report to UEFA about an incident that occurred at halftime. That’s the end of the statement.

[commentator 10] Mourinho and Chelsea fans everywhere are on pins and needles, as they wait for disciplinary sanctions from the football governing board, UEFA.

[commentator 11] Sanctions stem from an incident when Mourinho made disparaging remarks about another head coach.

I was suspended for two matches.

He is not allowed in the dressing room, tunnel, or…

I couldn’t be on the bench, and I couldn’t be in the dressing room. But it was a big game against Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals, and I thought, this is the kind of game where they really, really need me. They need what I used to call that skin-to-skin connection, where you are there, where they feel you, they listen to you, where you can share emotions.

I’m not putting pressure on you about, uh, “We have to win.” I don’t want to put that kind of pressure, but we cannot lose. We cannot lose.

And I felt so frustrated. I want to be with my players, even against the rules. But I don’t want to be in trouble. So, do I risk my career? And after thinking about it, I made the decision of being in the dressing room. If I go to the dressing room very early, nobody can find me, you know? After the game, empty stadium, empty streets, I will walk home, no problem at all.

So, I went to the dressing room when nobody was in the stadium.

[commentator 12] Mourinho, in his first season as Chelsea manager, beating Barcelona in the first knockout stage, to set up a quarterfinal against Bayern Munich.

[José] Before the game, the first thing that I told them was that I’m there for them. “I’m here waiting for you at the halftime. I’m going to listen to the game from the dressing room. If the result at halftime is not a good one, then, yes, you are going to need me here. I am going to be here.”

And I… I felt… I felt that was very important for my boys.

[commentator 13] Mourinho missing from the bench today, due to the Anders Frisk incident earlier this week. But Mourinho’s not banned from the stadium, so we’ll see if our cameras can find him somewhere.

But, of course, UEFA, intelligent people, they know what I would do in that kind of situation.

[commentator 13] I tell you, we can’t seem to find him anywhere, John.

[José] And they thought, if you didn’t see him in the stands, if you didn’t see him in any box, if television cameras, they could not find him, he must be in the dressing room.

[commentator 13] Even without their fearless leader on the touchline, Chelsea’s been dominating this match.

[José] So, they come to the dressing room…

[commentator 13] …to get away, and they have it with Cole!

[José]…and the only possible thing was, in the fraction of seconds, was to dive into the laundry basket.

[commentator 13] Straight at goal. Roberto forces the save. Schweinsteiger!

I was a little bit scared.

[commentator 13] To the center and Drogba lashes it home! Chelsea taking complete control of this quarterfinal.

[José] And the basket had a metal box. And the kit man was afraid UEFA was going so deep that they could even open the metal box. He locked the metal box. And he took me to the laundry. It was a couple of minutes’ distance, but I felt that was… three hours’ distance. Incredible, awful feeling, to be closed in the metal basket.

[intense music crescendoes]

[commentator 14] Final score in this quarter final, Chelsea 4, Bayern Munich 2.

[José] UEFA, they really tried, but they could not find me.

We won the game, but it’s not about that. What I did in that game, in that dressing room, was something that… I’m not proud of it because I went against the rules. But I’m proud of it… as a leader. I’m proud of it as a players’ friend. I’m proud of it because I did it for my boys. For your family, you do anything. Even break the rules. I think I became a little bit claustrophobic after that.

[laughs]

[radio host] 7:00 a.m. and good morning to you. This is Sunrise, Thursday, the 20th of September. The top story is “Goodbye, Mourinho.”

Shock for Chelsea, as the club and manager agree to part ways by mutual consent. Mourinho joined three years ago, led them to the Premiership title in his first two seasons. His decision to leave comes just a day after the club’s disappointing performance in the Champions League.

• Chelsea fans will be stunned and they will be very upset this morning. He was very loved here at Chelsea.

♪ Come back, Mourinho Come back, Mourinho ♪ ♪ Come back, Mourinho ♪

[José] When I was a teen, my father also a coach. He did an amazing job in one Portuguese club. He took the club to the Portuguese Cup final. So, incredible achievement. And, um… he had a very important offer to leave. But my father was a big heart. And, um, he decided to stay. A few months later, he was sacked.

[chuckles]

[reporter 5] Real Madrid Football Club sacked coach Carlo Ancelotti, after failing to win major silverware this season.

[reporter 6] Manager Mancini has been sacked by Manchester City.

First, your reaction on the sacking.

• It had to happen.
• [man] It shows you how hard it is to find the right guy.

[José] In football, the majority of the times that the coach leaves the club is because he was sacked. That’s the nature of football, that’s the cruelty of football.

[commentator 15] Managers come and go faster than ever. The average manager hardly lasts a year now. That’s the world we live in, I’m afraid. So, I think it’s very important to leave a club by your own option.

[shutters clicking]

[José] 2008, I was at Inter Milan.

[in Italian] I believe I’m working for a very special club. Um… I haven’t forgotten that I am a great coach but I don’t want to be special. I just want to be José Mourinho.

[commentator in Italian] Inter takes off. Zanetti moves fast, Zanetti. - Ball to Milito! Milito! Milito! Milito!

• [cheering]

[José] In 2010, we won the league. And in two years, I was so, so happy in that club, with that group of players. I felt that connection is here. The brotherhood.

[newscaster] In news, Inter Milan has dominated the Italian league yet again. With their winning record, the team breezes into Champions League as a frontrunner to win the prestigious European Cup.

For 50 years, Inter was chasing the Champions League.

I knew that, in that year, I had to win for my boys. But during the tournament, I had a very important offer to leave. It was Real Madrid.

To go to Madrid and to face the biggest challenge any coach or any team could have, which was to try to beat Barcelona, the best team of that moment, to try to beat them and win the Spanish league.

And I thought, “I have to make a decision.”

[commentator 16] Bayern Munich versus Inter Milan in the 2010 Champions League final.

People used to say that the train doesn’t stop twice. So, I thought it may be the best thing for my career to make that movement. I am very emotional. But I try to internalize this emotion for the big decisions.

[commentator in Italian] Ball to Inter. Milito.

Feint. Milito. Feint.

• Into the box… Goal, again!
• [crowd cheering]

“The Prince”! Inter gets ahead in the game.

A storm is striking Bayern in Madrid.

[José in English] We won Champions League. It was an incredible moment for all of us.

[team cheering]

But, for me, since the beginning of my career, I had a dream. Which was to win the championship in the three biggest leagues in Europe. So, I did England… and since I did Italy that night, I knew that I have to try to do it in Spain, too. So, I decided I was going to Real Madrid the next day. For the new job.

In the end of the game… I didn’t want to go to the dressing room. I didn’t want to go to the bus. And I didn’t want to go back with them to Milan. Because if I did, I think I wouldn’t want to go to Real Madrid. So, I just tried to run away. But I saw one of the players outside the bus. I had to stop. And no words. I don’t remember one… One single word.

[man] You’ve coached some of the biggest stars in the world.

• Yes.
• [man] The biggest in the world.

Ronaldo, Ibrahimović, Drogba.

People that, because of their pure athleticism, they feel like they can do it their way all the time.

If you are not able to coach the big players, you are not able to coach anyone. It’s very important for a coach to understand, you are not going to teach them how to play football. You are not going to teach Ronaldo how to take a free kick. You are not going to teach Ibra how to hold a ball on his chest. You are not going to teach Drogba how to attack the first post and score in the air. You are going to teach them how to play football in that team.

When I was at Real Madrid… we had a very good team. We had one of the best players in football, Ronaldo. Ronaldo used to play as a winger.

[commentator] Ronaldo sprints, 2 on 1.

[José in English] He was a tricky winger, fast dribble. But sometimes, you have to move the pieces of the chess, to try to create the best solution for the team.

[commentator 2] Mourinho talking to Adebayor. He is making changes at Real Madrid.

[José in English] The first time that Ronaldo played as a number nine position, was in the cup final against Barcelona.

[commentator 2 in Spanish] Look at positions for Real Madrid. It looks like Cristiano will now be attacking. We had three number nines.

And for the final, I left them, all three, out. To play Cristiano as a number nine. Because in that game, Barcelona right back was Daniel Alves, that was attacking, attacking, attacking… Hundreds and hundreds of times during the game.

[commentator 3 in Spanish] Alves passes it inside! Another shot for Alves! Alves passes it to Messi!

[José] If Ronaldo played against him, he would be chasing him all the time. Playing more defensive than offensive. So, I decided, “No, you are not going to chase anyone. You are going to play number nine, you are to play central. You are going just to try to score goals.”

[commentator 3 in Spanish] Cristiano has a chance! Cristiano shoots! Cristiano being chased, he shoots!

What an opportunity for Real Madrid!

The players have to understand the game, because during the game, I cannot make decisions for them. They are guided, they discover the way. It’s not like I tell them, “Now you turn left, and then you turn right.” I’m not Waze. I have to help them, but they have to go by themselves, they have to understand why.

[commentator 3 in Spanish] Di María crosses it to Cristiano!

Goal!

Cristiano!

He scored the winning goal. Incredible header.

And… we won the cup.

[commentator] Real Madrid, Copa del Rey champion! They beat Barcelona to win a title they haven’t won in 18 years!

[in English] They are special talents.

Without the team… they cannot express everything they have. Everything is about the team. I always used to say that… I don’t coach football players. I coach football teams.

[commentator] Tottenham Hotspur have appointed Mourinho as their new manager.

[commentator 18] Never before have Spurs hired a manager as demanding or as confrontational as José Mourinho.

[commentator 19] He’s a winner. What Spurs are desperate for. You know wherever he’s been, he’s won.

In my career, I learned that… football is a bit of everything. Football is an art. But football is also heart. Football is about winning.

[players yelling] Goal!

And I made mistakes. I made mistakes. Of course. Maybe some guys don’t agree with my opinion. But it’s not about that. For me, the concept of a team is… is one of the most beautiful things. I have teams that are teams from 25 years ago, 20 years ago, ten years ago. We are still a team. We are still a team. If any one of us needs the other… [snaps] …click. And everybody’s coming… is coming for you. And, in the end, the trophies that we won in different teams, in different generations, with different groups, of course, that is what stays for the history of football. But, I think, in all my experiences in football, there is the human side of it. Team, brother… family. And for me, these are the things that… they stay forever.

Patrick Mouratoglou (tennis)

Tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou reflects on his success with Serena Williams and reveals his strategy for players who tank.

1. your biggest weakness can be your greatest strength
2. never be afraid to get fired
3. mistakes are inevitable but don’t let them define you
4. emotions are the worst adviser (loved how he owned up to the sour episode with his mentee)
5. let them know they are not alone. (Amazing story about why players tank their games even at the highest levels)
6. a good lie can become the truth (how a lie helped Serena Williams during the Wimbledon)
7. everything depends on you

---

[birds chirping]

[clicking]

[piano playing classical music]

[Patrick] I’m from France. My father came to France when he was 13 years old, and this city where I was living in was like a little village. If you watch an American movie, it’s the perfect start of a story who’s gonna become bad afterwards, but the start is everything’s beautiful.

One of the main things that I remember from being young was a piano in the middle of the living room, because my father was playing piano. A lot, a lot. He was playing classical music. One piece of classical music, it’s like sentences. It’s like you’re reading… It’s like a poem. You have the first sentence, the second, the third, etc. And when you want to repeat it to make it perfect, you take one sentence and repeat it a million times until it’s just a perfection. It’s the same with tennis. Exactly the same. Practice a million times, until it’s perfect.

[commentator 1] Your US Open Women’s champion, Serena Williams! [crowd cheering]

[Patrick] But more than perfect, it’s automatic.

• [commentator 2] He’s done it. [cheering]

[commentator 3] One of the greatest competitors in any sport at any time.

[grunts] Come on!

Patrick Mouratoglou, nice enough to join us.

[commentator 4] Serena Williams’ coach, and the coach of so many other players.

[Patrick] Piano can be beautiful if you listen to a piece of piano from the start to the end, but the same thing repeating all the time… Oh! …it drives people crazy. [chuckles] Of course it’s tough, that’s why not many can be number one.

[commentator 5] A simply sensational Serena.

[interviewer] Thank you, Patrick.

[Patrick] You’re welcome.

[gentle piano music playing]

[Patrick] When I was a kid, I was shy to a level that I’ve never met someone ever. And I had no self-confidence at all. I mean, zero. When there was a silence, I was completely panicking. I was feeling like, I need to say something and I didn’t know what to say. So, this was bringing panic to me. So, I was trying to avoid any contact with people, because it was so scary for me. To tell you how bad it was, I went to see my psychologist every week, for one year, without being able to say one word. It took me one year to tell him one word. One year.

But a big weakness can create a big strength. When I was a kid, I was at school, not talking to anybody, like this, shy, hoping nobody was going to talk to me. But I was looking at people, and I was looking at their interactions. You know? The movement of their face, to try to know what they were feeling. Paying attention at every detail. Because of that unbelievable weakness, this inability to connect with people, I created an incredible strength, this ability to read people.

[reporter 1] Serena, another match. How much confidence did you get from the previous, how do you prepare for this?

I got a lot of confidence but this is a new match, and, uh, a new opponent.

[Patrick] When I look at a player, you have to read their body language. That tells you a lot.

[Serena grunts]

They give you so much information, and they don’t even know it. I see a lot of things. Could be, they have doubts, they are nervous. Maybe ‘cause they’re scared. Because my eyes are wide open, my ears are wide open. All the information comes from everywhere. My eyes, my ears, everywhere. It comes, it comes, it comes all day long. And then, when I have all this information, all the puzzle, I start to make a plan. It’s not what you do, what you do is great. But what you want is to be aggressive. You always go forward. To know how to speak to my player, build the confidence and feed the player’s motivation.

Yes! Okay, perfect. Oh, you do it perfectly. Again, again. Yes! It becomes automatic to move forward every time the ball comes.

We live in a world where people are faking all day long. And, as a coach, you need to know what people really think.

I didn’t know that I was learning my job when I was a kid.

[chuckling] I didn’t know, didn’t do it on purpose. I did it to survive, but this ability to read people became my biggest strength. So, it’s all about what you do with what happens to you. All about it.

[crowd cheering]

I have to thank my coach, Patrick, for getting me through this. There are moments when I didn’t believe in me, you did, and I’m so grateful to have you in my life and on my team. Thank you so much.

[crowd cheering]

So, these are some of my notebooks during the tournaments, or during the practice, or every day I write down a lot of things. My… I mean, I have a lot, because I think it’s incredibly important. It helps you clear your ideas. We think we’re not going to forget, but we forget everything. I want to remember the story of the match. This notebook is, uh… I think the first one with Serena. “I accept to make mistakes because I take risks, and because I am not scared.” This is also key. A good coach can never be afraid to get fired. Sometimes you have to take risks. You have to feel free to do what you should do. If you’re scared, you’re not strong. Player would feel it.

[commentator 6] Game, Serena Williams. She is the new number one in the world, again, Serena Williams!

[Patrick] If you would have asked me 10 years ago who’d be the ideal player to work with, it would be Serena Williams. But she never had a coach, except her father.

My career as a tennis coach was going better and better.

[announcer] Game.

[commentator 7] Four straight games for Aravane Rezaï, and she claims the first set that Serena has lost this year. And her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, has got to be pretty pleased with those results.

[Patrick] Tennis is a small world, and you have a short list of guys you want to be coached by. And I thought, I’m gonna coach Serena. This is gonna happen, for sure. Never spoke to her, never went to her. Not once. So, one day, in 2012, she’s injured.

• [Serena yelps]
• [crowd gasps]

[reporter] Superstar Serena Williams has been sidelined after suffering a foot injury and undergoing surgery. She’s more than injured, almost dying. Undergoing emergency treatment, related to a blood clot in her lung. Spends months at the hospital, nearly dies, then comes back on tour. And for the first time in her career, she loses in the first round of Roland-Garros. That’s a shock for her, big shock. Something was wrong, clearly.

• [Serena grunts]
• [crowd applauds]

Watched the match, that’s it.

• [ball thuds]
• [crowd groans]

She was struggling to go back to winning a Grand Slam, and it was affecting her. Even the way she was thinking… she was not thinking like Serena.

The day after, I received a text message from her, saying, “I want to get ready for Wimbledon. Can I practice at your place?” I said, “Of course. See you tomorrow.” She came.

She said, “I want to come back to number one. What do you think about my game? What I should do?”

It was a big question. I thought… I have one shot. I have one chance in life to work with the greatest of all time. If I don’t shoot exactly in the right place, I’m done. I have to be perfect. Basically, I said,

“First, I think you’re an underachiever…”

[Patrick] “You won 13 Grand Slams, which is fantastic. But maybe you could have won 26. And I think you’re an underachiever because I’ve seen you go to tournaments unprepared many times. I feel like you don’t have any plan B when things go wrong.” I told her, “I think you lose much too many matches.”

And the thing is, I’ve never seen someone direct with her. But I was not nervous, because I thought that was the right way. If you’re afraid to be fired, you’re gonna tell the player what she wants to hear.

It reminds me of the first practice in Wimbledon. Serena loves to test people. And I think she was testing me. I was waiting for her with the team, and then suddenly she arrives, late. I look at her when she arrives and say, “Good morning.” She doesn’t look at me. She passes, doesn’t answer. We start practice. I tell her something, she doesn’t answer, doesn’t look at me. I think, “This is wrong.” And I feel, this is not gonna work like that. I can’t let her disrespect me. Less at the start of the relationship. And after 45 minutes, she sits down to drink. I wanted to have her attention, she doesn’t give me attention. So, I come to her and I slap her on the cap. So, she’s super surprised, nobody does this to her. She looked at me like this and I said, “Listen, Serena, there are three rules.” Three. “Rule number one, when you come to my court, you look at me and you say good morning. Rule number two, when I talk to you, you listen to me, you look at me, and you answer me.” And I said, “Is it clear?” You know what she answered? “What’s rule number three?” [laughs] From that day, I get all her respect, because I was not scared of her, I was not scared to lose my job.

For me, she was unbelievable. She had more aces than any women… and any men in the tournament.

[grunts]

[announcer] Game, Miss Williams.

• [commentator chuckles]
• [Serena exclaims]

[commentator 9] Serena Williams, champion of Wimbledon again. Sweeter for the passage of time, and all the struggles survived.

[interviewer] What has been one of the most challenging, or the most challenging moment that you’ve had to endure, and how did you just get through it?

There is one. I cannot talk about it, so I’m not gonna talk about it.

[news anchor] Back home to major fallout at the US Open, and the moment witnessed by millions.

Serena Williams fined $17,000 today for her outburst during Saturday’s match.

[reporter 3] It started when the ump issued a warning when Serena’s coach made this illegal hand signal.

The tennis superstar seething.

I don’t cheat to win, I’d rather lose.

[reporter 4] The match may be remembered for Williams clashing with the umpire,

• I don’t cheat!

Calling him a thief and smashing her racket.

[reporter 5] Mouratoglou admitted that he was coaching Serena, which is against the rules.

I mean, I’m honest. I was coaching.

I don’t think she looked at me, that’s why she didn’t think I was.

She’s in her match, she shouldn’t have to think about that and she should be able to express her emotions. She’s human.

In tennis, people want people to be perfect, and especially for the champions, because the champions have no right to make a mistake. They’re immediately pointed out, judged. It’s painful. But sometimes you have to accept to go through really painful moments, because you know there’s no other choice.

Failure and frustration are two of the best things that can happen, if you handle them the right way. And then you’re gonna learn.

We welcome you to the trophy celebration of the United States Open.

• [crowd booing loudly]

Serena, not the result that you wanted tonight. How do you put into perspective what this match contained?

Um, well, I don’t want to be rude, but I don’t want to interrupt… I don’t want to do questions, I want to tell you, she played well and this is her first Grand Slam.

[crowd cheering loudly]

Let’s not boo anymore. We just… We’re gonna get through this, be positive. So, congratulations, Naomi.

[cheering]

[Patrick] We learn making mistakes. Of course, it’s very difficult, but that’s not what defines you.

I want to start with our mission. So, what is our mission? I tell you the way I see our mission. It consists of helping people achieve their dreams. Coaching is finding the right channel. Coaching is understanding the other person’s feelings, and dealing with them to bring the person to do the right thing. You want to connect with your player, in any situation of life. But it’s not easy, and you have to accept you are going to make mistakes. Because we all have a lot of emotions, and we have even more emotions when we are passionate. The problem with emotion, and you can say the same for life, the emotion is the worst advisor.

In ‘98, I was not famous. I have only 20 players at my academy. I know all of them very well. I started with Marcos when he was 13-and-a-half years old. I saw him in a tournament and I loved his game. I was his coach, but I was more than his coach. I think I was the most important for him at that time. For me, he was like my son. I spent so much time with him, and I knew him since he was a kid so well, so we had a father-son relationship. He was, like, 300 in the world. Since we were working together, he went incredibly fast up in the rankings.

[reporter] Baghdatis took the tennis world by surprise, as he swept his way into the finals of the Australian Open as an unseeded outsider.

[Patrick] Two years later, he was in the final of the Australian Open.

[commentator 10] He’s done it! Disbelief from this 20-year-old.

[crowd cheering]

Thank you very much, Patrick, for everything.

Six months after, in the semi-final of Wimbledon. And top ten in the world.

[reporter 7] The results made Baghdatis welcomed at home as one of the greatest athletes Cyprus has ever produced.

[shutters clicking]

But after that… I heard something I didn’t expect from Marcos. He told me, “Now I know how to be at the top of the game.” Great. But the thing was, he was saying, “I know what you don’t know.” Like he knew better than me because he did it and I didn’t do it. Okay. He was prepared to slow down, practice less for better results. I said, “You know, Marcos, you and me, we both know how you get to where you are. You worked so hard… so hard. And you’re basically telling me now that you’re gonna do much less and it’s gonna be much better. Sorry, I don’t believe it.”

[commentator 11] Uh-oh, Baghdatis went down. Yeah, he’s cramping. He’s got a cramp in that left… in the calf.

[commentator 12] Well, Patrick Mouratoglou, who first spotted the talent of this young man and brought him with a scholarship at 13,

I asked him, “What didn’t you like?”

And he said, “He wasn’t real eager to train hard.”

I’m angry at him because he makes me look bad, he doesn’t respect me. And I feel this emotion, like, really, really strong. He needs to be punched, and I told him, “It’s unacceptable. Your parents gave everything for you. We at the academy gave everything for you.” Does he know how much effort I make? How much sacrifice I make? How motivated I am? And he doesn’t even try? “This is completely disrespectful, unacceptable. And you have to realize that.” From that day, it broke our relationship. I was not a good coach at the time. I acted like, “I have emotion, I’m angry, I’m gonna punch him.” Yeah, this is not coaching. When you’re a good coach, you don’t break the relationship. Zero reason to break it.

To have emotions is not a problem. To let them make the decisions for you, this is wrong.

So, Marcos left. Not something I’m happy with. Until the last day of my life, I will still feel that he’s like a son to me. You have to pay for what you do in life, so you pay the hard price, but… at least I learned something.

Always put the emotion apart, make sure when you take a decision, that it’s not a decision that… is taken because of the emotion you feel.

[in French] My dream is to become #1 in the world, but I don’t know exactly how that’ll happen. There’s a long road ahead.

You’re already number one in France for your age. Oui.

That’s good, right?

It’s okay.

[in English] When I consider a player, the first qualities I would look at are her ambition, but I don’t listen to what she says. I hear what she thinks because all say they want to be number one. But most of them don’t believe it. I’m looking for people who deeply believe in themselves, and would not give up. I want people who think they’re gonna be better than anybody else. But players have to feel… you are a team with them. The relationship is everything.

[Patrick] Irena was a fantastic player. But she had lost a lot of confidence by losing too many matches.

[Patrick in French] There are some parts of her game that are preventing her from being a champion.

[in English] When the matches were going wrong, I know it sounds crazy for not-tennis people, but she was tanking the match. Which means she was not trying.

[Irena groans]

[umpire] Out!

[Patrick] She was almost purposely missing. Getting rid of the match.

• [umpire] Fault!
• [announcer] Jeu, set, match.

[Patrick] More than giving up. Like, missing on purpose. Basically telling to everyone, “I’m not interested in the match, not trying. I am not trying.”

Of course, what I want to say, you know, “I’m working really hard to make you become a better player, and you don’t even try. This is unacceptable.”

That’s what I want to tell her. What I feel. And so, I asked myself, “Why do players tank?” That’s a good question.

[reporter 8] Aussie star, Nick Kyrgios, is in more hot water this morning. He’s denying deliberately tanking points.

[announcer] Forty-love.

Because from outside, it looks unreal. I mean, these guys are working every day to play better. When the match comes, they don’t even try. Doesn’t make sense. Logically, it doesn’t make sense.

[commentator 13] Oh, ridiculous. You gotta feel he’s gonna be pulling out?

So, I try to understand. Most of the players who are tanking are talented players. Players who have easy power, a lot of touch, a lot of talent. Most players are not confident in themselves. They don’t know if they can, they have doubts.

[commentator 14] Wild hit.

That had the feeling of capitulation, right there.

[Patrick] There is one thing they are sure about. They have talent. And this is, wow, so good. It’s like if people tell you all day long, “You look good, handsome.” “Oh, wow, thank you.” I like it. I like to hear that, right? So, there is one thing that they don’t want to lose… is that. So now, what happens when you’re a very talented player and you play a player who is not talented, and you start to lose. Maybe that means you’re not that talented. You’re not gonna take that risk.

[crowd jeering]

[Patrick] You prefer to give up, and you can always say, “I tanked, I didn’t try.” And that’s what they do. I want to have an answer, I need to have it. My player is tanking, I need to know why.

It’s the fear of losing the only thing that counts for you, your talent.

Then I asked myself a second question.

“What is the best thing you can do to make her stop tanking?” Hmm. I have an idea.

We sat down and I said, “Explain to me what happened during the match.”

[in French] Before the match, I was prepared. But I was already melting down, I was a bit of a mess.

• Oui?
• Oui.

[in English] She started to tell me, “Well, I was missing everything, everything went wrong.” Denial.

I said, “Okay,” and then I said to her, “It’s 100 percent my fault, I’m sorry.” And then she opened her eyes, like, this big, and she said to me, “It’s crazy, I thought you would kill me,” she said. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She was very sensitive, very emotional, so I knew that the right way was to be very human with her. Show her love, respect, and show her that I wanted to help her. We were together, and because we were a team, the last thing I would do is blame her. When I said this to her… she thought, “Wow, he wants me to do better. He’s 100 percent with me. I can’t disappoint this guy. I can’t.” She never, ever tanked a match after that. Never.

[applause]

[Patrick] Early preparation, Serena, early. Good. Great.

Everyone has limits, and the limits of everyone are not technical, tactical, physical. They’re mental.

Why this is important?

Because even the player who is the most ambitious on the planet, when the doubt comes, it can affect the way she thinks. And when you don’t think like a champion, don’t act like a champion and don’t win like a champion. So, it’s very important to make sure the mind works right. That’s my job.

I don’t remember the year, maybe 2015, or something like that. She plays Wimbledon and lost the year before, so she was struggling with her confidence. She was not thinking like Serena. I didn’t have a lot of time. Two weeks to make her win Wimbledon. And, at that time, she’s terrible at the net. She’s nervous, start of the tournament, comes to the net and misses everything.

[umpire] Out!

Her stats at the net are terrible. It’s a big deal, because when you are someone like Serena and you’re so aggressive, you create short balls. And when the balls come…

[applause]

…you have to be willing to move up to the ball to attack. The problem is, when you’re scared to go to the net you’re missing everything, instinctively when the short ball comes, you’re not moving to get the ball early and it hurts all your game. That was happening at that start of Wimbledon. And I think, “Okay, I have to come up with something.” I come to her. What I’m going to tell her can be true or not true. What does it change? Nothing. I said, “I have good news for you. Every time you play a match and you create a short ball, I’m super relaxed. I know you’re going to win 80% of points.” “Why do you say that?” “It’s stats, it’s not me, it’s stats. When there is a short ball, you’re gonna move up, end up at the net…” She was not doing it. “…end up at the net and win 80% of the points, best news.”

“Incredible, I thought I sucked at the net.”

I said, “Maybe you feel that way, but the stats explain exactly the opposite.”

I hate to lie, but as a coach, you have to say the right thing to bring confidence. I lied to Serena about her stats. I knew that if she thought her stats were good, the day after, she would play better.

[cheering]

Was that true or not, what I said? Does it matter? Doesn’t matter. What matters is, if what you tell your player brings the right result, that’s what everybody wants. What does the truth have to do with that? This is not the point. No, it’s true! So, this was a lie. But from that day, she was winning 80% of points at net. I had to remind her who she is. Nothing could stop her, and no one could stop her.

[crowd cheering]

And she won the tournament. So, the lie became a reality.

[playing “Clair de Lune”]

When I was young, I loved tennis. I was obsessed with tennis, and obsessed with tennis players. That’s what I wanted to become and I could not. But if there was one lesson I learned in life, I think it would be… everything depends on you. I realized I wanted to be a professional tennis player. I won’t be, but I can do something big in tennis. And this stayed in me. Everything depends on you. And knowing that became so useful for my life in the future. And that helped me become the coach that I become.

[cheering]

[song continues]

[Patrick] You can have an impact on anything, and at the end of the day, if you think about it, you can change everything that is around you in order to get what you want. So, everything depends on you. And if you think like that, whatever you start to do in life… it’s magic.

[song ends]

Dawn Staley (basketball)

Basketball coach Dawn Staley talks about breaking into a male-dominated sport, challenging comfort zones and building a winning team in South Carolina.

1. bring your own ball (watch the episode to get the drift. She bought her own ball to boys games so as to play with them)
2. growth takes place outside of the comfort zone
3. create a home court advantage (build a community of supporters/fans)
4. when you make someone feel better, they want to help you succeed
5. 24 hrs rule- move on from a win or loss in 24 hrs (I loved this – can sure be mantra for our lives too)
6. what is delayed is not denied. It will happen. (amazing how rituals, symbols can become so powerful – she was gifted a part of the net by someone who believed in her. Kept it in her purse all the time.)

[suspenseful music playing]

[distant cheering]

My love for puzzles came very early on in my childhood. I used to only get puzzles for Christmas because that was all my parents could afford. And… it was something that I was just drawn to. Building from the ground up. It’s, uh, frustrating and gratifying, ‘cause puzzles can really overwhelm you. But the moment you put one piece into another… it makes you keep coming back to complete the puzzle.

[commentator 1] And here comes Dawn Staley, on the run.

[commentator 2] She has one of the most stellar athletic résumés.

[commentator 3] Staley on the run, jumper from the paint.

[commentator 2] Dawn Staley is money, the player to get the ball to.

[commentator 3] Three-time Olympic gold medalist.

[commentator 1] Dawn Staley is taking over!

[commentator 2] The heart of this player, Dawn Staley, can’t say enough about her.

[commentator 4] Staley alone!

[commentator 3] Dawn was seeing the court like a coach before coaching. She’s directing traffic, changing the play.

[commentator 5] The woman who won the first SEC Championship for Carolina now making it three in a row.

[commentator 6] The first Final Four in South Carolina’s history.

[commentator 3] Dawn Staley has been announced as the head coach of the US national team.

[commentator 2] The missing piece in her amazing résumé? She’s never won an NCAA Championship.

It’s strange how my puzzle of life gets put together.

[gentle instrumental music]

[man] I wanna go over the list of some of the things that this young lady has accomplished. As a coach, she’s a two-time Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year. Four Atlantic 10 tournament titles.

I was talking with one of her counterparts in the Atlantic 10, and he just prayed that we would hire Dawn. He said that would be the best as far as his coaching career was to hire her out of the Atlantic 10.

[crowd applauding]

[man] Dawn Staley.

[Dawn] I got all of my coaching rings and some of my playing rings. How they changed over the years. I don’t get women’s rings. I get men’s rings because I don’t wear ’em, and they’re more like trophies and the men’s rings are obviously bigger.

Compare the Final Fours.

[laughs]

Growing up, there weren’t girls in my neighborhood playing any type of sports. So, I grew up playing with… with… with boys.

[jazzy funk music]

[Dawn] I grew up the youngest of five. All five of us, plus my two parents, all living in a three-bedroom, tight row home in the projects. When you have that many siblings, you really… you fight for everything. I had older brothers who used to go out on the courts, and they didn’t want their little sister out there with guys. And I… I didn’t care. Whatever the guys were doing, I was doing. We were super creative. We made basketball courts anywhere. We would cut out the bottom of a milk crate, put it up on an electrical pole. We chalked out the key, the free-throw line. I had a mean bank shot… off of a crate basket.

[indistinct chatter]

[Dawn] The big boys, so to speak, took over the court where everybody in the neighborhood came. And if you were anybody that could play basketball, you were on that court. What really fueled me as a little girl growing up, it was to get on the big boy court.

I remember hearing two phrases growing up, being the only girl out there on the court. One was, “You need to be in a kitchen somewhere.” And the other one was, “Go put on a skirt.” Those words used to hurt me. They didn’t wanna play against me because I was a girl. So, I used to stand around with my ball. I used to watch the game. But sometimes, I was the only one that brought a ball. So, I made a rule. If my ball was being used to play, I was gonna be on the court. I wasn’t gonna allow them to not pick me because I was a girl. I made people respect me by my persistence. Then I really didn’t have to bring my ball out, because I earned the right to be the first 10 on the floor.

[players yelling]

[Dawn] I was taking notes, and I tried to emulate some of the things that were happening out there.

[commentator 3] Watch how Staley works at full speed. There’s a bit of Philly in that move right there. You can’t coach that.

When they were on the other side of being schooled, or crossed over, that’s when you earn respect. I made them respect my game, and respect it to the point of… they played me harder than they actually played boys. That toughened me. Sometimes you gotta be tough, suck it up, persevere.

And in high school, when I played at Dobbins Tech, we drew a crowd. And that was so not the thing to do back then, is to go watch a girls’ basketball team play. That’s when I knew that I was getting pretty good at this. Everything that I’ve achieved afterwards was because I had that desire in me for them to respect my game. It was my biggest motivator.

Keep running it! Big guard!

[players yelling]

[Dawn] Big guard! Go, big guard! Big. Yes! Yes!

[scattered clapping] There you go. There you go.

I… I want to score but I’m having a hard time relaxing,

• like, mentally.
• Uh-huh.

Like, I feel like I’m thinking too much to just relax…

Yeah, you’re a freshman.

Yeah.

Yeah, I’m having the jitters, but…

Yeah, it’s gonna happen. It’s gonna be like that. But I don’t want you to feel comfortable right now. I want you to be uncomfortable, because this is… This isn’t… this isn’t easy, this is all new stuff. So, if you’re comfortable with it, then you know where everybody needs to be. But you’re not, so it’s… This is… this is very normal.

[Dawn] When I was just growing up in North Philly… I never really thought about… my race. At all. Until I went to the University of Virginia.

• [crowd cheering]
• [fanfare plays]

[announcer] From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, wearing number 24, Dawn Staley!

[crowd cheering]

[Dawn] Because there I saw so many white people, like more so than I ever have seen in my life. I didn’t feel comfortable… being me. Like, I didn’t… I didn’t talk much. I certainly, you know, didn’t trust… And I wasn’t gonna talk to anybody that I didn’t feel like I connected with. I don’t think I had a voice. The only thing I wanted to do was play basketball. I had nothing else. And I found myself in academic trouble after the first year. And I didn’t know where to take it, I didn’t know who to talk to. You feel like you’re the only one that’s failing this class. And I had to sit in front of the dean and tell her how I got myself in this situation. Being a city kid from North Philly, I gave her no eye contact. I mumbled. And she proceeded to go on to say that, “You haven’t done well. Um, are you serious about being here at UVA? We know that you’re a student athlete, and we know you can play basketball really well, you know, but academics and basketball go hand in hand here at UVA.” She was the decision-maker on whether I stay, or whether I get kicked out of UVA. It was that serious. I didn’t know who to talk to. I was uncomfortable talking to anybody. To know how to study, to know how to take notes. To actually have conversations, like mature conversations with professors. Because I was… I was a fish out of water. And the dean said this thing to me. She said,

“Growth takes place outside of your comfort zone. That’s why it’s not comfortable. That’s why, you know, nobody wants to go there. Just because life throws you something that makes you a little uncomfortable, or makes you a little bit different than some other people, don’t allow that to be a weakness.” She said, “You gotta work just as hard as you do on the basketball court in the classroom.”

We wanna be disciplined, so you gotta discipline your feet. The hard work, the dedication. And once I figured that out, I instantly became a better student. I started competing in the classroom.

[Dawn laughs]

Stacy coming across the middle! Pow! Whoo!

And now, I experience the same type of things with my players. As players, we complicate what should happen out here ‘cause we’re thinking too much, or trying to do too much. So, don’t think so much about scoring. Just do what you’re asked. If you do that, your role will increase because I can count on you.

And I say this to all of our players… sometimes you have to take steps that make you uncomfortable, to understand where you are… and where you wanna be.

When I took the job at University of South Carolina…I came with one purpose. And that was to make South Carolina a national powerhouse and win a National Championship. But back then, I did not realize how important the South Carolina fans would be to our growth.

[Dawn] When I got to South Carolina, we would come out the tunnel for our home games, and you could literally count on probably a couple of hands how many people were in the stands. We’d like to be seen by as many people as possible. And if we could get just a snippet of who shows up for our football games, I think that shouldn’t be a problem.

[Dawn] Without the fans, we can’t recruit the type of players that are needed to win a National Championship. And I knew, if we were gonna have any success, we needed to push for larger crowds.

We pretty much “mommed and popped” it after that.

Thank y’all for coming.

I wanted to elevate women’s basketball in a town that is known as being a football town.

[crowd cheering]

[announcer on PA] Dawn Staley!

And I’m a Black woman coming to a predominantly white university. So, I think it’s important for me to tap into the community, because it’s helpful when… when you’re able to attract people into your arena.

[newscaster] People might not know it, but attendance is picking up at women’s basketball games. Beyoncé has the “Beyhive.” So, we created the G-Hive.

[cheers]

[Dawn] It’s no longer a movement to like women’s basketball in South Carolina. It’s a lifestyle.

• How you doing?
• Thrilled to watch you guys play.

People that come watch us play look different at our games than any other sport on our campus.

[news anchor] Dawn came and turned this around, so fans must be pretty pumped right about now.

“Pumped” is an understatement.

[Dawn] The fans really did the part of… making us look like a National Championship team.

[loud cheering]

Number one in the country in attendance for the third straight year in a row.

Let’s go, let’s go. Let’s go, Kiki! Let’s go, Lae.

And, for us, it helps because kids wanna play in front of large crowds.

[reporter] Meet A’ja Wilson.

At 6'4”, the Heathwood Hall standout is regarded as the top girls’ basketball recruit in the class of 2014. When we recruited A’ja Wilson, it was quite a challenge.

[reporter] Where that superstar lands for the next 4 years is a mystery. South Carolina, though, is one of four schools in the mix.

[A’ja] I remember Coach Staley’s first year at South Carolina, and seeing there wasn’t a lot of people in the stands. But seeing the program change is kind of a good thing to see as a recruit.

[players chanting]

[Dawn] When we had her on the campus, she came during the time in which there was a game going on.

[commentator 7] Mitchell, left elbow… Got it!

[Dawn] And the student section knew she was in the stands, and they started chanting her name. “We want A’ja!”

[crowd chanting] We want A’ja!

[Dawn] And the fans made it really hard for her to tell us no.

[sportscaster] A’ja, the floor is yours.

Where will you play your college ball? I’ll be attending University of South Carolina.

[loud cheers]

[Dawn] What our program has done, with our crowd, is we created a place where people feel truly special. When you come to our game, you see everybody that have joined hands to support a women’s basketball program… because of how we’ve made them feel. When you make somebody feel special, they wanna help you to succeed.

Are you ready for March Madness? It’s coming up.

[loud cheering]

[newscaster 2] Stage is set for the Final Four.

Philadelphia’s own Dawn Staley led her South Carolina team to the Final Four. This is the first Final Four berth in South Carolina’s history.

We had all the key ingredients. We looked like all the high-powered teams across the country besides us winning a National Championship. We were right on the brink.

[indistinct prayer]

[commentator 8] Down by one. Eight seconds left. Six, five…

Mitchell way outside the three, the ball is tipped away. But Mitchell gets it back.

• [buzzer sounds] No good, it’s over, and Notre Dame is going back to the National Championship game!

Hats off to Notre Dame, but you’ve got to feel for these Carolina Gamecocks. Dawn Staley has truly put together a championship-caliber team. To lose here by just one point? That’s heartbreaking.

[inaudible]

[Dawn] It was our first time being at the Final Four. Our season got upended. When you lose, it’s devastating to a competitor. It is something that… It jolts you. And you either gonna have the mental capacity to keep moving… or you don’t.

[crowd cheering]

Dawn, thank you so much.

[Dawn] When you’ve put in all of that, it’s hard. And I shared with them my experience as a player.

[commentator 2] Here we are, it’s the Women’s National Championship. Virginia needs two possessions.

Dawn Staley works inside, coming up short, but grabs her own rebound. Scores off the glass! Twenty-five points for Staley. It’s a two-point game. Dawn Staley might get the last shot of the game. Misses, gets her own rebound. Still can’t finish it. And Lisa Harrison comes away with it for Tennessee.

[buzzer sounds]

That’s the play that took our National Championship. That’s the play. That’s the play.

[commentator 2] Heart of this player. Dawn Staley, you just can’t say enough about her.

[Dawn] I had a really hard time getting over that loss. It was probably ‘cause I was so close to getting my childhood dream. So, I watched that game over… and over and over and over again. I became obsessed with it. I got depressed. I didn’t… I didn’t feel like playing basketball anymore. I couldn’t get myself up… to play. And now, as a coach…

that’s why we implemented, for our team, a 24-hour rule. Twenty-four hours from a win or a loss, we move on. We move on.

[coach] All right. Go, ladies!

[Dawn] I came up with that rule because I saw how, just like me, we had players who were competitive. That losing wasn’t an option for them. And when they started to lose, it really impacted their day, and it started connecting to other days. To where we had to finally say, “Let it go.”

At times, you have to learn the steps of becoming a national champion. One of those steps is losing.

[commentator 9] That seals the biggest upset in women’s basketball this season.

[Dawn] Because it’s all about momentum. And momentum doesn’t mean it’s a positive thing. You can have momentum to lose and be defeated, and it brings out the ugly part of you. You got 24 hours to bask in your victory…

[commentator 9] And South Carolina survives a major scare. Whoo!

…or you got 24 hours to agonize over your defeat.

[commentator 9] And Dawn Staley is furious on the sideline.

[Dawn] We put one foot in front of the other, keep moving.

[A’ja] We pick up where we left off, know how it feels, we got that chip now, so we’re gonna keep pushing forward.

[buzzer sounds]

[reporter 2] Gamecocks survive and advance to Elite Eight for the second time under Coach Staley in three years.

[Dawn] Showing them the big picture of the moment that they’re in.

[loud cheers]

[commentator 10] South Carolina is heading to the Final Four!

[crowd cheering]

That’s probably the play of the game, right there, for me. Right there, because everybody was involved, everybody did their jobs, and everybody executed like we set out. There isn’t anybody in the country that has what’s in this room, right here. Nobody. Nobody.

Playing the way that we’re playing, the sky is the limit for us. Embrace that, hold on to that, and get us to… a place where we’ve never been. We’ve never been to a National Championship game, so, what you gonna do?

[commentator 9] One great success story of a coach building a program in college basketball history.

The work Dawn Staley has done with this Carolina team has made them relevant, and they’re on their way to their first win in a Final Four.

[commentator 11] And the outlet to a wide-open Cuevas-Moore!

• [whistle blow]
• [cheering]

[commentator 11] Gamecocks gonna dance on to the National Championship game, as they take out Stanford.

What’s it like to be in a Championship? Can you believe it? I cannot believe it, but, I mean, it feels so good, but we’re not done yet.

• Thank you.
• Thank you.

[Dawn] Had we won the National Championship in 1991, I don’t know where I would be. I really don’t know where I would be because, um, the National Championship was something that I wanted to complete my career. But instead, it made me bottle it up… for some other time in the future.

And so many people told me, “What is delayed is not denied. Keep the faith.” It’s a scripture, and that stuck with me.

Because it is the only thing that made me feel better. And then, when Carolyn Peck, when she was commentating, she saw our team, she saw how good we were, our program was becoming. We had quality kids, we had quality players in, and she… She saw it, she was like, “You’re gonna win a National Championship. I’m gonna give you this.”

A piece of her National Championship net, when she was coaching at Purdue.

And she just said, “When you win a National Championship… just give it back to me.”

It was a tangible piece of hope. Hope to win a National Championship.

• [woman 1] Let’s get this done.
• [woman 2] On three.
• 1, 2, 3.
• [all] Together!

I put it in my wallet. And it was in my wallet for two years.

[commentator 12] Welcome to the 2017 NCAA Women’s National Championship.

Here’s the tip, and we are in play. Every now and then, I would touch it. Sometimes I wouldn’t touch it, sometimes I would just visually look at it, just as a reminder.

[crowd cheers]

It made me coach a little bit better. It made me prep a little bit harder. It made me pour into our players a little bit better.

[whistle blows]

It just created that hope that I needed during that… that quest to win a National Championship.

[crowd cheering]

[announcer] A’ja Wilson!

[commentator 9] You could argue that Staley is one of the most important college coaches in the country. She was named the head coach of the US national team, that will represent the country in the Olympics. And with this being the first Final Four since the late great Pat Summitt, who will be next to take that torch? You’d have to assume Dawn is a pretty worthy candidate.

[cheering]

What was going through my mind was… I didn’t want to show any emotion until the final buzzer. Although, I was… Inside, I was beaming.

[inaudible]

[cheering]

[Dawn] When we knew, our coaching staff, we got into a huge huddle. I left my head out of the huddle ‘cause I wanted to look at them. I wanted to see the joys, you know, in their face. I looked at them, like, “I’m super proud of y’all. I’m super proud. My heart is full, because you put, you know, your blood, sweat, and tears in this team.” And finally… ‘Cause we’ve got coaches that coached, you know, over 30 years, and they’ve never won. You know, they were like me. We’ve never won a National Championship.

[commentator 13] National champions, South Carolina Gamecocks!

[loud cheering]

[whooping, cheering]

[Dawn] You could hear our fans, you could hear cheers from all over. And then, finally, I got a chance to walk those ladder steps. And when I cut the net, I did cut two pieces. It was one to keep, and one I’ve kept to share with some other coach who is close to winning a National Championship, that needs a tangible piece of what that nylon feels like… to win a National Championship.

The execution and the hard work and the preparation, you can’t speed it up, you can’t slow it down. But if you’re able to be patient, you’re going to be successful. It wasn’t meant to be, for me to win a National Championship in college. So, somehow… coaching found me. It’s strange, because I never wanted to be a coach. Most people say this when they’ve won something big, or they’ve gotten something big, they say it was divine intervention. But I say that in a loss, because it was divine intervention. It wasn’t in the cards for us in 1991, but just being dedicated to something that you don’t know if you’re ever gonna reach that pinnacle, or not. But when it happens, when it truly happens to you… you get to reflect on all… the people. Like, there’s a village of people… that allowed for that to happen.

[clapping, cheering]

[Dawn] All of those people, they were pieces in my life’s puzzle, that were put in my life for that moment to happen. This was hard, but you can do it too. Because… I’m… I’m just like you. I’m just like you, in that I’ve failed. I’ve gotten knocked down. So, all of those challenging things happened, but yet… I’m the last woman standing.

[cheers echoing]